New Raider's Guide

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Three rules apply in every mode:

1. Stay alive. A dead warrior does zero damage. Any damage you lose running out of fire is tiny next to dying.
2. Keep hitting. Arms is a melee spec that builds Rage from auto attacks. Every second you are not in melee range of something is lost Rage and lost damage. Charge and Heroic Leap exist to get you back in.
3. Keep Rend on the boss. It is your bleed. It feeds Deep Wounds, it is what Colossus Smash and Avatar make hit harder, and the whole spec is built around it ticking.

What to check in your logs

Open your character on Warcraft Logs after a raid night and look at these five things, in this order. They tell you more than the big DPS number does.

Fix these in order. Deaths first, then active time, then cooldown count, then Rend uptime, then the Mortal Strike ratio. Parse percentile climbs on its own once those are right.

Arms 101: the five ideas behind every button

Arms is a resource loop. Auto attacks build Rage, you spend Rage on heavy two-handed hits, and cooldowns make everything you do land harder for a while. Learn these five ideas and every priority list below will make sense.

1. Rage is your currency. You hold up to 100. Auto attacks are the main source, Charge gives a chunk on arrival, and talents refund some. Mortal Strike, Slam, Rend and Execute all cost Rage. Sitting at 100 means every auto attack is throwing Rage away, so never cap. Running completely dry is also normal for Arms: Method warns the spec "can suffer from Rage starvation quite easily".
2. Rend is the engine. It is your bleed. Keep it on the boss at all times. In the recommended Slayer build you apply and refresh it with Cleave, and Mortal Strike applies it for free once the boss is below 35%.
3. Mortal Strike is the payoff. A short cooldown, your biggest regular hit, and the button almost everything else exists to make stronger. It also applies Deep Wounds, a second bleed, when it crits.
4. Procs cut the queue. Sudden Death makes Execute usable at any boss health, and Overpower lights up for free. Both are "use it before it runs out" buttons. When they are up, press them before Slam.
5. Two cooldowns, one window. Avatar makes you hit harder for a while. Colossus Smash makes the boss take more damage for a while. Press them together so the two multipliers overlap, and press them often: Anger Management refunds their cooldown as you spend Rage.

Easy Mode: six buttons, one order Mode 1

This is the whole rotation. Read the list top to bottom every time the global cooldown ends and press the first thing that is true. It uses the Slayer single-target build from the setup section. If you took Colossus instead, add Demolish right after Colossus Smash and otherwise play the same list.

1. Rend if it is not on the boss. Check the debuff under the boss frame. If the Slayer build gave you Cleave, press Cleave instead: it applies Rend and hits harder.
2. Colossus Smash and Avatar if they are off cooldown. Press them back to back, Colossus Smash first. Press them the moment the fight starts and every time they light up again.
3. Execute if Sudden Death has lit it up, or if the boss is below 20% health (35% with the Massacre talent).
4. Mortal Strike if it is off cooldown. This is your best hit. Never delay it for Slam.
5. Overpower if it is off cooldown. It is free, so it is also what you press when you have no Rage.
6. Slam. When nothing above is true and you have Rage, press this. It is your filler. If you have no Rage, auto attack and wait.

That is it. Ignore Bladestorm, Heroic Strike procs and Sweeping Strikes for now. They are a bonus, not the foundation.

The opener

When the raid leader's pull timer hits 1 second, Charge. Then Rend (or Cleave), Colossus Smash, Avatar, Mortal Strike, and fall into the list above.

When you have to move

Arms has no ranged filler worth pressing. Move early and move fast, then Charge or Heroic Leap back to the boss. If the boss is leaving you, Charge is also a 20 Rage gain, so it is never wasted. Heroic Throw exists for the seconds when you cannot reach anything.

Stance

Stay in Battle Stance. Defensive Stance costs you damage and is only for the moment a big hit is coming at you, which Full Send Mode covers.

Intermediate Mode: three bonus buttons and a second target Mode 2

Same skeleton as Easy Mode, with Bladestorm, Heroic Strike and Sudden Death stacking slotted in. Each one is worth a few percent of your damage, and together they are the gap between a passable warrior and a solid one.

1. Rend (or Cleave) if it is not on the boss.
2. Avatar on cooldown, and Colossus Smash on cooldown. Press Colossus Smash first when both are up.
3. Execute if you have 2 stacks of Sudden Death. Two stacks means the next proc is wasted, so spend it now.
4. Heroic Strike when the Apex proc lights it up. Master of Warfare sometimes turns Slam into Heroic Strike. When it does, it beats everything below.
5. Bladestorm on cooldown. You spin for a few seconds and hit everything near you. Do not press it if Colossus Smash is less than 4 seconds from coming back; press Colossus Smash first so the spin lands in the window.
6. Mortal Strike on cooldown.
7. Execute with 1 stack of Sudden Death.
8. Overpower on cooldown.
9. Slam.

