In-Depth Stat Guide for 19s (with Scaling Formulas)

Lebaidin

Lebaidin

Veteran
In-Depth Stat Guide for 19s (with Scaling Formulas)​

6/13/20: Completed Hit & Spell Resistance sections.

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Even though Classic has been theorycrafted to death, Blizzard still isn't very clear about how certain stats work.

Although there are plenty of helpful scaling formulas out there, they're basically all catered to Level 60s and have little use to Level 19 players.

Here's a handy guide that explains each stat and lists relevant formulas in regard to Level 19 twinking.

In this guide, we'll cover the following primary stats:

  • Strength
  • Agility
  • Stamina
  • Intellect
  • Spirit
  • Armor

the following secondary stats:

  • Attack Power
  • Spell Power and Healing Power
  • Hit
  • Critical Strike
  • Haste
  • Dodge
  • Parry
  • Block
  • Spell Resistance
  • Spell Penetration

and the following tertiary stats:

  • Weapon Damage
  • MP5.

Primary Stats
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Primary stats include Strength, Agility, Stamina, Intellect, Spirit, and Armor. These stats are listed in white on gear and (usually) play the biggest role in your character's power.

Strength
Strength is most associated with melee Attack Power, but it benefits classes in different ways.

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For every point of Strength,
  • Druids (in Bear Form), Paladins, Shamans, and Warriors receive 2 melee Attack Power
  • Druids (outside of Bear Form), Hunters, Mages, Priests, Rogues, and Warlocks receive 1 melee Attack power.

Interestingly enough, Paladins, Shamans, and Warriors benefit from Strength even more as it also increases the amount of damage they can block with shield (block value).

  • For every 20 points of Strength, these classes can block one additional point of physical damage.

Although this an additional source of mitigation for these classes, it is so minuscule and should not be cared about too much.

Sources of Strength
You can obtain extra Strength from the following sources:

Additional Thoughts on Strength
See Attack Power for more information.


Agility
Unlike Strength, Agility is undeniably useful for every class as it provides a significant amount of Armor, Critical Strike, and Dodge. It also provides Attack Power to some classes.

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For every point of Agility,

  • Every class gains 2 Armor

  • Hunters and Rogues gain 1 melee Attack power
  • Hunters receive 2 ranged Attack Power
  • Rogues and Warriors gain 1 ranged Attack Power.

As for Critical Strike,

  • Druids, Paladins, Shamans, and Warriors receive 0.13% melee Critical Strike.***
  • Mages, Priests, and Warlocks receive about 0.08% melee Critical Strike.
  • Hunters receive about 0.07% melee Critical Strike.
  • Rogues receive 0.1316% melee Critical Strike (confirmed by Symandria).

According to Wowhead, Hunters and Rogues receive the same amounts listed above for ranged Critical Strike. This is probably true for Warriors as well.

Finally, for Dodge,

  • All classes except Hunters and Rogues receive 0.13% Dodge chance.
  • Hunters receive 0.14% Dodge chance.
  • Rogues receive 0.2633% Dodge chance (confirmed by Symandria).

Sources of Agility
You can gain extra Agility from the following sources:


Additional Thoughts on Agility
Agility is the main way to gain Dodge and melee Critical Strike for all classes at level 19. I wouldn't recommend for most classes to go out of their way to get a ton of Agility, but it definitely helps to have the extra Agility from BiS pieces of gear (Blackened Defias Armor, Sentinel's Medallion, Seal of Wrynn).

I would highly recommend that even Paladins and Warriors get 15 Agility glove enchant in Phase 5 as it will give 30 Armor, 1.95% melee Critical Strike, and 1.95% Dodge. Even if 7 Strength enchant would give more overall DPS, the Armor and ~2% Dodge is not worth hitting 1-2 harder per hit on your Shadowfang.

Stamina
Stamina is the most loved stat in the 19 bracket. It's undeniably great and almost always useful.

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For all classes,

  • 1 Stamina grants 10 Health.

Additionally, due to Taurens' Endurance racial, they receive 10.5 Health per Stamina.


Sources of Stamina
You can gain extra Stamina from the following sources:


Additional Thoughts on Stamina
In a 1-to-1 comparison, Stamina probably beats every other primary stat. The 19 meta very much revolves around it and in any competitive premade setting, every player will have at least 1000 HP (the majority of which would come Stamina).

What's interesting about Stamina is that it's also a very pug-friendly stat. It really helps you carry a shitty team and deal with situations in which you have to flag carry or 1v2, 1v3, etc.

Clearly, Stamina is king for FCing (especially with overall damage being low in the 19 bracket) and is essential in premades.

That being said, I do feel like there are situations in which you can have too much Stamina. For example, if you're on offense against a team whose defense has very little damage, you could likely get away with a damage-heavy gear set with which you only have 1k HP or so.

My Mage has a damage set in which I have 1k HP, 1.3k Mana, and my Frostbolts do 95 non-crit. In this set, my Frostbolts do almost twice as much as the base damage (54-61) which makes Offense a hell of a lot easier.

