TBC Classic Balance Druid Stat Priority

1. Spell Hit up to the 16% cap vs bosses, 3% in PvP;
2. Spell Damage;
3. Spell Haste;
4. Spell Critical Strike;
5. Intellect;
6. Spirit;
7. Mp5;
8. Stamina;
9. Spell Penetration.

This is the stat priority that will generally result in higher DPS. Although Stamina does not give damage it does help you stay alive, especially against unavoidable damage; make sure to not neglect it!

Mana stats (Intellect / Spirit / Mp5) are also very useful to keep you active through long fights, as Balance Mana sustainability is one of its weak points.

As a caster, your spells have a 16% chance to miss against bosses. This is bad for a multitude of reasons, but most importantly is just a DPS loss to spend time casting only to not hit the boss. Getting the hit cap is important for your damage and for ensuring that other important spells, such as Entangling Roots, do not miss at critical moments.

Spell Damage increases the damage done by your spells by a flat amount. This is an important stat to have on every piece of gear possible as it is simply a direct damage increase, and will make up a large part of your damage.

Spell Haste is one of the new stats introduced in the Burning Crusade. It decreases your cast times, allowing you to shoot more Starfires in a fight. While its exact value depends on whether you hit certain breakpoints, this is a strong stat.

As a caster, your spells can critically strike, which means they do 150% of their normal damage. However, due to your Vengeance talent, your Starfire will critically strike for 200% of its normal damage instead. This makes Critical Strike Chance incredibly valuable, and will be one of your most highly sought after stats. Moreover, your Nature's Grace talent reduces the cast time of your next spell after your crit, further increasing its value.

Each point of Intellect gives an additional 15 max Mana and a small increase to your spell crit chance, as well as Mp5 through Dreamstate and extra Spell Damage through Lunar Guidance. These conversions make Intellect a strong stat to stack.

Spirit increases your out of combat health and Mana regeneration. However, you will gain 30% of this bonus while in combat due to your Intensity talent. More Mana means more casts before the fight is over. Sitting (through the /sit command, or when eating or drinking) increases Spirit regeneration by 33%.

Mana every 5 seconds, or simply Mp5, is a common stat found on healing gear. This is the best stat for getting more Mana during a fight because it works constantly, even if you cast something in the last 5 seconds (contrary to Spirit) and should thus be taken whenever possible, until you feel comfortable with your Mana sustainability.

Each point of Stamina gives 10 max health points. Having a health pool high enough to not die to raid mechanics is important, but you should naturally acquire this from gear without needing to worry about it.

Spell Penetration allows your spells to deal more damage / hit more often against enemies with Magical Resistances by lowering their resistance for the spell penetration value on the item. Keep in mind these resistances cannot be lowered under 0 (or 24, for bosses) and that Nature Immune targets are not affected.

Thus far, no raid bosses have been found to have more than the baseline 24 Nature Resistance, which cannot be reduced, making this stat useless for PvE. It can still be useful in PvP, when used in small quantities.

Resilience is a new stat in TBC, only found on PvP gear, which reduces your chance to take a critical strike, as well as the damage you take from those, the Mana burned by effects such as Mana Burn and the damage taken from damage over time effects such as Corruption. This is a great stat in PvP as it makes you a lot more durable, increasing the value of your healing in the process.

Spell Healing works exactly like Spell Damage, but it only applies to your healing spells, and has higher values for the same item level item as Spell Damage, making it more valuable for healers.

Resistance, while inherently niche due to different bosses dealing different magical damage types, can be very useful while progressing specific bosses. Wearing resistance gear of a type makes you take less damage or even completely avoid damage when hit by that type of magical damage.