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Special notices and the disclaimer are included below. One must read this for legal rights concerning the use of this document. Send inquiries to feedback@arideni.com.Table of Contents Finding Information Index of Questions
Notice and Thanks
Disclaimer and Legal
General FAQs and Information Picking a Race
Leveling a Warrior
Picking a Talent Build
-Arms
-Fury
-Protection
Weapons and Armor
Technical Information Attributes and Stats
-For Level 80
-For Level 70
-For Level 60
Normalization
Diminishing Returns
Threat and Aggro Fundamentals
Defense and Crit Immunity
Crushing Blows and Uncrushable Status
Avoidance and Diminishing Returns
Resilience
Expertise
Appendices Common Terms and Phrases
Acronyms
Version History
References (Internal)
References (External)
Finding InformationThe number in brackets can be highlighted, then copied and pasted to search the document quickly. Highlight the section number (ex.: ), then press CTRL+C and CTRL+F on your keyboard. This will copy the selected text and open the Find dialog. Paste the text using CTRL+V and click the Find button.
Note: Information is arranged from general to specific. Information about abilities and talents would be at the top while information about specific talents would be farther down.
Index of Questions-Should I pick Alliance or Horde?
-What race should I pick for ...?
-What are stances? or When do I gain Battle, Defensive, or Berserker stance?
-What stats or attributes should I look for?
-What kind of talent build should I use?
-What are some important talents for warriors?
-What are some talents to avoid picking?
-What kinds of weapons should I use with Arms, Fury or Protection builds?
-What level should I switch over to Protection spec? or Should I go Protection since I group often?
-What are some important talents in Arms?
-What are some talents to avoid in Arms?
-What should I pick: Poleaxe, Mace, or Sword talent spec?
-What are some important talents in Fury?
-What are some talents to avoid in Fury?
-What exactly is expertise? or Should I pick Weapon Mastery?
-What are some important talents in Protection?
-What are some talents to avoid in Protection?
-Should I use a fast or slow weapon for ...?
-How much expertise or hit rating do I need for ...?
-How much defense do we need to tank? or What does defense skill do?
Notice and ThanksThis document will be updated as necessary and improved upon through reader feedback. It can only improve if you, the reader, help make contributions!
I would like to give a special thanks to
Yakra and
Veneretio for their dedication to the cause and to Ciderhelm for his great presence. Kenco, Evil Empire and countless others for their experiments and articles. Thank you to the Wowhead team and to Rollis, without him this document would have never existed.
Disclaimer and LegalBy viewing this series of posts (collectively known as "the document") the reader acknowledges full understanding and awareness of the disclaimer. This document was compiled and is maintained by
Arideni of the Wowhead community and in no way represents, interprets, or facilitates in any way the views of the official Wowhead website, community, and/or their respective owners/parties. You may not reproduce or distribute this or any following posts in whole or in excess of 150 words for use on any website or forum without express written consent of said author ("Arideni"). The author reserves the right to the latter for his/her use. The author holds no liability or claim that information is at any time correct, absolute, or otherwise proven valid and any claims or stakes made based on that information remain the sole responsibility of the reader.
Contact the author:
feedback@arideni.com.
General FAQs and InformationNote: There is no such thing as "the best." One would do well to remember that all things have a time and place.
Picking a RaceQ: Should I pick Alliance or Horde?A: Though there are differences between Alliance and Horde, the most prominent factors for picking one or the other rely solely on the race you want to play. Remember one has to not only pick a faction and race, but also look at the character for a very long time.
Q: What race should I pick for ...?A: Racials and attributes that are beneficial to warriors can be insignificant. Most differences in starting attributes are minor, but can sometimes add up at max level. Warriors in particular take a good amount of time to level, gear, and learn to play effectively so choose wisely and remember that one will be staring at their character for a long time.
Humans are rather nominal in their attributes. They have a racial which increases stealth detection greatly for a short time. Because warriors have an innate advantage against rogues many players feel this racial is irrelevant. They gain expertise when using maces or swords and increased reputation gains for all factions.