Intellect
Intellect is Stamina's smarter, older brother.

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For every point of Intellect,

  • Druids, Mages, Paladins, Priests, Shamans, and Warlocks gain 15 Mana.
  • Gnomes gain 15.75 gain Mana due to their Expansive Mind racial.

Curiously enough, Intellect also grants a small amount of Spell Critical Strike to casters. According to Classic Wowhead's Gear Planner, for each point of Intellect,
  • Druids gain 0.058% Spell Critical Strike
  • Mages gain 0.063% Spell Critical Strike
  • Paladins gain 0.044% Spell Critical Strike*
  • Priests gain 0.063% Spell Critical Strike
  • Shamans gain 0.055% Spell Critical Strike
  • Warlocks gain 0.057% Spell Critical Strike
*This does not make sense as Paladins require the fewest points of Intellect at 60 to get 1% Spell Critical Strike Chance.

Note that I used Wowhead's tool on a level 19 non-Gnome character (and not a level 60 character). However, I would be shocked if their tool was 100% correct for level 19s.

Finally, Intellect also "increases the rate at which weapon skills improve." This has little to no relevance for 19 twinks.

Sources of Intellect
You can gain extra Intellect from the following sources:


Additional Thoughts on Intellect
In my opinion, Intellect is a much more complex stat than Stamina. In a sense, Druids, Paladins, Priests, and Shamans can convert Mana (mostly coming from Intellect) into Health for themselves and their allies through their healing spells.

This begs the question: "How much Stamina and Intellect should each class have?". At the end of the day, this will come down to play style, but it does make me wonder what the sweet spots are for each class.

Finally, it is worth noting that stacking Intellect "up-front" can allow you to get the best of both worlds. For instance, if you start a fight with a Twisted Chanter's Staff enchanted with 22 Intellect, you can use 480 Mana, then swap to a healing or damage staff and lose nothing (except your maximum Mana). In this sense, Intellect encourages much more flexible weapon swapping to optimize each situation.

Spirit
Spirit is the red-headed stepchild of the primary stats.

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Spirit increases health regeneration outside of combat and increases Mana regeneration when you haven't used Mana for at least 5 seconds (Five Second Rule).

For every point of Spirit,

  • Druids gain 0.22 extra Mana per 2.5 seconds
  • Hunters, Paladins, Shamans, and Warlocks gain 0.2 extra Mana per 2.5 seconds
  • Mages and Priests gain 0.25 extra Mana per 2.5 seconds.

As for Spirit's effect on Health regeneration, there isn't much information out there. Here's what I've noticed from basic testing:

  • With 46 Spirit, my Mage gets 7 HP every 2.5 seconds.
  • With 79 Spirit, my Mage gets 10 HP every 2.5 seconds.

In addition, if you're sitting, your health will regenerate 33% faster (this multiplier is not applied to food).


Sources of Spirit
You can gain extra Spirit from the following sources:

Additional Thoughts on Spirit
Unlike every other primary stat, Spirit is 100% useless for non-Troll characters that are in combat and casting. That being said, it is a very useful stat, but very different from all the others.

I would highly recommend having as little Spirit as possible while in combat, but swap to gear with Spirit out of combat while not casting.

At the very least, I would suggest swapping to Seraph's Strike or Staff of the Friar enchanted with 20 Spirit while out of combat. For my Mage, this increases my Mana regeneration from 27 per 2.5 seconds to 35 per 2.5 seconds which is actually quite a bit.

I'm not sure how to feel about full-on, sweaty Spirit sets as you're kind of screwed if you get jumped on while you have the set equipped.


Armor
Armor is one of the most reliable ways to mitigate physical damage.

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For all classes, physical damage reduction from Armor is calculated as follows:

Physical Damage Reduction % = (Armor)/(Armor + 2015).

Sources of Armor

Additional Thoughts on Armor
The most interesting takeaway from the Armor formula is that Armor has diminishing returns. That is, for every additional point of armor you obtain, you will receive less and less physical damage reduction (per point of Armor).

This indicates stacking Armor isn't necessarily bad, but is oftentimes not worth getting if you have to sacrifice Stamina.

A common misconception is that "Armor is better than Stamina because it reduces the damage you take from every single physical hit." Although the second portion of this claim is true, the claim in its entirety is a qualitative fallacy and usually stated by people who are too lazy to pull out a calculator. Honestly, just pull out a calculator and determine if losing X Stamina is worth gaining Y Armor.

This is not to say that Armor is bad. In fact, in many situations, stacking Stamina and stacking Armor are not mutually exclusive whatsoever (see Beetle Clasps and Sentry Cloak).

Clearly, Armor doesn't do anything against any spells or any weapon or enchant procs. A BiS Rogue dual-wielding weapons with Fiery will still probably melt an Armor-stacked Paladin or Druid.


Secondary Stats​

Secondary stats are stats that still contribute to your character's power, but not to the extent of a primary stat.


