What Is A Good WoW Warrior Build For Raid DPS?
January 10, 2008 by Apadwe
Filed under WoW Classes
I have just started raiding and was using my PvP build but it isn’t working out too well on the damage meters. We have more than enough tanks so respeccing protection is out of the question. What is a good World of Warcraft Warrior build to use for raid DPS?
Great question and this is something that I have come to know fairly well. One thing that absolutely drives me crazy is seeing Mortal Strike (MS) Warriors using the same build for raiding. The 2-hand Arms MS build is great for PvP but lacks considerably for raiding.
One of the reasons I believe this is so true is because the MS build focuses on burst damage more than consistent damage which is needed for raids and also the fact that the MS build works best when you are generating tons of rage and in the raid scene if you are a melee DPS and taking tons of damage you are doing something wrong.
So that also makes you rage starved as well which has a major impact on your DPS.
Anyway, Fury is the way to go for raid DPS and if you are geared well enough you should be able to top the damage meters pretty easily. Fury DPS can be up there with Rogue DPS and can even out DPS rogues if done correctly.
Here is the Fury build that I use when raiding:
| Arms Tree (17 points) | Fury Tree (44 points) |
| Improved Heroic Strike 3/3 | Cruelty 5/5 |
| Deflection 5/5 | Unbridled Wrath 5/5 |
| Improved Thunder Clap 3/3 | Improved Cleave 1/3 |
| Anger Management 1/1 | Commanding Presence 4/5 |
| Deep Wounds 3/3 | Dual Wield Specialization 5/5 |
| Impale 2/2 | Improved Execute 2/2 |
| Enrage 5/5 | |
| Sweeping Strikes 1/1 | |
| Improved Berserker Rage 1/2 | |
| Flurry 5/5 | |
| Precision 3/3 | |
| Bloodthirst 1/1 | |
| Improved Berserker Stance 5/5 | |
| Rampage 1/1 |
Now this isn’t a “set in stone” raid build. It also depends on your play style. For example, a lot of people prefer to put points into Improved Whirlwind, which reduces the cooldown of Whirlwind, since Whirlwind is such an important ability for Fury warriors. I just prefer to get the boost to attack power and threat reduction that Improved Berserker Stance gives. Also, I put a point into Improved Cleave and I use it in place of Heroic Strike which generates high threat. It helps to keep me below the tanks in aggro.
Hopefully this helps out some Warriors play around with a different build besides the vanilla boring MS Arms spec. Also, if you have ideas to improve upon this build or have other builds to recommend for raid DPS please let us know below.


Arms>Fury L2P noob when buffed i get 3.4k MS crits out the ass with a 38% crit buff-ed
LOL! Arms is better for PvP but not PvE.
“Arms>Fury L2P noob when buffed i get 3.4k MS crits out the ass with a 38% crit buff-ed”
LOL
You’re wrong, in raid buffs, 3700-4000 Attack Power, 218 Hit Rating, 51% Crits (procs).
Every Bloothirst/Victory Rush Crits for 3000 damages and up.
Every White Damage Crits for 1700-1800 damages and up.
Fury is not High Topping Crit big numbers, instead of that we do hit 3000 crits frequently with 51% Crits real fast.
Also with Ignore Armors… big increase damages.
LOL at Tyler your telling him to L2P when your saying Arms is better for PVE I seriously think you should L2P nub
Ok so when i got 14 epics with 265DPS unbuffed and 12k hp I use a 3.6s axe when i charge i get a white hit then i MS then i can bloodlust and WW and victory rush all in about 5secs so 3 hits with a slow axe plus a victory rush and by then the mob is half dead, and on boss fights Death wish with bloodfury and 2 trikents plus haste pots(400 haste rating for 15secs) and recklessness (reduced to 20min CD. Sure both work for raiding but i still think if your geared right arms>fury.
WTF 4000AP buffed my ass thats 2000 str if you want to prove some1 wrong get your damn facts straight
@tom, you never seen warrior has up to 4000 AP in raid?
Learn2Raid. Not 2000STR, You obviously don’t know anything about Warrior stats.
I’m pulling 1000-1100 DPS in raid.
Also, I have 2033-2055 AP UNBUFF. Fury built
Last time i checked 1 str is 1.8 AP.
2k unbuffed is real but if u get a BOM and BOK with MOTW and a battle shout that still wont even get you to 3k AP let alone 4k o and tureshot aura is 120ish AP forgot that aura and a flask of rentless assult is 120AP you might get 3.2kAP plus your rampage or w/e move you can get yourself 400AP so still im not seeing 4k AP
http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/6727/wowscrnshot020708213113ob4.jpg
Here, on procs all up.
Well with BOM, BOK, MOTW, I get up to 3200 + ArP
Thats not 4k tho like you first said
“Thats not 4k tho like you first said”
ROFLMAO
Yeah, 4840AP buffed, what a liar.
Click on the link tom tom.
“…in raid buffs, 3700-4000 Attack Power…” (read 3rd comment)
The same people who think arms is better for pve are the morons who farm S1 gear and think you can do anything in it. L2raid superman fury owns arms for pve.
