Hey everyone, in this article I will discuss what stats are the best for an arms warrior in PvP. After doing this I will discuss how to reforge, gem and enchant your gear to be most effective in PvP. Using this stat prioritization I will also determine which PvP off pieces are best for a warrior.

What stats are important as a warrior?

Currently warriors gain the most currently out of soft capping hit and expertise. This means getting 5% hit and 16-20 expertise. With expertise now being on the PvP set, it is not only easy to get but also has become a very powerful stat. The reason why expertise has become so important is because most classes have at least 4% dodge or parry in cataclysm, having a throwdown or colossus smash dodged or parried will completely destroy your burst potential, so expertise has become just as valuable as hit, even more so in some situations. For example against many plate classes have at least 4% dodge and 4% parry, so the 16 expertise actually equates to almost 8% hit!

Once you get 5% hit and 16-20 expertise you should prioritize your stats in the following order.

1. Strength

*2. Critical Strike

*3. Mastery

4. Haste

*Critical strike vs mastery is a pretty close call, but personally I feel like critical strike is better due to wrecking crew, impale and deep wounds. If you prefer mastery by all means choose the mastery pieces, but keep in mind within this article I will be telling you to reforge mastery to crit and choosing crit pieces over mastery pieces.

Helmet

You should use the PvP helmet, [Vicious Gladiator's Plate Helm]

Currently there is no resilience helmet enchant implemented, so you will have to use the PvE Melee one which gives 60 strength and 35 Mastery. The Alliance version is [Arcanum of the Wildhammer] and the Horde version is [Arcanum of the Dragonmaw]. Each item is available once you become revered with either The Wildhammer Clan or The Dragonmaw Clan, based on whether you are Horde or Alliance.

For the Meta gem, I would recommend using a [Enigmatic Shadowspirit Diamond] although [Powerful Shadowspirit Diamond] is a viable alternative. Right now I feel the extra crit is much more beneficial than the extra stamina though.

For the red gem, I would recommend using a [Bold Inferno Ruby].

As for reforging, I would reforge the mastery to critical strike.

Neck

For the neck slot, you have a choice between an expertise neck, [Vicious Gladiator's Choker of Proficiency] and a hit neck, [Vicious Gladiator's Choker of Accuracy]. Although expertise is currently very strong, you need the hit neck to reach the hit cap so I recommend getting the hit neck.

Shoulders

You should use the PvP shoulders, [Vicious Gladiator's Plate Shoulders]

Just like the helmet enchant, there is no PvP enchant implemented for shoulders right now. You will have to use the PvE melee one from the Therazane faction, located in Deepholm. There are two level of shoulder enchants. [Greater Inscription of Jagged Stone] is the epic one, available at exalted and [Lesser Inscription of Jagged Stone] is the regular one which is available at honored.

For the Yellow gem I would recommend using an [Inscribed Ember Topaz]

Cloak

There is a choice between a haste cloak, [Vicious Gladiator's Cloak of Alacrity] and a Mastery cloak, [Vicious Gladiator's Cloak of Prowess]. I would recommend the mastery one because haste is just terrible for warriors in PvP right now.

As for the enchant you should be using is [Formula: Enchant Cloak - Greater Critical Strike]

As for reforging, you should reforge the mastery to critical strike.

Chest

You should use the PvP chest, [Vicious Gladiator's Plate Chestpiece]

In the Red gem slot you will want to use a [Bold Inferno Ruby]

In the Yellow gem slot should use a [Inscribed Ember Topaz]

For the enchant’s I would recommend using [Formula: Enchant Chest - Peerless Stats]. Although there is a resilience enchant, I feel like the stats enchant has always been stronger, on top of the fact that this gear set has a lot of resilience as it is.

Bracers

For the bracers slot, you have a choice between an expertise pair, [Vicious Gladiator's Armplates of Proficiency] and a haste pair [Vicious Gladiator's Armplates of Alacrity]. You should definitely choose the expertise pair due to how weak haste is for warriors in PvP right now.