Attack Power
Attack Power is one of the most raw ways of looking at physical damage.

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To convert Attack Power to DPS, use the following formula:

DPS increase from Attack Power = (Attack Power)/14.

To determine the effect Attack Power will have on your weapon damage, use the following formula:

Weapon Damage increase from Attack Power = (Weapon Speed*Attack Power)/14.

Note that this number is calculated before your enemy's physical damage reduction from Armor is applied.

Sources of Attack Power
Your class can gain Attack Power directly from certain items or by gaining the appropriate primary stat (see the sections above).

Additional Thoughts on Attack Power
Attack Power is clearly one of the main stats used by physical-damage classes to increase their overall damage.

There are two things worth mentioning about Attack Power.

1. In a sense, critical strikes benefit two-fold from Attack Power. If your Attack Power increases your weapon damage by 30, then it will increase your critical weapon damage by 60. This creates significant synergy between Critical Strike Chance and Attack Power.

2. The more Armor a target has, the less useful Attack Power will be. This means that there are many situations in which Crusader is undesirable and leads to a pitiful increase in damage when compared to Fiery or Lifestealing.


Spell Power and Healing Power
Spell Power and Healing Power are the much less understood counterparts of Attack Power.

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These stats are famous for having the confusing "up to" language.

Why did Blizzard decide to phrase Spell Power like the following?

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Although super vague, this wording is 100% correct. If you have 1 Spell Power, all of your spells will deal at most 1 point of extra damage.

Spell Power Coefficients
Should a 1.5-second Frostbolt deal just as much damage as a 1.8-second one? Of course not. Similarly, the 1.5-second Frostbolt should not benefit from Spell Power as much the 1.8-second one should.

This brings us to the idea of Spell Power coefficients.

To ensure that Spell Power was a balanced stat that was fair to all spells, Blizzard decided to assign a coefficient to each of them. As the name suggests, this would determine how much extra damage, healing, or absorption a spell should receive per point of Spell Power.

For example, if a Frostbolt had a coefficent of 0.35, then 1 point of Spell Power would increase its damage by 0.35.

The following factors determine a spell's Spell Power coefficient:

  • Type of spell (Direct, Single Target, Multiple Effects, DoT, etc.)
  • Cast time
  • Level the spell is obtained (if this level is less than 20).

This last bulleted point is why you can't trust any level 60 Spell Power coefficient lists. These do not account for the Spell Power penalty given to spells obtained before Level 20.

Spell Power Coefficient List

Sources of Spell Power

Additional Thoughts on Spell Power
Spell Power is by far one of the most underrated stats on 19. I've been twinking for about a year or two now and I've always noticed the lack of magical damage. I can't tell you how many times Horde FCs survived because we had little to no magical damage.

High spell damage is crucial as it completely blows through Armor and most players have very low Resistance values. I encounter tons of high Armor EFCs in PUGs and love going up against them on my Mage with high Spell Power (did someone say 100 non-crit Frostbolts?).

Moreover, Shadow-Power Warlocks are very hard to play, but they are incredibly scary when played by a good player. Corruption alone will tick for about 30 and that does not factor in any damage from Curse of Agony.

Hit
Hit is arguably the strongest of the secondary stats as it reduces tons of unfavorable RNG for your attacks.

That being said, Hit reduces your chance to "Miss", but has no effect on your enemies blocking, dodging, or parrying your attacks.

It is worth noting that the hit cap for PVP differs between physical attacks and spells. It also differs between main hand weapons and off-hand weapons. The numbers below revolve around level 19s fighting other level 19s.

Physical Hit
  • You need 5% melee Hit for your Main Hand and ranged attacks to never miss. Note that all physical Rogue abilities at 19 are performed with the Main Hand.
  • You need 24% melee Hit for your Off-Hand attacks to never miss (good luck lol).

Spell Hit
  • If you cast a spell against a level 19 enemy, you will have a baseline 4% chance to miss them.
  • Through talents you can reduce this number to 1%.
  • The spell hit cap at level 19 is 3%.
  • Even if you have 3% Spell Hit or more, your spells will always miss a level 1 to 19 target 1% of the time.
A common misconception is that Spell Miss and Spell Resist are the same thing. They actually operate very differently.

Blizzard decided to display occurrences of Spell Miss and occurrences of Spell Resist as "Resist". This has caused a ton of confusion for players about why their spell didn't land.

Interestingly enough, getting over 3% Spell Hit does help reduce the benefit enemies receive from Spell Resistance (from gear, enchants, racials, etc.). See the Spell Resistance section for more info about how Spell Hit and Spell Resistance interplay.

It is also worth noting that Spell Hit is phrased pretty strangely in talent trees. You will notice that some classes have access to "Reduces enemies' chance to resist" talents. These are essentially Spell Hit talents.

For example, a Mage can Hit cap their Frost and Fire spells by getting 2/3 Elemental Precision.

