World of Warcraft®

Welcome to my guide to PvE Fury for Mists of Pandaria. In this guide, I’ll cover the basics of what you’ll need to know to succeed as a Fury Warrior in MoP, from how to spec to the new skills and how you should gear yourself. To make this easier to read than my previous guide for Cata, I’ve broken the sections up and added shortcuts to the various sections in this first post.

As always, this guide will always be a work in progress and I’ll try to update it as much as I can as the expansion progresses. As a note I won’t have gear sets ready on the list itself until the expansion launches and the armory database updates. The same will be true for enchants and consumables. I’ll have a version of this up on my guild’s website shortly as well which will have the links to gear and items, so stay tuned for that. I’ll have a link here to that as well as soon as it’s up.

Thanks for reading, and leave any comments and questions in this thread. Please wait until I’ve finished posting anything before posting as well.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Talents and Glyphs - http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/6412422422#2
II. Abilities and Rotation - http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/6412422422#3
III. Gearing Up: Stat Priorities, Reforging, Gemming, and Enchanting - http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/6412422422#4
IV. Sample Gear Sets - http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/6412422422#5
V. Consumables and Cooldowns - http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/6412422422#6
VI. Additional Notes and FAQs - http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/6412422422#7

As some general changes to note before I get into the guide itself, stances do not limit what abilities you have anymore. Battle Stance allows you to generate full rage from white attacks while Berserker allows half the normal rage gain, but it also allows you to generate rage from being attacked. If there is enough damage incoming to make up for the loss in rage generated by attacks (1% HP = 1 rage), switch to Berserker Stance. Stances are still on their own CD and you do not lose rage for switching stances.

Rage generated is equal to 3.5x base weapon speed.

Deep Wounds is now only applied by Bloodthirst, not all crits.

Inner Rage is gone and HS/Cleave now have 1.5sec CDs baseline.

Fury (and Arms) get a 2min defensive CD called Die by the Sword. It reduces damage taken by 20% and increases your parry chance by 100% for 8sec.

Single-Minded Fury is better DPS at the moment, so if you have a choice of weapons, go with 1h weapons. TG isn't going to make you suddenly bad, but SMF is better right now.

Also, as noted above, this is a PvE Fury guide. I can’t help you for PvP questions so before you ask any below, please remember that I pretty much never PvP and the best answer I can give you is my best guesstimate.

Talents and Glyphs

Mists of Pandaria introduces a new talent system to the game. Gone are the 8/31/2 specs of old, and in its place is a six-tiered talent system that is independent of your specialization. Because of the open-nature of these talents, I’ll briefly cover each tier and afterwards give my recommendations for each tier.

Tier 1
Juggernaut – Reduces the cooldown of Charge by 8 seconds.
Double Time – You can Charge twice; each Charge has a cooldown of 20 seconds. Only generates rage every 12 seconds.
Warbringer – Your Charge knocks the target down and stuns them for 3 seconds.

For this tier, Juggernaut and Double Time are the likeliest options. For most fights, Juggernaut will suffice as you won’t be Charging as much. Double Time does allow huge burst mobility, which will be useful on some fights especially combined with Heroic Leap on a shorter CD.

Tier 2
Enraged Regeneration – Instantly heal for 10% of your health and 10% over 10 seconds. 1min CD, costs 60 rage, free if Enraged.
Second Wind – Regen 3% of your health every second while under 35% HP. Also generates 20rage/10sec if stunned or rooted.
Impending Victory – Replaces Victory Rush. Hits for 56% AP and heals for 10%. 30sec CD, 10 rage.

Impending Victory or Second Wind should be your choices here. IV acts as a low rage cost filler that's twice as rage efficient as a normal WS but on a 10sec CD. Second Wind is decent healing that you never have to worry about.

Tier 3
Staggering Shout – Root any snared targets within 20 yards for 5sec. 40sec CD.
Piercing Howl – Snare all targets within 15 yards for 15sec by 50%. 10 rage.
Disrupting Roar – Interrupt any spell casts within 20 yards and locks out that school for 4sec. 40sec CD.

This tier should be a fight-by-fight basis. I took Disrupting Roar personally since another interrupt is never a terrible idea.

Tier 4
Bladestorm – Whirlwind all targets in melee range for 120% weapon damage for 6sec. Immune to CC. 1.5min CD.
Shockwave – 75% AP cone-based attack. Stuns targets hit by attack. 20sec CD.
Dragon Roar – Always crits, heavy damage, ignores armor. Stuns and knocks back all targets 3 yards. 1min CD.

Dragon Roar is your go-to talent here as it does the most damage and lines up the best with our other CDs. Shockwave seems nice, but the change in 5.2 basically makes it useless for single target.

HOWEVER! For SMF, Shockwave, because of how DR works with AoE DR (covered later), will actually be a better choice for Wind Lord assuming you can hit all the targets consistently. Bladestorm should work out to be better for TG there.

