Attribute (WoW)  

All characters (of a race and class) are created equal, but they do not stay that way. Eventually players start to get better gear, level up, and sometimes receive buffs from other players. These characters gradually become stronger due to increases in their attributes.

There are quite a few different attributes in the game, nearly all of which can be found on your Character Sheet. There are 5 primary attributes that are most frequently found on equipment, and then quite a few others that are slightly less frequently seen but no less important.

Primary Attributes

The primary attributes are Strength, Agility, Stamina, Intellect and Spirit. Each of these affects your character in different ways, and some are far more significant to certain classes.

• Strength (str) adds 2 points to your melee attack power, (1 for rogues and hunters,) meaning your physical attacks are stronger, and also affects the amount of damage blocked with a shield. Strength is an important attribute for classes that fight primarily with a weapon, such as Warriors and Paladins.

• Agility (agi) increases a character's chance to crit (non-spell,) their ranged attack power by 2, (and 1 to melee for rogues and hunters,) their chance to dodge, and their armor by 2 per point. Agility is important especially for Rogues and Hunters.

• Stamina (sta) adds 10 health to the character. Stamina is extremely important to any class that wants to tank.

• Intellect (int) adds 15 mana to the character, and increases the chance to get a critical hit with a spell. Intellect is important for classes that go through mana very quickly, such as Mages and Shamans.

• Spirit (spi) adds to the health and mana regeneration of a character. Because the effects of regeneration are situational, spirit is often considered the weakest of the five, but it is still important for casters who depend on sustaining through long battles, such as raid healers.

Prior to Burning Crusade, it was uncommon to see attributes other than these on items before about level 50. Thus, a majority of the equipment your character will find while leveling will only have these five stats on them.

Secondary Attributes

Secondary attributes work more directly than primary attributes. In fact, secondary attributes are often what the primary attributes affect. For more specific information about the effects of each of these attributes, see the article for that specific statistic.

Defensive Attributes

• Armor is the most easily-recognized. Armor reduces the amount of damage a character takes from physical attacks and appears on items of all levels.

• Defense reduces the chance of taking a critical or crushing blow, and increases chance to dodge, block, or parry.

• Resistances reduces the affect of a particular school of magic against the target. With enough resistance, all damage is reduced by up to 75% and increases the odds that a total resist will occur.

• Dodge Rating increases the likelihood of dodging. Likewise, Parry Rating increases the odds of parrying.

• Block Rating increases the amount of damage prevented with a successful block. It does not increase the chance of a block.

• Resilience is primarily found on PvP gear, and reduces the chance to take a critical blow, either physical or spell, and also reduces the amount of damage taken from a crit or from a DoT effect.

Physical Attributes

• Weapon Skill is a quality no longer (as of version 2.3) available on items, however your character's skill with a weapon does increase through use of that weapon type. Weapon Skill is the exact opposite of Defense, increasing chances of landing a critical blow and decreasing chances to be dodged, blocked, or parried.

• Attack Power (AP) directly increases the amount of damage dealt with attacks. Your character will have both a melee attack power (MAP) and a ranged attack power (RAP). Attack Power on items will affect both, and 14 points of attack power adds to the DPS of your attacks by 1.

• Crit Rating increases the odds of dealing a critical strike with melee or ranged. At level 70, it takes 22 points of crit rating to add 1% chance to crit.

• Hit Rating reduces the chance to miss by 1% for each 15.75 points (for a level 70 character.)

• Haste Rating reduces the delay between attacks. It takes 15.75 haste rating to add 1% to attack speed. Note that this does not simply reduce the attack speed by 1%. 100% haste is not instant attacks.

• Expertise replaced weapon skill ratings in version 2.3, and reduces the chance to be dodged or parried in melee combat. It has no effect on ranged attacks.

• Armor Penetration directly reduces the amount of armor your target is considered to have when attacking.

Spell Attributes

• Spell Damage (or +damage), usually written in the form "increases damage and healing done by magical spells and effects by up to X," is the primary way a spellcaster increases the damage they deal.

• Healing is similar to Spell Damage, but specifically mentioning healing effects. The quantities of +healing are generally higher than basic spell damage. In version 2.3, all items with +healing also had a +spell damage component added to them.

• Mana Regeneration (MP5) adds mana to your character every 5 seconds. Unlike Spirit, mana regeneration always functions, but at a slightly lower rate.

• Spell Crit Rating is identical to Crit Rating, but for spells.

• Spell Hit Rating is identical to Hit Rating, but for resistances rather than misses.

• Penetration reduces the amount of resistance a target is considered to have.

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