Sources of Hit
For melee Hit,

  • Talents (Paladins' Precision and Rogues' Precision)
  • Weapon Skill (only outside of battlegrounds).
Note that Paladins' Precision talent does not increase the Hit Chance of their Holy spells (RIP Hammer of Justice)

For ranged Hit,

  • Weapon Skill (only outside of battlegrounds).

It has not been confirmed whether Weapon Skill racials affect combat in battlegrounds. Wowhead implicitly claims that they do not, but I would argue that it would require very intensive testing.

Although Wowhead is my go-to for almost everything related to Classic WoW, we all know how inaccurate their 19 twink guides ended up.

For spell Hit,


Additional Thoughts on Hit
At this point, the best offensive Paladins and Rogues have come to the general consensus that their meta talent builds include Precision. Getting your Main Hand weapon Hit capped (or close to it) leads to much higher DPS overall and landing much more CCs.

What's interesting however, is that such a consensus does not exist for Mages and Warlocks. Due to Spell Hit's and Spell Resistance's general obscurity, you will find quite a bit of variation between the best Mages' and Warlocks' talent builds.

My opinion is that:

  • Alliance and Horde Warlocks should have at least 2/5 Suppression to get Fear Hit capped. Having a Fear miss usually means you die or your target gets away.
  • Alliance Warlocks should spec into 4/5 or 5/5 Suppression to help mitigate Undeads' Shadow Resistance.


Critical Strike
Critical Strikes are an RNG-based way of increasing your damage.

See formulas in Agility and Intellect sections for how Critical Strike Chance scales with each one.

It is worth noting that physical Critical Strikes and spell Critical Strikes operate differently. Specifically,

  • Melee Critical Strikes deal 100% extra damage
  • Spell Critical Strikes deal 50% extra damage.

The two values above are calculated before any bonuses from talents. The following classes can increase their Critical Strike damage with talents:


Why did Blizzard make it so that physical attacks have a higher Critical Strike damage bonus than spells?

Simply put, it is almost always a lot easier to hit with spells than physical attacks. Although casters have to worry about Spell Resistance, they don't have to worry about Block, Dodge, and Parry.

Sources of Critical Strike
For melee/ranged Critical Strike,


For spell Critical Strike,


Note that all pure Critical Strike % from gear gets converted to Critical Strike Rating in TBC. This means the two DPS Naxxramas enchants will give 4-5% Critical Strike instead of just 1%. Imagine getting 5 talent points worth of Critical Strike from one enchant.

Additional Thoughts on Critical Strike
Critical Strike is a stat that you will naturally get through talents as well your BiS gear and enchants.

Haste
Contrary to popular belief, Haste actually exists in Classic by a different name: Attack Speed.

Sources of Haste


Additional Thoughts on Haste
Overall, Haste is one of the least valuable secondary stats in Classic. The only case where I see it worth getting is on a Rogue (especially when they need to dump Combo Points, but don't want to Expose Armor, etc.).

In the Hunter's case, the Improved Aspect of the Hawk talent is not as good as it sounds. Even if you have good RNG and get it to proc, you still have to hope that specific 12-second window is a good one to get more shots in.

The talent's 30% haste buff also throws off Hunters who have gotten moving between Auto Shots down to a science.

Dodge
Dodge is the defensive counterpart of Critical Strike and the RNG-reliant way of avoiding melee attacks.

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To see how Dodge scales with Agility, see the Agility section.

A few additional notes about Dodge:

  • You cannot Dodge from behind
  • You cannot Dodge a Hunter's ranged attacks or any spells
  • You cannot Dodge while Incapacitated or Stunned (other forms of CC need verification)
  • You can Dodge while casting (this is from my experience, but needs confirmation).

Sources of Dodge


Additional Thoughts on Dodge
A major benefit of Dodge that is oftentimes forgotten is that it is one of the few ways to avoid physical CC abilities. This means Evasion is not only a defensive ability, but also an offensive one as well.

As an immobile class, Rogues can use Evasion to avoid Disarm, Gouge, Hamstrings and Wing Clips and stay on an EFC.

That being said, I wouldn't suggest that any class go specifically for the Dodge stat. Instead, I would recommend that they obtain it through Agility on your BiS gear and enchants.

Finally, with how useful Dodge is, ensure that you're facing the "right" opponents. When you see a Hunter approaching you from behind, turn toward them at the very least so you can be capable of dodging their Wing Clips.

Parry
Parry is Dodge's shier, stronger brother.

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The following classes can Parry at level 19:

  • Hunters
  • Paladins
  • Rogues
  • Warriors.

Parry and Dodge are very similar, yet very different in many ways. Here's how the two are similar.

  • You cannot Dodge or Parry from behind
  • You cannot Dodge or Parry a Hunter's ranged attacks or any spells
  • You cannot Dodge or Parry while Incapacitated or Stunned (other forms of CC need verification).

Here's how the two differ:

  • You can Dodge while casting, but cannot Parry while casting (the former needs confirmation)
  • If you Dodge a Warrior's special attack, they will lose the spent Rage
  • If you Parry a Warrior's special attack, they will be given the spent Rage back
  • Parrying an attack grants Parry haste.