Dwarves are innately defensive. Their racial allows increased armor and removal of poisons, diseases, and bleeds on a short cooldown. This provides powerful mitigation in dungeons and raids. They have high starting health and are the only race or class capable of tracking treasure chests. They also gain expertise when using maces.
Night Elves offer passive avoidance and damage reduction making a decent choice for the Alliance. They have a special ability which offers 50% stealth. This ability breaks upon using items or moving, but comes in handy. They have innate resistance to Nature damage.
Draenei have a special healing over time spell and an aura which buffs everyone near with +1% hit rating. This aura is useful for all talent builds and greatly aids party members. The aura works on the player as well. Draenei have innate resistance to Shadow damage and a bonus to Jewelcrafting.
Gnomes are an excellent choice for PVP combat. Their racial ability allows a player to escape from effects which immobilize or reduce their movement speed. They have innate frost resistance and a bonus to Engineering. They excel at PVP, but do not have exceptional traits for tanking.
Orcs have a racial which temporarily increases attack power. Stuns are less effective against orcs and they have increased expertise with axes. A good choice for PVP or dealing damage in PVE, they also fair decent when tanking.
Tauren are natural born protectors. Their racial is a casted ability which stuns those around them. It is one of a warrior's only controlled stuns which is useful regardless of talents. They have increased herbalism skill and the highest health of any other race (5% passive increase).
Trolls have a racial ability which increases their attack speed as they lose health. They also constantly regenerate 10% of their health, even during combat. Aside of these, they gain passive bonuses to slaying beasts, using bows/throwing weapons, and have reduced duration of movement impairing effects.
Undead have a plethora of racials which are all useful. They are able to break fears, charms, and sleep effects with their racial which can be used in any stance. They also have abilities to eat corpses and regenerate health quickly as well as prolonged underwater breathing.
Leveling a WarriorQ: What are stances? or When do I gain Battle, Defensive, or Berserker stance?A: Warriors have many abilities which can only be performed in a certain stance. When you begin the game, you learn Battle Stance. As one levels more stances become available through special quests. These quests are available from class trainers for each race.
At level 10 the first quest for a new stance is available. Upon completion, one will gain Defensive Stance. At level 30 one may begin a quest to obtain Berserker Stance (a more offensive stance).
Q: What stats or attributes should I look for?A: This can vary depending on what one wishes to accomplish, but in general a warrior's most important attributes are stamina and strength (with agility as a third). These help give attack power (to increase damage) and critical strike chance (chance to deal double damage). Different talent builds use different combat ratings, see below.
Arms focuses primarily on attack power (via strength), but also critical strike chance. Hit rating is also important for special attacks.
Fury focuses both on attack power and hit rating. Dual wielding incurs penalties which affect hit rating. A large portion of attacks are white damage and have a high chance to miss. Bloodthirst and Whirlwind rely heavily on attack power to maximize damage output. Critical strike chance is important for Flurry which aids sustained damage.
Protection focuses primarily on defense rating, stamina, and armor to survive. Block value, attack power, hit rating and expertise are important for dealing damage. For avoidance, focus on defense rating and dodge rating. There are many nuances to tanking and for more details please see section .
Picking a Talent BuildQ: What kind of talent build should I use?A: Warriors are now capable of leveling easily with any talent build, but are limited by talent points. Generally, for levels 10 to 39 it is optimal to use a two-handed weapon or dual wield two one-handed weapons (requires level 20). At level 40 warriors gain Shield Slam and Protection leveling becomes a realistic option.
Arms uses two-handed weapons for PVP and PVE. Fury normally uses two one-handed weapons (pre-60) for PVE and Protection uses a one-handed weapon and shield for tanking. Any build is capable of PVP, but performance will vary.
Q: What are some important talents for warriors?A: There are key talents for every build and these include Mortal Strike, Bloodthirst, and Devastate. Other key talents for various builds include Death Wish, Second Wind, Commanding Presence, Precision, Weapon Mastery, Improved Shield Block, and Focused Rage to name a few.
