Warrior Talent Ratings

Rather than contributing a talent "build", I thought I would have us break down and evaluate the Warrior talents individually.

Each Talent has a Utility ranking (how good it is, on a 1-10 scale, ignoring pre-requisites), a Cost ranking (1 being too many poor utility pre-requisites, 10 meaning it's worth the point investment to get it nomatter what), and an Overall ranking (subjective combination of the two factors).

On some of these talents I am not speaking from direct experience, so please feel free to adjust any ratings/descriptions you feel are off. If enough people tweak the ranks, I will go through the history and edit the rank to reflect an average of current patch rankings (feel free to adjust the average yourself if you want to crunch the numbers).

ARMS

Improved Heroic Strike / Deflection / Improved Rend

Improved Heroic Strike - 3 points

Reduces the cost of your Heroic Strike ability by 1 rage point.
Reduces the cost of your Heroic Strike ability by 2 rage points.
Reduces the cost of your Heroic Strike ability by 3 rage points.

Without this talent, the Heroic Strike skill is one of the least rage efficient skills a warrior can use (15 rage for 124 damage at rank 8 - or 8.26 DPR). Full investment in this talent improves the efficiency to 10 DPR, which still leaves HS near the bottom of the list in terms of efficient use of rage for damage. (see Warrior Rage Efficiency)
Additionally, no rage is generated when doing a HS attack, nor on the subsequent regular attack. For a slow 2H weapon user, this is a devastating blow to overall rage generation. A fast 1H weapon user (or dual wielder) may find the skill and talent more attractive, but in my opinion the talent is not a good value.

Utility Rank: 2/10 (1 person rating)
Steaming Pile of... Well if you use it early and get rid of it on a respec it's OK
Cost Rank: 5/10 (1 person rating)
5 points that could be better spent elsewhere, but luckily only 5
Overall Rank: 3/10 (1 person rating)
People may giggle if you admit you have it, but they won't throw you out of the group...

Deflection - 5 points

Increases your Parry chance by 1%.
Increases your Parry chance by 2%.
Increases your Parry chance by 3%.
Increases your Parry chance by 4%.
Increases your Parry chance by 5%.

If you have talent points kicking around and you don't know where to spend them, buy this talent. A successful parry negates all incoming melee damage from a single source - making 1% parry improvement significantly more effective than a 1% shield block improvement. The only time this passive talent isn't really helping you is when your only attackers are using magic damage.

Utility Rank: 9/10 (1 person rating)
Belongs in any defensive minded "protection spec" even though it's in Arms
Cost Rank: 9/10 (1 person rating)
Absolutely worth the points unless your plan has no room for it.
Overall Rank: 9/10 (1 person rating)
Just get it already...

Improved Rend - 3 points

Increases the bleed damage done by your Rend ability by 15%.
Increases the bleed damage done by your Rend ability by 25%.
Increases the bleed damage done by your Rend ability by 35%.

Rend is worth using with or without this talent. With this talent, if allowed to run it's full duration (it's a DoT skill) has Damage Per Rage (DPR) nearly matching that of Mortal Strike with a top-end weapon. Even at half duration (i.e. the monster dies half way through), Rend easily outperforms Heroic Strike. Bottom line, if you're playing your warrior effectively, you will be using this skill a lot, and boosting the damage of a highly used skill doesn't hurt.

BTW, Rend stacks with other warrior's Rends, but I believe using it again while your own Rend is still in effect only resets the DoT timer for your Rend.

Utility Rank: 7/10 (1 person rating)
A nice talent, but depends on a skill use. Also a pre-requisite for an excellent passive talent.
Cost Rank: 6/10 (1 person rating)
When you're tight on points, you may be able to live without it. You can still use the plain skill.
Overall Rank: 7/10 (1 person rating)
Belongs in most Arms builds, but other builds can skip it.

Improved Charge / Tactical Mastery / Improved Thunder Clap

Improved Charge - 2 points

Increases the rage generated by your Charge ability by 3.
Increases the rage generated by your Charge ability by 6.

Charge is only available in one stance, and doesn't work when "in-combat" - that includes when an enemy mob has seen you and started casting a ranged spell. In other words, the skill gets used rarely enough that spending talent points to boost it's effectiveness (and the extra rage is nice) doesn't seem like a great use of talent points.

Utility Rank: 1/10 (1 person rating)
Would be much higher if Charge worked in combat, but it doesn't.
Cost Rank: 3/10 (1 person rating)
Only worth the points if you can't think of ANYWHERE else to put them, but it's only 3.
Overall Rank: 2/10 (1 person rating)
Almost anything besides this is a better way to get the 10 Arms talents for the next tier.