The third phenomenon probably applies to Rogues' attacks as well (needs confirmation).

The fourth point brings us to why Parry is such an OP secondary stat.

Parry Haste
Parry Haste is one of the more confusing phenomena in Classic WoW.

Here's how Classic WoW Fandom explains Parry Haste.

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The first sentence has incredibly strange wording. If anyone would like to clarify, that would be greatly appreciated.

I do think it's safe to say from the second sentence that on average, Parry Haste increases your attack speed by 24%. Please correct me if I'm wrong here!

Sources of Parry

  • Defense Skill (Wowhead claims this is maxed out for everyone in Battlegrounds).
  • Talents (Hunters', Paladins', Rogues', and Warriors' Deflection Talent)

Additional Thoughts on Parry
Parry is by far one of the most interesting stats in Classic WoW. In a sense, it's harder to get than Dodge as you have to spec into non-Meta talent builds on Paladins and Rogues.

For example, would 5% extra Parry be nice on a Paladin? Of course it would. But it's definitely not worth losing Redoubt, Guardian's Favor, and Precision.

Consequently, I would say that Parry is harder to obtain than Dodge. In addition, I do not think we should forget about how strong Parry Haste truly is.

In the case of Warriors, I would highly suggest putting your first 5 talent points into Deflection. Some Warriors might say "But you get Rage from taking damage!". To this, I would say

  • Parry leads to significant physical damage mitigation AND increased attack speed which leads to more Rage.
  • Improved Heroic Strike is an awful talent that helps an awful ability (spamming Hamstring literally does more damage lol).
  • Improved Rend is an awful talent for a low damage ability. Unlike Heroic Strike, Rend is useful in some situations.

P.S. Give Parrywinkle a /wave when you see him in a Warsong Gulch.

Block
Using a Shield grants you access to a fourth way to mitigate physical damage: Block.

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The following classes can wear shields and block at 19:

  • Paladins
  • Shamans
  • Warriors.

Here are a few basic facts about Blocking:

  • You must be wearing a shield to Block.
  • You cannot Block from behind.
  • You cannot Block magical damage.
  • You can Block not only melee attacks, but also physical ranged attacks like Auto Shot and Multi Shot.
  • Block is the only defensive stat that allows you to do instant damage back to your enemy (if you're using a Shield Spike).

I'm not certain whether Shield Spikes work against Hunters when you block their ranged attacks (needs confirmation). I'm assuming this is not the case.

This brings us to the two different values regarding Block:

  • Block Chance
  • Block Value.

As the name suggests, Block Chance is the chance that you will block an attack (that is capable of being blocked of course).

By contrast, Block Value is the amount of damage you absorb when you block. Your Block Value is determined by:

  • Your shield's base Block Value (listed as "X Block" on the shield).

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  • Your Strength (20 Strength = 1 extra Block Value).
Sources of Block Chance + Value
You can gain extra Block Chance from:


You can gain extra Block Value from:


Additional Thoughts on Block
Even though Block is a simpler secondary stat than Parry, it does make me question some meta talent builds a bit.

Should Shamans ever spec into Shield Specialization? They would still have access to plenty of great talent options with their remaining 5 talent points.

This is not the case for Paladins as Guardian's Favor is basically a required talent. I would never suggest grabbing Improved Devotion Aura as the Armor increase is negligible, while Redoubt offers a significant amount of damage mitigation.

Warriors probably will never want to spec into Shield Specialization as it would hinder or eliminate their ability to spec into Improved Charge or Tactical Mastery.

Finally, if you want to get super sweaty, it's probably best to swap from a shield enchanted with 7 Stamina to a high Armor shield with a Shield Spike or the 2% block Enchant, after you've lost enough HP.


Spell Resistance
Spell Resistance is Spell Hit's edgy, misunderstood brother.

In fact, it's so misunderstood that it took the most time for me to research out of all the other stats.

Note that not everything in this section has been 100% confirmed by Blizzard. I would like to thank Danmarino / Mythxx88 and Anboni's video for really helping clear up Spell Resistance for me.

Average Resistance
To understand Spell Resistance, we must understand Average Resistance first.

Average Resistance can be calculated for levels 19 using the following formula:

Average Resistance = Resistance Value * 0.75%.

From here, we must understand binary and non-binary spells (not trying to get political here).

Binary Spells
A binary spell is any offensive spell that does not purely deal damage.

Examples at level 19 include:

When you cast one of these spells against an enemy, they have an [Enemy's Average Resistance] chance to resist the spell completely. Note that this is calculated separately from spell Miss.

For example, if Lilbaidin (a Mage) casts Polymorph against Parrywinkle, who has 10 Arcane Resistance, then Parrywinkle will have a 10*0.75% = 7.5% chance to resist the Polymorph.

Non-Binary Spells
A non-binary spell is a spell that only deals damage.

Examples at level 19 include:
and many others.

When you cast a non-binary spell against an enemy who has at least 1 Spell Resistance (to your spell's school), there are five different cases.