Q: What are some talents to avoid picking?A: With the latest talent revamp many useless talents were changed or moved to another location. These changes have made most talents friendly and accessible. Previously bad talents such as Imp. Rend are now worth using, but only when taken with certain other talents (for example, Trauma). Still, some talents remain less useful. These include Imp. Disciplines, Imp. Charge, and Imp. Cleave. There are uses for these talents, but they remain situational and it is up to the player to determine their style or preference.
Q: What kinds of weapons should I use with Arms, Fury, or Protection builds?A: Arms uses two-handed weapons for PVP and PVE. Fury normally uses two one-handed weapons for PVE and Protection uses a one-handed weapon and shield for tanking. Any build is capable of PVP, but performance will vary.
When using a two-handed weapon (Arms) pick a 3.3 speed or slower to hit harder. For dual wield (Fury) use slow weapons in the main hand (2.4 or slower) and preferably the same speed in the off hand. Fast or slow off hands do not matter much, but players generally believe fast off hands provide steady rage. Using both hands of the same speed may give additional haste bonus from Flurry since the game cannot determine which hand strikes first.
For tanking, use a fast non-dagger weapon (daggers are normalized to deal less damage). The fast weapon (ideally around 1.6-1.8 sec) will allow frequent Heroic Strikes (high threat). In situations with very low to no rage, use a tanking weapon speed 2.6 or slower to achieve the same effect.
Q: What level should I switch over to Protection spec? or Should I go Protection since I group often?A: Shield Slam has been made available to all warriors at level 40. With this ability, warriors may switch to Protection without hindering the leveling process. The result is increased tanking ability and accessible group play before end-game. This allows players to effectively judge whether or not they may like tanking at a higher level. Naturally, any tanking build at level 40 will be incomplete. However, all players can and will be able to effectively level as Protection. To gear for Protection while leveling look for "of the Bear" items to maximize strength and stamina.
-ArmsQ: What are some important talents in Arms?A: The new Imp. Rend, Deep Wounds, and Trauma work well together. Imp. Slam and Blood Frenzy are great for PVE while Second Wind and Imp. Intercept are great for PVP. Other good selections include Two-Handed Melee Specialization, Imp. Overpower, and Unrelenting Assault. All warriors going down the Arms tree should take Mortal Strike and a weapon specialization. For PVP, Sword or Mace Spec is the norm due to resilience.
Q: What are some talents to avoid in Arms?A: Most talents are useful one way or another. Imp. Heroic Strike and Imp. Charge are often neglected in PVP, though they are good for leveling.
Q: What should I pick: Poleaxe, Mace, or Sword talent spec?A: Poleaxe and Sword Spec are generally considered to be one in the same: both give 5% chance to deal double damage. However, Sword Specialization may cause an attack which can also be a critical strike, effectively tripling the damage. Poleaxe Spec also gives an additional 5% damage to critical strikes.
Mace Specialization gives 15% armor ignore. The higher an oppononent's armor the better this becomes. Since armor ignore works on all attacks, not just extra swings or critical strikes, it is a great median between the two. Armor ignore is also the only way to increase damage of abilities such as Execute.
-FuryQ: What are some important talents in Fury?A: Cruelty is a key talent for most builds. Most Fury builds will also have Unbridled Wrath, Precision, Weapon Mastery, Flurry, Imp. Berserker Stance, Bloodthirst, and Rampage. For dual wielding, all builds should contain 5/5 Dual Wield Specialization to help negate the off hand penalty (it raises off hand damage to ~62%). Note that Commanding Presence and Rampage stack with each other to provide a bonus to Bloodthirst (which relies heavily on attack power). Some builds include Piercing Howl and may deduct a point from Commanding Presence to do so.
Q: What are some talents to avoid in Fury?A: It is recommended that most players avoid talents such as Imp. Cleave and Blood Craze. While these talents may be useful in special talent builds, they are mostly situational.
Q: What exactly is expertise? or Should I pick Weapon Mastery?A: Expertise decreases an opponent's chance to dodge and parry. Because expertise can theoretically wipe dodge and parry off the combat table it is worth twice that of hit rating for players in front of creatures (such as tanks).
Note: Melee damage dealers should always be behind their target. As such, the value of expertise is halved for DPS. See Expertise for more info.
