Arms Hybrid - Part 1

I've been experimenting with damage output recently. Ever since the Prot Warrior changes came in, I've really enjoyed pushing out far greater damage... but I want more. I have really enjoyed my short time with Arms DPS. I have a lot more to learn, more gear to acquire and more fun to be had. So next up on the way to my first 50g respec, I thought I'd try out a new Arms spec to tank in.

The spec has come from and excellent thread I found on the Arms Warrior. It's reasonably comprehensive, and gets you thinking about all the facets of the Arms tree. It is a full Arms spec, with a spash of Prot, with most points being sacrificed from the Fury tree. In order to appreciate what I'm giving up, here are the specs.

Progression Protection Spec 15/5/51
Full DPS Arms Spec 53/18/0
Hybrid Arms with a splash of Prot 53/5/13

What you just plain lose
0/3 Armored to the Teeth is the big loss on both sides. When I first donned my DPS gear after speccing, I thought, "what happened to all my AP?". At almost 14k armor in DPS gear, it's a 231 AP sacrifice. Unfornuately, at 21k (down more than 2k armor with the loss of toughness) it's a 350 AP sacrifice in tanking gear.

It's a huge loss to both DPSing and Tanking - my least favorite thing about the build.

What you lose from Protection
The idea behind this spec is to be a credible tank the rare times you are called upon. It's also designed around having to tank usually only one mob in a raid environment... with this in mind, the biggest thing you loose a lot of AOE tanking viability.

AOE Losses

• Shockwave is gone, the massive frontal cone of AOE with the 4 second stun that makes large packs of trash (particularly in 5 mans) a breeze for both you and your healer.
• Damage Shield is gone, that lovely passive damage / threat generator
• AP losses impact both of these and Thunderclap, while Block Value (BV) losses impact damage shield
  

Survivability Losses

• 2/5 Anticipation - losing 3% dodge isn't a good start
• 0/5 Toughness - 10% armor loss (> 2k armor)
• 0/2 Improved Defensive Stance - 6% extra damage from spells
• Reduced BV impacts damage reduced from blocking
• 0/3 Vitality - 6% less stamina (and 2% less strength, 2 less expertise after considering Strength of Arms)

The survivability losses are quite manageable, depending on your gear, the content you are attempting and of course, your healer.

DPS / Threat Losses

• Shield Mastery, Gag Order, Critical Block and Sword and Board all combine to make your less frequent shield slams smaller and crit less often.
• Losing Devestate means that if / when you apply sunder armor, you aren't doing any damage
• Losing Focused Rage isn't a huge deal, but can impact how quickly you can get those first abilities off in those more difficult pulls (offset somewhat by Endless Rage in Arms)
• One Handed Weapon Specialisation - means you'll be doing 10% less damage compared to a full protection spec while tanking
  

The major losses aside from the obvious survivability ones center around AOE tanking viability and reduced damage over all. Of course all of this comes at a cost to tanking, since there's all those Arms talents going completely to waste when either not using a 2H weapon, or in battle stance. There are also some utility losses, like Concussion Blow, Vigilance, Warbringer and the silence in Heroic Throw from Gag Order.

What you lose full Arms DPS
Firstly, in the Fury tree, you loose

• Booming Voice / Commanding Presence - for some extra AP and utility from your Battle Shout
• Improved Execute - smaller Executes (which when combined with your small shield slams when tanking, really stings)

While nothing is missing from the Arms tree, again that 231 AP loss from Armored to the Teeth doesn't help things. You can certainly push out some respectable DPS in this spec, but we'll follow that up in the next post.

What you gain for single target tanking
The big winner for this spec and tanking viability is Unrelenting Assault, which reduces the cooldown of Revenge by 4 seconds, which means in practise, you have a Revenge available every global cooldown. Making sure to take the prot tree talent Improved Revenge ensures some great single target threat and DPS while tanking.

Mortal Strike in combination with Tactical Mastery gives another instant attack with added threat, as well as the utility of reducing a mobs capacity to be healed.

Trauma and Blood Frenzy bring some great party /raid buffs that you don't normally bring to the table while tanking, and 6% haste is great, particularly if you are using a slow 1H axe to work in with Poleaxe Specialisation.

So begins my experiment. Before I report on the practical, I have to quickly thank Jondy for letting me test this out with her healing. If it wasn't for your fantastic healing, I wouldn't have thought it such a great idea to experiment.

Emblem of Heroism Pick Order - DPS gear

I can't wait for dual specs. Even though my respec cost is only up to 30g, I've managed to squeeze in a couple of decent Arms Warrior sessions in of late, and my DPS set is coming along nicely. When DPSing as a warrior I want to be ARMS! A brute force killing machine with a giant weapon - a commanding presence with some serious burst DPS and AOE capabilities. I know the consensus is that fury is the best raid spec... but I'd prefer avoid the wrist guards and remedial hand massages that come with titan's grip.

