TBC Classic Protection Warrior Stat Priority

1. Stamina
2. Armor
3. Resistances
4. Defense Rating
5. Dodge
6. Agility
7. Parry
8. Block Value
9. Block Rating
10. Resilience

1. Expertise (aim for at least 6.5% with Defiance; having more beyond that is perfectly fine as it continues to reduce parries)
2. Hit (to 9%, 6% if there is a Balance Druid in the raid)
3. Weapon speed
4. Haste
5. Agility
6. Critical Strike
7. Strength and Attack Power

Stamina is the only stat that will always help you survive. Whether you are taking Physical or magic damage, direct damage, damage over time, or any other form of damage; more health will always be good for tanking.

Each point of Stamina gives 10 health by default. Multipliers such as Blessing of Kings and Vitality increase this further.

Agility is a very strong secondary stat for Protection Warriors, as it offers both Critical Strike Rating, dodge and armor, making it act as both a defensive and offensive option all in one.

• 1 Agility = 2 armor
• 33.0 Agility = 1% Critical Strike Chance
• 30.0 Agility = 1% Dodge Chance

As you can see, Agility scales very strongly for Warriors. Add on top of this that multiplier buffs such as Blessing of Kings will increase your total Agility, and Agility becomes a very strong offensive and defensive stat for any Protection Warrior.

While you may find some gear that has either Strength or Attack Power on it, this is not a very strong stat for Protection Warriors, as most of your abilities have very poor scaling with Attack Power.

In addition to poor scaling, a high portion of your threat is generated by base threat and base damage from abilities, so it is not needed to scale their damage up higher.

Nonetheless, Strength does still have multiple uses. It is not a stat to stay away from, just not something to track down and try to stack. Strength will offer Protection Warriors the following:

• 1 Strength = 2 Attack Power
• 20 strength = 1 block value

Note that Vitality increases all Strength by 10%.

Armor reduces your Physical damage taken by a percentage. Since it is only Physical damage, it does not work against magical spell damage, making it slightly less valuable of a stat than Stamina. Still, the majority of your damage taken as a Protection Warrior will be Physical, so armor is your second-best defensive stat.

Armor scales exponentially, meaning the more you have, the stronger it becomes. The hard cap for armor is 75%, anything past this does not reduce damage taken further. The armor cap is 35,880 against level 73 mobs (bosses). Remember that the values you see on your character sheet display stats against an enemy equal to your level.

Resistances are typically very rarely used, only on a few fights throughout the entire expansion. When doing those fights, however, getting very high or resistance capped for the specific damage school will be your highest survivability stat. The resistance cap is 365 for level 73 mobs (bosses).

Defense Rating increases your defense skill. For every 2.3654 Defense Rating, you will gain 1 Defense Skill. 1 Defense Skill changes the following by 0.04%:

• Increase chance to block
• Increase chance to dodge
• Increase chance to parry
• Increase chance to be missed
• Decrease chance to be critically hit
• Decrease chance to be dazed

Defense Rating replaces Classic WoW's raw Defense Skill on gear. This will be one of your main stats, as most tank gear has high Defense Rating on it. Defense Rating provides a very high amount of benefits.

A common misconception about Defense Rating is that there is a "hard cap". Defense Rating has no hard cap. When you reach 490 Defense Skill, you become immune to critical strikes from level 73 mobs (bosses). Any further Defense Rating gained will still continue to increase your dodge, parry, chance to be missed, and block chance, but no longer reduces your chance to be critically hit, as it is already 0%. So yes, it loses some minor value, but there is no cap to Defense Rating.

Dodge Rating replaces flat dodge % from Classic WoW. It takes exactly 18.9230 Dodge Rating to gain 1% Dodge Chance at level 70 as a Warrior. Dodge Rating is the highest avoidance stat for Warriors, meaning it takes the least amount of rating for each 1% avoidance.

Parry Rating replaces flat parry % from Classic WoW. It takes exactly 22.4 Parry Rating to get 1% parry at level 70. Seeing as parry takes more rating to get 1% avoidance when compared to dodge, it typically is not desired. In addition to that, you must have a weapon equipped to be able to parry, so mobs that disarm you remove this chance.

Parry does have a hidden benefit of "parry hasten", which occurs when an attack is parried and reduces the swing timer of your next auto attack. While this can be helpful for threat, it typically is so minor that it is not even worth considering as a threat option.

Each point of Block Value increases the amount of damage your shield blocks and increases the damage of your Shield Slam by 1. The increased damage to Shield Slam can add up to be a high amount of extra threat, especially when focusing on Block Value gear.

Shield Block Rating replaces flat block % in Classic WoW. It takes exactly 7.8846 Shield Block Rating to gain 1% chance to block at level 70. While you will find yourself with a decent amount of this stat through random gear and Defense Rating, it typically is not needed by Protection Warriors, as Shield Block should cover all of your blocking needs.

Resilience is a PvP stat that is introduced in the Burning Crusade. It can be primarily found on PvP gear. While it is mainly used for PvPing, it does reduce the chance to be critically hit. This can be useful to help reach the critical strike immunity cap. 39.4231 Resilience Rating is 1% less chance to be critically hit, and 2% less damage taken from damage over time abilities.

Hit Rating improves your chance to land most of your abilities. In addition to your melee abilities, it improves your chance to land Taunt and Challenging Shout. It takes 15.77 Hit Rating to get 1% Hit Chance. The melee Hit Cap is 9%, or 142 Hit Rating. Getting this capped out is one of your highest threat gains; in addition to helping with taunts, especially if a boss requires a frequent tank swap.

Expertise replaces weapon skills from Classic WoW, now reducing the chance for your attacks to be parried and dodged. It takes 3.9423 Expertise Rating to gain 1 Expertise Skill. Each point of Expertise Skill will reduce the target's chance to dodge and parry your attacks by 0.25%.

Expertise is a very desired threat stat as it greatly increases the number of attacks that hit the boss, giving you a much higher threat output. Expertise also grants higher threat per point than Hit Rating, as 4 Expertise Skill grants 1% less dodges AND 1% less parries, essentially giving you 2% higher odds of landing your abilities. The only downside is that Hit Rating helps with landing your taunts.

For level 73 mobs (bosses), the soft expertise cap is 6.5% dodge or 26 Expertise Skill (103 Expertise Rating); and the hard Expertise Cap is 14% parry or 56 Expertise Skill (221 Expertise Rating). It is recommended to aim for at least the soft cap of Expertise, as this will remove dodges from the table as well as reduce the chance for you to be parried by 6.5%. You can continue to stack Expertise after that, but it will be at reduced value as it is only decreasing the chance for you to be parried instead of reducing dodge and parry simultaneously.

Haste is one of the new stats introduced in the Burning Crusade. It essentially increases your attack speed. This is your strongest threat stat after reaching the Hit Cap and at least soft Expertise Cap. The more you often you can attack, the more Heroic Strikes you can use. It takes 15.77 Haste Rating to increase your weapon speed by 1%.

Critical Strike Rating simply increases your chance to critically hit. This can be a decent threat stat, as your critical strikes deal 200% (double) damage. Typically, you will prefer to have Agility, as it offers slightly less critical strike chance, but has dodge and armor as well. It takes 22.0769 Critical Strike Rating to gain 1% Critical Strike chance at level 70.