Max DPS spec for Gruul

[Gutboy]

I want to respec before we hit Gruul this week, and I'm looking for the best possible raid DPS spec, either 2H using [item]Gorehowl[/item] or dual wield with two out of [item]The Decapitator[/item], [item]Fel Edged Battleaxe[/item], and [item]Vindicator's Brand[/item]. Anyone have recommendations?

GB

[khader]

While not DPS spec'ed myself I did find this article with some information on warrior PVE DPS.

http://nihilum.wazap.com/en/article/8,general_guide_to_highend_warrior_pve/

I found some information helpful relavant to protection but can't vouch for the DPS info.

That said I would expect your DPS would be higher with a dual wield fury spec over a slow 2h arms spec.  Basing this mostly on the generalization that arms has become a PVP centric spec with MS being key.  In PVE, many bosses don't heal or regenerate so its not so important vs some of the talents in the fury tree helping sustain your DPS.

[LastDyingBreath]

Duel Wield.  Mainhand the decapitator and offhand the vindicator's brand.

your build : http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warrior/talents.html?000000000000000000000000505000550501025312512300000000000000000000

spend the remaining 11 points as you wish.

I see the "what weapons should I use" question a bunch, I'm gonna write up a guide explaining it.

[Trismus]

arms arms arms arms arms


That's my personal preference.

Here's why:

Blood Frenzy = +4% physical damage. This isn't just for you, it's for the entire raid. +4% from even 10 people is more then you'll get as an increase with dual wielding.

The difference between Arms and Fury (2h v. dual wield) is not as bit as it used to be, and there are ways to push your 2h DPS to be extremely high. You gotta get the following skills tho:

Improved Slam: get at least the first level of this. Generate rage, then burn the rage for damage. MS costs 30 rage, so only use it sparingly when you need an instant attack. otherwise slam is far more efficient. A full rage bar turns into 6 hits with slam in 6 seconds. That can easily be over 500 dps. Last night on Curator when he evocated I was pulling 2k-5k hits for a full rage bar. With anger management I was able to get essentially a free hit every 45 seconds (not much, but every little bit counts).

Improved Thunderclap: 20% slow will help ALOT on Gruul

Improved Demo Shout: optional, but I just don't see how this could be a bad thing although you do sacrifice some rage generation for it.

If you take those into consideration, not only do you do respectable DPS as arms, but you both add raid dps as well as reduce the DPS the mob puts out. That's stuff that a true fury spec cannot offer.

Also, it'd be nice to have another warrior speced up like me for this. The reason being that while our individual debuffs (blood frenzy, Tclap and demo shout) don't stack, chances are decent that one of us will die before the other on gruul, and a dead warrior contributes nothing, but if we both have the abilities, as long as just one of us is alive we can keep the raid pumping out the damage while carving a nasty little hole in Gruul's left foot.

Here's a link to a spec that takes all this into account, customize as you see fit:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=LVMszAioM0ddZVE0VMzZb


Another option is a dual-wielding arms spec like this:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=LVMszAioM0dbZVt0VgzZb

although personally I find that a bit lacking. Dual Wielding without the massive attack power boost of deep Fury just doesn't seem viable. Also, in order for dual wield setups to work you *need* at least 100 hit rating as a bare minimum.

The bottom line is this:

Deep Fury will do more dps, simply due to its nature. However, you add more dps to the raid by going arms and using Gorehowl (a beastly weapon) not to mention the dps reduction you put on the mob.

-Tris

[Buzan]

If your deciding to go with a deep arms spec talk to me in game and I'll be happy to give you suggestions or answer any questions you might have.

Trismus pretty much has everything down in his post though.

[Gutboy]

Thanks for the ideas guys. This time, I'm trying out the Nihilum-approved Fury spec 17/44/0, as seen here:

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Alexstrasza&n=Gutboy

This gives me Imp TC and Demo Shout, plus the raid benefits of Commanding Presence. I look forward to trying the other approaches in time, as I develop my strategies to fill different roles in raids.

GB

[Trismus]

cool man, with the options I don't think there's any doubt that you're gonna punch a hole in his goolies