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Slam - A Few Words

Okay, maybe many more than a few. This is a paraphrased copy of a guide I wrote explaining how to use Slam. Enjoy!

In order to understand slam, let's first take a look at the ability itself;

Slam
All Stances - 15 Rage
Max Rank Tooltip: Slams the opponent, causing weapon damage plus 140.
Talent References: Focused Rage, Improved Slam

Slam is the only true Warrior spell, barring oddities such as racials (Warstomp and Escape Artist come to mind). It functions in the same way as a spell, although it is no longer effected by pushback effects (which is to say, incoming damage does not increase the cast time).

Because it is a spell, using the ability will reset your weapon swing timer as of the end of the channel... which is to say, if you Slam and have a 3.8 speed weapon, your next autoattack will occur 3.8 seconds after the Slam ends. This occurs no matter what point in your normal swing timer you used the ability, which means that if you Slam at the wrong point - say, 3.7 seconds after your previous autoattack - you'll gain nothing and will in fact _lose_ damage. Consider: 3.7 plus .5 means your weapon swing timer became 4.2, instead of the 3.8 it would have been if you did nothing, and that doesn't even factor in the lost Rage. This means that proper use of Slam requires _very good timing_.

Slam also triggers the global cooldown, which for Warriors is 1.5s. This means that even with 2/2 Imp. Slam, you cannot "spam" Slam more than once every 1.5s. So one might ask, what in the hell is the point of the ability?

I'm glad you asked.

With use of a swing timer mod (I heavily recommend Quartz, an Ace2 mod with a customizable swing timer) and good reactions and planning, you can Slam directly after your normal autoattack swing... which means that you're using 15 Rage in order to deal your autoattack damage over .5 seconds, plus the crit modifier. It essentially allows you to get a free "double swing" after attacks at a relatively small Rage cost.

A brief summary, before we continue:
Slam requires _very good_ timing, preferably aided by a Swing Timer mod.
Slam resets your swing timer when used.
Slam, when used improperly, is worse than doing nothing at all.

I'm going to assume a 3.6 speed weapon for these numbers, as that is the current 'default' weapon speed - barring Smithing weapons, there are few epics that are slower than this. If you're using a Smithing weapon (that's not Sword) or a Worldbreaker, these numbers are still accurate... just more so.

You will never have perfectly precise timing, even with a swing timer modm but you can get _very good_ timing. Human reaction speed being what it is, I'm going to assume that even with the swing timer mod you're not hitting Slam until .25s after a swing. Personally, using the spell metrics mod I wrote, I'm activating Slam about .1-.2s after the swing but that's due to a good connection and a lot of practice, to the point where it's become second nature.

You're attacking the mob, and get a weapon swing. .25s later, the server gets your "omgslam" message and you start the channel... giving you a .75s "swing", at which point the swing timer resets. However, because Slam does activate the GCD you have one second before you can perform any other actions. After the GCD goes away, you hit Mortal Strike, Bloodthirst or Whirlwind. And then... you wait. To summarize;

Swing - .75 Slam (Reset) - 3.6 - 2.6 (Mortal Strike) - 1.1 (Nothing) - Swing - .75 Slam (Reset)... repeat.

Why do nothing? Simple. If you hit all of these abilities with _perfect_ timing, you will have .4s of GCD after your next ability when your Swing Timer goes up - and believe me, you will not have perfect timing. If you have Flurry, the problem becomes significantly worse as well.

One of the purposes behind using MS/BT/WW is additionally rage generation, as they are somewhat more Rage efficient than Slam is when used every 1.5s due to not interfering with the swing timer. If Slam had no GCD associated with it, Mortal Strike and Whirlwind would be obsolete in situations where you did not need the MS debuff or the AE damage on whirlwind... but you do, and a .5s Slam with no GCD trigger would be more than slightly overpowered (consider that with a full Rage bar, that's 6 Slams in 3 seconds. In PvP if nothing else, you could throw a Stun up and absolutely drop someone with nothing they could do about it at all.)

I haven’t mentioned one of the primary aspects that does make this strategy work, and that is the mighty Windfury Totem. Without Windfury, your damage as 2H is going to be lacking in the extreme - it provides such a massive boost to damage and Rage Generation it allows us to easily forgo Endless Rage and actually get talents like Death Wish and Imp. Slam, which provide the huge boost in damage that we need in order to compete.

To summarize: GCD is your enemy and your friend... but mostly your enemy. Learn to manage them - GCD's are to you what Combo Points would be to a Rogue, one of your most valuable resources. Use it wisely. Keeping track of GCD and your swing timer and anything else the boss might do and keeping an eye on your threat meter is why playing a Slam warrior is far from easy. Luckily, it's extremely rewarding... but it requires considerably more concentration and attention than DW DPS ever will.

Slam after every autoattack if possible. The only time when it's advisable to spam Slam over and over is during your Death Wish/Trinket cycle if you have the rage available, and even then you should skimp on one Slam cycle every 10s to lob off a MS and Whirlwind, then go back to Slams after the next autoattack.

You have to kill it before it kills you, period.