Attributes (pre-6.0)

Attributes are the basic building blocks for a character's combat ability. The five primary attributes are strength, agility, stamina, intellect, and spirit. These five attributes along with armor appear on the character sheet under "Base Stats". These are often 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, 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, paladins, mages, priests and warlocks gain 2 melee attack power per point of strength.
  • Rogues, hunters, and shamans gain 1 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
Death Knight	20	33	62.5
Druid	20	25	83.33
Hunter	33	40	83.33
Mage	20	25	51.02
Paladin	20	25	52.08
Priest	20	25	52.08
Rogue	29	40	83.33
Shaman	??	40	83.33
Warlock	20	25	50.50
Warrior	20	33	62.5

AGI per 1% Dodge
Class	L. 60	L. 70	L. 80
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, hunters and rogues gain 1 ranged attack power for each point of agility.
  • Hunters, rogues, shamans (as of 3.0.2) and druids in [Cat Form] gain 1 melee attack power per point of agility.
• Increases armor by 2 per point.
• 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.

4.0.1+ changes:

• 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 get a 8% bonus to stamina when in [Frost Presence]. 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.
    • A blood death knight tank will thus get 12 health per stamina (12.6 with [Blessing of Kings]).
  • Druids — talent [Heart of the Wild] (Feral, tier 6) provides a +2% bonus to stamina in bear form per talent point, max 5. [Improved Mark of the Wild] provides up to +2% bonus stamina and Survival of the Fittest up to 6%.
    • Bear form provides +25%.
    • A bear druid gets 13.5 points of health per point of stamina, 14.9 with [Blessing of Kings]
  • Hunters — talent [Survivalist] (Survival, tier 3) provides a +2% bonus to stamina per talent, max 5. Hunters also have [Endurance Training] (Beast Mastery, tier 1) which gives up to a 5% health bonus, effectively giving you up to 11.5 health per point of Stamina.
  • Paladins
    • [Blessing of Kings] gives a 10% increase to all base stats, including stamina.
    • Talent [Blessing of Sanctuary] (Protection, tier 5) gives a 10% increase in stamina (and strength), this does not stack with the bonus from Blessing of Kings.
    • Talent [Sacred Duty] (Protection, tier 6) provides a +2%/+4% bonus to stamina per talent, max 2.
    • Talent [Combat Expertise] (Protection, tier 8) provides a +2%/+4%/+6% bonus to stamina per talent, max 3.
    • With both [Sacred Duty] and [Combat Expertise], paladins have a stamina modifier of 1.124, which does stack with buffs such as [Blessing of Kings] and [Blessing of Sanctuary]. The combination of [Sacred Duty], [Combat Expertise], and [Blessing of Kings] provides a 23.6% increase in health.
  • Priests
    • 30 minute buff [Power Word: Fortitude] provides 165 stamina at the highest rank, which can be further improved by [Improved Power Word: Fortitude] (Discipline, tier 2) 30% increase to [Power Word: Fortitude], and [Prayer of Fortitude], max two talent points, increasing the stamina from 165 (rank 8) to 214. Also gives a 4% stamina increase (for the Priest only; should be noted).
  • Rogues — talent [Endurance] (Combat, tier 3) provides a +2%/+4% bonus to stamina per talent, max 2.
  • Shamans — talent [Toughness] (Enhancement, tier 4) provides a +2%/+4%/+6%/+8%/+10% bonus to stamina per talent, max 5.
  • Warlocks — talent [Demonic Embrace] (Demonology, tier 1) provides a 4%/7%/10% bonus to stamina, max 3.
  • Warriors — talent Vitality (Protection, tier 8) provides a +3%/+6%/+9% bonus to stamina per talent, max 3.
  • 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
Warlock	200	60.6	81.92	166.6667
Druid	192	60.0	80	166.6667
Shaman	259	59.5	80	166.6667
Mage	286	59.5	80	166.6667
Priest	160	59.2	80	166.6667
Paladin	106	54	80.05	166.6667

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.
• As of Patch 3.0 every point of Intellect provides 1 attack power for Shamans with the talent [Mental Dexterity] (e.g., +70 intellect will give the shaman +70 AP) as well as Hunters with the talent [Careful Aim].
• Increases the rate at which weapon skills are learned. Before patch 2.0 this was listed in the tooltip, but it was removed after that. Despite this, tests show that intellect still increases the rate of skillups. If you want to level a weapon skill, asking for an Intellect buff, or using a scroll never hurts.

Spirit

Main article: Spirit

See also: Health regeneration, Mana regeneration, Five second rule

Spirit (often abbreviated SPI) has the following effects:

• Increases health and mana regeneration. Spirit affects all characters' mana and hit point regeneration rates in and out of combat.
  • Health regeneration from spirit is not active while in combat, except for trolls who gain 10% of their normal health regen in combat from the racial ability "regeneration".
  • Mana regeneration is active in combat except for the five seconds immediately after casting a spell (the five second rule). Some class talents and spells allow some mana regeneration during this period.
  • As of patch 2.4.0, Intellect will increase the amount of MP5 generated by Spirit.
• 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.
• Mages can increase their spell critical strike by 35% of their spirit when using [Molten Armor]. This can be increased with  [Glyph of Molten Armor], increasing the critical strike chance by an additional 20% of spirit.

• Spirit is moderately valuable to cloth-wearing classes, as well as to casting druids. Because paladins and shamans do not have a talent to regenerate mana while casting, spirit is near-totally useless to them. Classes that use a resource system other than mana have even less use for spirit, as it only affects their health regeneration outside combat.

Others

Secondary attributes are player stats that affect combat directly. The five 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.

• 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

• Spell hit - Increases the chance spells will hit their target. Spell hit is increased by hit rating, a combat rating
• Spell crit chance - Percentage of spells that will result in a spell critical strike. Spell crit chance is increased directly by critical strike rating, a combat rating, and indirectly by 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.
• Mana regeneration - The rate at which mana is restored, both in combat and out of combat. Mana regeneration is increased by the stat MP5, which is an abbreviation for "mana per 5 seconds". Mana regeneration when not casting spells (for 5 seconds at least) is also increased indirectly by spirit and intellect. Mages, priests and druids have talents that allow a portion of this regeneration to continue in combat.

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. Each point of Agility contributes the same as a point of Strength.
• Druids in [Cat Form] can also use Agility to increase their base physical melee attack power. However, each point of Strength contributes twice the amount of attack power as does a point of Agility. Agility also affects critical strike percentage which directly affects Cat Form abilities such as [Primal Fury]. This gives an added artificial attack power.
• Agility is the only primary statistic to affect physical ranged attack power (bows, 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 being removed in Cataclysm

Attributes that are being removed from itemization in Cataclysm:

Armor penetration Attack power Block Value Defense MP5 Spell power

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.
  • Block value: Stat has been removed.
  • Armor Penetration: Stat has been removed, all previous items with ArP have had it converted to Crit or Haste depending on which stats was not present in the item.
  • 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.
  • Resilience: No longer reduces change of receiving a critical hit and is now a flat reduction on damage taken.
  • 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