Equipment slots
Equipment is anything you can put into an equipment slot, as opposed to items that only sit in your bags. There are nine armor slots: head, shoulders, back, chest, wrists, hands, waist, legs and feet. On top of these come the neck, rings, trinkets and weapons, and some classes can hold a shield in the off hand, which limits them to one-handed weapons. Each item also has a quality and an item level.
Armor types by class
| Armor type | Classes |
|---|---|
| Cloth | Priest, Mage, Warlock |
| Leather | Rogue, Druid, Monk, Demon Hunter |
| Hunter, Shaman, Evoker | |
| Plate | Warrior, Paladin, Death Knight |
| Shield | Warrior, Paladin, Shaman |
A class can also wear any lighter armor type than its own (a Shaman can put on leather and cloth), but from level 27 characters get a 5% bonus to their primary stat for wearing their own type, so off-type armor is a poor choice. Since patch 7.0.3 warriors and paladins start in plate and hunters and shamans in mail from level 1. See Classes Overview for more about each class.
Primary stats
The four primary stats appear on the eight body armor slots, weapons and shields, while modern necks and rings carry only Stamina. Plate has Strength and Intellect, mail and leather have Agility and Intellect, and cloth has only Intellect. Gear switches to whichever primary stat your current specialization uses, so a plate helm works for a Holy Paladin (Intellect) and a Protection Paladin (Strength) alike.
| Stat | What it does | Used by |
|---|---|---|
| Stamina | The source of all health | Everyone; tanks the most |
| Strength | Raises attack power; also gives parry | Plate tanks and damage dealers (Death Knight, Warrior, Protection and Retribution Paladin) |
| Agility | Raises melee and ranged attack power; also gives dodge | Most leather and mail tanks and damage dealers (Rogue, Hunter, Demon Hunter, Feral and Guardian Druid, Brewmaster and Windwalker Monk, Enhancement Shaman) |
| Intellect | Raises spell power | All casters and healers in any armor (Mage, Priest, Warlock, Evoker, and the caster or healer specs of Druid, Monk, Paladin and Shaman) |
Secondary and tertiary stats
Each item (except trinkets) carries two of the four secondary stats. They are meant to be close in value for every class and spec, though not exactly equal.
| Stat | Effect |
|---|---|
| Critical Strike | Chance for damage and heals to do 200% in PvE (150% in PvP). Everyone has a 5% base chance, and Agility users get another 5%. |
| Haste | Faster auto-attacks, casts, ticks of damage and healing over time, and global cooldown; also refills energy, runes and focus faster. |
| Mastery | A different effect for each specialization, learned at level 10. |
| Versatility | More damage, healing and absorbs, and less damage taken at half the rate (5% gives +5% done and 2.5% less taken). |
Since Warlords of Draenor, gear can rarely roll a bonus: one tertiary stat, a gem socket (see Gems and Sockets) or Indestructible. The tertiary stats are Avoidance (less area damage taken), Leech (heal from part of your damage and healing), Speed (faster movement) and Indestructible (no durability loss). The idea is to make chasing one perfect best-in-slot item less important.
Tier sets
Tier sets are class-specific armor sets that traditionally drop in Raids, with strong set bonuses and a look unique to each class. Since patch 9.2 they can also be made by converting other gear at a catalyst. Many sets have 5 pieces that count toward the bonus; extra pieces are called off-set. A raid tier is a group of raids whose loot sits at about the same item level, and one set can be spread over several raids. Shortened list:
| Tier | Raid(s) |
|---|---|
| 1 | Molten Core |
| 2 | Blackwing Lair |
| 4 | Karazhan, Gruul's Lair, Magtheridon's Lair |
| 10 | Icecrown Citadel |
| 21 | Antorus, the Burning Throne |
| 28 | Sepulcher of the First Ones |
| 32 | Nerub-ar Palace |
| 35 | Dreamrift, Voidspire |
Sources
Game pictures: © Blizzard Entertainment · worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com
