Forever Protection Warrior Stat Priority

Welcome to the Stats page for Protection Warrior at Level 60. This page covers your offensive and defensive stat priorities, what each stat does, and how it affects your threat and survival. These recommendations are subject to change as Forever is updated.

Consistency is the backbone of tanking. Hit Chance and Expertise come first because you need your attacks to land reliably, especially when building threat at the start of a pull. Misses, dodges, and parries can delay your threat and make it harder to keep enemies attacking you.

Agility gives Armor, Dodge Chance, and Critical Strike Chance, making it one of the best overall tank stats. At a similar item budget, Critical Strike is stronger for pure offense, but doesn't offer the Armor and Dodge that make Agility so useful for tanking.

Strength increases your damage and threat through Attack Power.

Stamina rounds out your offensive gear with the health pool you need to survive while holding threat.

Stamina is the best general survival stat because a larger health pool helps against both Physical and Magic damage. Armor is your strongest option against pure Physical damage.

Agility adds Dodge and Armor alongside its offensive benefits. Avoidance means Dodge and Parry Chance, which prevent melee attacks entirely.

Defense comes last because Shield Block gives Warriors another way to prevent normal melee crits.

Stat	Bonus
Hit Chance	Reduces the chance that your attacks miss. Melee auto attack and special attack cap with a weapon and shield: 8% against Level 63 bosses.
Expertise	Reduces the chance that enemies dodge or parry your attacks. Dodge cap: 6.5% reduction against Level 63 bosses. Parry cap: 14% reduction against Level 63 bosses when attacking from the front.
Agility	Increases melee Critical Strike Chance, Dodge Chance, and Armor.
Critical Strike	Increases the chance that your attacks critically strike.
Strength	Increases melee Attack Power and Block Value.
Attack Power	Increases auto attack damage and abilities that scale with Attack Power.
Haste	Increases your auto attack speed.
Stamina	Increases your maximum health.
Armor	Reduces incoming Physical damage.
Dodge Chance and Parry Chance	Increase the chance to avoid a melee attack completely.
Defense	Increases the chance that enemies miss you, as well as your Dodge, Parry, and Block Chance. Also reduces your chance to be critically hit. Passive critical hit immunity: 440 total Defense against Level 63 bosses.
Block Value	Increases the damage stopped by blocking, as well as the damage of Shield Slam.
Block Chance	Increases how often you block an attack with your shield.

With a weapon and shield, you need 8% Hit Chance to stop melee auto attacks and melee special attacks from missing Level 63 bosses. A missed Shield Slam loses damage and threat; a missed auto attack also loses its Rage.

Additional Hit Chance beyond that cap doesn't improve these attacks, and Hit Chance doesn't prevent enemies from dodging or parrying.

Expertise reduces the chance that enemies dodge or parry your attacks. As a tank, you attack from the front, so both matter for consistent threat. Landing more attacks improves your threat, while fewer parries improve survivability against bosses with Parry Haste by reducing how often they speed up their next swing.

Against Level 63 bosses, 6.5% Dodge Chance reduction removes dodges, while 14% Parry Chance reduction removes parries. Additional Expertise remains useful after reaching the Dodge cap because it continues to reduce parries from the front.

Agility combines offense and defense. It gives melee Critical Strike Chance, Dodge Chance, and Armor, but not Attack Power. At Level 60, 20 Agility gives 1% Critical Strike Chance, and each point also gives 2 Armor.

Critical Strike increases damage and threat. Critical auto attacks generate double the Rage of normal auto attacks, helping you afford more abilities. Critical special attacks don't generate that auto attack Rage.

Each point of Strength gives 2 melee Attack Power. Every 20 Strength also gives 1 Block Value, slightly increasing the damage stopped by your blocks and the damage of Shield Slam. Shield Slam scales with Block Value, not directly with Attack Power.

Every 14 Attack Power adds 1 DPS to your auto attacks before modifiers. It also increases Revenge and Thunder Clap damage. Sunder Armor gains threat directly from Attack Power in Forever.

Haste increases your attack speed, giving you more auto attacks and Rage from those attacks over the same amount of time. It doesn't increase the Rage generated by each swing.

Stamina increases your maximum health, with each additional point giving 10 health before buffs. It helps you survive both Physical and magic damage, including attacks you can't block or avoid.

Armor reduces incoming Physical damage without relying on a chance to avoid the attack. It doesn't reduce magic damage.

Dodge and Parry are your Avoidance stats. Both prevent the attack's damage entirely and allow you to use Revenge. With two points in Master of Defense, each Dodge or Parry also gives 5 Rage while you have a shield equipped.

Balance Avoidance with your other stats instead of stacking it at any cost. An avoided attack doesn't give its normal Rage from damage taken, but the talent's 5 Rage can replace some of what was lost. Normally you would prefer to get hit and gain the full Rage so you can use more abilities on cooldown.

Parry Haste Explained

Parry can make your next auto attack occur quicker through parry haste. This gives it a small offensive benefit over Dodge: earlier swings can add damage, threat, and Rage.

A parry can remove up to 40% of your current swing time from the remaining timer, but can't reduce it below 20% of the total swing. If your swing is already in its final 20%, the parry doesn't speed it up further.

If you swing every 1.6 seconds, a parry can make your next attack happen up to 0.64 seconds sooner. A parry closer to your next swing saves less time. If that swing is already 0.32 seconds away or less, the parry won't speed it up.

Defense increases the chance that enemies miss you, increaess your Dodge, Parry, and Block Chance, and reduces your chance to be critically hit.

Defense, the Combat Table, and Crit Immunity

Against Level 63 bosses, you need 5.6% reduced chance to be critically hit to remove normal melee crits altogether. Each additional point of Defense Skill reduces that chance by 0.04%, so 140 extra Defense above your base 300 skill reaches passive critical hit immunity.

This gives a target of 440 total Defense. Five points in Anticipation add 20 Defense, leaving 120 to gain from gear. Additional Defense still improves your Dodge, Parry, chance to be missed, and Block Chance after normal melee crits have been removed.

Normal blockable melee attacks use a single combat table roll. An attack that is missed, dodged, parried, or blocked can't also be a critical hit. If those outcomes fill the entire table, there is no room left for a crit:

Enemy Miss Chance + Your Dodge Chance + Your Parry Chance + Your Block Chance = 100% coverage

Use the values shown against a Level 63 enemy in your character sheet tooltips for this calculation as these already account for the boss's increased level. Shield Block adds 75% Block Chance for up to 7 seconds, leaving 25% to cover with Miss, Dodge, Parry, and your remaining Block Chance. This includes your baseline chances, talents, and gear.

This is why you don't always need to reach 440 Defense to prevent normal melee crits from Level 63 bosses as a Warrior. This protection only lasts while Shield Block is active and has charges, though. Once the buff expires or both charges are spent, you can be critically hit again unless your remaining stats already prevent it until Shield Block is usable again.

Block Value increases the damage stopped by your shield and the damage of Shield Slam. Block Chance doesn't increase Shield Slam damage.

Block Chance controls how often you block. At five points, Shield Specialization adds 5% Block Chance and gives 5 Rage whenever you block.

Extra Block Chance has less value while Shield Block already gives you enough to cover the combat table, and becomes more useful after its charges are spent.

Your auto attack Rage depends on the weapon's base speed, not the damage dealt. Armor and blocking don't reduce the Rage generated from taking a hit.

Heroic Strike and Cleave replace your next auto attack. Their real cost includes the listed Rage cost and the Rage that swing would have generated. Only spend excess Rage on them when you can still afford Shield Slam, Revenge, and Shield Block.

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