  • The enemy takes 0% of the spell's damage (full resist).
  • The enemy takes 25% of the spell's damage
  • The enemy takes 50% of the spell's damage
  • The enemy takes 75% of the spell's damage
  • The enemy takes 100% of the spell's damage (no resist whatsoever).
So how do we determine how often each of these cases will occur? This is where the "average" comes from in "Average Resistance".

If the enemy has 10% Average Shadow Resistance, then on average, they will take 10% less damage from Shadow spells. WoW Wiki states that you should "visualize it as a bell curve around your average resistance."

How Spell Hit and Spell Resistance Interplay
In the Spell Hit section, we said that Spell Hit and Spell Resistance interact in an interesting way.

As a friendly reminder, your base chance to hit a level 19 enemy with a spell is 96%.

Here is a basic formula to calculate the actual chance for your binary spell to land, after factoring in Hit Chance and Spell Resistance:

Actual Chance for Spell to Land = (96% + Spell hit from talents)(100% - Enemy's Average Resistance).

Something to note with this formula:

  • If this product is over 99%, reduce it to 99%.
  • If this product is under 99%, do not change it.

Let's do another example with Lilbaidin and Little Winkles.

Assume Lilbaidin has 5/5 Arcane Focus and Parrywinkle has 10 Arcane Resistance. Then we calculate the actual chance for Polymorph to land as follows:

= (96% + 10%)(100% - (0.75*10%))
= (106%)(100% - 7.5%)
= (106%)(92.5%)
= 95.05%.

Thus, Lilbaidin's 5/5 Arcane Focus talent increased the chance for Polymorph to land on Parrywinkle from 92.5% to 95.05%.


Sources of Spell Resistance
For Arcane Resistance,

For Fire Resistance,

For Nature Resistance,

For Frost Resistance,

For Shadow Resistance,

Holy Resistance does not exist.

Additional Thoughts on Spell Resistance
This stat could really have a whole guide dedicated to itself. After all, it would be beneficial to take a look at optimal hit % values for each class (with regard to race, faction, class matchup, etc.).

The major takeaways I want you to have from this section are that:

  • Spell Resistance is pretty broken at level 19
  • Getting above Spell Hit cap can be very beneficial.

Spell Penetration
Contrary to popular belief, Spell Penetration exists in the 19 bracket. It's just super hard to find.

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As Vanilla WoW went on, players obtained higher and higher Resistance values from better gear. This led to an issue where casters would get screwed by unfavorable, Resistance-based RNG and had few ways to respond to it.

In response to this, Blizzard decided to implement gear with Spell Penetration, which reduces your enemies' Resistance values against your spells.

What's interesting about all this is one class had access to Spell Penetration with the 1.12 talent update: Mages.

Sources of Spell Penetration
The only source for Spell Penetration at 19 is:


Additional Thoughts on Spell Penetration
Spell Resistance is a very powerful stat at 19. After all, we can gain large amounts of Resistance from enchants that were designed for high levels (Enchant Cloak - Greater Resistance, Enchant Cloak - Greater Nature Resistance in Phase 5).

With Mages being the only class that can get Spell Penetration at level 19, it would make sense that we only focus on them.

For Alliance Mages, most Horde players will have at most 5 Arcane and Frost Resistance from the cloak enchant. For this reason, it could be beneficial to put 1 talent point into Arcane Subtlety (it is on the first tier of the Arcane tree after all).

For Horde Mages, they could definitely benefit from putting 2 points into Arcane Subtlety. This is because Dwarves and Gnomes receive 10 Frost Resistance and 10 Arcane Resistance from their X and Y racials respectively.

To any Horde Mages, look at the racial composition of most Alliance premades. I bet you see a lot of Dwarves and Gnomes, huh? :)


Tertiary Stats​


Tertiary stats aren't necessarily weaker than secondary stats, but belong in their own category due to their strange nature.


Weapon Damage
- Under Construction -

MP5
- Under Construction -

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As a fellow theorycrafter and numbers cruncher I loved your post : )

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Rogues get 0.1316% crit and 0.2633% dodge for each AGI.

An initial comment I have:

If we value 1% of damage equally to 1% survivability then for my rogue I was surprised to determine that 1 AGI gave equal value as 1 Stamina.

The quick value breakdown looked like this:

Agility
1 Attack Power
0.1316% Critical Strike Chance (Value: 0.43 Attack Power)
0.2633% Dodge Chance (Value: 0.25 Stamina)
2 Armor (Value: 0.09 Stamina)

Result: 1 Agility = 1.43 Attack Power (70%) + 0.34 Stamina (34%) = 104% stat value



That said most of the time in games it works like this: Being dead = 0% damage. If you are alive more health has 0 value. Therefore stack enough health so that it's rare / difficult for you to die and then focus completely on damage. For my rogue the sweet spot was around 1200 HP unbuffed.



Regarding armor:

I estimate 80% of the damage I take is physical. As rogue with double lifesteal, unbuffed 10% of my total damage is shadow.

