Attempts to finish off a foe, causing up to (275.8% of Attack Power) Physical damage based on Rage spent. Only usable on enemies that have less than 20% health.
If your foe survives, 20% of the Rage spent is refunded.
Showing weakness to a Warrior is a death sentence.[1]
Execute is a level 10 warrior ability. It's a heavy-damage ability that can only be used on targets with less than 20% of their health left.
Notes and trivia[]
When an enemy with a lot of health such as a heroic or raid boss gets below 20% health, both Fury and Arms warriors should change their rotation to spamming Execute. However it is worth refreshing [Colossus Smash] on the target whenever possible. For either spec, judicious use of [Berserker Rage] can increase output during an Execute phase. The more Rage available for Execute, the better.
Fixed an issue causing Execute to sometimes incur a cooldown if you had [Improved Execute] talented on a different specialization.
Execute damage reduced by 7%.
Execute no longer deals 13% reduced damage in PvP combat.
Hotfix (2022-10-31):Fixed an issue where Execute would be on cooldown when talented into Improved Execute.
Patch 10.0.0 (2022-10-25): Additional ranks removed. No longer refunds Rage in Arms spec.
Patch 9.2.5 (2022-05-31): (Arms/Protection) Execute damage increased by 15%. This change does not apply to PvP.
Patch 9.0.1 (2020-10-13): Now requires level 10 (was 8). Now available to all warrior specializations (was Arms and Fury only).
Patch 8.1.0 (2018-12-11): (Arms) Rank 2 now refunds 20% rage, down from 30%.
Patch 8.0.1 (2018-07-17): (Arms) Rage cost increased to 20, Rank 2 (Arms Level 28) added with effect: Execute now refunds 30% of its rage cost if target survives.
Arms: Now costs 10 Rage, and consumes up to 30 additional Rage to deal additional damage. Sudden Death causes auto-attack hits to have a 10% chance to make the next Execute free and useable on any target, regardless of health level. These Executes do not consume additional Rage to deal additional damage.
Fury: Crazed Berserker now also causes Execute to hit with the off-hand weapon.
Patch 5.2.0 (2013-03-05): Now deals 15% less damage.
Patch 5.0.4 (2012-08-28): Can now be used in any stance and cost 30 Rage, up from 10. No longer consumes additional Rage for more damage.
Patch 4.0.3a (2010-11-23): Damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
Patch 3.2.0 (2009-08-04): This ability now never costs more than a total of 30 rage. The tooltip for [Sudden Death] has been revised to remove reference to that maximum, since the ability now behaves that way even when untalented.
Patch 2.1.0 (2007-05-22): When used with [Sweeping Strikes], ranks 6 and 7 of this ability will no longer cause full damage to secondary targets who are not wounded.
Patch 1.3.0 (2005-03-07): Full rage is no longer consumed when the ability does not hit.