Protection Warrior Tank Stat Priority — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1

1. The Basics of Stats for Protection Warriors

The stat priority for Protection Warriors is:

1. Haste
2. Armor
3. Versatility
4. Mastery
5. Critical Strike
6. Strength

It is important to understand that this priority shows the relative value of each stat per point. Non-secondary stats, that is Armor and Strength, are included in the priority because knowing their value compared to the secondary stats will help you make some gearing decisions. For example, since you value Haste more than Armor per point, that is the reason you enchant your weapon with the 600 Haste enchant rather than the 600 Armor enchant. The same can be said for 40 Haste gems compared to 40 Strength gems. Point being, while the vast majority of the time you only have to consider secondary stats when making gearing decisions, there are cases where you have to consider stats such as Armor and Strength as well. Knowing where those stats fall in the priority allows you to make better gearing decisions.

For Protection Warriors, the value of each stat is very close together. So while Critical Strike is the worst secondary stat, is it not by any means a "bad" stat. It is still very close in value to the better stats. Generally speaking, the stat priority should only be followed when comparing gear of the same item level. A piece of gear with a higher item level than what you currently have should be equipped regardless of its secondary stats.

In the same vein, it is also important to understand that having more stats is better than having "better" stats. For example, if you had to choose between 120 Critical Strike and 100 Haste, you are better off with the 120 Critical Strike.

2. Getting a Better Understanding of Protection Warrior Stats

2.1. Haste

Haste does a few things. It reduces the global cooldown, increases your attack speed, and reduces the cooldown on Shield Slam, Thunder Clap, and Revenge, resulting in increased Rage generation and damage. But most importantly, it reduces the cooldown of Shield Block. This gives you much more control over your active mitigation and helps smooth out your damage intake.

To expand on the above, the increased Rage generation increases the total amount of Ignore Pain you get proportionally to the amount your Haste is increased by. An X% Haste increase equates to X% more Rage over the course of a fight, which equates to X% more Ignore Pain. The extra Rage also contributes to further cooldown reduction via Anger Management.

2.2. Versatility

Versatility increases all your damage and healing done (including Ignore Pain), and decreases all damage taken. Versatility does not require luck or rely on playing a certain way. It reduces all damage, making it a solid stat for survivability.

Compared to other stats, it has greatly increased value on magic damage heavy fights, and is first in the priority in those situations. Other stats rely on you being able to block/parry attacks, or require the attack to be Physical damage for them to reduce damage.

2.3. Mastery

Mastery ( Mastery: Critical Block) increases your chance to block, your chance to critically block, and your Attack Power. Not only does it increase your overall damage reduction, the increased attack power also increases the size of your Ignore Pain.

2.4. Critical Strike

Critical Strike provides additional avoidance due to increased parry chance (thanks to Riposte). While it is a good stat for overall damage reduction, it is also unreliable.

2.5. Armor

Armor reduces Physical damage taken. It is a completely passive and consistent stat, making it quite good for survivability. It does absolutely nothing for damage, however.

2.6. Strength

Strength increases your Attack Power, which increases the size of your Ignore Pain. However, its main value comes from the Armor increase you get via Vanguard.

2.7. Stamina

There is a very common misconeption about Stamina in that it is only useful for "surviving one shots" or something similar. That is definitely part of it, and having enough health to survive mechanics is important, but it is not the whole story. Simply put, Stamina does the same thing as damage reduction does, that is, it reduces the impact damage has on you. The disadvantage Stamina has is that, while it increases your overall survivability, the damage you take has to be healed up. This is why stacking Stamina can be detrimental. You become a healing "sponge", making it difficult for healers to heal you. The point here is that Stamina is a good stat, and its value should be taken into consideration when making comparisons.

3. Changelog