Warrior Talent Ratings

Rather than contributing a talent "build", I thought I would have us break down and evaluate the Warrior talents individually.

Each Talent has a Utility ranking (how good it is, on a 1-10 scale, ignoring pre-requisites), a Cost ranking (1 being too many poor utility pre-requisites, 10 meaning it's worth the point investment to get it nomatter what), and an Overall ranking (subjective combination of the two factors).

On some of these talents I am not speaking from direct experience, so please feel free to adjust any ratings/descriptions you feel are off. If enough people tweak the ranks, I will go through the history and edit the rank to reflect an average of current patch rankings (feel free to adjust the average yourself if you want to crunch the numbers).

ARMS

Improved Heroic Strike / Deflection / Improved Rend

Improved Heroic Strike - 3 points

Reduces the cost of your Heroic Strike ability by 1 rage point.
Reduces the cost of your Heroic Strike ability by 2 rage points.
Reduces the cost of your Heroic Strike ability by 3 rage points.

Without this talent, the Heroic Strike skill is one of the least rage efficient skills a warrior can use (15 rage for 124 damage at rank 8 - or 8.26 DPR). Full investment in this talent improves the efficiency to 10 DPR, which still leaves HS near the bottom of the list in terms of efficient use of rage for damage. (see Warrior Rage Efficiency)
Additionally, no rage is generated when doing a HS attack, nor on the subsequent regular attack. For a slow 2H weapon user, this is a devastating blow to overall rage generation. A fast 1H weapon user (or dual wielder) may find the skill and talent more attractive, but in my opinion the talent is not a good value.

Utility Rank: 2/10 (1 person rating)
Steaming Pile of...
Cost Rank: 5/10 (1 person rating)
5 points that could be better spent elsewhere, but luckily only 5
Overall Rank: 3/10 (1 person rating)
People may giggle if you admit you have it, but they won't throw you out of the group...

Deflection - 5 points

Increases your Parry chance by 1%.
Increases your Parry chance by 2%.
Increases your Parry chance by 3%.
Increases your Parry chance by 4%.
Increases your Parry chance by 5%.

If you have talent points kicking around and you don't know where to spend them, buy this talent. A successful parry negates all incoming melee damage from a single source - making 1% parry improvement significantly more effective than a 1% shield block improvement. The only time this passive talent isn't really helping you is when your only attackers are using magic damage.

Utility Rank: 9/10 (1 person rating)
Belongs in any defensive minded "protection spec" even though it's in Arms
Cost Rank: 9/10 (1 person rating)
Absolutely worth the points unless your plan has no room for it.
Overall Rank: 9/10 (1 person rating)
Just get it already...

Improved Rend - 3 points

Increases the bleed damage done by your Rend ability by 15%.
Increases the bleed damage done by your Rend ability by 25%.
Increases the bleed damage done by your Rend ability by 35%.

Rend is worth using with or without this talent. With this talent, if allowed to run it's full duration (it's a DoT skill) the Damage Per Rage (DPR) nearly matches that of Mortal Strike with a top-end weapon. Even at half duration (i.e. the monster dies half way through), Rend easily outperforms Heroic Strike. Bottom line, if you're playing your warrior effectively, you will be using this skill a lot, and boosting the damage of a highly used skill doesn't hurt.

Utility Rank: 7/10 (1 person rating)
A nice talent, but depends on a skill use. Also a pre-requisite for an excellent passive talent.
Cost Rank: 6/10 (1 person rating)
When you're tight on points, you may be able to live without it. You can still use the plain skill.
Overall Rank: 7/10 (1 person rating)
Belongs in most Arms builds, but other builds can skip it.

Improved Charge / Tactical Mastery / Improved Thunder Clap

Improved Charge - 2 points

Increases the rage generated by your Charge ability by 3.
Increases the rage generated by your Charge ability by 6.

Tactical Mastery - 5 points

You retain up to 5 of your rage points when you change stances.
You retain up to 10 of your rage points when you change stances.
You retain up to 15 of your rage points when you change stances.
You retain up to 20 of your rage points when you change stances.
You retain up to 25 of your rage points when you change stances.

Improved Thunder Clap - 3 points

Increases the damage done by your Thunder Clap by 8%.
Increases the damage done by your Thunder Clap by 16%.
Increases the damage done by your Thunder Clap by 25%.

Improved Overpower / Anger Management / Deep Wounds

Improved Overpower - 2 points

Increases the critical strike chance of your Overpower ability by 25%.
Increases the critical strike chance of your Overpower ability by 50%.

Anger Management - 1 point

Increases the time required for your Rage to decay while out of combat by 30%.

Deep Wounds - 3 points

Your critical strikes cause the opponent to bleed, dealing 20% of your melee weapon's average damage over 12 seconds.
Your critical strikes cause the opponent to bleed, dealing 40% of your melee weapon's average damage over 12 seconds.
Your critical strikes cause the opponent to bleed, dealing 60% of your melee weapon's average damage over 12 seconds.

Two-Handed Weapon Specialization / Impale

Two-Handed Weapon Specialization - 5 points

Increases the damage you deal with two-handed weapons melee weapons by 1%.
Increases the damage you deal with two-handed weapons melee weapons by 2%.
Increases the damage you deal with two-handed weapons melee weapons by 3%.
Increases the damage you deal with two-handed weapons melee weapons by 4%.
Increases the damage you deal with two-handed weapons melee weapons by 5%.

Impale - 2 points

Increases the critical strike damage done by your abilities in Battle, Defensive, and Berserker stance by 10%.
Increases the critical strike damage done by your abilities in Battle, Defensive, and Berserker stance by 20%.

Axe Specialization / Sweeping Strikes / Mace Specialization / Sword Specialization

Sweeping Strikes - 1 point

You next 5 melee weapon swings strike an additional nearby opponent.

Axe Specialization - 5 points

Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Axes by 1%.
Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Axes by 2%.
Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Axes by 3%.
Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Axes by 4%.
Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Axes by 5%.

Mace Specialization - 5 points

Gives you a 1% chance to stun your target for 3 seconds with a mace.
Gives you a 2% chance to stun your target for 3 seconds with a mace.
Gives you a 3% chance to stun your target for 3 seconds with a mace.
Gives you a 4% chance to stun your target for 3 seconds with a mace.
Gives you a 5% chance to stun your target for 3 seconds with a mace.

Sword Specialization - 5 points

Gives you a 1% chance to get an extra attack after dealing damage with your Sword.
Gives you a 2% chance to get an extra attack after dealing damage with your Sword.
Gives you a 3% chance to get an extra attack after dealing damage with your Sword.
Gives you a 4% chance to get an extra attack after dealing damage with your Sword.
Gives you a 5% chance to get an extra attack after dealing damage with your Sword.

Polearm Specialization / Improved Hamstring

Polearm Specialization - 5 points

Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Polearms by 1%.
Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Polearms by 2%.
Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Polearms by 3%.
Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Polearms by 4%.
Increases your chance to get a critical strike with Polearms by 5%.

Improved Hamstring - 2/2 points

Increases the movement slow effect of your Hamstring ability by 5%.
Increases the movement slow effect of your Hamstring ability by 10%.

Mortal Strike

Mortal Strike - 1 point

A vicious strike that deals 200% weapon damage and wounds the target, reducing the effectiveness of any healing by 50% for 10 seconds.

FURY

Booming Voice
bla bla

PROTECTION

--UNDER CONSTRUCTION--