Warrior DPS – Dual-Wield Sword Spec?

ack, disregard most of this.  math was wrong…had too many sword spec procs in my calcs

I dps’d a regular MrT on Luth yesterday, still carrying the 27/31/3 pvp spec.  2k attack power, 124 hit rating, 31% crit chance.  I didn’t run a meter or WWS or anything, but I felt I did all right, given that I didn’t have full precision, dual-wield spec, imp zerker stance, or rampage.

Sword spec was going of quite a bit, and frequently I’d see the double 1k+ white crits flash by.  It’s fun and bursty.

It got me to thinking…is Sword Spec viable for dual-wield fury?  In a more PvE-friendly build perhaps?  I know I’m personally pretty sick of Rampage.  What a lackluster 41-point talent.

Time for another spreadsheet!

Actually, building onto an existing one.  I’ve had one I’ve been sitting on for some time, and it’s nice to have a template rather than starting from scratch, and this one does nicely.

Now, my math might not be 100% correct.  In fact I know it wasn’t at first, but I’m reasonably sure I’ve got all the kinks worked out.

The basic fury dps spec: 17/44/0.  Arms to impale, Fury to Imp. Zerker and Rampage.

The proposed dps spec (the contender, if you will): 26/35/0.  Arms to Sword Spec and Death Wish, Fury to Bloodthirst with 1/3 Precision and 1/2 Imp Whirlwind.

Now, this is relying on a sketchy formula for calculating the effects of Flurry.  I’m not sure it affects the final outcome, but here are the results. 

These both assume that the warrior is hit-capped for specials (I basically used my gear for the example), ignore armor and opposing dodge chance, and are over the course of 180-minute second fights.  The 17/44/0 warrior is able to keep Rampage up the entire time, and the 26/35/0 warrior uses Death Wish once.  Another caveat, I’m not sure Bloodthirst can proc Sword Spec, but for the sake of this example I assumed it does not:

17/44/0: 1010.03 dps

26/35/0: 1010.08 dps (it’s actually 955.97)

Wowthat’s close.  And surprising!  I originally left Death Wish out of the equation, but figured it should be considered.  (It amounts to a ~3.33% increase in damage if used every time it’s available.)

Here’s the problem, though:  26/35/0 lacks the 10% threat reduction from Improved Berserker Stance.  This could make things hairy for the warrior in that situation, for such a minimal increase in dps.

However, and I’d bet there are other fury warriors out there who agree with me, Rampage isn’t the most fun thing to keep active.  With 26/35/0, Sword Spec is always on, and Death Wish is just a cooldown rather than a rage dump.

For further comparison, Sword Spec provides increased rage generation while Rampage really is just a rage dump for a non-scaling 250 attack power buff (275 with Imp Zerker).  (Presumably we’ll get another rank of it in WotLK.)  Speaking of scaling, Sword Spec scales with everything because it’s your weapon damage, which is affected by Attack Power, Crit Chance, Hit Chance, Impale, etc.

Pros and Cons to be weighed.  But I for one like the idea of breaking away from the silliness that is Rampage.

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Resilience Math
• On with the stabbing!
• 3.0.1 – Warrior, Full Fury Spec
• Weapon Problems – Testing Results.