Hey everyone, I've been reading through this topic for the past week and I have some questions.

I just came back to WoW after a 4 month hiatus, and I was accepted back into my old guild. We're currently farming BT and working on downing Brutallus. I've been gearing up the past 2 weeks, so I'm not "there" yet, but I'm starting to get into some acceptable gear. I've played a warrior for a long time, but as a dpser I've been primarily a dw fury warrior. Reading through this topic definitely confirmed my suspicion that my dps is ridiculously low, especially on Brut. In a group with an Enh Shaman and a Ret. Paladin most of the time, my dps barely got over 1k. It was generally around 950-1100.

I've only been 2h Arms for about 2-3 weeks, so I'm still learning the system, what stats modify your attack patterns, etc. Right now I'm using the standard slam rotation:

white -> slam -> MS
white -> slam -> WW
white -> slam -> instant

Having read through some of the later parts of this topic, I've noticed that a lot of people have been suggestions a non-slam rotation. I have DST (and you can look at the rest of my gear, obviously) so I was wondering what I should do to improve my dps.

I've also noticed that a lot of warriors aren't going all the way hit-capped with 142 rating, a lot I see sit around 130ish. I was wondering if that's accepted at a certain point for some reason, or if it's because they have a Shard of Contempt (not sure if that would effect this) or what.

So basically, I'm looking for a little help to get my dps up, as well as suggestions for how to run a non-slam rotation, and what stats/gear would be optimal for such a dps rotation. Thanks for any help, I'm looking to learn the essence of 2h dps, so I'm looking to soak up as much information as possible!

I appreciate the reply and specific suggestions, I'll start working on those right away. Do you think my low dps is merely a result of still being somewhat under geared, and being axe-specced? What swords do you think would be an upgrade over Soul Cleaver? Obviously Cat's Edge, but other than that, I didn't know if Zin Rohk or S2-S3 (I don't arena much) would be better as well.

Also, if I were to get a SoC, should I loose the DST and stay with a slam rotation, loose the Zerks Call and go non-slam, or something different? Again, I appreciate the reply.

Your DPS is low because of the wipes as well, the time he spends running around killing people with your deep wound ticking is time with your dps dropping. On a kill you'll also see more dps when you get reckless/heroism/haste pot/execute in. Are you using a haste pot or insane strength potion on CD? Your gear is also a factor since you're undergeared for brutallus by a good margin. Also, what debuffs are you guys running on brutallus? Imp expose, CoR, faerie fires, etc will boost your DPS a good amount.

[Jin'rohk, The Great Apocalypse] might be a tad better than [Soul Cleaver] if not on the same level. I have both weapons, and I don't see a significant change between them. As far as rotations, the 2 popular ones seem to be the standard slam rotation, and some like keeping MS/WW on CD and slamming whenever possible between CD's. I personally like the standard slam rotation as it gives me more results than keeping MS/WW on CD, you would have to see what's better for you. (High mobility fights, however, should favor keeping MS/WW on CD and slamming when you can) You should definitely pick up an [Shard of Contempt] as well, the ap buff is almost always up and the expertise is very nice to have. Also, another nice upgrade would be [Dory's Embrace] and its only 60 badges.

From my understanding, DST can cause problems in your rotation when it procs because the buff could put you under slam acceptable speed, can anyone verify that?

Ahh, okay. I'm using Haste Pots, but somewhat in reservation right now, because I'm trying not to waste any on our learning attempts. We've only really had a couple nights of solid attempts on him. I'm new to the guild, but I think we have all the normal debuffs on him like CoR and Imp Demo Shout.

Maybe I'll hold off on Jin'rokh and just wait for a Cat's Edge if we ever run MH again, or possible try to grind out a S3 sword. Also...when picking up [Shard of Contempt] should I remove the DST or Zerk Call for it? DST, along with a slower weapon like Soul Cleaver, would make me think running a non-slam rotation would be best. Or keeping the Zerk Call on for a slam-rotation.

Thanks again for the insight.

From my understanding, the non-slam rotation requires a sword and a DST as a starter kit. It comprises of basically keeping ms/ww on cooldown, hamstringing at >40 rage and heroic striking at >60 rage. The hamstrings are basically a means to trigger all your nifty procs, such as sword spec, wf, trinket procs (DST, SoC) etc.
It's pretty similar to a fury playstyle without the annoyance of rampage.
However, unless you're really terrible with slamming, it shouldn't result in a definite dps boost. Rather, it's an alternate play style with similar dps.
Also, SoC should provide you with the greatest dps boost if you're sitting with low expertise. Swap it with the DST if you don't have a sword at the moment.

The problem with the non-slam rotation is that hamstring becomes obsolete now that it won't trigger WF anymore. I don't think a rotation where using hamstring in place of slam will give you a big DPS boost. Slamming is just practice, after a few raids you'll get the hang of it once you're back in the groove. You have no expertise, so [Shard of Contempt] is a very good upgrade. Still wondering about the DST bringing problems into a rotation, can't give you an answer on which one to switch.