Tier 5
Mass Spell Reflection – Reflect the next spell cast at you and your party members within 20 yards. Doesn’t require a shield. 1min CD.
Safeguard – Replaces Intervene. Takes the next attack cast at the target and reduces their damage taken by 20% for 6sec. Removes movement-impairing effects. 25yd range, 30sec CD.
Vigilance – Transfers 30% of the target’s damage to you for 12sec. Taunt has no CD while target has Vigilance. 40yd range, 2min CD.

Vigilance is the safest choice as if you get crit while using Safeguard, you're likely going to die. Pop Die by the Sword to be safe.

Tier 6
Avatar – Increases damage done by 20% and rage gained by 30% for 20sec. Immune to roots and snares. 3min CD.
Bloodbath – Special attacks do 30% more damage as a bleed over 6sec. Snares bleeding targets. Lasts for 12sec, 1min CD.
Storm Bolt – Throws a hammer at the target for 100% weapon damage and stuns for 3sec, 400% if target is permanently immune to stuns. 30yd range, 30sec CD.

Go with Bloodbath for this tier. Again, it lines up perfectly with something like Dragon Roar and the 5.1 trinket. Storm Bolt's buff in 5.2 might make it more attractive, but that remains to be seen. There's no real fight yet that makes Avatar better than BB.

TL;DR Version for Talents
T1 - Juggernaut
T2 - Impending Victory if you want an extra low-cost attack, Second Wind otherwise
T3 - Depends on fight, I have Disrupting Roar
T4 - Dragon Roar on most fights, Bladestorm/Shockwave for AoE depending on SMF/TG on Wind Lord
T5 - Vigilance
T6 - Bloodbath

Glyphs

Major:
Unending Rage – Increases the rage cap by 20. Allows to pool more rage for CS and CDs.
Death From Above – Increases damage done by Heroic Leap by 100% and reduces the CD to 15sec. 30sec CD HLeap is awesome, take it. The damage boost is nice too, but it will be gone in 5.2.
The last one isn't so defined. Raging Wind will be better for AoE, while Rude Interruption is great on Wind Lord and Protectors (assuming non-elite mode).

Minor:
These are all cosmetic, so go to town based on your choices. The only one worth mentioning that actually does anything is Intimidating Shout, which causes your targets to huddle in place instead of running around all willy-nilly.

Abilities and Rotation

Because Fury did get some new skills in MoP and our existing skills did get some changes, I’ll go over everything before actually getting to our rotation.

Abilities
Bloodthirst – Hits for 90% weapon damage plus 1246. Generates 10 rage and has double the chance to crit. 4.5sec CD. Procs Enrage on crits.
Raging Blow – A mighty blow that hits the target for 190% weapon damage with both weapons. Becoming Enraged allows one use of Raging Blow, limit of two charges. 10 rage, no CD.
Wild Strike – A quick offhand strike that hits for 230% weapon damage plus 1,254. Causes Mortal Wounds on the target. 30 rage, no CD. Replaces Slam for Fury. Bloodsurge now decreases the rage cost to 10 and the GCD by .5sec for the next three Wild Strikes.
Colossus Smash – A devastating blow that hits for 175% weapon damage and allows all attacks to ignore armor for 6sec. Causes Physical Vulnerability on the target for 30sec, increasing physical damage done by 4%. 20sec CD, free. Procs Enrage on crits.
Heroic Strike – Hits for 110% weapon damage plus 449. Still off of the GCD. 1.5sec CD, 30 rage.
Berserker Rage – Causes you to become Enraged for 6sec, making you immune to fear, Sap, and incapacitation effects for the duration. 30sec CD.

For single target, BT should be used on CD almost without exception (Execute phase w/ CS up is the only exception). After that, CS should be used on CD as well, with BT taking priority.

After that, your rotation boils down to pooling rage for CS durations and then dumping all that rage during CS, so what you use depends on whether or not CS has been used.

While CS is on CD and isn't on the target, you want to be as rage efficient as possible. This means continuing to hit BT on CD while prioritizing RB over everything else, assuming you'll still have a charge for CS. It's supremely rage efficient. After that, what you use depends on what is up and how much rage you have. Bloodsurged Wild Strikes are a good choice while CS isn't up, but they have to be used together or not at all. Dragon Roar can be used as a filler if CDs are up. Heroic Throw and Impending Victory (if you have it) are free/low cost filler abilities you should use in this time, as well as Battle/Commanding Shout if needed. Last is normal Wild Strike. Because it's supremely rage ineffecient, it should only be used at high rage if nothing else is up. Finally, use HS to avoid capping.

When CS is up on the target, dump as much rage as possible and use your hardest hitting attacks. BT should still be used on CD, and after that RB is better than Wild Strike. The more RB, the better. Use HS as much as possible as well. Do NOT use DR here as it already ignores armor. If you can save Zerker Rage for this to force an RB charge, do so.

