Arms functions on a priority system with some conditionals, but you'll get very far making sure you press Mortal Strike on Cooldown. The more tagets you add, the more complex the standard rotation becomes with more buttons available if a target is below 20% (or 35% with Massacre). in 9/10 aoe or cleave pulls you'll have a target with a higher kill priority than the rest. Pressing cleave on X amount of targets might be mathematically optimal, but more often than not, putting more damage into the target that is the barrier to pulling the next pack is the bigger time gain in a M+ environment.

For Season 3 of The War Within, Arms has seen better times. It doesn't really have a niche like giga 2 target cleave, premium execute or good AoE. Doing AoE while keeping up decent Single Target DPS is rough because of how the talent tree works.

Colossus Opener

Charge -> Rend -> Thunderous Roar -> Ravager -> Avatar + Colossus Smash -> Mortal Strike (chain if possible with Battlelord) -> Demolish -> Skullsplitter -> Mortal Strike/Overpower

Colossus Standard Priority

1. Apply or reapply Rend
2. Demolish if CS up and Colossal Might = 10
3. Mortal Strike
4. Demolish again if CS up
5. Skullsplitter
6. Execute if Sudden Death expires in < 3s
7. Overpower
8. Execute
9. Wrecking Throw 101 Rend if duration < 5 GCDs
10. Slam

Colossus Execute Priority

1. Ravager if:
   • Colossus Smash is ready next global and,
   • Avatar cooldown is longer than 14 seconds or less than 2 seconds
2. Execute if Juggernaut buff expiring soon
3. Skullsplitter
4. Demolish if CS up and Colossal Might = 10
5. Mortal Strike if:
   • Executioner's Precision = 2 stacks, or
   • No Executioner's Precision talent, or
   • You have Battlelord talent
6. Overpower if Rage < 90
7. Execute if Rage >= 40 and you have Executioner's Precision
8. Overpower
9. Bladestorm
10. Wrecking Throw
11. Execute

Colossus Cooldown Rotation

1. Thunderous Roar
2. Ravager
3. Avatar if the entire duration overlaps a Colossus Smash window (or with Colossus Smash sub 35%)
4. Colossus Smash
5. Demolish if Colossus Smash and Colossal Might at 10 stacks

Colossus Cleave Priority

This is mainly intended as a "with sweep" section

1. Apply or reapply Rend with Thunder Clap
2. Mortal Strike
3. Demolish if CS up
4. Overpower
5. Execute
6. Whirlwind or Cleave if using Fervor of Battle
7. Thunder Clap if Rend < 8s and Sweeping Strikes is down
8. Wrecking Throw if Sweeping Strikes not active
9. Rend if < 5s
10. Slam

No change in priority comes from the fact that we just apply Sweeping Strikes as much as possible. Its worth holding Sweep a few seconds to cleave a Colossus Smash. Cooldowns: Slam everything as it gets ready.

Colossus AoE Opener

Charge -> Cleave -> Thunder Clap -> Thunderous Roar -> Avatar + On-Use -> Warbreaker -> Cleave -> Bladestorm (yes, i did not stutter) -> Cleave -> Mortal Strike -> Demolish

Colossus AoE Priority

1. Cleave if Deep Wounds isn't active
2. Apply or Reapply Rend with Thunder Clap
3. Demolish if:
   • Colossal Might stacks = 10 and
   • CS debuff has >= 2s or
   • CS/WB cooldowns >= 10s
4. Cleave
5. Bladestorm if talented into Unhinged or Merciless Bonegrinder
6. Mortal Strike
7. Skullsplitter
8. Thunder Clap if Rend < 5s
9. Overpower
10. Thunder Clap
11. Execute
12. Bladestorm
13. Wrecking Throw
14. Whirlwind

General optimizations

• Chargeweaving when at low rage is a minor optimization to do. Ideally you walk out into charge range right after an auto swing and a GCD is incurred and charge back in as the GCD is ready again without losing uptime.
• You can use Parry Hasting to generate a gazillion rage. Intervene your tank while having Die By the Sword up to Parry Haste your auto attacks.

Crafts and Embellishments

Dawn/Duskthread lining on any lower budget armor piece (bracers/cloak fx). Whichever one is better for you will likely change throughout gearing, but BIS profile uses double Dawnthread. Sims are done at a conservative 60% uptime.

If you are in a guild where progression is end all be all, weapon (Ascendance+Barding) is a good craft if you aren't lucky in the first week. If you are looking for BIS down the line, any of the Dawnthread Lining craft is gonna be the play on cloak and bracers.

Stats

Item level -> Haste -> Crit -> Mastery -> Vers Please for the love of god simulate your character on www.raidbots.com if item levels are close.

Trinkets

Antenna and Sacbrood are your BIS trinkes. Pacemaker, Arcanocor, Terror Sack and Cursed Idol are all good options as well.

Enchants

Chest - Crystalline Radiance (main stat) Legs - Defender's Armor Kit Rings - Raidant Haste (at high item level, simulate your options) Weapons - Authority of the Depths

For your tertiary stat enchants you can take whatever you want to. Avoidance is guaranteed damage reduction (on things it works on) and is in general recommended. Speed and Leech are both useful in other scenarios, but Moblity is not something we lack as warriors.

Consumeables

Flask - Alchemical Chaos Food - The Sushi Special. Potion - Tempered Potion Weapon Rune - Whet/Weightstone or Mana Oil. Whichever is cheapest as they are most likely all within variance of eachother. Sockets - Deadly. With Culminating Blasphemite (epic gem) you'll need unique colors. "Quick" versions of the different colors are your best bet. This is going to be a simulation question in 9/10 cases.

Races

Tauren/Dwarf are best simming. Void Elf, Human, Troll, Gnome and Night Elf are all very close to eachother. Void Elf teleport may be useful in some one off encounter along with Dwarf Stoneform being able to remove some debuffs in raids.