World-of-warcraft – Fury Warrior Rotation

world of warcraft

Background information

I have a night elf warrior character on world of warcraft and I levelled it using the protection spec with fury as a second spec, I didn't use the fury spec much and so did not learn how to play it as well as i did with the protection spec. In the last year or so I reached level 90 with the character, but didn't bother to play it much after that. Recently I decided to try it out again, and I want to explore the fury spec.

I created the character in 2010, while levelling, the talent system changed at least once, and I would sometimes switch between fury and protection spec randomly, at some point I reached level 80, quite some time before the cataclysm expansion was released, I spent a lot of time tanking and absolutely no time as dps. I didn't use the character much when the cataclysm expansion was released, instead choosing to play other classes.

I'm aware of the existence of a site called "elitist jerks" and I have had a quick look at it, but as far as I could tell the warrior guide on that site is missing.

I am aware that there are questions on this site World of Warcraft Warrior Guide [duplicate] and What are some well-written guides for World of Warcraft? [closed] that refer to external sources of information, but so far I've not been able to find what I think I need.

After a google search, I am found Fury Warrior DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities (WoW MoP 5.4) on the icy veins site, a site which I have used a lot in the past when trying to get ready for raiding as a tank. I will look there for help with my fury warrior, but I think it's meant for raiding, not questing.

Question
What rotation could I use as a fury warrior whilst questing?

Any additional advice about beneficial stats and/or tactics would be much appreciated.

Best Answer

All of the below is for a level 90 Fury warrior in patch 6.0, solo'ing against single level 90 targets (from the front). This advice does not apply to dungeons or raids.

The abilities, short and sweet:

  • Bloodthirst - small slow attack which can be used every 3 GCDs. Main source of Raging Blow charges (based on it crit'ing).
  • Raging Blow - medium slow attack. Requires 1 Raging Blow charge (limit 2). Also requires 10 rage.
  • Wild Strike - medium fast attack. Costs 30 rage, unless made free by Bloodthirst
  • Berserker Rage - NO GCD. This ability can be used every 30 seconds to generate 1 Raging Blow charge.
  • Execute - heavy slow attack. Costs 30 rage and can be used on low health targets.

The level 45 talent choice determines how the rotation works. Do not assume one is better or more fun than another without trying them.

"Unquenchable Thirst"

This is the easiest choice to play and describe

1. If you can Execute, then Execute
2. If you have Bloodsurge, then Wild Strike x2 (fast)
3. If you have more than 60 rage, then Wild Strike (fast)
4. If you have Raging Blow charge, then Raging Blow
5. Otherwise, Bloodthirst

This choice gives very good Enrage uptime, and no gaps in cooldowns. Bloodthirst is lowest priority because it has low damage and is only used to generate better attacks.

"Sudden Death" or "Furious Strikes"

The basic idea is to Bloodthirst on cooldown, hopefully generating a Raging Blow charge or a Bloodsurge (for two free Wild Strikes). The choice in the rotation is in how to fill the two GCD space between Bloodthirsts.

There are four possible timings:

(A) fast, fast, fast, Bloodthirst
    example: Wild Strike x3
      with BloodSurge + FuriousStrikes: cost 20 rage
      with BloodSurge + SuddenDeath: cost 45 rage
      with FuriousStrikes: cost 60 rage
      with Sudden Death: cost 135 rage (impractical)
(B) slow, slow, Bloodthirst
    exampleB1: Raging Blow x2 (use Berserker Rage to activate second charge)
    exampleB2: Execute + Raging Blow
    exampleB3: Whirlwind + Raging Blow (if two or more targets available)
(C) slow, fast, gap-pause, Bloodthirst  (this wastes 1/3 GCD with gap-pause)
    example: Raging Blow + Wild Strike
(D) slow, fast, fast, Bloodthirst  (this delays Bloodthirst by 1/3 GCD)
    example: Raging Blow + Wild Strike x2

Notes:

  • Don't let Berserker Rage interrupt your timing.
  • "Furious Strikes" favors timing (A) and (D) by giving you cheaper Wild Strikes (a fast attack)
  • "Sudden Death" favors timing (B) and (C) by giving extra and free Executes (a slow attack)
  • (A) and (B) are more time efficient and should be higher priority than (C) and (D).

Here are relative valuations of strikes based on my grabbag of ilevel489 gear.

  • Wild Strike does ~15% less damage per swing than Raging Blow, but ~15% more damage per time than Raging Blow.
  • Execute does ~2x damage of Raging Blow

Based on the above valuations, the following sequences are ordered by damage dealt per time:

  • (D) Execute + Wild Strike x2 : 3.7 * 3.0/3.5 = 3.17
  • (A) Execute + Raging Blow : 3.0
  • (C) Execute + Wild Strike + gap-pause : 2.85
  • (B) Wild Strike x3 : 2.55
  • (D) Raging Blow + Wild Strike x2 : 2.7 * 3.0 /3.5 = 2.31
  • (A) Whirlwind + Raging Blow : 2.? (if two or more targets)
  • (A) Raging Blow + Dragon Roar : 2.1
  • (A) Raging Blow + Raging Blow : 2.0
  • (C) Raging Blow + Wild Strike + gap-pause : 1.85 (this looks bad on paper, but might be your best choice sometimes)

Those (D) sequences may be lower priority if you can't pay the rage cost or don't want to delay Bloodthirst.

As you can see, "Furious Strikes" spams Wild Strikes for consistent damage, while "Sudden Death" does bursty and gappy damage.

Stats:

  • Crit is very important because it gives you more raging blows.
  • Mastery is ok. However with more crit, enrage would be up more and you'd get more benefit.
  • Haste is ok. It speeds up your GCD and Bloodthirst cooldown. This is a change from 5.4 where it didn't do anything but speed up your autoattacks.
  • Multistrike, Leech and Versatility are all meh.
Related Topic