June 10th, 2021

Venthyr Arms Warrior Talent Guide – Shadowlands 9.0.5

Ok, so now that we have a taste for how Arms works, let’s talk about the variations in talents we have available. Venthyr arms is very straight forwards in its builds, with two main rows which change between Raiding and Dungeons, but the playstyle doesn’t alter much between them, allowing for an overall consistent rotation regardless of the content you’re doing. The two main builds can be categorized as Single Target vs Multi-Target and look like this at a glance:

Tier 1 (level 15): Skullsplitter

This row boils down to a choice of Performance vs Ease of Use. If you want to do the best possible damage, go with Skullsplitter for its on-demand Rage generation which helps ensure consistent Rage the fight. Alternatively, Sudden Death will randomly give us free use of Condemn, usable at any HP range, but is not taken by any of the top performing Venthyr Arms Warriors currently due do its inconsistent chance to occur. That said, Sudden Death is a completely OK option if you want a more passive talent and do not want to manage Skullsplitter.

Tier 2 (level 25): Double Time or Storm Bolt

For raiding, we’ll be taking Double Time in all content since it gives us more rage generation and fall damage prevention. For dungeons, Storm Bolt will be the go-to option in most situations unless your team is extremely crowd-control-heavy already.

Tier 3 (level 30): Massacre

Tier 4 (level 35): Situational

This is a utility row and each of these talents is good in the right circumstance.

• Second Wind is a good option where you do not need to worry about positioning or damage mitigation, it can be nice in some dungeons like Plaguefall, but is generally less taken.
• Bounding Stride is great if you’re not worried about survivability, giving us the option to relocate more frequently, making this is our default Raid choice. The reduced cooldown on our leap helps significantly with fights with Artificer Xy’mox, whose Annihilation ability can be entirely ignored since your Heroic Leap will be available for every single cast.
• Defensive Stance is extremely powerful, giving us on-demand damage mitigation with infinite duration at the cost of doing lower damage while active, making it our go-to dungeon choice.

Tier 5 (level 40): Warbreaker

Overall, Warbreaker is currently the best choice in this tier for all content. It replaces Colossus Smash, does the same amount of damage, has half the cooldown, and hits all targets in range instead of just the main target. The cooldown reduction allows Warbreaker to line up perfectly with other cooldowns, making it an easy and comfortable pick for all content.

Tier 6 (level 45): Avatar

Avatar is the default choice in all content for Venthyr warriors since it directly plays into our preferred legendary, Signet of Tormented Kings. More information about how Avatar works with Signet of Tormented Kings can be found on the guide which covers our legendary gear.

Tier 7 (level 50): Dreadnaught or Ravager

For single target fights we’ll be choosing the Ravager talent. Ravager replaces Bladestorm with a much weaker damage output comparatively, but it is a placeable, remote Bladestorm instead. The reason we take Ravager is because it is a non-channeled ability (whereas Bladestorm requires you to channel)– meaning we can continue casting other abilities while Ravager occurs. Ravager is amazing for single target fights due to its interplay with our legendary (it still procs Signet of Tormented Kings),  Ravager allows us to continue using Condemn while it goes off, and Ravager passively generates a fair amount of Rage.

As for multi-target, we’ll be taking Dreadnaught, which gives us two stacks of Overpower and causes Overpower to also deal a wave of damage on up to 5 targets in front of you. When combined with Sweeping Strikes, Dreadnaught will cause not one, but TWO frontal cones of damage, dealing significant multi-target damage. Taking the Dreadnaught talent also allows us to keep Bladestorm, which is better than Ravager in multi-target situations.

Additional Powers

Now that we’ve covered the abilities and talents, it’s time to look at the preferred Legendary, Soulbind, and Conduits guide to give our Warriors a bit more power under the hood before we set them loose upon the world (of warcraft).