-ProtectionQ: What are some important talents in Protection?A: Important Protection talents include Imp. Shield Block, Shield Mastery, Sword and Board, and Imp. Defensive Stance. Other notable talents include Critical Block, Damage Shields, Vitality, Imp. Shield Bash, and Warbringer. Last Stand is an excellent ability which can save lives in a pinch. Most builds will take this talent.
Q: What are some talents to avoid in Protection?A: As with the other trees, unfavorable talents in Protection were reworked. Imp. Disarm is a talent to avoid for PVE, but works great in PVP. Imp. Disciplines is not very useful since Shield Wall was changed to have a short cooldown. Imp. Revenge, a once controversial talent, was changed to add damage to Revenge. Creatures hit very hard in Wrath of the Lich King (WLK) making the stun worthwhile.
-Weapons and ArmorQ: Which attributes or stats should I look for?A: Stamina and strength are important to all warriors. Both hit and expertise are also important. When one has reached high enough levels through end-game gear other stats such as critical strike chance, armor penetration or possibly haste become more important.
Survival is extremely important for tanking and stacking stamina greatly increases your time to live (this is directly affected by your armor). However, when not tanking or engaging in PVP combat, stamina takes a backseat to strength (attack power) and critical strike chance.
Strength increases attack power by 2 for every point gained as well as increasing block value by 0.5. While stacking attack power and block value work well on their own, stacking strength instead has an increased effect when buffed by talents and abilities (such as Blessing of Kings).
Agility increases armor by 2 points as well as chance to both dodge and critically strike. At high level it is typical to find items with critical strike chance instead of agility so it is recommended to stack strength or attack power along with the critical strike chance for PVP. For PVE content stick with the raw stats (STR, AGI) for group buffing.
Hit rating is typically found on high level items. The innate 5% chance to miss for special attacks against a level 80 requires about 164 hit rating. Against level 83 creatures, this number jumps to 8% or 263 hit rating. The talent Precision provides 98.37 hit rating. Expertise is worth 1 point of hit rating for damage dealers, but worth 2 points for tanks (always make sure DPS are behind their target to remove the chance to parry).
Q: Should I use a fast or slow weapon for ...?A: For dual wield: Usually, the main hand weapon should be at least 2.4 speed or higher (the slower the better). Warriors are different than rogues in that the off hand weapon's speed makes very little difference (though no warrior should be using a dagger in either hand). It is suggested that faster weapons in the off hand present more consistent rage generation while slow off hands provide similar rage, but in bursts or spikes. Slow off hands also consume less Flurry charges. In the end, it comes down to the stats of the off hand weapon. Never neglect an off hand weapon based solely on its speed (except daggers).
Two-handed weapons typically deal more damage the slower they are. Polearms are typically the fastest choice, with Maces being the slowest. Tanking usually favors fast weapon speeds, but some players prefer to use slow weapons in 5-man content (exclusively for low rage situations).
Q: How much expertise or hit rating do I need for ...?A: For two-handed weapons and one-hand/shields the miss rate is 5% against an equal level opponent (164 hit rating). For dual wielding, the total miss chance is 24% (787 hit rating).
Against level 83 creatures or bosses the chance to miss specials becomes 8% (263 hit rating) for everyone except dual wielders who need a total of 27% (886 hit rating).
For expertise, one needs 460 rating or simply 56 expertise. Since warriors who DPS should be standing behind their target, they only require 214 rating (26 expertise). Bosses typically have a 6.5% chance to dodge and a variable rate of parry.
Note: Players with 3/3 Precision only need 164 hit rating for specials to land. Weapon Mastery grants ~16.4 expertise.
Q: How much defense do we need to tank? or What does defense skill do?A: The required defense for raiding content at 80 is 540. The required defense for 70 is 490.
Defense skill provides dodge, parry, block, and to be missed in addition to reducing the chance for an opponent to land a critical hit. This crit reduction is crucial to end-game dungeons where creatures hit extremely hard. For more information, see section .