Tactical Mastery - 5 points

You retain up to 5 of your rage points when you change stances.
You retain up to 10 of your rage points when you change stances.
You retain up to 15 of your rage points when you change stances.
You retain up to 20 of your rage points when you change stances.
You retain up to 25 of your rage points when you change stances.

With recent changes that made many attacks work in multiple/all stances, this talent lost some of its utility, but it is not completely useless. Some example uses:
- You're tanking in another stance, but need to switch to Defensive to use taunt. While taunt is 0 rage, it's nice to keep some rage after the taunt for building up a little aggro surplus (hint: sunder armor).
- You're in defensive stance and want to switch to battle or beserker stance to use execute (need at least 15 rage, but more rage means more damage).
- Starting combat strong and fast. Charge in, switch to Beserk stance, Whirlwind (25 rage needed), and switch back to Battle stance.
- You're in Defensive stance, for some reason don't have Piercing Howl, so you need to switch to Battle or Beserk stance to hamstring an enemy who is a possible flight risk (10 rage needed).

Other than those examples, I can't really think of anything critical. Most times I've needed to switch stances, I've found I can quickly blow out any surplus rage before switching and didn't particularly need tactical mastery.

Utility Rank: 5/10 (1 person rating)
If you see something in the above list of uses that you MUST do, then you need it, otherwise you don't.
Cost Rank: 7/10 (1 person rating)
A better way to get to 10 Arms points than Charge/Thunderclap talents.
Overall Rank: 6/10 (1 person rating)
A good talent, but far from mandatory.

Improved Thunder Clap - 3 points

Increases the damage done by your Thunder Clap by 8%.
Increases the damage done by your Thunder Clap by 16%.
Increases the damage done by your Thunder Clap by 25%.

This talent has had a lot of haters for a while. Many people don't spend the gold to get higher ranks of the skill. Against 4 opponents, at maxed rank and maxed talent, the Damage per Rage is a little better than Heroic Strike (that's not saying much). I reccomend leaving Thunder Clap at rank 1 and just use it for the slow attack and aggro generation, but do what you like.

Utility Rank: 2/10 (1 person rating)
Extra damage on a weak, barely used skill... whee! Still better than the Charge talent, IMO.
Cost Rank: 3/10 (1 person rating)
Every talent point is precious. Friends don't let friends get the Thunder Clap talent.
Overall Rank: 3/10 (1 person rating)
Out of witty comments...

Improved Overpower / Anger Management / Deep Wounds

Improved Overpower - 2 points

Increases the critical strike chance of your Overpower ability by 25%.
Increases the critical strike chance of your Overpower ability by 50%.

The skill is great, I use it every time it comes up and it's way up there in the Damage per Rage rankings. On the flip side, it's exclusive to Battle stance, and it doesn't come up nearly as often as I'd like (requires the opponent to dodge first). Against a dodge happy Rogue in PvP, this skill with both talent points is nearly a guaranteed win (if they're smart, they'll run away and come back without their "extra dodging" skill going).

Utility Rank: 8/10 (1 person rating)
An opportunity to nearly double the damage on what was already a highly efficient damage dealing skill.
Cost Rank: 7/10 (1 person rating)
To get to this tier, you sometimes need to make some sacrifices, but as Arms is so popular, not penalized too much.
Overall Rank: 7/10 (1 person rating)
Get it if you plan to be in Battle Stance a lot.

Anger Management - 1 point

Increases the time required for your Rage to decay while out of combat by 30%.

Your fighting pace has to be in a bit of a sweet spot for this to make any difference. If you're in a group that stops to drink/chat a lot between each battle, all your rage will be gone whether or not you take this talent. If you're in a gung-ho group that mows through pulls non-stop, you'll almost never be out of combat long enough to notice the difference. Somewhere inbetween there's a happy medium where this talent is very nice. Also pretty useless if you're an execute happy warrior as you'll never have rage left over at the end of a fight.

Utility Rank: 5/10 (1 person rating)
It's all about pacing...
Cost Rank: 5/10 (1 person rating)
You have to have 5 points in Tactical Mastery to get here, but there are worse things you could do with your talent points
Overall Rank: 5/10 (1 person rating)
You won't know if you need this until you have a better feel for your personal play style.

Deep Wounds - 3 points

Your critical strikes cause the opponent to bleed, dealing 20% of your melee weapon's average damage over 12 seconds.
Your critical strikes cause the opponent to bleed, dealing 40% of your melee weapon's average damage over 12 seconds.
Your critical strikes cause the opponent to bleed, dealing 60% of your melee weapon's average damage over 12 seconds.