So if fury is better for end game raids, how should I equip my warrior? The biggest difference I see is that I have issues of not having rage during fights as a arms warrior. If someone that is active in end game raiding would link thier gear I would appreciate it.
What a bunch of useless crap. I think these posts are about as useless as it gets.
In 25 men raids, depending on how many melee you have you will likely want one pve specced arms warrior with proper pve gear. While he will likely not top the fury warriors he wil keep Blood Frenzy up and increase all melee dps including those fury warriors you all like so much.
So what is better is a useless discussion, what is needed is a better one. If your guild is doing 25 man and has nu pve arms warrior go arms if there already is one, go fury. Simple as that.
is that a good way to spec your warrior??
Yes, I use it to raid with and also to do daily quests with. Although the more I read and learn it seems I tend to tweak the build some.
Comments were supposed to be advice on how to tweak the build, place 2 from precision into Imp WW once your gear ends up making up for the 3% you get from it, and fury warriors dont need over 12% hit for future reference. You can go for more hit if you’d like it will up your dps, but I would personally gem for AP and Crit once you’re at around 180-195 hit rating. I would max out commanding presence and take the one point from improved berserker rage and add that to improved cleave. Rage is never a problem when you’re a geared fury warrior in 25 man content. This is just my personal build I use cause I throw cleaves like its my job, I find myself at max rage consistently and it’s a good dump and increased dmg with less threat gain than heroic strike.
im a fury warrior with 32crut 1918ap unbuffed but have 128hit i know it should be higher but id rather use hourglass trinket instead of the 30hit trinket from herioc bf. I find it hard to find grps for 5 mans and raids because every1 thinks warriors have to tank i know my server is noob. most ppl i grp with on the reg want me in there grp because i always put out atleast 40 percent of the dmg . but my main problem is finding grps for raids since my guild rly sucks for endgame do more established servers use fury warriors more often or is it just my noob server with a meduim population.
i’ve seen my AP in raids up at 3.9k…. armoury Tayeraen on Sentinels RP. 148 hit, 1981 unbuffed AP. i’m not even in t5 content. if you can’t acheive 4k AP as a fury war in raid, it means you’re not doing it right. and yes, fury is better for pve. i tried both, 97dps 1h weps or a 127 dps 2h wep the overal dmg is as such, roughly as arms you lose 7% dps, but all melee in your group gains 5% so depends on raid make up. if you’ve got an enhance shammy, 2 rogues a warrior tank and a arms war, that is a huge threat generating group. doing a good 3k – 5k dps
so there.
Well as for Fury VS Arms any warrior that plays without imp slam is a going to pull alot of threat if you go arms with imp slam and 5 of 5 flury with a enh shaman in your group you can keep up pretty well with the arms warriors because while they are cathing the tank on threat you wont be as close untill you get into t6 content.
fury warrior not getting enough dps. 3538 ap, hit 282, str 998, crit at 24%. anyone know what i need to change?
I’m only at level 73 right now,and read all comments so far and still don’t know which side i wanna go.For now,in my opinion,I was arms and i respec into fury and i saw a difference in my dps.I want to be good in raids and make a lot of damage.I need to know how to improve my dps.Do I have to concentrate on hit rat,crit hits,attack power,or wait till I hit 80 and get better gear?
I only start since Christmas,I made errors but I learned from it.Soon I’ll be 80 and I need to know exactly where i am going before making errors in a raid grp.And if you have any tips to make my game easier I’ll be so happy.
Hope someone will answer me,because I really need some advices to improve my warrior to become the best warrior ever.
Dave ouellet
If I were you, the first thing I would focus on is hitting level 80 instead of worrying about all of this right now.
After you hit 80 (or around 78-79) start running 5-man dungeons to help get some decent fury gear. Once you have the fury gear then look and see where you could start to tweak your hit rating, ap, crits, etc.
You always want to have a decent base gear set before trying to tweak your build.
Thx for your comments,that’s exactly the way i was thinking at first.
You know sometimes you get influence by others and get mixed up.
I’ll go to 80 and do some dungeons,I’m sure that’s the right thing to do for me.
Thx again for your advices, I really appreciated.
Dave Ouellet
Fury spec is def the way to go with end game raiding my toon is 4k ap unbuffed 34%crit and has 364hit and 22 expertise. Generally its good to stack crit after you get about 3800-4000k+ ap unbuffed there’s an argument about arp but its only valid for arms spec, fury warriors greatest asset is STR! then crit to keep that rage/flurry rolling. 18/53/0 is Ideal for fury. Fury>Arm in Raids Arms>Furry in pvp.
another thing for you warriors to think about is making shure you are what we raiders call “HIT CAPED” meaning you have im my advice from 290+ going up meaning you wont miss a Yellow attack or crit. After you are hit caped get your self Expertise caped wich is 18 or 22 i belive so you hits wont be parried or blocked or dodged. then stack those crucial stats like str, crit, arp, haste, agi, ect. good luck with your raiding.
4k buffed ap is easy to get, as fury i got 3.8k unbuffed in beserker and that’s with a few bits of gear needed and no tier gear
and pre-lich king i had about 3.3 unbuffed