Stats and attributes in WoW Forever explained

The five attributes

• Strength: Each point gives Warriors, Paladins, Shamans and Druids (in Bear and Cat Form) 2 attack power, all other classes 1. With a shield, Strength also raises your block value. as in WoW Classic
• Agility: Each point gives 2 armor and raises your critical strike chance and dodge. Rogues and Hunters get 1 attack power per point, Hunters also 2 ranged attack power. At level 60, 1% crit takes about 20 points for Warriors, about 29 for Rogues and about 53 for Hunters. as in WoW Classic
• Stamina: Each point gives 10 health; only the first 20 points give 1 each. Tanks need a lot of it, and so do Warlocks, because Life Tap turns health into mana. as in WoW Classic
• Intellect: Each point gives 15 mana; only the first 20 points give 1 each. Intellect also raises your spell critical strike chance (at level 60 roughly 60 points for 1%) and makes weapon skills go up faster. as in WoW Classic
• Spirit: Determines how fast health and mana come back. Mana from Spirit only flows once you have spent no mana for 5 seconds (the five-second rule). Spirit helps Priests and Mages the most. as in WoW Classic

Stats by class

●● important, ● useful, – barely. The rating is based on experience from WoW Classic; the BiS lists and the talent planner of your class show exactly which stats your spec needs. as in WoW Classic

What changes in WoW Forever

• In WoW Forever, hit chance counts for melee, ranged and spells together, and so does critical strike chance. Hybrid classes benefit most. official
• That is why items now just say “hit chance” or “critical strike chance” without naming melee or spells. In our database, 172 items have hit chance (mostly 1% to 2%) and 491 items have critical strike chance (mostly 0.5% to 2%). per game data
• Bonus healing also gives one third of its value as bonus damage. official In our data, 326 of 410 items with healing carry exactly one third as spell damage, e.g. Scepter of the False Prophet: +210 healing and +70 damage. per game data
• Weapon skill is still around, but in smaller amounts per item. official The items in our database give +1 to +4 weapon skill. per game data
• New compared with Classic is expertise: it lowers the chance that enemies dodge or parry your attacks (7 items). per game data
• What changes for each class's talents and abilities is on the class pages: Classes.

Armor, resistances and defense

• Armor: Armor reduces physical damage. Against attackers up to level 59 the formula below applies, capped at 75%. Example: 3,000 armor against a level 50 enemy reduces damage by about 39%. as in WoW Classic
• Resistances: Fire, Frost, Nature, Shadow and Arcane each have their own resistance. It lowers the damage of spells of that school on average. You reach the maximum of 75% with 5 × the attacker's level, so 315 against level 63 raid bosses. as in WoW Classic
• Defense: Defense lowers the chance to be hit and to be critically hit. For level 63 raid bosses to stop landing critical hits on a tank, the tank needs 440 defense. as in WoW Classic

Damage reduction = armor ÷ (armor + 400 + 85 × attacker level)

Class buffs for stats

Highest rank in each case according to the WoW Forever game data. per game data Divine Spirit and Blessing of Kings are baseline abilities in Forever. per fan sites

Hit chance and weapon skill

• Against enemies of your level, melee and ranged attacks miss about 5% of the time, spells about 4%. That is why hit chance on items is rarely worth it while leveling. as in WoW Classic
• Against raid bosses (level 63) you miss much more often. In Classic, about 9% hit chance for melee and ranged (one weapon, weapon skill 300) and 16% for spells were the cap; more does nothing there. Dual wielding adds 19% miss chance that cannot be fully offset. as in WoW Classic
• Blizzard has not said yet whether WoW Forever keeps these caps now that hit chance counts for weapons and spells together. unconfirmed
• The highest weapon skill is 5 × your level, so 300 at level 60. Raid bosses have 315 defense. Every point of weapon skill beyond that lowers misses and the damage lost to glancing blows. as in WoW Classic
• You have to level up new weapon types first: with low skill you miss very often. Where to learn weapons is listed under class trainers. as in WoW Classic