As for enchants I would recommend [Formula: Enchant Bracer - Greater Critical Strike]

Gloves

You should use the PvP ones, [Vicious Gladiator's Plate Gauntlets]

For the blue gem I would recommend using a [Sovereign Demonseye]

As for enchants, I would go with [Enchant Gloves - Mighty Strength] however this is quite an expensive enchant. If you do not have the gold for it, [Enchant Gloves - Exceptional Strength] is not a bad alternative, the difference is 15 strength between the two enchants.

Belt

You have the choice between a mastery belt, [Vicious Gladiator's Girdle of Prowess] and crit belt, [Vicious Gladiator's Girdle of Cruelty].  I would recommend getting the crit belt for the reasons stated at the beginning of the article, but again if you prefer mastery feel free to choose the mastery one as mastery is not bad by any means, simply just a preference.

As for enchanting, make sure you get a [Ebonsteel Belt Buckle] for the extra socket!

As for sockets, I would recommend using a Sovereign Demonseye in the blue and a [Bold Inferno Ruby] in the prismatic socket.

Legs

This is the slot where I would not recommend using the PvP piece because if you get legs with hit on them, it will hit cap you so you do not have to worry about socketing hit. The PvP legs, [Vicious Gladiator's Plate Legguards] have haste as a main stat which is terrible for PvP so I would recommend getting the tier 9 legs from valor points instead, [Earthen Legplates] You will have more than enough resilience, so using these legs is not an issue and they are itemized very well for Arms.

The sockets are two yellow sockets, however the socket bonus is haste so it is not really worth getting whatsoever. I would recommend socketing two [Bold Inferno Ruby] into these legs.

As far as enchant’s go, you should get Dragonscale leg armor which is the leatherworking patch with attack power and crit.

As for reforging, you should reforge the Mastery to Critical Strike.

Boots

You have a choice between haste, Vicious Gladiator’s Warboots of Alacrityand critical strike Vicious Gladiator’s Warboots of Cruelty. You should definitely choose the critical strike version and put an [Inscribed Ember Topaz] into the yellow socket.

As far as enchants go, [Enchant Boots - Lavawalker] is the best. Keep in mind that it is quite costly, so if you do not want to spend the money on it, I would recommend getting Enchant Boots – Earthen Vitality which is extremely cheap and not a bad alternative.

Weapon

The three main PvP weapons are  Vicious Gladiator’s Bonegrinder, [Vicious Gladiator's Decapitator] or Vicious Gladiator’s Greatsword.  It does not really matter which PvP weapon you choose unless you are a human, dwarf or orc. If you are human get the mace or sword, if you are dwarf get the mace and if you are orc get the axe.

As for enchants the best enchant is [Enchant Weapon - Landslide]. The thing is this enchant runs about 10k+ gold on most servers so if you don’t have the gold for that I would recommend getting [Enchant Weapon - Avalanche] instead.

Trinket

A must have trinket as a warrior would be the [Vicious Gladiator's Medallion of Tenacity]. I personally feel that resilience is going to be extremely useful since I am focused in many comps, however if you play a comp where you rarely get focused (if you play with a warlock) it may be beneficial to pick up a[Vicious Gladiator's Medallion of Cruelty] instead of the resilience trinket for the extra crit.

As far as the secondary trinket goes, [Vicious Gladiator's Emblem of Cruelty] is going to be your best bet if you do not have access to any PvE gear whatsoever. However if you do, you might want to consider getting a [Heart of Rage] to soft cap expertise, due to how powerful it is right now.

**I will be using heart of rage to get expertise cap, so if you do not manage to get one I highly advise that you reforge to expertise rather than crit and gem expertise where you can**

Rings

For rings I would recommend using both PvP rings, [Vicious Gladiator's Signet of Accuracy] and [Vicious Gladiator's Signet of Cruelty]. You can use both of them and there are no PvE rings that are well itemized for PvP right now.

PvE Goodies

In this section I will just put a few PvE items that would be really strong in arena that you may want to shoot for if you have time to raid.

The first is [Fury of Angerforge], I’m not really sure what the proc uptime is but if it it’s good, this definitely will be a must have.

[Heart of Rage] as I mentioned earlier is also very strong for PvP considering how much expertise it has on it.

Reclaimed Ashkandi, Greatsword of the Brotherhood is going to be a very strong weapon early on if you can pick it up early, however it will put you way over hit cap with the t9 legs, so if you do happen to pick one up you should switch out your hit neck to an expertise one.