Many of my long-time readers will be shocked and appalled to discover: I’ve received my fair share of emails from woefully ignorant folks asking me how they might improve their gear, and when I checked their Armory pages to see what they were working with… I could only shake my head in disbelief. Spell Power. Lots of it. Really? Really. I kid you not. And I’ve received such emails as recently as a few weeks ago. Honest injun. And I thought to myself, “How could this be? They’ve obviously read my site, if they’re taking the time to email me and ask for my help.” And then it dawned on me. It’s been quite some time indeed since I’ve covered anything so basic, and it’s possible these wayward souls simply missed the memo somewhere along the line. Well, today, it’s time to rectify this oversight.
Now, before I dive right in, I’d like to take a moment to address a short missive to those of you who are now, or have in the past, been caught with your pants down, so to speak, with Spell Power items equipped:
It’s okay. I promise. You simply didn’t know any better. Ignorance is perfectly acceptable, and that’s what we’re here to fix today. From this point on, you’ll be able to lift your head high and proclaim loudly and proudly: I have seen the light! No more Spell Power for me, and I know exactly why!
With that out of the way, let’s get into the nitty gritty, shall we?
What Do Stats Do For Me?
Funny you should ask! If you’ve ever played any other MMORPG or table-top RPG before, you’re already familiar with the basic concept of stats and can probably surmise what most of them are good for, at least in a general sense. For those who are entirely new to gaming, simply put: stats improve your character’s performance in the role(s) it’s best suited to.
In the case of Hunters, that role is dealing damage, and as such, all of the stats you choose to increase (through itemization and talent choices) should directly contribute to the increase of your damage output.
In WoW, there are tons of different stats you’re bombarded with and it can be hard to keep track of all of them and what they do. Additionally, you’ll hear discussion of “caps”, “ratings” and “percentages” and all of this can quickly get confusing. Today, I’ll attempt to briefly explain each of your character’s stats, what they do (how they help you) and which ones, as a Hunter, you should be most concerned with.
Primary Attributes
Strength (STR) – Increases Attack Power with melee weapons.
Agility (AGI) – Increases Attack Power with ranged and melee weapons. Increases armor. Increases critical strike chance. Increases dodge chance.
Stamina (STA) – Increases total health.
Intellect (INT) – Increases total mana. (With Careful Aim, increases Attack Power with ranged weapons.)
Spirit (SPI) – Increases health and mana regeneration.
Secondary Attributes
Attack Power (AP) – (Both melee and ranged) Increases the damage of an equipped weapon.
Critical Strike Chance (Crit) – Percentage of attacks that will result in a critical strike (increased damage).
Hit Chance – Increases chance to hit with weapons or spells.
Haste – Decreases the time between attacks.
Armor Penetration – Reduces the target’s armor value when damage from attacks are calculated.
Expertise – Reduces the enemy’s chance to dodge or parry attacks.
Spell Power (SP) – Increases damage and healing done with spells.
Spell Penetration – Reduces the target’s resistance to spells.
Mana Regeneration – The rate at which mana is restored, both in and out of combat.
Dodge – Increases chance to dodge incoming melee attacks.
Parry – Increases chance to parry melee attacks with a melee weapon.
Block – Increases chance to block melee and ranged attacks with a shield.
Block Value – Increases damage blocked by a shield.
Defense – Increases defense skill.
Armor – Decreases physical damage taken.
Resistance – Decreases damage taken from spells.
Resilience – Decreases chance to receive critical hits, reduces critical strike damage and reduces DoT (Damage over Time) damage.
What Stats Matter to Me?
Each class has particular primary and secondary attributes that are particularly helpful to them, making them better at their chosen job: dealing damage, healing or tanking. Hunters are no exception. So, when you’re looking at an item that drops, how do you know if it’s right for you?
First: Hunters are able to wear Mail (at level 40), Leather and Cloth armor. Which type is best?
Cloth itemization is horrible for Hunters, and you should never find yourself hmm’ing over a piece of Cloth armor that drops. The primary and secondary attributes on all pieces of Cloth armor were not intended for us. Overlook them.
Leather, on the other hand, is an entirely different story.
Beyond level 40, when we do finally learn to equip Mail items, many Hunters find themselves desperately looking to replace all the pieces of Leather they’re wearing. Don’t fall into this trap.
I’ll let you in on a little secret: It doesn’t matter if you’re wearing Leather or Mail.
Here’s why: the major difference between Leather and Mail is the armor value on the items and as a Hunter, you should rarely be getting hit with attacks. (In groups, your tank will be taking most of the damage and while you solo, your pet will be taking the brunt.) That being the case, the increased armor value on Mail items is insufficient to sway your decision in terms of which item is actually “better” for you.
Which brings me to the crux of the issue: what stats should you, as a Hunter, be focused on increasing through itemization?
