Alabaster Plate Greaves

Attributes are the basic building blocks for a character's combat ability. The five attributes are strength, agility, stamina, intellect and spirit. These five attributes appear on the character sheet under "Attributes". These are sometime referred to as simply stats.

A number of secondary attributes affect specific areas of combat more directly, and are often influenced in some way by a primary attribute. Secondary attributes include critical strike rate, damage absorption, attack power, spell power, spirit, and many others.

All characters inherently have some amount of each attribute that increases with level depending mainly on class. For example, a mage will have more base intellect than a rogue, who will have more base agility. Increasing these attributes is mainly done with equipment, as well as temporary effects such as buffs, elixirs, scrolls, auras, and many other means.

Nearly all combat mechanics rely in some way on one or more character attributes. Increasing the appropriate attribute will increase damage done, reduce damage taken, increase healing done, affect a character's mana or health, or other benefits. Understanding how these attributes work is important for effective combat.

Addons such as RatingBuster [1] can show you the actual improvements in game to your Secondary attributes which are more directly applied to combat mechanics.

Strength

See also: Attack power

Strength (often abbreviated STR) has the following effects:

• Increases attack power with melee weapons:
  • Warriors, death knights, druids not in [Cat Form] or [Bear Form], paladins, mages, priests and warlocks gain 2 melee attack power per point of strength.
• Increases parry rating for warriors, paladins, and death knights by 0.25 parry rating per point of strength.
• Paladin talent [Touched by the Light] (Protection, Spec passive) increases spell power by 60% of Strength.

Strength does not affect the chance to land a critical strike. Strength does not improve the chance to block.

Agility

AGI per 1% Crit
Class	L. 60	L. 70	L. 80	L. 85
Death Knight	20	33	62.5	??
Druid	20	40	83.3	309.27?
Hunter	33	40	83.3	309.27
Mage	20	25	51	??
Paladin	20	25	52.08	??
Priest	20	25	52	??
Rogue	29	40	83.3	309.27?
Shaman	20	40	83.3	309.27?
Warlock	20	25	51	??
Warrior	20	33	62.5	??

AGI per 1% Dodge
Class	L. 60	L. 70	L. 80	L. 85
Death Knight	?	?	84.74576271	??
Druid	Unknown	14.7	47.84688995	??
Hunter	20	26.5	86.20689655	??
Mage	20	25	58.82352941	??
Paladin	20	25	59.88023952	??
Priest	20	25	59.88023952	??
Rogue	14.5	20	47.84688995	??
Shaman	20	25	59.88023952	??
Warlock	20	25	59.88023952	??
Warrior	20	30	84.74576271	??

See also: Critical strike

Agility (often abbreviated AGI) has the following effects:

• Increases attack power with ranged weapons (not including wands) or melee weapons for certain classes.
  • Warriors and rogues gain 1 ranged attack power for each point of agility.
  • Hunters gain 2 ranged attack power for each point of agility.
  • Rogues, shamans and druids in [Cat Form] and [Bear Form] gain 2 melee attack power per point of agility.
  • Hunters gain 1 melee attack power per point of agility.
• Increases chance to score a critical hit with a weapon.
• Increases chance to dodge attacks. This is dependent on both class and level.

Agility Equivalence Points is a notable formula for calculating the contribution of agility. It might be outdated with regard to hunters.

Stamina

Stamina (often abbreviated STA) has the following effects:

• Stamina provides 1 health per stamina for the first 20 points of stamina, and 10 health per point of stamina thereafter.
• Stamina also increases the health of a player's pet for classes with pets, although not from the player's base stamina (the stamina the player has without any armor or talent bonuses). They gain between 3 and 11 health per point of stamina, depending on the pet's type and the master's talents(see the hunter pet, minion and Risen Ghoul articles for details). There are other non-standard adjustments that can be made for stamina:
  • Death knights -- [Blood Presence] provides an 8% bonus to stamina. The Blood talent tree specialization [Veteran of the Third War] provides 9% stamina. The death knight-only runes [Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle] and [Rune of the Nerubian Carapace] provide a 2% and 1% bonus to stamina, respectively.
  • Druids — talent [Heart of the Wild] (Restoration, tier 1) provides a +2%/4%/6% bonus to stamina.
    • Bear form provides +10%.
  • Hunters — talent [Hunter vs. Wild] (Survival, tier 1) provides a +4%/7%/10% bonus to stamina.
  • Paladins receive 15% stamina from [Touched by the Light] when choosing the Protection talent specialization.
    • [Blessing of Kings] gives a 5% increase to all base stats (with the exception of spirit), including stamina.
  • Priests
    • 60 minute buff [Power Word: Fortitude] provides 584 stamina at level 85.
  • Shamans — talent [Toughness] (Enhancement, tier 2) provides a +3%/7%/10% bonus to stamina.
  • Warlocks — talent [Demonic Embrace] (Demonology, tier 1) provides a +4%/7%/10% bonus to stamina.
  • Warriors recieve 15% stamina from Sentinel by chosing Protection specialization.
  • Miners — Miners receive [Toughness], a profession perk which gives a passive buff of up to 60 stamina at 450 mining skill.