Technical InformationEmail or reply about any discrepancies. Attributes and Stats -For Level 80 (build 8970)
Agility - 1 point is worth: 2 armor. 73.52 points are 1% dodge. 62.5 points are 1% critical strike chance
Stamina - 1 point is worth 10 health
Strength - 1 point is worth 2 attack power. ? points are 1 block value
Critical strike rating - 45.9 rating is 1% critical strike chance
Hit rating - 32.79 rating is 1% decreased chance to miss (295 required for L83 creatures; Precision is worth 98 rating and is not included on the Character Sheet).
Expertise rating - 32.79 rating is 1% decreased chance for enemies to dodge and parry
Armor penetration rating - 15.39 rating is 1 point of armor ignore
Defense rating - 4.91 rating is 1 point. 1 point is 0.04% avoidance, block and critical hit reduction; 25 skill points equal 1% mitigation and avoidance
Block rating - 16.39 rating is 1% chance to block
Dodge rating - 39.34 rating is 1% chance to dodge
Parry rating - 49.18 rating is 1% chance to parry
Haste rating - 32.79 rating is 1% haste
Resilience rating - 81.97 rating is 1% decreased critical hit chance and 2% less damage from critical hits.
-For Level 70Agility - 1 point is worth: 2 armor. 30 points are 1% dodge. 33 points are 1% critical strike chance
Stamina - 1 point is worth 10 health
Strength - 1 point is worth 2 attack power. 2 points are 1 block value
Critical strike rating - 22.07 rating is 1% critical strike chance
Hit rating - 15.76 rating is 1% decreased chance to miss (142 required for L73 creatures; Precision is worth 47 rating and is not included on the Character Sheet).
Expertise rating - 15.76 rating is 1% decreased chance for enemies to dodge and parry
Armor penetration rating - 7.4 rating is 1 point of armor ignore
Defense rating - 2.36 rating is 1 point. 1 point is 0.04% avoidance, block and critical hit reduction; 25 skill points equal 1% mitigation and avoidance
Block rating - 7.88 rating is 1% chance to block
Dodge rating - 18.92 rating is 1% chance to dodge
Parry rating - 23.65 rating is 1% chance to parry
Haste rating - 15.76 rating is 1% haste
Resilience rating - 39.42 rating is 1% decreased critical hit and 2% less damage from critical hits. 34.4 rating is 1% decreased periodic damage (need confirmation on this)
-For Level 60 (missing dataz)
Agility - 1 point is worth: 2 armor. ? points are 1% dodge. 20 points are 1% critical strike chance
Stamina - 1 point is worth 10 health
Strength - 1 point is worth 2 attack power. ? points are 1 block value
Critical strike rating - 14 rating is 1% critical strike chance
Hit rating - 10 rating is 1% decreased chance to miss
Expertise rating - 10 rating is 1% decreased chance for enemies to dodge and parry
Armor penetration rating - 4.69 rating is 1 point of armor ignore
Defense rating - 1.5 rating is 1 point. 1 point is ? avoidance, block and decreased chance to be critically hit. 9.37 skill points equal 1% mitigation and avoidance
Block rating - 5 rating is 1% chance to block
Dodge rating - 12 rating is 1% chance to dodge
Parry rating - 15 rating is 1% chance to parry
Haste rating - 10 rating is 1% haste
Resilience rating - 25 rating is 1% decreased critical hit and 2% less damage from critical hits.
NormalizationBecause of how the damage formula works, certain items of inferior quality (for example, blue items) were sometimes more powerful than epics in the classic game. One famous example involved a blue dagger from a level 55-60 dungeon. For a long time it was more damaging than epic daggers from a level 60 40-player raid dungeons. The cause was due to high weapon speeds adding excessive attack power.
There are two parts to the damage formula: weapon damage and attack power bonus. The weapon damage portion is calculated using a weapon's damage range and speed while the attack power bonus is calculated using player attack power and a "fixed" value in place of the weapon's speed. The attack power bonus is the only portion of the formula to have a "fixed" value. Auto-attacks are not normalized.
All two-handed weapons are normalized at 3.3 seconds and one-handed weapons are set to 2.4 sec (daggers are 1.7 sec). Ranged weapons are normalized at 2.8 sec.
