TBC Classic Arms Warrior Stat Priority

1. Hit to 9% (6% if there is a Balance Druid in the raid)
2. Expertise to 6.5% (4.5% with Weapon Mastery)
3. Critical Strike
4. Armor Penetration
5. Strength or Attack Power
6. Agility
7. Haste
8. Hit over 9% (If Dual-wielding)

Hit Rating improves your chance to land most of your abilities. It takes 15.77 Hit Rating to get 1% Hit Chance. The melee Hit Cap is 9%, or 142 Hit Rating. Getting Hit Capped is one the highest DPS increases you can do. Aim to cap out through solid gear pieces without losing too many other main stats.

Expertise replaces weapon skills from Classic WoW, now reducing the chance that your attacks are 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 stat as it greatly increases the number of attacks that hit the boss, giving you a much higher damage output and Rage generation. Since mobs can dodge from behind, you will want some of this stat to reduce how often that occurs.

For level 73 mobs (bosses), the soft Expertise Cap is 6.5% dodge, or 26 Expertise skill (103 Expertise Rating). Getting this cap will completely remove dodges from your attack table, giving you a nice damage and Rage generation increase.

Critical Strike Rating simply increases your chance to land critical hits. It takes 22.0769 Critical Strike rating to gain 1% Critical Strike Chance at level 70. Arms Warriors prioritize Critical Strike Rating highly, as it helps with Rage generation.

When you do not crit the mob you are attacking, it can take up to 3 melee swings before you can use an ability; Critical Strike Rating helps mitigate this as often as possible.

Armor Penetration is not a new stat in TBC, but it becomes readily available on gear during the expansion. Armor Penetration allows more of your attack to bypass the enemies armor, with the potential to reduce their armor down to zero through various debuffs and if you stack enough of this stat.

Armor Penetration works exponentially, meaning the more you have of it the stronger it is. This also means that the less of it you have, the weaker it is; if you are unable to stack a high amount passively (not through procs), prioritize Strength and Attack Power higher than this.

Strength and Attack Power directly increase the damage dealt by your attacks. 1 Strength will give you 2 Attack Power. These stats are very good, as they directly increase your damage done, although they are slightly lower than Critical Strike Rating for the Arms spec.

You will find yourself wearing plenty of Mail and Leather armor that has lots of Agility on it. Boosting this stat up is a good way to increase your Critical Strike Rating. Agility also has the added benefit of increasing your dodge chance, so if you happen to pull threat or get hit by a cleave, you will have a higher chance to avoid the attack.

• 33.0 Agility = 1% Critical Strike Chance
• 30.0 Agility - 1% Dodge Chance

Haste is one of the new stats introduced in the Burning Crusade. It essentially increases your attack speed. While this stat is typically very strong for most classes, Arms Warrior scales the least amount with it. It is still a good stat, just not something you will want to focus on.

If you are using a 2-handed weapon, ignore this section as additional Hit does nothing for you. For those who are dual-wielding as Arms, Hit Rating over 9% will allow more of your auto-attacks (white hits) to land, increasing your damage output and Rage generation overall. You have better stats to prioritize over Hit past 9%, but if you should happen to go over it still has some value.