• Stamina is the key attribute of tanks. It is useful to every class in PvP. Non-tank PvE characters should not actively seek out stamina, but some of it is found on nearly any piece of gear.

Intellect

Class	Expected @ 60	L. 60 1% Crit	L. 70 1% Crit	L. 80 1% Crit	L. 85 1% Crit
Warlock	200	60.6	81.92	166.6667	probably the same as druid
Druid	192	60.0	80	166.6667	649.4
Shaman	259	59.5	80	166.6667	probably the same as druid
Mage	286	59.5	80	166.6667	probably the same as druid
Priest	160	59.2	80	166.6667	probably the same as druid
Paladin	106	54	80.05	166.6667	probably the same as druid

Intellect (often abbreviated as INT) has the following effects:

• Increases mana points. Each point of intellect gives player characters 15 mana points (except from the first 20 points of Intellect that provide 1 mana for each point instead). Warlock minions gain 1 mana per point of base intellect, imps gain ~4.9 mana for each additional point of intellect, while all other minions gain ~11.5 mana for each additional point of intellect.
• Increases chance to score a spell critical strike. This increase varies by class and level; in general, the relationship is linear as intellect increases. The rate of increase is generally based on the amount of intellect a class is expected to have at a certain level, given by the following table.
• As of 2.4, Intellect will increase Mana regeneration; however, as detailed there, mana regeneration based on intellect is subject to diminishing returns, unlike mana regeneration based on Spirit.
• Increases spell power

Spirit

Main article: Spirit

See also: Mana regeneration

Spirit (often abbreviated SPI) has the following effects:

• Increases mana regeneration. Spirit affects all characters' mana rates out of combat.
  • Mana regeneration from Spirit stops during combat. See Mana regeneration
  • As of patch 2.4.0, Intellect will affect the amount of mana Spirit regenerates.
• Warlocks gain 30% of total spirit as additional Spell Power with [Fel Armor], which can be further augmented by the 3 point talent [Demonic Aegis] giving 33%/36%/39% bonus. In addition to that,  [Glyph of Life Tap] increases spell power by 20% of spirit, so a properly specced Warlock can get a total of 50% conversion from Spirit to Spell power. Spirit used to increase the amount of health converted to mana when using [Life Tap], but this is now a function of Spell Power.
• Spirit is very important to healers and moderately useful for dps casters. Classes that use a resource system other than mana have even less use for spirit, as it only affects their health regeneration outside combat.

Mastery

Main article: Mastery

Mastery is a unique attribute that that has different effects depending on class and specialization.

Others

Secondary attributes are player stats that affect combat directly. The four primary attributes only indirectly affect combat, by contributing to these attributes.

Combat skills

Combat skills have a fixed value of player level × 5. E.g. a level 50 rogue will have a dagger skill of 250. Combat skill values are therefore basically obsolete, as all relevant statistics can be determined using character level. These mechanics have been made obsolete by patch 4.0.1.

• Weapon skill - Each weapon type has its own weapon skill: sword (one-handed and two-handed), mace (one-handed and two-handed), axe (one-handed and two-handed), staff, dagger, polearm, bow, crossbow, gun, wand, and unarmed (which includes fist weapons).

• Defense skill - Defense is a player's proficiency at receiving melee damage. Defense contributes to an opponent's miss rate and critical strike chance.

Physical combat

• Weapon damage - Weapon damage is a property of the player's equipped weapon. Melee weapon damage is increased by enchants and sharpening stones. Ranged damage is increased with scopes and ammo or arrows.
• Weapon speed - Weapon speed is a property of the player's equipped weapon and determines the time between attacks with that weapon.
• Attack power - (Abbreviated as AP) Increases damage of an equipped weapon. Attack power is increased directly by gear and buffs with the attack power stat, and indirectly by strength and agility (only for hunters, rogues, shamans, and cat-form druids).
• Ranged attack power - (Abbreviated as RAP) Increases damage of an equipped bow, crossbow or gun, but not wands. Ranged attack power is increased similarly to melee attack power.
• Critical Strike - Percentage of attacks that will result in a critical strike. Crit chance is increased directly by critical strike rating, a combat rating, and indirectly by agility.
• Hit - Increases chance to hit with melee weapons by a percentage. Hit chance is increased directly by hit rating, a combat rating.
• Haste - Decreases the time between attacks. This effectively increases weapon speed, but has no effect on cooldowns. Haste is increased directly by haste rating, a combat rating.
• Expertise - Reduces the enemy's chance to dodge/parry by .25% per point of expertise.

Spell combat

• Hit - Increases the chance spells will hit their target. Spell hit is increased by hit rating.
• Spell crit chance - Percentage of spells that will result in a spell critical strike. Spell crit chance is increased by critical strike rating and intellect.
• Spell penetration - Reduces the target's resistance. Spell penetration is increased directly by gear with the spell penetration stat. It is useful in PvP, not in PvE.
• Spirit - Increases a character's mana regeneration. Mana regeneration, and therefore spirit, should only be a concern for healers and balance druids, elemental shamans and shadow priests, for which it can serve as a replacement for hit rating (with the help of certain talents).