Very good and helpful information, both of you.

Polished - Yeah, I use your suggseted rotation, I mistyped what I actually use. I go MS/WW/MS/Instant (left out the second MS round).

Very good and helpful information, both of you.

Polished - Yeah, I use your suggseted rotation, I mistyped what I actually use. I go MS/WW/MS/Instant (left out the second MS round).

And Ydwarrior - I take it then, get a SoC now and loose the DST, but if I ever pick up a good sword, use SoC and DST, and at that point then, I should investigate a no-slam rotation? I also take it that most all gear is good for either rotation, but a slam-rotation with poleaxe should prefer str-crit/ArP and a sword non-slam should prefer crit/haste? Or has the best use for haste not really been discovered, other than it's probably best to start stacking when you reach the soft ArP cap?

Thanks again, extremely valuable information.

(Being new to 2h is quite a chore as far as information gathering goes! Heh)

DST has given me a lot of minor annoyances with a slam rotation, which is why I think I might try swapping it out for a [Shard of Contempt] if I can get one. Preferably I'd like to run with SoC and [Madness of the Betrayer] since they're both Procs and I could focus on slam rotation, and they'd also help with not need +hit in other items.


(Sorry for the double post)

ArP is an amazing talent in itself. It softcaps at 1350 with executioner up, so going over 1350 isn't bad. In all honesty, the BT haste gear isn't good to use because it replaces stats with haste instead of adding haste to the item. In sunwell is where you want to be taking items like [Felfury Legplates], [Pauldrons of Berserking], etc. The use for haste is to bring your weapon speed down so you can get more attacks in without clipping your GCD. Around 2.5 speed is when you cant use a slam rotation effectively because it interferes with your GCD. Take upgrades as they come, there is no one good stat or a magical set of numbers that you want to aim for. Try to get a good amount of armor pen, in the level of progression your guild is at you should have very little problems obtaining some good armor pen. It scales increasingly, so the more the better. If you see yourself struggling to keep flurry up, some more crit would probably be a benefit. Get the DPS spreadsheet and play around with it, see what you get for gear options.

Silly me posted this to another Warrior thread before i noticed this one, my intention is not to spam by any means.

I had a discussion of Season four gear versus Hyjal and Black Temple DPS gear at EU Warrior forums but it just generally lead into flaming and terrible arguements. Im not sure if this the right place to ask for tips but couldnt come up with a better choise than EJ and this thread, sorry if i did break the forum policy.

I raid as 33/28 and usually the only group buff i get is an Enchantment Shaman, my guild is at 1/6 Sunwell at the moment and working on Brutallus, which pretty much leads me into trying to find ways to increase my DPS. I have access to all the PvP gear but however ive been unlucky with few items such as Bracers of Eradictation, Helm of the Illidari Shatterer and Grips of Silent Justice. Our Rogues tend to get Hit items and Leather as priority so i wont be seeing any items such as Choker of Endless Nightmares and Cursed Vision of Sargeras for a while.

Heres my Armory link: The World of Warcraft Armory

Thing here is that im not huge fun of spreadsheets and such, i do understand that they should work in theory but i still prefer to listen what other people have to say.

So heres few questions to more experienced Warriors with better knowledge of the class and theorycraft.

- Should i use S4 Helm and Chest over T6 with the cost of losing the 4/8 set bonus?

- Should i replace Cataclycm's Edge with S4 Sword?

- Should i use Leggings of Divine Retribution over S4 even though they pull my Hit and crit quite low?

- Choker of Serrated Blades vs S4 neck

- Is Solarian's Sapphire really worth using over Tsunami Talisman in a 5 melee group considering how much crit i lose and my hit dropping even further away from the cap.

Personally im leaning into using doing pretty much all of the changes i mentioned but the people i talked to all had quite different opinions over the matter.

Cheers

Edit: Sorry for the double post, and other violations. First time im posting here but il make sure i dont repeat it. Get the idea now.

First thing

Get as mucht Hit gear for Neck/Cloak/Trinkets/Rings/Ranged as you can and for every Item an Item you can exchange with lower Hit, you wont get hit gear in Sunwell, every Plate item in Sunwell has no hit except T6 Bracer/Boots. (You loose hit on Helm, Chest, Legs, Waist.

As Slam Warrior MS is about 12-17% of your DMG output so 5% of ~15% is only 0.75% DPS Increase.
S4 Helm gives you 18 Hit -> more than 1% and you loose not much stats (21 Armor ignore 13 Str but win some Crit)
S4 Chest is also very nice but you have to change sockets.
S4 Neck vs Chocker of Serrated Blades (31 Crit vs 25*7 Armor Penetration and 1Ap) Most times Serrated will be better.

Solarians with 3 Rogues/Furrys and 1 Eleshamy is always a dps increase for your Group (i assume they live over the fight duration)

You should get 122 Hit in your gear and take hit food. S4 & Cats are about the same i think -> so S4 is a nice hit boost.