To sum it up:
BT > CS > RB > WSx3 > Dragon Roar (if CDs are up) > Heroic Throw/Shout/IV > Empty GCD > WS if over 90 rage, HS to avoid cap while CS isn't up
BT > RB > WS, HS as much as possible while CS is up

Execute Phase
For Execute phase, you want to keep the same principle of pooling rage for CS as you do outside of Execute phase, but to the extreme. Execute is our hardest hitting attack by far (300% AP), but costs 30 rage. Because of this, you want to cut out everything that costs rage that you don't have to use. This means HS and WS are cut out entirely, leaving you with only RB and Execute as rage-costing abilities. This means that empty GCDs outside of CS aren't a bad thing (Heroic Throw/Shout can still be used). RB should still be used, but only at 50+ rage. Execute can be used at 90+ rage. Keep BT on CD. When CS is up, dump all your rage into Execute as much as possible, and use RB if you can't Execute. BT is your last priority here; this is the only time you don't use on CD. Use Zerker Rage for CS if you aren't enraged as well.

Summing it up:
BT > CS > RB > Execute (90+ rage) if CS isn't up
Execute > RB > BT if CS is up

AoE
Fury’s AoE is still tied to Meat Cleaver, but it’s different now. Instead of increasing the damage done by WW and Cleave by 10% per stack, it now allows RB to hit more targets, up to 3 additional targets. This means your AoE rotation boils down to getting 2-3 stacks of Meat Cleaver (depending on fight) and using RB after that. Keep BT and CS on CD. Cleave isn’t really worth using unless you have a lot of rage; its DPR is pretty terrible.

Summing it up:
BT > CS, WW to stack Meat Cleaver, RB to use MC stacks, Cleave > 90 rage

Gearing Up: Stat Priorities, Reforging, Gemming, and Enchanting

Stat Priorities
First, the caps we need for hit and expertise have changed. We now need 7.5% hit and 7.5% expertise to cap special hit and dodge for expertise; both of these are equal to 2,550 rating from gear, so these should be the first stats you look for in gearing.

Beyond that, things get a little interesting. Strength and crit are your next best stats, but which is better depends on your gear level. While gearing up for both TG and SMF, strength will be better than crit. Once you hit a certain gear point, though, crit will begin to overtake strength. This happens sooner for TG (around 490 ilvl) than it does for SMF, but it will happen by BiS gear for both specs. Crit overtakes strength because of how important Enrage is for Fury's DPS; our whole rotation is balanced around it. Strength may eventually become better once we reach 100% Enrage uptime, but that should also make mastery's value higher. We likely won't reach that point by the end of MoP however, so don't worry about that right now.

This really only comes into play for gemming and trinkets. Trinkets are covered later, and gemming will be covered in this same post.

For the rest of the stats, mastery is better than hit which is better than haste. Hit and haste are both about a third of strength's value, while mastery will be anywhere from 40% to 60% of strength's value depending on your gear and crit levels (the higher your gear/crit, the higher mastery's value).

TL;DR:
Hit/Exp to 7.5% each > Str > Crit > Mastery > Hit > Haste (lower gear levels; around <490 for TG and higher for SMF)
Hit/Exp to 7.5% each > Crit > Str > Mastery > Hit > Haste (higher gear levels; >490 for TG and higher for SMF)

Reforging
For reforging, this means that after you have the hit and expertise caps met, crit should be your best stat to reforge to. You should try to reforge any excess expertise/hit, haste, or mastery (in that order) into crit. If something has crit on it and excess expertise/hit or haste, reforge that second stat to mastery. If it has crit and mastery or you need the hit/exp on the item to stay capped, don’t reforge it.

Gemming
Gemming has also changed a bit in MoP. Gems with secondary stats have twice as much on them compared to gems with primary stats. This means a bold gem would have 160 strength, while a smooth gem would have 320 crit on it. Add that to the increase in crit’s value and our gemming has changed significantly.

Meta: Reverberating Primal Diamond
Red: Inscribed Vermilion Onyx
Yellow: Smooth Sun's Radiance
Blue: Piercing Wild Jade

However, this is only true up to a point. Once crit is .875 SEP, you can stop putting Inscribed gems in red sockets that have a 60 strength bonus (like on T14 tier legs for example) and instead use a Smooth gem.

This also holds true for blue sockets or any combination of sockets really. Depending on the socket bonus and the socket colors, you may ignore the color and just plop crit gems in. You'll have to know your stat weights to decide for sure, so don't be afraid to sim things to make sure.

Enchants
For enchanting, there aren’t many surprises. The two big changes here are the removal of head enchants and the change to shoulder enchants. Shoulder enchants are now made by scribes.

Shoulders: Greater Tiger Fang Inscription
Cloak: Enchant Cloak - Superior Critical Strike
Chest: Enchant Chest - Glorious Stats
Bracers: Enchant Bracer - Exceptional Strength
Gloves: Enchant Gloves - Super Strength
Legs: Angerhide Leg Armor
Boots: Enchant Boots - Pandaren's Step
Weapon: Enchant Weapon - Dancing Steel

For the weapon enchant, you want Dancing Steel on both weapons (see: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/6412422422?page=36#710). Windsong isn't bad (only about a 150-300 DPS loss) so if you're cheap and/or lazy, it works in a pinch. You should still pony up for Dancing Steel though.