Defense

• Dodge - Chance to dodge incoming melee attacks. Ranged attacks cannot be dodged. Dodge is increased by dodge rating and agility. Only tanks should use gear with dodge rating.
• Parry - Chance to parry melee attacks with a melee weapon. Ranged attacks cannot be parried. Parry is increased by parry rating and strength. Only (non-druid) tanks should use gear with parry rating.
• Block - Chance to block melee and ranged attacks with a shield. Warrior and paladin tanks receive additional block chance through their respective mastery and abilities such as shield block.
• Armor - Decreases physical damage received. Increases your pet's Armor. Armor is always present on equippable items, such as chest pieces and shields. Shields and plate items generally have the most armor, while cloth items have the least. The base armor of an item is determined directly by its type (cloth, leather, mail or plate), item level and slot (chest, head, legs, etc). Some items have extra armor, which is indicated by the total amount of armor appearing in green on the tooltip. Rings, weapons, amulets and trinkets have no base armor, but may have bonus armor.
• Resistance - Decreases the damage taken from magical attacks.
• Resilience - Decreases the damage taken from enemy players. Resilience is increased through equipment with resilience which is found on PvP gear. Resilience does not have any effect against an npc.

Other information

Attack power

See also: Attack power

Base statistics affect attack power (which contributes to DPS) as follows:

• Strength will always contribute to the physical melee attack power for all classes.
• Rogues, hunters and shamans can also use Agility in addition to Strength to increase their base physical melee attack power.
• Druids in [Cat Form] can also use Agility to increase their base physical melee attack power. However, Agility also affects critical strike percentage which directly affects Cat Form abilities such as [Primal Fury]. This gives an added attack power equivalence.
• Agility is the only primary statistic to affect physical ranged attack power (bows and crossbows, guns, throwing weapons) for all classes capable of using them. This is especially important for hunters.
• Wand damage is not affected by a primary statistic.

Critical Strikes

• Agility will increase the chance to score a critical strike with both physical ranged and melee damage for all classes. The amount needed per point varies by class.
• Intellect will increase the chance to score a critical strike with spells. For a mage at level 60, the rate is 1% per 59.5 points of intellect.
• Critical strike rating increases the chance for both spell and physical affects to score a critical strike.

Dodge

• Agility will determine a character's chance to dodge an attack. Rogues and druids (as of 2.03) gain a much stronger bonus to dodge than other classes.

Fighting with two weapons, using off-hand, two-handed

See the "Physical Combat" section of Combat.

Attributes removed in Cataclysm

Attributes that were removed from itemization in Cataclysm:

Armor penetration Attack power Block rating Block value Defense rating MP5 Spell power

Note: Spell Power and Attack Power can still occur on weapons.

Patch changes

• Patch 4.0.1 (2010-10-12):
  • Strength: Now gives 0.25 parry ratting per point to plate wearing classes.
  • Agility: Now provides 2 melee attack power per point to rogues, shamans and druids and no longer increases armor.
  • Intellect: Now provides Spell power.
  • Spirit: No longer increases Health regeneration.
  • Defense: Stat has been removed from gear.
  • Block value: Stat has been removed.
  • Armor Penetration: Stat has been removed from gear, all previous items with ArP have had it converted to Crit or Haste depending on which stats was not present in the item. (Still exists in skills, debuffs, etc.)
  • Mana Regeneration: Stat has been removed, all previous items with MP5 have had it converted to Spirit.
  • Spell power: Has been removed on most items. (Usually found only on weapons now.)
  • Resilience: No longer reduces chance of receiving a critical hit and is now a flat reduction on damage taken from other players.
  • Mastery: New stat has been introduced.
    

• Patch 3.2.0 (2009-08-04):
  • Agility: The amount of agility required per percentage of dodge has been increased by 15%. This change required recalibrating the amount of dodge a player has with 0 agility by a slight amount as well, so all players will see their dodge percentage vary a small amount.
  • Block rating: The amount of bonus block value on all items has been doubled. This does not affect the base block value on shields or block value derived from strength.
  • Dodge Rating: The amount of dodge rating required per percentage of dodge has been increased by 15%. This is before diminishing returns. Combined with other changes, this makes dodge rating and parry rating equally potent before diminishing returns apply.
  • Mana Regeneration: All items that provide "X mana per five seconds" have had the amount of mana they regenerate increased by approximately 25%.
  • Parry Rating: The amount of parry rating required per percentage of parry has been reduced by 8%. This is before diminishing returns. Combined with other changes, this makes dodge rating and parry rating equally potent before diminishing returns apply. Parry still diminishes more quickly than dodge.
  • Resilience: No longer reduces the amount of damage done by damage-over-time spells, but instead reduces the amount of all damage done by players by the same proportion. The other effects of resilience (reducing critical chance, critical damage and mana drain effects) have not changed.
    

External links

World of Warcraft Community Site Character Information — Attributes

World of Warcraft Europe Character Information — Attributes