Diminishing ReturnsSpells and abilities are categorized depending on the type of effect(s) they inflict upon other players or creatures. It serves to balance, but does not always behave the same in both PVE and PVP. The rule of diminishing returns states that initial application of an effect will be 100% effective, but the second use is reduced by 50%. The third use or duration is reduced by 75% and the fourth attempt will fail (immune). This mechanic was introduced to prevent players from being "locked down," as in constant "Sap" or "Polymorph" abuse. Diminishing returns only last for 15 sec per attempt, but can be refreshed.
Charge, Intercept, and Concussion Blow all share the same category: controllable stuns. In addition, controllable stuns are shared between all players. For example, a rogue using Cheap Shot on an enemy will share returns with a warrior's Concussion Blow, etc. Note that Kidney Shot has a category unto itself.
Mace Specialization and Improved Revenge (as well as weapon procs, etc.) share their own category: random, uncontrollable stuns. The previously mentioned stuns also share returns with other random stuns, such as the rogue's Mace Specialization and the hunter's Concussion Shot proc (talented), etc.
Threat and Aggro FundamentalsNote: In the past, the ratio for damage to threat was 1:1, but in order to continue this method one will have to use a new value for stance modifiers. The modifier for Defensive Stance and Defiance is 2.0735 (207.35%).
Threat is a unit used to measure the amount of hatred a creature has for a player. Each player involved in combat with said creature generates an amount of initial hate which rises as they interact with other players or the creature itself. All creatures maintain a threat list to determine who has aggro. Aggro refers to the player in possession of the most hatred from a creature, usually at the top of the threat list.
Note: Healing threat generates at half the rate of damage. Only the amount effectively healed generates threat; overhealing does not produce threat.
Threat does not decrease or decay over time and has no maximum limit. There are certain abilities or mechanics which in one way or another may alter the threat list. These abilities result in a reduction of threat and may be temporary or permanent. If a tank holds aggro, but the target still wanders away it is said to have amnesia. Almost all knock- down/back/up effects have some sort of threat component. These creatures should be stunned if possible. A random charge may resemble loss of threat, but in some cases do not alter the threat table.
The 100-110-130 rule presumes a tank has 100% aggro. In order for any player (of any class) in melee range to pull aggro they must exceed the tank's threat by reaching 110% total threat. Players at ranged will need to pull off 130% of the tank's threat in order to gain aggro.
Players should be directed to not stand near the tank or creature unnecessarily. Players at ranged who are between 110-129% threat will immediately gain aggro if they step into melee range of their target. Again, players at ranged distance who surpass the 110% melee threat mark will immediately gain aggro upon moving into melee range of their target (even if they did not have aggro while standing far from the creature).
Defense and Crit ImmunityDefense skill is a conversion from defense rating found on gear. Defense skill provides dodge, parry, block, and to be missed in addition to reducing the chance for an opponent to land a critical hit. This crit reduction is crucial to end-game dungeons where creatures hit extremely hard (some encounters have shown unmitigated damage in excess of 45000 damage). A critical strike could be fatal beyond imagination and all raiding (or Heroic) tanks must attain "uncritable" status - immunity to critical strikes. This is achieved through very high defense (found as rating) on gear.
Note: The required defense for raiding content at 70 is 490. The required defense for 80 is 540.
All players gain defense skill at a rate of 5 per level. All players have a 5% chance to miss instant attacks against opponents of equal level. Opponents with higher defense have a higher chance to dodge, parry, block, or be missed by attacks. For example, a level 20 player would have a hard time hitting a level 70 player. The same level 70 player would have a high chance to land a critical strike against the level 20. This same concept governs gearing for all aspects of tanking, but most notably boss fights.
Crushing Blows and Uncrushable StatusThe game uses a table-based combat system. Any possible results from a melee auto-attack are on this list including (in order from top to bottom): miss, dodge, parry, glancing blow*, block, critical hit, crushing blow,* and regular hit. The items at the top take precedence over the ones at the bottom. Each possible result has a chance to occur based on a single die roll method. You can think of this in terms of 1 to 1000 with each possible result having their own range. For example, 5% chance to miss would represent any roll including and between 0-49. 10% chance to dodge is next and carries 50-149 and so on for each result stopping at 1000.