It's passive (always on - working with normal attacks), which is reason enough to love this talent. If you have a slow high damage weapon, it will add significant damage. If you have a fast weapon, it will proc more often (although I don't think it stacks). Advantage goes to the big slow weapons (the start of a trend).

Utility Rank: 9/10 (1 person rating)
Less if you have a wimpy weapon...
Cost Rank: 7/10 (1 person rating)
Docked a little for being a 10 req tier talent, but the Rend pre-requisite isn't a big detraction.
Overall Rank: 8/10 (1 person rating)
Passive talents are great!

Two-Handed Weapon Specialization / Impale

Two-Handed Weapon Specialization - 5 points

Increases the damage you deal with two-handed weapons melee weapons by 1%.
Increases the damage you deal with two-handed weapons melee weapons by 2%.
Increases the damage you deal with two-handed weapons melee weapons by 3%.
Increases the damage you deal with two-handed weapons melee weapons by 4%.
Increases the damage you deal with two-handed weapons melee weapons by 5%.

If you want to be dishing out damage, you'll likely be using a two-handed weapon (dual wield has issues with missing too much). If you're using a shield a lot (i.e. tanking) this talent doesn't help much. I like this talent better than the more specific ones mainly for the flexibility. If you dump 5 points into axes, and then find a mace that's clearly better, you're stuck with 5 useless talent points. The 2H category is a safer bet.

That said, increasing damage by a 1% per talent point isn't too mind blowing. You're looking at an additional 15 damage on a hit of a high end 2H weapon.

Utility Rank: 6/10 (1 person rating)
Pretty middle of the road, but OK.
Cost Rank: 6/10 (1 person rating)
If you're doing an Arms build, I can't think of a better way to get to the next tier, otherwise there are tempting options in other talent categories.
Overall Rank: 6/10 (1 person rating)
Hey, at least it's passive.

Impale - 2 points

Increases the critical strike damage done by your abilities in Battle, Defensive, and Berserker stance by 10%.
Increases the critical strike damage done by your abilities in Battle, Defensive, and Berserker stance by 20%.

Don't jump too quickly on this talent - it does nothing for your damage when you crit a normal attack. Normal attacks are most of your damage. However, if you find yourself using special attacks that can crit (such as mortal strike and execute) all the time, then you may see decent returns here.

Utility Rank: 4/10 (1 person rating)
Doesn't trigger as often as one would like, but when it does it's handy.
Cost Rank: 7/10 (1 person rating)
Pre-reqs aren't too painful, and it's only a couple talent points either way.
Overall Rank: 5/10 (1 person rating)
A matter of personal style I guess...

Axe Specialization / Sweeping Strikes / Mace Specialization / Sword Specialization

Sweeping Strikes - 1 point

You next 5 melee weapon swings strike an additional nearby opponent.

Axe Specialization - 5 points

Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Axes by 1%.
Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Axes by 2%.
Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Axes by 3%.
Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Axes by 4%.
Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Axes by 5%.

Mace Specialization - 5 points

Gives you a 1% chance to stun your target for 3 seconds with a mace.
Gives you a 2% chance to stun your target for 3 seconds with a mace.
Gives you a 3% chance to stun your target for 3 seconds with a mace.
Gives you a 4% chance to stun your target for 3 seconds with a mace.
Gives you a 5% chance to stun your target for 3 seconds with a mace.

Sword Specialization - 5 points

Gives you a 1% chance to get an extra attack after dealing damage with your Sword.
Gives you a 2% chance to get an extra attack after dealing damage with your Sword.
Gives you a 3% chance to get an extra attack after dealing damage with your Sword.
Gives you a 4% chance to get an extra attack after dealing damage with your Sword.
Gives you a 5% chance to get an extra attack after dealing damage with your Sword.

Polearm Specialization / Improved Hamstring

Polearm Specialization - 5 points

Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Polearms by 1%.
Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Polearms by 2%.
Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Polearms by 3%.
Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Polearms by 4%.
Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Polearms by 5%.

Improved Hamstring - 2/2 points

Increases the movement slow effect of your Hamstring ability by 5%.
Increases the movement slow effect of your Hamstring ability by 10%.

Mortal Strike

Mortal Strike - 1 point

A vicious strike that deals 200% weapon damage and wounds the target, reducing the effectiveness of any healing by 50% for 10 seconds.

FURY

Booming Voice
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PROTECTION

--UNDER CONSTRUCTION--