The opener

Charge at 1 second on the pull timer. Then Cleave (or Rend), Colossus Smash, Avatar together with your on-use trinket and potion, Execute if Sudden Death is up, then Bladestorm. From there, use the list. This is Method's Slayer opener.

Sweeping Strikes: your second target

Sweeping Strikes makes your single-target hits also strike a second nearby enemy for a number of hits. For any fight with two targets that live more than 10 seconds, such as a boss plus a big add, the rule of thumb:

• Press Sweeping Strikes whenever you have 6 or fewer stacks left. It caps at 18, so pressing it early wastes the extra.
• Put Rend on both targets if they will live 6 seconds or more.
• Play the single-target list above into the boss. Every Mortal Strike, Overpower and Execute is copied onto the add.
• Use Cleave instead of Slam as your filler while two targets are up.

Planning movement

Before the pull, ask the raid leader or read the boss guide for the two or three moments when everyone has to move. Walk into those moments with Charge off cooldown so you can get back in one press. If a move is long, Heroic Leap out and Charge back. Never start Bladestorm right before a known move: you cannot steer well while spinning.

Full Send Mode: the complete priority Mode 3

This is the Slayer single-target list as the top guides write it, plus the habits that separate a 70th-percentile parse from a 95th. Nothing here is new. It is the Intermediate list with tighter timing and a separate list for when the boss is low.

Single target (boss above 20%, or 35% with Massacre)

1. Keep Rend up. Refresh it with Cleave when it has less than 6 seconds left so no ticks are lost and none are wasted.
2. Avatar when Colossus Smash is ready or within about 8 seconds of ready, so the two windows overlap.
3. Colossus Smash on cooldown.
4. Execute with 2 stacks of Sudden Death, or when the stack is about to expire.
5. Heroic Strike with the Apex proc.
6. Bladestorm on cooldown, unless Colossus Smash is less than 4 seconds away. If you have Storm Bolt, you can press it during the spin.
7. Mortal Strike on cooldown.
8. Execute with 1 stack of Sudden Death.
9. Overpower on cooldown.
10. Slam.

Execute phase (boss below 20%, or 35% with Massacre)

Execute becomes a real button here, and Mortal Strike drops down the list. With Executioner's Precision talented, Execute stacks a buff that makes your next Mortal Strike much bigger. This is Method's execute list.

1. Heroic Strike with the Apex proc.
2. Colossus Smash on cooldown, with Avatar alongside it as above.
3. Execute with 2 stacks of Sudden Death, or with 4 Executioner stacks (Slayer).
4. Mortal Strike only with 2 stacks of Executioner's Precision.
5. Execute with 1 stack of Sudden Death, or whenever you are above 40 Rage.
6. Overpower when you are below 40 Rage.

Rage discipline

Arms runs dry. Method says Rage starvation "is mainly a Slayer problem during Execute" and happens any time Battlelord and Sudden Death stop proccing. Two habits help. First, when you are below 40 Rage, press the free buttons (Overpower, Sudden Death Execute) and let auto attacks refill you rather than spending your last Rage on Slam. Second, if the boss is standing still and you have nothing to press, Method describes "charge weaving": run out to minimum Charge range and Charge back for 20 Rage. Only do this when you would otherwise be auto attacking, and never let it cost you a swing. Ask if your raid has a Shaman with Skyfury; without it Maxroll says you are "far more likely to have Rage issues", and that is not your fault.

Proc discipline

Sudden Death stacks to 2. A proc that arrives at 2 is lost, so Execute the moment you hit 2. Overpower is free and off the global cooldown queue, so it is never the wrong button when you have no Rage. Heroic Strike from the Apex proc beats everything except keeping Rend up.

Lining up the burst window

On-use trinket, Potion of Recklessness, and racial all go into the first Avatar plus Colossus Smash. With Anger Management the cooldowns return roughly every 45 seconds, so stop thinking "save it" and start thinking "did I get the full duration". Method's one caveat: make sure you get full use of Avatar's duration; if the boss is about to go untargetable, wait. Ask the raid leader when Bloodlust is coming and, if it is within 20 seconds, hold the pair for it. Maxroll adds two fight-specific holds: do not pop cooldowns right before Kith'ix's phase 2 (at 25%, a stun), and on Mythic Grasping Depths do not pop them right before going downstairs.

AoE (3 or more targets)

This is Maxroll's AoE list. Method's Arms rotation page does not give one.

1. Cleave to apply Rend to the pack.
2. Sweeping Strikes if you have fewer than 7 stacks.
3. Avatar if Colossus Smash is ready or nearly ready, then Colossus Smash on cooldown.
4. Execute with 2 stacks of Sudden Death or when it is about to run out.
5. Bladestorm on cooldown, unless Colossus Smash is less than 4 seconds away. Storm Bolt during the spin.
6. Cleave on cooldown.
7. Execute with Sudden Death or with very high Rage, then Overpower, then Execute, then Mortal Strike, then Slam, then Wrecking Throw.