* glancing or crushing blows only happen in player vs. creature scenarios
For a better explanation of this, with a visual table, see
http://www.wowwiki.com/Attack_table (highly recommended).
Crushing blows are attacks that cause 150% of normal damage and can only be dealt by non-playable characters. Under normal circumstances, a creature now has to be 4 or more levels over the player to deal a crushing blow, but this is not always the case (a good example would be elite guards in neutral faction towns, such as Goblin Bruisers). Since a boss creature is normally 3 levels above max level, crushing blows are no longer a factor in raid content.
Note: Crushing blows may only occur from a creature which is 4 or more levels higher than the target. As such, the information on gearing for uncrushable status has been removed, but is still technically correct.
Avoidance and Diminishing ReturnsWLK introduces diminishing returns (DR) on avoidance. This became a problem back in The Burning Crusade (TBC) with most notably druids who could stack so much avoidance it trivialized certain encounters. As a short term solution with the gear advances so great, Blizzard added a buff/aura to all creatures within the Sunwell Plateau which decreased their opponents' avoidance. This was lifted just before release of 3.0 in addition to the reduced damage and health sweep across the board so players could progress rapidly.
The only avoidance suffering diminishing returns are dodge (from dodge rating, defense, and Agility), parry (from parry rating and defense), and chance to be missed (from defense). These three (dodge, parry, and to be missed) are being calculated separately. Base chance and talents are not affected. That means the total 5% dodge and 5% parry from talents are a total 10% untouched by DR (plus the innate chance to dodge, parry, and to be missed). Also, avoidance from base stats are unaffected (dodge from baseline agility is untouched), but agility gained through buffs, for example, do suffer DR.
ResilienceResilience reduces the chance to be critically hit by another player and also reduces the damage from successful critical hits (as of patch 2.3 periodic damage is also reduced by a set amount). It is possible by stacking enough resilience to reduce the damage of a critical strike by an amount so significant it is no longer "double damage." These reduced damage hits are still critical strikes and abilities or items which can trigger upon crits maintain their chance to trigger. Because of this, the more resilience a player has the more useless talents such as Blood Craze or Enrage become.
ExpertiseWhen tanking one will always be facing the target. By reducing the enemies' chance to dodge and parry with expertise, one gains increased damage and threat generation. The hidden benefit of expertise is the potential to reduce or remove parry from the combat table of an enemy. The mechanics of parry include a counterattack: the next swing will be up to 40% faster. An unfortunate parry could cause a fatal blow. Players dealing damage should position themselves behind creatures to avoid creating a parry against the tank.
Note: Creatures can dodge attacks from behind, but players cannot. Creatures and players cannot parry attacks from behind. Make sure to stay behind a creature (or player) when attacking unless absolutely necessary!
Appendices Common Terms and PhrasesAdd - an additional creature who joins battle by intention or accident
Aggro - to cause aggression or generate threat and gain the attention of a creature; see Hate, Threat
Amnesia - a temporary condition which causes a creature to ignore the threat list for a period of time before remembering the top priority
Area of effect, Area effect - an ability which covers an area or multiple targets
Attack pattern - a pattern of spells or abilities often repeated in sequential order
Damage per second - often misused to refer to total damage over time
Direct damage - an ability which directly affects its intended target, non-AE abilities
Chain - a weapon chain, commonly used to prevent the disarming or dropping of a player's weapon
Charm - to charm or Seduce a player or creature, temporarily disabling the target
Clap - short for 'Thunder Clap'
Deeps - slang for DPS
Demo - short for 'Demoralizing Shout'
Fear - an emotionally scared state affecting players and creatures alike forcing them to flee, loss of control effect
Hate - an emotionally angry state of a creature, causing it to become and stay hostile; see Aggro, Threat
Hold - to maintain aggro; not necessarily the top position on threat lists
Horror - a powerful emotionally scared state which cannot be prevented; stronger than Fear
Imp - short for 'Improved'
Incapacitate - a disabling effect, similar to stun, but will break on damage
Kite, kiting - a tactic, usually performed by ranged players, in which they avoid being damaged by running away from a creature while simultaneously attacking it
Macro - a set of actions or abilities queued or fixed in such a way as to combine monotonous tasks into one key
Main tank - The primary "tank" in a multi-player raid environment
Mark - to set or name a target, usually for specific tasks or to-be-killed order; an icon placed upon an object for notation
Med up - to meditate; to replenish health and mana after a battle
Mez - to mesmerize; to induce a form of Charm or otherwise disabling effect on a player or creature
Mob - Any "man or beast" non-playable character or "mobile"; any computer-controlled creature
Proc - procedure or process in origin, usually means "chance on..." to trigger an effect or ability
Pushback - the delay in time on the casting bar due to damage (doesn't affect Slam)
Radius, Aggro radius - an imaginary line that moves outward from the center point of your character in a circular fashion; hostile creatures within this zone will attack
Rage starvation - used to express a period of time where rage generation is low or non-existent
Sap - a new disabling mechanic derived from incapacitate effects; introduced with 2.4 to alleviate immunities in dungeons
Stack - the act or state of having two or more items or effects that are essentially the same in regards to whether or not they overwrite one another
Sword and board - commonly used phrase implying the role of a tank ("Time to go sword and board!")
