Mists of Pandaria Classic Protection Warrior Stat Priority

The stat priority for Protection Warrior is as follows:

1. Hit Rating (7.5%);
2. Expertise Rating (Hard-cap 15%);
3. Parry Rating;
4. Dodge Rating;
5. Mastery Rating;
6. Stamina;
7. Strength.

As it has been for the majority of Word of Wacraft, capping out your Hit Rating is the most important thing to do first. Mists of Pandaria reduces the amount of hit chance need down from 8% to 7.5%, making it even easier to reach the cap. Hit Rating is extremely important for tanks in Mists of Pandaria as it guarantees that you land every active mitigation spell.

After capping out your Hit chance, you will want to max out your Expertise next; this will remove the chance that your attacks can be Dodged or Parried. Similar to Hit Rating, maxing out your Expertise Rating (15%) guarantees that your active mitigation spells will land. Tanks need to reach 15% Expertise, while DPS only need 7.5%, as bosses can only Parry attacks from the front.

Protection gains a new passive, Riposte, which procs any time you Dodge or Parry, and while active will add 75% of your Parry as additional Crit Rating. This means that stacking Parry will nearly double dip, as Riposte has a 100% up-time, giving you a high amount of Crit Chance for defensive stats.

Protection gains a new passive, Riposte, which procs any time you Dodge or Parry, and while active will add 75% of your Dodge as additional Crit Rating. This means that stacking Dodge will nearly double dip, as Riposte has a 100% up-time, giving you a high amount of Crit Chance for defensive stats.

Every specialization in the game has a Mastery passive spell that grants unique buffs depending on the spec. Protection has Mastery: Critical Block, which increases your overall chance to block, and gives you a chance to critically block, blocking twice as much damage as normal.

Stamina directly converts to health, increasing your overall survivability. Whle this stat was once the bread and butter of tanking, it has fallen far in favor of a more aggressive and avoidance focused stat line as you get a ton of Stamina from levels and base gear. Tanks benefit from Vengeance, which scales based off of your health.

Strength converts to Parry at a 1:1 ratio, but suffers from diminishing returns as you gain more Parry. This gives you a way to improve both your damage and defensiveness at the same time, even allowing you to gem and gear more aggressively than previous expansions. With how much passive Strength you'll get from level-ups and gear, Parry Rating will quickly overtake this in terms of scaling.