Regarding spell power:

Wowhead lists the spell coefficients for every spell. Simply look at the spells you'll use, figure out which ones you plan to use and how much of the time you'll use that spell vs other spells. Weight your total spell coefficients accordingly and you'll know how much spell power gives you : )

 
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Nice insight on stats, thank you very much for your effort!

From my testing Warriors gain around 0.75 HP Regeneration per tick from 1 Spirit. I think Warriors gain more HP Regeneration from Spirit than any other class and HP Regeneration in general might diminish the more Spirit you have, but I don't have sources for this.
 
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Thank you for all your support and suggestions, everyone :D.

Symandria said:
That said most of the time in games it works like this: Being dead = 0% damage. If you are alive more health has 0 value. Therefore stack enough health so that it's rare / difficult for you to die and then focus completely on damage. For my rogue the sweet spot was around 1200 HP unbuffed.
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Yeah I guess it's kind of hard to compare 1 Stamina to 1 Agility.

Symandria said:
I estimate 80% of the damage I take is physical. As rogue with double lifesteal, unbuffed 10% of my total damage is shadow.
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It's very nice to see your actual breakdown here. I guess my main point about Armor was just that it doesn't block any magical spells or weapon procs.

Symandria said:
Wowhead lists the spell coefficients for every spell. Simply look at the spells you'll use, figure out which ones you plan to use and how much of the time you'll use that spell vs other spells. Weight your total spell coefficients accordingly and you'll know how much spell power gives you : )
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Agreed! Wowhead has been my go-to for finding spell coefficients. Strangely enough, there have been a few times that they only list the coefficient for specific ranks. I'm probably going to be adding in all coefficients this weekend!

Anexa said:
Great guide, the only thing I am wondering about atm is if it's worth getting the lvl 60 PvP hit cap for your class - or if it's "scaled down" for lvl 19 PvP
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Good question! The level 60 PVP hit caps are actually the same for lvl 19s. If you want to hit cap your spells, go for 3%. If you want to hit cap your main hand melee weapon or ranged weapon, go for 5%.

BARNYARD said:
Awesome guide. When you finish, this should be stickied somewhere not just for 19s. It has a lot of great information centralized in one post.

I am sure you already have it, but this is a good list of SP Coefficients https://www.reddit.com/r/classicwow/comments/95abc8/list_of_spellcoefficients_1121/

Also, great picture of Passivemenus. I lol'd
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Haha thank you! That list of spell coefficients is unfortunately not 100% correct for level 19s. That list is catered to level 60s whose spells don't receive a spell power penalty and who sometimes have longer-cast ranks of our spells (Frostbolt, Fireball, etc.).

Passivemenus has to be one of the beefiest bois in Classic with his Fishing Hat and 2 Seals of Sylvanas. I just had to put him in there lol!

Ryotenchi said:
Can't you get in trouble for having two seal of sylvanas? o_O
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This is a great question. I'm pretty sure he got two by destroying one Seal of Sylvanas, asking the GM for another one, and then abusing the Blizzard Restoration service.

As for if he can get in trouble, I don't think he will. Puzzle is still roaming the Gulch free which should be a much bigger issue for the GMs in my opinion. GMs don't seem to care about 19s that much overall haha.

Zimt the Diplomat said:
Nice insight on stats, thank you very much for your effort!

From my testing Warriors gain around 0.75 HP Regeneration per tick from 1 Spirit. I think Warriors gain more HP Regeneration from Spirit than any other class and HP Regeneration in general might diminish the more Spirit you have, but I don't have sources for this.
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You're very welcome! Thanks for your kind words.

I think I'll need to have someone test this on each class, because it may very well differ. It would make sense for a Warrior to have higher Health regeneration than my Mage.
 
Bowner said:
Gonna keep this stickied for a while, lots of good info that you put time into, and more should look into and read over to learn a thing or two.
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Thank you, Bowner! <3
 
Lebaidin said:
Parry Haste
Parry haste is one of the more confusing phenomena in Classic WoW.

Here's how Classic WoW Fandom explains Parry Haste.

Thread_20.PNG

The first sentence has incredibly strange wording. If anyone would like to clarify, that would be greatly appreciated.

I do think it's safe to say from the second sentence that on average, Parry Haste increases your attack speed by 24%. Please correct me if I'm wrong here!
​
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Wow, I came in to this guide thinking it would be nice to get a refresher on things for my own theory crafting but I was not expecting to be surprised by any of the content. I've always been a big fan of "doing the math" but I have never heard of parry haste...! Just goes to show you can teach an old dog new tricks!