Tank - to protect and withstand all incoming damage with the priority of guarding a group or party by "holding" off creatures
Theorycraft - to hypothesize and/or express theoretical concepts in regards to game mechanics, usually involving mathematical calculations to emulate player interaction or item effectiveness
Threat - see Hate; a unit for measuring hatred toward a player, dictating how a creature will react when engaged by players and saved in a list
Threat list - a list of players currently in-combat generated by and for a creature to determine it's main target of attack
Wave - short for 'Shockwave'
Wep - short for 'Weapon'
White damage - auto-attack hits where damage numbers appear white in color; non-special attacks or abilities
Yellow damage - special attacks or abilities which are caused intentionally by player interaction
AcronymsAC - armor class (points)
AGI - Agility
AOE, AE - area of effect, area effect
AP - attack power
BS - Battle Shout, Bladestorm
BT - Bloodthirst
CS - Commanding Shout
DD - direct damage
DOT - damage over time
DPS - damage per second
DR - diminishing returns
DS - Demoralizing Shout
DT - Deep Thunder
DW - dual wield; Death Wish
ER - Endless Rage
HOT - healing over time
HP - health points, hit points
HS - Heroic Strike
MS - Mortal Strike
MT - main tank, main target
OT - off tank
PH - Piercing Howl
SA - Sunder Armor
SS - Shield Slam, Sweeping Strikes
SW - Shield Wall, Shockwave
STA - Stamina, also Stam
STR - Strength
TM - Tactical Mastery
TOT - target of target
TG - Titan's Grip
WW - Whirlwind
Version Historyv2.02 - 3rd edition, first draft
Current update: November 7, 2008-Added Stats and Attributes (L80)
-Added Defense and Crit Immunity section
-Added Avoidance and Diminishing Returns section
-Expanded glossary terms
-Rewrote entire 'General' section
-Removed outdated information -
-Updated Notices and Disclaimer, Credits
-Updated References sections ,
-Updated Stats and Attributes (L60)
-Corrected dozens of data, tech, and grammar mistakes
-Clarified and revised various questions and info
-Stripped and reformatted entire document
Previous update: June 1, 2008 - v1.06-Added expertise question and values
-Clarified hit rating questions
-Fixed defense rating values
-Fixed multiple typos and errors
Previous update: April 14, 2008 - v1.01-Revised talent section and introduction
-Fixed error with talent name (thanks glowsticky)
-Added term to glossary
-Minor formatting changes and updated links
References (Internal)*** PURGED OBSOLETE LINKS ***
References (External)Site -
Armory Lite - Armory profiles that won't kill your computer
Site -
WoW Wiki - User-maintained information repository
Site -
Tank Spot - #1 Community for Warriors, Paladins, Druids, and Death Knights
Site -
Elitist Jerks - Heavy theorycrafting guild and forum
Blog -
Tanking Tips - Insightful, informative, ingenious.
Blog - Mirror Shield - Yakra's Reflections on Tanking
