On a one-minute single-boss fight the build is 39/10/2.
It goes at least 30 points deep for
Mortal Strike, collects
Bloodthrill,
Weaponmaster and
Improved Slam on the way down, and puts its Fury points into
Cruelty and
Unbridled Wrath.
30325213132515201-0505-2The search builds each fight and faction separately, and the factions' trees can differ in their free points. The reasons below are for the build shown.
Why these talents
Mortal Strike hits for your weapon damage plus 160 on a 6-second cooldown, for 30 rage, in any stance. The talent is worth 10.0 % of your damage. The rotation line that casts it scores higher, 20.5 %, because the
Hamstring line only fires while Mortal Strike is more than a second away.
Bloodthrill gives each main-hand hit a 20 % chance to open
Overpower for 6 seconds, but only while your
Rend is on the boss. That is the reason Arms keeps Rend up, and the talent is worth 10.4 %. Hits from abilities count, so every cheap
Hamstring is another roll.
Improved Overpower,
Impale and
Deep Wounds turn those windows into damage. Improved Overpower adds 50 % crit chance to Overpower, Impale lifts ability crits to 2.2 times, and each crit adds a bleed worth 60 % of your weapon's average hit, rolled into any bleed already running. A slow two-hander makes that bleed large. They are worth 4.9 %, 4.1 % and 3.9 %.
Weaponmaster depends on what you hold: 5 % crit with an axe or polearm, 15 % of the boss's armor ignored with a mace or staff, a 5 % chance of an extra swing with a sword. With the
Forest Defender's Axe it is worth 3.3 %. With an axe it is a second
Cruelty, and the two show the same value.
Improved Slam stops
Slam from pausing your swings, and at two points cuts its cast to 1.0 second and its cooldown from 18 to 15. Without it, each Slam would pause your two-hander for its 1.5-second cast, holding back the white damage and rage of that swing. It is worth 3.6 %.
Spearing Strike is a 15-rage Battle Stance attack every 20 seconds for 40 % weapon damage, or 120 % against Giants and Dragonkin. Our boss is a Dragonkin, so its 3.4 % is the high case. Against another boss type, expect about a third of it.
Two-Handed Weapon Specialization adds 3 % damage, worth 2.8 %, and
Cruelty 5 % crit, worth 3.3 %.
Flexible points
Going deep into Arms leaves a few rows where nothing useful is left. Those points add no damage to a boss kill, so put them where you like.
Deflection,
Improved Charge and
Improved Heroic Strike. The search uses them as filler to unlock the next row. None of them scores on a boss: there's no Charge or Heroic Strike in the rotation, and in our fights the boss never attacks you. Swap them freely between the three.
Improved Hamstring. A 5 % chance per point to root the target. No damage.
Unbridled Wrath. 60 % of your landed white hits give 1 extra rage. It no longer gives two-handers double, so it is worth only 0.4 %. It is still the best of what's left in the first two Fury rows after Cruelty.
Improved Tactical Mastery. On one boss you change stance once, into Berserker Stance at 20 %, so keeping 25 rage instead of 10 is worth 0.9 %. It is required for
Anger Management (0.7 %).
Improved Bloodrage.
Bloodrage gives half again as much rage (1.6 %).
What each talent is worth
Each row takes one talent's points out and simulates the build again on the same fights. The loss is that talent's value. Each removal is measured alone, so the values overlap and don't add up to your damage. The last-point column is the price of removing a single point, the number to compare when one point is spare.
On every fight
The single-boss builds share the same core and differ in a handful of free points. With pre-raid gear the two-minute build moves its last Fury points to Improved Execute and Booming Voice and takes one point out of Weaponmaster and Improved Slam. The three-boss builds change more: Mortal Strike is gone on one and two minutes (the PvP set's two-minute build keeps it), and the one-minute build also drops Bloodthrill and Spearing Strike and plays Whirlwind instead. Below, every fight's build is set against this one.