Spell power and healing

• Spell power raises the damage and healing of your spells. In WoW Forever it appears on 1,086 items as one shared value for damage and healing. per game data
• Not every spell gets the full bonus. Rule of thumb: spells with a 3.5-second cast time get all of it, shorter ones a share (cast time ÷ 3.5). Spells with area or extra effects get less. as in WoW Classic
• Items with healing (410 in the database) also give one third of it as damage; for healers they remain the first choice. official
• Mana per 5 seconds also works while casting, unlike Spirit. In long fights it is often worth more to healers. as in WoW Classic

Which stats matter while leveling

• Melee: Warrior, Rogue, Paladin, Shaman, Druid: first Strength or Agility, then Stamina. While leveling the weapon matters most; a weapon with more damage per second beats almost any other stat. as in WoW Classic
• Hunter: Agility above all, plus Intellect for mana and Stamina. Your ranged weapon is your most important item. as in WoW Classic
• spell damage: Mage, Warlock, Priest, Shaman, Druid: Intellect and Stamina; Spirit shortens the breaks between fights. Spell power is worth it as soon as you find it on items. as in WoW Classic
• Healing: Intellect, Spirit and healing. In dungeons, mana regeneration matters more than critical strikes. as in WoW Classic
• Tanks: Stamina, Armor and defense. Warriors also need Strength for more damage and threat. as in WoW Classic
• Hit chance and defense only matter in raids. While leveling it is enough to wear items with your main stat and keep your weapon up to date. as in WoW Classic
• Read on: Beginner's guide, Leveling guide, Tier list and the Item database, where you can filter by stats such as Strength, Agility or Intellect.

Stats in the item database

Numbers from our Item database with 5,224 items. The link opens it filtered and sorted by that stat.

FAQ

More WoW Forever Guides

• Beginner's guide
  Getting started in WoW Forever: picking a class, leveling route and checklist.
• What's New in WoW Forever?
  Every change compared to Classic at a glance.
• Forever vs. Classic
  Every difference, topic by topic, with sources.
• Rulesets and Names
  Normal, PvP, RP, Hardcore and name reservation.
• Races and Classes
  Skyborne and every race and class combination.
• Raids
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• PvP
  Honor, rank points, ranks 1–14 and the new battleground.
• Legacy System
  65 challenges, three trees, cosmetic rewards.
• Which class suits me?
  Quiz with 8 questions and a class recommendation.
• BiS lists
  The best gear for every class and playstyle.
• Dungeons by level
  Which dungeon fits your level, plus the raids.
• Professions 1–300
  Leveling routes for every profession with materials and a shopping list.
• Best professions
  Which profession suits which class.
• Making gold
  Honest ways to earn gold, no buying, no bots.
• Release and Countdown
  Every date up to the raid launch.
• Editions and prices
  All editions, prices and what the subscription includes.
• Roadmap
  Dates and phases through 2027, confirmed or open.
• Name generator
  First and last names for every race, with a rules check.
• Class quests
  Every class quest chain for each class, by level.
• Class trainers
  Where every class finds its trainers, with coordinates.
• Macros
  Ready-made macros for all nine classes to copy.
• Dungeon quests
  Every quest to pick up before each dungeon as a checklist.
• Quest Chains
  Every quest chain by zone, in the right order.
• Librams and Arcanums
  All eight librams with materials, costs and bonuses.
• Tier list
  The strongest classes and specs by role.
• Skyborne guide
  The new race: factions, racial abilities and starting zone.
• Hardcore
  What is confirmed and what is still open.
• Onyxia attunement
  Every attunement quest as a checklist.
• Launch time worldwide
  When WoW Forever launches in your time zone.
• Dates and countdown
  All dates up to launch and beyond, with a calendar.
• Server status
  Servers, queues and known issues during launch week.
• What to do at which level?
  Zones, quests and dungeons for every level.
• Riding
  Required level, cost and mounts.
• Camping
  Every camp object and what it does.
• Lockpicking
  Rogue guide, skill 1–300.
• Pick Pocket
  What rogues can steal and where.
• Best addons
  The best addons for leveling, raids, PvP and gold.
• Install addons
  How to get addons into WoW Forever.
• Reputation
  Every faction with its rewards and the quests that grant reputation.
• Launch checklist
  Your day-one checklist for WoW Forever.
• Legacy planner
  Plan the perk trees and tick off all 65 challenges.
• Patch notes
  What changes in the game data from build to build.