Warrior • Arms • PVE
PvP-first spec with Mortal Strike utility
Arms gearing focuses on reaching key Hit and Expertise caps first, then stacking damage stats that improve Rage generation, uptime, and overall consistency.
Hit Rating (9%, or 6% with Balance Druid) → Expertise (4.5% with Weapon Mastery) → Critical Strike → Strength / Attack Power → Agility → Haste. Capping Hit and Expertise provides the largest DPS increase. Avoid sacrificing large amounts of strong stats for minor cap adjustments.
Hit Rating increases your chance to land abilities. At level 70, 15.77 Hit Rating equals 1% hit. The melee hit cap is 9% (142 Hit Rating). Reaching this cap is one of the single largest DPS gains for Arms Warriors. If a Balance Druid is present, the effective cap is reduced to 6%.
Expertise reduces the chance enemies dodge or parry your attacks. 3.94 Expertise Rating grants 1 Expertise skill. With [Weapon Mastery], the soft cap is 4.5% dodge reduction. Against level 73 bosses, the full soft cap is 6.5% (26 Expertise skill / 103 Rating), completely removing dodges from behind.
Critical Strike Rating increases your chance to critically hit. At level 70, 22.08 Crit Rating equals 1% crit. Crit is extremely valuable for Arms, improving Rage generation and smoothing rotational flow when non-crits would otherwise delay ability usage.
[Strength] directly increases Attack Power (1 Strength = 2 AP) and is a core damage stat. [Agility] provides Critical Strike chance and minor dodge benefits (33 Agility ≈ 1% crit). [Haste] increases attack speed but has weaker scaling for Arms compared to other melee specs. It remains useful, but is not a priority stat.
