Cataclysm Classic Protection Warrior Stat Priority

The stat priority for Protection Warrior is as follows:

1. Mastery Rating (Until 102.4% avoidance)
2. Stamina
3. Parry Rating
4. Dodge Rating
5. Expertise Rating (14% – 56 Expertise Cap)
6. Hit Rating (8% Hit Cap)

Protection gets Critical Block as their Mastery, increasing your chance to Block and critically Block. With Block being changed in Cataclysm to being a flat 30%, that makes critical Blocks 60% damage reduction. This is the main reason you go for Mastery at first, to smoothen out your damage taken, guaranteeing that you either avoid the attack, or Block it for reduced damage taken. Each point of Mastery increases your block chance and your critical block chance by an additional 1.5% each.

At Level 85:

• 179.28 Mastery Rating = 1% Mastery

Unlike most other specs, Protection Warrior needs to focus on reaching the Combat Table Coverage (or CTC) cap first, making Mastery a higher priority than main stats until that cap is obtained. Combat Table Coverage is determined by adding your Miss, Dodge, Parry, and Block Chance together, aiming to reach 102.4% against bosses, meaning you never take a direct attack. You can check if you have reached the 102.4% by making a macro and checking in game. Try to get any raid buffs that increase your avoidance before running this for a more accurate calculation.

Stamina is your ideal stat after reaching the CTC cap of 102.4%; making it better than Mastery once this cap is reached. Each point of Stamina simply provides health, increasing your effective health overall and improving your chance to survive incoming attacks. When facing bosses that deal mostly Magical damage, Stamina surpasses Mastery as your best stat as the Mastery will provide no additional survivability against Magic attacks. At level 85, 1 Stamina = 14 health; your Stamina can be further increased with buffs such as Blessing of Kings, or the Protection Warrior passive Sentinel. Stamina also grants additional damage through Vengeance, as having more health will increase the amount of Attack Power you can gain with Vengeance.

Parry Rating has been buffed in Cataclysm to bring it in-line with Dodge as an avoidance stat, meaning that it takes the same amount of Parry rating as it does Dodge Rating to get 1% avoidance, a buff from previous expansions where Dodge was always stronger. Protection Warrior prioritizes Parry slightly higher than Dodge thanks to the the Hold the Line talent, which increases your Crit Chance and critcal Block Chance by 10% for 10 seconds after you Parry an attack. That being said, Parry still has diminishing returns, meaning you will want to maintain a balance of both Parry and Dodge rather than simply stacking 1 and completely ignoring the other.

At Level 85:

• 176.72 Parry Rating = 1% Parry
• 1 Strength = 0.26 Parry Rating

Dodge Rating will be the lowest tank stat in your priority, but that does not mean it is weak or bad in any way. Dodge is still an avoidance stat and has diminishing returns, just like Parry, meaning you will want to maintain a balance between these two stats. Having too much of one stat over the other means you are losing out on stats overall as the diminishing returns will provide you will less avoidance the higher your total Dodge or Parry is.

At Level 85:

• 176.72 Dodge Rating = 1% Dodge
• Agility no longer gives Dodge Rating

In Cataclysm, Defensive Stance has been buffed to generate 500% additional threat, up from 100%. This is a massive increase to your threat generation, allowing you to entirely ignore all threat stats and entirely focus on survivability. That being said, it is likely you will have some Expertise Rating through gear or racials, but you should ideally try to get higher priority stats instead.

Rating	Skill	Percent	Information
30.02	1	0.25%	1 Expertise Skill
691	23	5.75%	Dodge cap on bosses when racial is active: Sword Specialization, or Mace Specialization, or Axe Specialization, or Shortblade Specialization.
781	26	6.5%	Dodge cap on bosses without racial
1592	53	13.25%	Parry cap on bosses when racial is active: Sword Specialization, or Mace Specialization, or Axe Specialization, or Shortblade Specialization.
1682	56	14%	Parry cap on bosses without racial

Similar to Expertise Rating, Hit Rating falls off drastically in value during Cataclysm due to the buffs to Defensive Stance threat generation. That being said, it is likely you will have some Hit Rating through gear or racials, but you should ideally try to get higher priority stats instead.

At Level 85:

• 120.1 Hit Rating = 1% Hit Chance