News
Prof.
Class
Raid
Dungeon
Events
Quests
Transmog
Contact
Views: 48 035
Protection Warrior Tank Statistics Priority and Reforging (MoP 5.4.8)

Protection Warrior Art Image
General Information

On this page, we explain what the best statistics are for ProtectionWarriors in World of Warcraft MoP 5.4, how the class benefits fromeach of them, andwhat your reforging strategy should be. We also detail what the various capsare (if any) and why they should be attained.

The statistics priority is important as itinfluences reforging strategies as well as itemisation choices(gear, enchants, and gems).

Make sure to check our GearOptimisation Guide, which serves as a support guide for thisarticle.

The other pages of our Protection Warrior guide can be accessedfrom the table of contents on the right.

1. Basics↑top

As of Patch 5.4, there are two different but equally viable gearingstrategies. We present them both below, and then advise you on how to choosebetween them in a specific section.

1.1. Full Avoidance

  1. Hit Rating (until 7.5%) and Expertise Rating (until 15%);
  2. Parry Rating and Dodge Rating;
  3. Mastery Rating.

This gearing strategy takes advantage of the fact thatRiposte Icon Riposte causes your successful dodges and parries to increaseyour Critical Strike Rating, which in turn boosts your rage generation (sincecritical strikes with Devastate Icon Devastate and Shield Slam Icon Shield Slam provide you withrage).

1.2. Full Critical Strike Rating

  1. Hit Rating (until 7.5%) and Expertise Rating (until 15%);
  2. Critical Strike Rating;
  3. Mastery Rating.

This gearing strategy bypasses Dodge and Parry Rating (resulting in farfewer dodges and parries), going straight for Critical Strike Rating, thereforegranting you more rage. 

2. Getting a Better Understanding↑top

Hit Rating and Expertise Rating, until their caps of 7.5% and15% respectively, will provide you with the best increase in survivability andthreat output. Reaching these caps ensures that all of your Shield Slam Icon Shield Slamswill land. In addition to the massive damage that Shield Slam does, it alsoprovides you with rage, which is crucial in using your active mitigationabilities often.

Parry Rating and Dodge Rating give youavoidance, and thanks to Riposte Icon Riposte, a great deal of Critical StrikeRating, which increases your rage generation. Your chance to parry will beabout two times higher than your chance to dodge because Strength alsoincreases your chance to parry. Dodge and Parry have different diminishingreturns curves to compensate for this (something that was not the case inCataclysm). To make the most efficient use of your Dodge and Parry ratings, itis best to have equal amounts of rating, which will roughly balance thediminishing returns. However, this is only relevant if you are following anavoidance gearing strategy; if you are focusing on Mastery, it is not worthworrying about the balance between your Dodge and Parry ratings.

Mastery Rating is an important statistic for a ProtectionWarrior. Through Mastery: Critical Block Icon Mastery: Critical Block, it provides you withincreased chance to block and increased chance to critically block.

Critical Strike Rating increases your rage generation thanks to theEnrage Icon Enrage mechanic.

Most encounters have abilities that cannot bemitigated or avoided. Also, you need to have a decent amount of health, inorder to give yourself the chance to be healed before a subsequent attackkills you. In addition to this minimum amount of Stamina, we feel thatStamina remains quite valuable for Protection Warriors. In addition to theamount of Stamina found innately on your gear, we advise you to obtain someadditional Stamina, particularly through gemming.

2.1. Should I Gear for Avoidance? Critical Strike Rating? Mastery?

Your Hit and Expertise Rating caps are essential in any reforging strategyyou choose to go for. They maximise your rage generation, and more rage meansmore Shield Block Icon Shield Blocks and Shield Barrier Icon Shield Barriers.

When choosing the next secondary statistic(s) to go for, you have twooptions. The first option that is to go for Dodge and Parry Rating. This notonly grants you a lot of avoided damage over the course of a fight, but thanksto Riposte Icon Riposte also grants you a lot of extra Critical StrikeRating (the Riposte buff will be up pretty much the entire time), and thereforea large amount of rage.

As an alternative, you can skip the entire avoidance part of theabove-mentioned gearing strategy, and you can go straight for Critical StrikeRating. This will provide you with even more rage generation (so, you can useeven more Shield Block Icon Shield Blocks and Shield Barrier Icon Shield Barriers), and it will increaseyour DPS, but it will do so at the expense of some overall damage reduction.This gearing strategy can work well, but it has two notabledisadvantages. The first disadvantage is that you will be pursuing items withCritical Strike Rating and Mastery Rating, meaning that you will be competingwith plate-wearing DPS classes in your raid, and that the raid will gear upslower as a result. The second disadvantage is that this gearing strategywill cause you to take high amounts of damage (since your avoidance will beconsiderably lower), damage that you must reduce "manually" through ShieldBlock and Shield Barrier. This results in a more difficult playstyle.

Finally, another option is to go for Mastery Rating after your Hitand Expertise caps. This will cause you to struggle to maintain highShield Block uptimes, and it will leave you with no excess rage, so we do notrecommend it.

2.2. Hit Cap

At level 90, most races require 2,550 Hit Rating to reach themelee hit cap. Draenei, thanks to Heroic Presence Icon Heroic Presence, only need2,210 Hit Rating.

2.3. Expertise Cap

At level 90, most races require 5,100 Expertise Rating to reachthe expertise cap. Some races, in some cases, only need 4,760 ExpertiseRating, thanks to passive racial skills:

3. Changelog↑top

  • 15 Oct. 2013: Improved the stat priority and the stat discussionsthat follow it. Added discussion for gearing for Critical Strike Rating.
  • 12 Sep. 2013: Patch 5.4 update: nothing to change.
  • 20 May 2013: Patch 5.3 update: nothing to change.
  • 25 Apr. 2013: Expanded the Hit/Expertise paragraph to explain howthey benefit your survivability. Also added a section explaining why we do notadvise gearing for avoidance.
  • 24 Apr. 2013: Removed the avoidance-heavy statistic priority, andplaced capping Hit and Expertise in its rightful place.



2015 MoP-Veins.tk 0.7