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So it’s time for an awfully technical post. Although I know I’m not the only one to deliver this information, I hope that I can provide a unique way of explaining it so that makes sense. Here’s a breakdown of certain stats in World of Warcraft relevant to tanking, and my opinions on them.

Threat: Threat is a mechanic in World of Warcraft that controls the (raid boss or) monsters’ desire to attack you. The highest person on the (raid boss or) monster determines who they will attack. The stats that affect a tanks’ threat are: strength, hit, and expertise (these will be explained further down).

Opinion: So as a tank, your job is to be at the top of this list, meaning you are causing the most threat. In a raid environment this is a top priority, because if the (raid boss or) monster runs amok, killing people who are not designed to take hits, the raid will cease to function.


Strength: Strength is a character stat that affects the damage capabilities of your skills. The more strength you have, the higher your damage will be. The more damage you do, the higher your threat will be. Strength also plays a part in how much damage is blocked with your shield, which is explained in the block value section.

Opinion: Strength is not a stat to worry about in general, your other stats are of greater concern, and strength always improves with better gear.


Hit rating: Hit rating is a stat found on gear that contributes to your overall chance to hit a (raid boss or) monster. It takes approximately 32.79 hit rating to gain 1% hit.

Hit: On your character sheet hit determines the percentage chance that you have to hit a monster. It’s an odd thing in World of Warcraft, because as a tank once you have 8% hit, you will always hit the boss (100%).

Opinion: The hit percentage a tank has is one of the most beneficial stats to have, but in moderation. Once you pass 8% hit, it’s essentially a useless stat. It’s also hard to give a static number to how much will be most effective for your raid, if the tank has enough hit (balanced with other stats) so that he can cause more threat than the raid, he’s fine.


Expertise rating: Expertise rating is a stat found on gear that contributes to your overall expertise. It takes 8.1974973675 expertise rating to gain 1 expertise.

Expertise: Expertise reduces the chances that your attacks and abilities will be dodged or parried by the boss. 26 expertise will cause the boss to be unable to dodge your attacks. 56 expertise will cause the boss to be unable to parry your attacks.

Opinion: Expertise is similar to hit, because it controls how many of your skills and attacks actually connect to the boss. Expertise affects your overall threat, and is also good in moderation, like hit. There is not enough expertise rating to hit the 56 expertise mark. It’s best to settle for around 26 expertise, going much higher than this will not dramatically increase a tank’s threat, so it’s best to concentrate stats elsewhere once a tank meets this benchmark.


Stamina: Stamina is a character stat that directly affects a tank’s health. 1 stamina equates to 20 health.

Opinion: Stamina may seem simple, but it’s one of the best stats for tanking.
Essentially more stamina gives people who are supposed to heal you, more time to react. For example; if a tank has 20,000 health and takes 18,000 damage, they are left with 2,000 health, and must be healed immediately, otherwise the next attack will kill them. However, if a tank has 40,000 health, and takes 18,000 damage, they are left 22,000 health, and can take an additional hit before they die, granting healers a few precious seconds to heal them. Stamina is perhaps the most valuable tanking stat, and should be concentrated on regardless of the difficulty of the raid or dungeon.


Armor: Armor is a character stat, and a stat found on gear that contributes to physical damage reduction.

Opinion: Armor is the second most valuable stat behind stamina. Armor is so valuable because a tank will always take damage from a (raid boss or) monster. It is impossible to avoid every attack a (raid boss or) monster deals during a fight, so armor is a tank’s best friend. Armor is also important because bosses deal raw hits as high as 85,000 or more, and armor can reduce the damage from these attacks to a much more manageable 25,000.


Defense rating: Defense rating is a stat found on gear that contributes to a tanks chance to be missed, increases dodge rating, increases parry rating, increases block rating, and reduces your chance to be critically hit. Defense is subject to diminishing returns, so this stat becomes less effective the more a tank has.

Defense skill: Defense skill is an important stat to mind at all levels of raids. Once a tank has enough defense rating to reach 540 defense skill, they can no longer be critically hit by bosses. Removing critical hits from the damage table is vitally important to regulate incoming damage, and make it much more stable. A critical hit from a boss delivers double damage, and can create a situation where a tank can be killed in one hit, which would cause the death of everyone in the raid.

Opinion: 540, 540, 540! You must always have 540 defense skill as a tank. It’s crucial that tanks reach this number, but once it is reached, it only needs to be maintained. It’s important to always watch this number; it’s easy to forget, especially with gear upgrades.


Dodge rating: Dodge rating is a stat found on gear that controls how much dodge a tank has. Dodge is subject to diminishing returns, so this stat becomes less effective the more a tank has.

Dodge: Dodge is a tank stat that is a percentage chance. Dodge itself is a percentage chance for a tank to completely avoid an attack.

Opinion: Dodge is the third most important stat for tank survivability. Completely avoiding a bosses attack gives healers time to restore your health. Because dodge isn’t reliable, it’s not a stat worth concentrating on to a large extent.


Parry rating: Parry rating is a stat found on gear that controls how much parry a tank has. Parry is subject to much more harsh diminishing returns than dodge, so this stat becomes much less effective the more a tank has.

Parry: Parry is a tank stat that is a percentage chance. Parry itself is a percentage chance for a tank to completely avoid an attack.



Block: Block is a tank stat that is a percentage chance. A blocked attack essentially subtracts your block value from incoming physical damage.

Opinion: Block is one of the most outdated mechanics to date. When bosses are attacking for damage in excess of 25,000, subtracting 1500 from these kinds of attacks are negligible. Block is not a stat worth stacking, and should be placed very low on the priority list.

Block value: Block value is a stat found on gear that is subtracted from a successfully blocked attack

Block rating: Block rating is a stat found on gear that adds to your percentage chance to block.

That’s all for the complicated and technical posts. From here out I will discuss more strategy and opinion and fewer fine details. Thanks for reading.

To make it up to you, I'll show you a screenshot, here's a cool picture of my guild and I working on the newest boss, Halion, in Ruby Sanctum.