Two targets is still the Sweeping Strikes game from Intermediate, not the AoE list. Maxroll: "the single-target priority lists apply when fighting 2 targets", plus as much Sweeping Strikes uptime as you can get and Cleave instead of Slam. If a boss has a permanent second target, Method suggests the Broad Strokes talent so Colossus Smash starts Sweeping Strikes for you.

Fight-specific habits

Before a progression night, open the boss guide and write down three things: when adds spawn (plan Sweeping Strikes or Cleave), when the raid has to move (keep Charge and Heroic Leap ready), and when Bloodlust is called (hold or drift cooldowns). Those three notes are worth more than any sim.

Talents, consumables and setup

Import one of these talent strings and the guide above matches your bars. Open the talent window, click Import, paste, and save as a loadout. Both are from Method's talents page, updated 14 Oct 2026 for patch 12.1.5.

Method also lists a Slayer Cleave build for bosses with a long-lived second target, and Colossus versions of all three. For a two-target fight, the Cleave build takes Broad Strokes so Colossus Smash starts Sweeping Strikes for you. Neither is needed to start.

Stat priority

Critical Strike first, then Haste, then Mastery, Versatility last. That is Method's order; Maxroll gives no fixed order and points you to a sim. Method says it is "highly recommended that you regularly sim your own character", so once you are comfortable, run a Raidbots Top Gear sim with your own gear. Until then, take the higher item level piece.

Consumables checklist

Bring these to every raid. Half of them are provided by the raid, but a new raider should carry their own.

• Flask: Flask of the Blood Knights (Haste)
• Food: Quel'dorei Medley, or eat the raid feast (Silvermoon Parade)
• Combat potion: Potion of Recklessness, one per pull (Maxroll says Light's Potential is sometimes better; sim it)
• Health potion: Concentrated Silvermoon Health Potion
• Weapon oil: Thalassian Phoenix Oil
• Augment rune: Void-Touched Augment Rune (Method's Warrior page does not list one; this is the season's rune)
• Gems: Indecipherable Eversong Diamond, then Flawless Deadly Peridot in the rest
• Enchants: Mark of the Worldsoul (chest), Blood Knight's Armor Kit (legs), Eyes of the Eagle (rings), Rite of the Hash'ey (weapon), Lynx's Dexterity (boots), Empowered Rune of Avoidance (head), Nature's Grace (shoulders)

Addons that matter

BigWigs for boss timers, Method Raid Tools for raid notes, and something that shows your Rage bar and Rend timer large and near the middle of the screen. The in-game Cooldown Manager does this well enough to start. Method suggests Ellesmere UI if you want an all-in-one interface. Nothing else is required.

Macros

Put these on your bars. The first interrupts your target, your focus if you hold Shift, or your mouseover if you hold Ctrl. The second lets you Execute a low add under your mouse without leaving the boss, which also builds Executioner's Precision stacks. The third puts Heroic Leap where your cursor is with one press.

#showtooltip Pummel
/cast [nomod, target=target] Pummel
/cast [mod:shift, target=focus] Pummel
/cast [mod:ctrl, target=mouseover] Pummel

#showtooltip Execute
/cast [@mouseover, harm, exists][@target] Execute

#showtooltip Heroic Leap
/cast [@cursor] Heroic Leap

Your utility kit

Damage is only half the job. Raid leaders remember the warrior who interrupts, uses defensives, and keeps Battle Shout up, not the one who parses 5% higher. Cooldowns below are the base values. Talents shorten some of them, so trust your tooltip over this table.

Two habits to build now:

1. Set a focus target. Before the pull, target the add you are assigned to interrupt and press your focus keybind. The Pummel macro then kicks it with Shift held, without ever leaving the boss.
2. Battle Shout before every pull. Click the ready check only after you see the buff on your raid frames. Re-apply it after a wipe and after anyone is battle-ressed.

Reading your logs and what to practice next

After each raid night, open your character on Warcraft Logs and spend five minutes on one boss. Pick the longest single-target fight. Check the five items from the logs section, then do the one drill below that matches your mode.

Three things to compare against a top log of the same boss (Warcraft Logs, Rankings tab, filter to Arms):

1. Count their Mortal Strikes and yours. If theirs is 30% higher on a fight of the same length, you are delaying it for Slam or spending time out of melee range.
2. Count their Avatar and Colossus Smash casts and yours. The gap is almost always a held cooldown or one missed cast at the start or end.
3. Look at their Deaths and yours. If they have zero and you do not, that is the whole gap.

The Venomous Abyss is the current Midnight Season 2 raid, with eight bosses from Nek'zali the Soulcoiler through Ula'tek. Read the Icy Veins page for each boss before the night you first see it, and write down the three notes from Full Send Mode: when adds come, when you move, when Lust is called.