Building A Better Arms Warrior, Part 2

I'm gonna ramble about Arms Warrior gear and stuff in Wrath, so skip this one if you want to wait and see, or just don't give a ... yah. That's all the Wrath spoiler I'm givin' at this point. :D

I've been trying to browse through the various WoW databases online to learn what kind of gear will be available to us Arms Warriors types. There's some fun stuff, but it's a bit different than we've grown use to in Burning Crusade. I'm not gonna link a big load of gear here, yet. I've got my eye on few favorites, but this is really just general commentary. I'll wait until we get a little closer to start serious shopping.

First, the important part... fashion! It's all very Norse-ish. Not all the designs are implemented yet, but so far it looks like pieces will match better. I like it way better than the BC bad-70s-porn-movie and gem'd glow-in-the-dark stuff. I don't love it, mind you. No chain mail skirts, blindingly heroic sets, or sexy plate outfits, yet. Unfortunately. But it'll be a fun I'm-a-Viking-come-to-pillage-your-ass look for awhile.

I'm gonna switch armor fast even if it's not as good as my current gear. I wanna experience it. For that reason, I've been looking over the early quest, drop and craftable items. Be ready to spend some gold on a few of the Blacksmith peices that'll be popping up. Very nice blue gear. There's a few quest and repuation items that are looking good, as well. I'll recommend WoWhead's Wrath of Lich King site for browsing.

Heirloom stuff looks fun. There's several pieces that are great generic level gear we'll be able to pass down to alts. This is an awesome idea. I've got a Fury and Prot Warrior I need to level. They'll get neglected a bit when Wrath hits, but once I'm ready for 'em again, they'll be able to go quick in some very nice, scalable hand-me-downs. Brilliant. Although I wonder... will we start seeing Warrior enchanters? They won't need that quest and dungeon BoP gear any more. Might as well DE it for cash and enchants. Hmmmm.

As for stats, things are a bit confused right now. Arms Warriors seem to be pretty set. But there's a lack of +Hit gear in the plate category. Not too bad for Arms, but I suspect Fury Warriors will be selecting leather a lot, at least early on. Arms Warriors will get a bit of Hit (enough?), decent Crit (more please!), plenty of yummy Strength, and good ol' Resilience and Attack Power. The big surprise, and the one that's got me thinkin' a lot (what?), is that most of the Arms Warrior gear is piled with Stamina!

What's that mean?

Well...

Could mean a lot of things. The big Attack Power is understandable. A lot of Warrior abilities are gonna be AP based now. So that's a Good Thang. But why all the Stam for Arms Warriors? Honestly, I think it's cause of the "multiple roles" part of Blizzard's plan. With all that Stamina AND Resilience, an Arms Warrior can easily dance from effective DPS to effective tank with one button and a weapon/shield swap. No more carrying around two and half sets of armor. Swap a trinket, rings and neck, and suddenly you're a very, um, well-endowed tank. :D

What happens is that the Arms Warrior will remain quite beefy for PvP, but now becomes a lot more effective and desirable for PvE situations. Consider the utility of the Arms Warrior in, say, 10-person raids where space is limited. You've got kick-ass DPS with built in toughness. And with a quick-click-macro, you've got a very effective third tank. That's pretty nice. It's the essence of Arms Warrior, as well. Versatile and tough. The PvP focus for the spec during BC was nice, but it's time for somethin' different. Well... a little different.

Another thought (two???) that comes to mind is, apparently, crushing blows are going away. Tanks are now gonna be concerned primarily with mitigating Critical Hits. Prots will do this with Defense. Arms will do it with Resil. Prot will still have high Block and other damage reducing abilities, and thus be way better at avoiding damage. But with a good deal of Stamina, an Arms Warrior becomes a difficult to Crit, viable tank option for many more situations. This could be a very Good Thing, as well. It's a crafty way for Blizzard to make an Arms Warrior more adept at different roles without completely ripping apart the spec.

Is that how it'll work? Dunno. But it's a great idea.

Bottom line for Armsies is, we're gonna get a LOT tougher. Probably need it from seeing all the massive hurt some other classes are getting loaded with. But it'll be kinda nice, as well. :)

-Fri