What exactly does an Arms warrior want in a weapon?

Post by 104602

This post was from a user who has deleted their account.

Post by Arideni

why would a weapon with low speed, but still a high top end damage be bad?

You will not consistantly find weapons with fast speeds that still have a high damage range. Weapon speed scales with weapon damage; the faster the speed, the lower the damage (and the slower the speed, higher the damage).

You may have found weapons like this while leveling, but Burning Crusade itemization is refined over the original.

Your attack damage factors in Attack Power which is calculated using weapon speed...for special abilities this speed is "normalized" to be the same for all weapons of that type; 2H weapons are normalized at 3.3 speed last I checked.

This was done so an overly large bonus could not be applied based on weapon speed (using exceptionally slow weapons could out-perform higher level/quality weapons).

The polearm you mentioned has a 3.2 speed, normalization puts 2H weapons at 3.3 speed...you may be thinking, "Wow, that sounds good then." -- the truth is that the Attack Power bonus is only half the formula...the other half (the average of your weapons damage divided by weapon speed) is not normalized. Thusly, you can still gain a higher damage by using a slower weapon in the damage formula (it just won't affect the attack power bonus). All of this is factored in when you see your hit in the combat log.

In short, you want to maximize the damage formula before attack power bonus is calculated by using as slow a weapon as you can.
This is how I learned it after normalization changes took place (very long time ago), anyway.

Post by nossy

A slow weapon with high dmg is the way to go for 2H MS Warrior looking to do primarily PVP at 70. Remember that MS is independent of weapon speed, but dependent on rage and cooldowns. Most slow weapons have higher max dmg and or dmg range. In most PVP situations, you'll only be able to land 1-2 hits (1 autoswing and 1 instant attack - MS or WW) before your target gets out of range or goes behind you so when you do hit, you want it as hard as possible.

2H maces usually are slowest with highest max dmg - about 3.8 - 4.0 weapon speed. 2H Axes and Swords are around 3.6-3.8 with slightly lower max dmg. 2H polearms are usually fast 3.0 - 3.4 with lower max dmg. Which is why Arena is predominately MS Warriors running around with Maces and Mace specs for stun procs.

What exactly does an Arms warrior want in a weapon?

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