Protection Warrior Tank Stat Priority - The War Within Pre-Patch (2024)

Last updated on Jul 23, 2024 at 00:30by Mwahi47 comments

The general stat priority for Protection Warriors is:

1. Item level;
2. Haste;
3. Versatility = Critical Strike;
4. Mastery.

Versatility is roughly equal to Critical Strike. Versatility provides youconstant damage reduction, and also works against magic damage, but Critical strikeexcels in mitigating physical attacks, through Parry.

For Protection Warriors, the value of each stat is very close together. Sowhile Mastery is the worst secondary stat, is it not by anymeans a "bad" stat. It is still very close in value to the better stats.Generally speaking, the stat priority should only be followed when comparinggear of the same item level. A piece of gear with a higher item level than whatyou currently have should be equipped regardless of its secondary stats.

In the same vein, it is also important to understand that havingmore stats is better than having "better" stats. For example, if youhad to choose between 20 Critical Strike and 10 Haste, you are better off withthe 20 Critical Strike.

Enchanting and Gemming generally also follows the Stat priority, since themore stats you have the better. There are some enchants, however, that do notprovide any stats, but other beneficial effects. To see if any of them are worthusing, take a look at our .

Diminishing returns for secondary stats were implemented in the beginning ofShadowlands. In general what this means is that after reaching 30% Haste(or any other secondary stat) from gear, it will start taking increasingly morerating to increase another percentage. This is good to keep in mind when tryingto optimize your gear with the best stats. So, for example, if you reach 30% Haste,you might be better off focusing on other secondary stats to gain the fullbenefit as long as they are below 30%.

Below, you can find a detailed explanation of what each of the stats provides forProtection Warriors. As a tank, your main priority is to survive, andyou should optimize your stats as such. If you are comfortable with the classand have no issues surviving, you can start looking to optimize for a moreDPS-oriented stat priority. To get a better idea of this, you can take a look at ourSimulations page.

Haste does a few things. It reduces the global cooldown, increasesyour attack speed, and reduces the cooldown on Shield Slam, Thunder Clap, 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 helpssmooth out your damage intake.

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

Versatility increases all your damage and healing done (including Ignore Pain), and decreases all damage taken. Versatility does notrequire 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 heavyfights, and is first in the priority in those situations. Other stats rely onyou being able to block/parry attacks, or require the attack to be Physicaldamage for them to reduce damage.

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

As seen from the stat priority above, Critical Strike increases in value forMythic+. This is because it provides both defensive ( Riposte)and offensive (increased critical strike chance) benefits. The majority of thedamage taken in dungeons is melee, meaning that with higher Critical Strike, youcan parry more often, reducing the incoming damage. Critical Strikes alsoincrease your overall damage output, helping you complete the key faster.While it is a good stat for overall damage reduction, it is also unreliable anddoes nothing against any other type of damage.

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

Armor reduces Physical damage taken. It is a completely passive andconsistent stat, making it quite good for survivability. It does absolutelynothing for damage, however.

There is a very common misconception about Stamina in that it is only usefulfor "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 thewhole 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 hasis that, while it increases your overall survivability, the damage you take hasto be healed up. This is why stacking Stamina can be detrimental. You become ahealing "sponge", making it difficult for healers to heal you. The point here isthat Stamina is a good stat, and its value should be taken into considerationwhen making comparisons.