Since my interest is well and truly piqued, here's my interpretation of that screenshot, taking everything at face value:

The easiest example I can think of would be a hunter fighting with a staff at 3.4 second weapon speed. A typical attack sequence would be as follows:

Hunter Autoattacks -> Starts 3.4 Sec Wep Swing Timer
0.2 seconds elapse and Hunter Parries -> Triggers Parry Haste
Parry Haste takes effect -> Calculate time to next attack
Time to next attack = (3.4 sec wep swing timer - 0.2 secs time elapsed) - ([3.4 sec wep swing timer - 0.2 sec time elapsed] x 40% parry haste) = (3.2) - (1.28) = 1.92 seconds
Check reduction does not exceed max -> Calculate max haste weapon speed increase = (20% x [3.4 - 0.2] seconds) = 0.64 seconds.
Does reduction apply -> 1.92 seconds time remaining > 0.64 second limit therefore haste applies

What I'm unsure of is whether that 20% limit is applied to the base weapon speed timer or on swing time remaining. The text reads as though its swing time remaining which may be where the 0.24 average kicks in, as if everything was applied to the base speed, you would have a flat rate modifier of 40%.

Furthermore, I wonder what the effect of haste has on all this... There's definitely a rabbit hole to be explored here.

This post was a bitch to type on mobile, but had to say thank you for the guide. The time and effort you've put in really shows and it is appreciated. You've also made an old twinker happy because some of the thoughts and ideas have reignited that spark of theorycrafting again which for me is one of the more enjoyable aspects of twinking.

Thanks and I look forward to the finished article!
 
Balditron said:
Wow, I came in to this guide thinking it would be nice to get a refresher on things for my own theory crafting but I was not expecting to be surprised by any of the content. I've always been a big fan of "doing the math" but I have never heard of parry haste...! Just goes to show you can teach an old dog new tricks!

Since my interest is well and truly piqued, here's my interpretation of that screenshot, taking everything at face value:

The easiest example I can think of would be a hunter fighting with a staff at 3.4 second weapon speed. A typical attack sequence would be as follows:

Hunter Autoattacks -> Starts 3.4 Sec Wep Swing Timer
0.2 seconds elapse and Hunter Parries -> Triggers Parry Haste
Parry Haste takes effect -> Calculate time to next attack
Time to next attack = (3.4 sec wep swing timer - 0.2 secs time elapsed) - ([3.4 sec wep swing timer - 0.2 sec time elapsed] x 40% parry haste) = (3.2) - (1.28) = 1.92 seconds
Check reduction does not exceed max -> Calculate max haste weapon speed increase = (20% x [3.4 - 0.2] seconds) = 0.64 seconds.
Does reduction apply -> 1.92 seconds time remaining > 0.64 second limit therefore haste applies

What I'm unsure of is whether that 20% limit is applied to the base weapon speed timer or on swing time remaining. The text reads as though its swing time remaining which may be where the 0.24 average kicks in, as if everything was applied to the base speed, you would have a flat rate modifier of 40%.

Furthermore, I wonder what the effect of haste has on all this... There's definitely a rabbit hole to be explored here.

This post was a bitch to type on mobile, but had to say thank you for the guide. The time and effort you've put in really shows and it is appreciated. You've also made an old twinker happy because some of the thoughts and ideas have reignited that spark of theorycrafting again which for me is one of the more enjoyable aspects of twinking.

Thanks and I look forward to the finished article!
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Damn, I absolutely love your analysis here. I think I understand this quite a bit more now tbh haha. Thanks for adding your input here!

I really appreciate your kind words too! I'm not quite done with this big boy quite yet, but everyone's appreciation has been out of this world :).
 
Awesome work! Although I cannot help provide any accurate data on Spirit and health regeneration, there is this table:
https://wowwiki.fandom.com/wiki/Health_regeneration

The data isn't accurate for lvl 19, but the general idea of which classes benefit most is. Spirit is amazing on a Warrior and also fairly good on Rogues (out of combat (bar Troll) that is). On the topic of Health Regeneration it is also worth noting that with addons like ''FiveSecondsRule'' you can regenerate health/mana while running by timing your food/drink correctly. This makes Spirit-sets less necessary (though sadly the mentioned addon does not work on classes like Warrior...).

Per confirmation: Shield Spike does indeed not apply on ranged attacks.

Suggestion/Request: Are you planning on adding Health/Mana/Energy/Rage/(Focus) to this Guide? You can do interesting stuff with enchant swapping causing yourself to heal/regen mana. Stuff like Rage also has interesting mechanics such as still gaining rage when the opponent Dodges. Not sure if you can consider all of them stats though, but it is an idea!
 
Duro said:
For druids, 1 str = 1 ap.
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Thanks for the correction here. Would I be correct in saying 1 STR = 1 AP outside of forms, and 1 STR = 2 AP in Bear Form?
 
Found some info on the mana regen for classes at least for spirit regeneration:

Code: 
Level 19:  Base Regenation:    0.020790

Priests and mages: 13 + (spirit / 4) mana per tick
Druids, shamans, paladins, hunters: 15 + (spirit / 5) mana per tick
Warlocks: 8 + (spirit / 4) mana per tick

But again nothing on health, maybe we can do some testing in-game to get data on this soon. Would be intresting to see how much each class gets with a similar get set per tick.
 
Just added Hit and Spell Resistance sections for anyone interested!
 
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