I couldn't find a guide to how to spend my excess emblems, ala Tanking Tips... so I thought I'd write my own.

Here is the available Emblem choices for a DPS Warrior:

>> [Heroes' Dreadnaught Battleplate] - 80 Emblems
>> [Heroes' Dreadnaught Gauntlets] - 60 Emblems
>> [Verdungo's Barbarian Cord] - 40 Emblems
>> [Mirror of Truth] - 40 Emblems
>> [Pendant of the Outcast Hero] - 25 Emblems
>> [Lillehoff's Winged Blades] - 15 Emblems

A reminder that I'm writing this from the perspective of a Tank, looking to add some beef to their DPS outfit - so while I have emblems to spare - something you'd buy for your primary spec to give you that boost while you wait for a drop - may be deemed too expensive to purchase.

For an Arms warrior, my general goals are
- Get hit capped (hopefully through gear alone)
- Get 35% crit (crit is HUGE for an Arms warrior)
- Get a huge whack of AP
- Enjoy the haste and armor penetration as it happens to be included in upgrades

With mostly blue / epic lvl 200 items, I'm so far managed (in polearm spec) roughly:
- 7.5% hit (1 drop away from capped without gems (13 runs and nada))
- 31% crit
- 3000 AP
I'm still wearing a couple of tanking items, but karma did pay off as I won [Incisor Fragment] while DPSing Heroic Drak'Tharon keep yesterday.

A lot of this discussion will focus around competition. Regular plate items are easy to acquire, particularly if you pair yourself up with an excellent DPSer in plate (thank you Zeltan). Each time you go into a heroic instance, you can rest assured that they have got the DPS item you are interested in, or something better. Neck, Rings, Weapons and Trinkets, however.... you have a lot more competition, including rogues, hunters, kitties and enhancement shamen as well as the regular Ret Pally, Deathknight and Warriors. Remember too that the Holy Pally, Resto Shammie and Tree might also want to roll on these items for offspec.

Here's my order:

1. [Mirror of Truth] - 40 Emblems

You can't go past this trinket as Arms. The crit is fantastic, and the chance on crit proc screams at you - "Arms Warrior - buy me NOW!". It's worth it's weight in gold and for anything even close to this trinket, you'll have up to half the raid to fight it out with.

2. [Heroes' Dreadnaught Gauntlets] - 60 Emblems

These are a clear upgrade over any of the rare level dungeon drops, and have a stack of expertise help fill in that gap left by chasing the hit cap and crit / attack power gear. Plenty of hit, and a yellow socket for some crit, and they are my second choice for your valuable emblems. Make sure you run Heroic Occulus for a shot at [Gauntlets or Dragon Wrath] before you buy them... but you will want to get these given enough emblems in any case. I also need figure out how good 10% extra slam damage is before I get carried away about the 2 set bonus for Tier 7.

3. [Pendant of the Outcast Hero] - 25 Emblems

The Pendant has excellent itemisation for an Arms warrior. It's better than [Collar of Dissolution] from Naxx 10 unless you badly need the hit and/or expertise - but you will have every physical DPS clamoring for that one anyway. It's a steal at 25 Emblems so pick this up as you make your way down the list.

4. [Heroes' Dreadnaught Battleplate] - 80 Emblems

I currently have [Breastplate of Undeath] from Heroic Drak'Tharon Keep, which is very similarly itemised, with agility versus crit coming out about even. The upgrade is worth about the 2 sockets in the T7, which is handy for plugging the gaps in your stats. It's a must have, but given that for just 5 extra emblems you can have both the gloves and neck, I had to put this fourth. Depending what you are wearing for gloves and neck, your mileage may vary.

Here is the DON'T buy list

1. [Verdungo's Barbarian Cord] - 40 Emblems

It is just not enough of an upgrade to [Flame-Bathed Steel Girdle] to justify the purchase, which is easily obtainable in one of the easiest heroics - The Nexus. Even if you have the same luck I've had with [Staggering Legplates] - I still wouldn't buy this belt.

2. [Lillehoff's Winged Blades] - 15 Emblems

Even at 15 Emblems, it's not worth it. Get [Drake-Mounted Crossbow] from Heroic Utgarde Keep. It's the best you are likely to see for quite some time, particularly if you are in a guild (like many) that can have up to three hunters in a 10 man, and no less than 5 in a 25.

That wraps it up for the Emblem of Heroism pick order for DPS warrior gear. I would love to get some feedback from Tanks looking to improve their DPS gear, or dedicated DPS (especially Arms) with discussion about the list, resources for DPSing in plate or just to pop by and say "hey hey".