- Hit
- Agility
- Attack Power
- Intellect (especially if you have Careful Aim)
- Crit
Beyond these five stats, you can also look for Stamina, Haste and Armor Penetration as well. For PvP Hunters, you’ll also want Resilience. Any other stats can be ignored.
Based on itemization trends, there are certain tell-tale stats on items that can immediately cross it off your list as a potential upgrade:
- Strength
- Spell Power
- Spirit
These three stats are typically found on items whose other stats are also not highly beneficial, and there are always items that are better for you. Any time you see an item drop with any of these three stats, skip it.
Now, let’s see if you’ve been paying attention, shall we?
Which item would you rather have?:
Both items are Mail, but one has stats more befitting a Hunter. Can you tell which?
Now, let’s try another one:
One is Mail, the other is Leather. Can you tell which item is better for a Hunter from these two?
In both cases, the correct answer was item 2. Why? In the first case, we had two Mail items; one with Spell Power (a stat useless to Hunters) and the other with Attack Power (something highly beneficial to Hunters). In the second case, again we’re confronted with Spell Power vs Attack Power, however one item is Mail while the other is Leather. Still, you must keep in mind that Attack Power is of greater importance to us than armor, and so the Leather item is still preferable.
Recap
Stats to avoid:
- Spell Power, Spell Penetration (Hunters don’t use spells)
- Defense, Armor, Block, Dodge, Parry (Hunters don’t hold aggro)
- Strength (Hunters don’t attack with melee weapons)
- Spirit, MP5 (Hunters don’t need Spirit for mana regeneration)
- Expertise (Ranged attacks cannot be dodged or parried)
Stats to look for:
- Hit
- Agility
- Attack Power
- Intellect
- Crit
Stats that can also help:
- Stamina
- Haste
- Armor Penetration
Now, I realize that for many of my readers, none of this is new information. But, having received several emails from folks that have fallen into the trap of poor itemization, it seemed to me that it was time to brush up on some of the basics. After all, we’ve all been there before, have we not? And didn’t we all wish someone would kindly take the time to help us sort through the confusion?
I know I felt like a real dumbass when I was caught wearing my Mystic Sarong years ago when I was leveling for the first time. What items have you been caught wearing that made you hang your head in shame?
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This was a very nice read, keep it up!
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What do you tell a baby hunter who sees Arcane Shot in their spell book and says “what do you mean I don’t use spells….its right there”?
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@Tyberiuss — I tell them that Arcane Shot damage is not affected by Spell Power, despite the fact that it deals Arcane (magic) damage. Additionally, if they’re gearing for Spell Power, it’s at the expense of other stats that are more widely beneficial to them, such as Attack Power. Even if Spell Power did help Arcane Shot, they would be equipping Spell Power items in slots where Attack Power items would better serve them. Spell Power would benefit one shot in this hypothetical, whereas Attack Power would benefit all shots, including Arcane Shot. Therefore, it would still not be worthwhile to equip Spell Power items.
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Thanks for clearing up the spellpower thing. Can you also help me explain to other hunters why spirit is not a desirable stat? I see that almost as much as I see strength on our newer hunters. How is hunter mana regenerated?
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@MamaHunter — The simplest explanation is really that Hunters can swap to Aspect of the Viper for mana regeneration, making Spirit unnecessary as a regen stat. Additionally, if they’re equipping items that are itemized for Hunters, they likely won’t see any Spirit on it in the first place. They may see some MP5 on socket bonuses, or scattered on a random piece of gear here and there, but Spirit is extremely rare. That’s just how Blizzard has decided to spend item budgets on Hunter pieces, so seeing an item with Spirit is usually a red flag that the other stats also on that item probably aren’t ideal for Hunters as well.
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There is a hunter in my guild — a very good hunter — who buys spellpower mail (that would otherwise go to disenchant) for abyss crystals. We all joke about his “mend pet set” … but to be perfectly honest, none of us really know what he does with it. /boggle
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I did have a situation with spellpower some time ago… I had a trinket with like 60 hit rating which I desperately needed, and an on-use effect of boosting spellpower by 400 or so. I was never sure if it would affect arcane shot, mend pet, etc but I activated it here and there just in case. So it really didn’t do anything for me?
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I know it was mentioned but I just want to emphasize that expertise is another ‘trick’ stat in a way… Take the Helmet of the Shrine for example: it is mail, has agility, stam, int, attack power, and expertise. Sounds like hunter gear! But wait, that expertise is useless for ranged attacks and doesn’t even transfer to our pet. It’s enhancement shaman gear! (I still used it for a long time because it was better than anything else I had available) It took some reading to figure out that the expertise did absolutely nothing for me….
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To clarify one thing that was mentioned here in the comments, and that I’ve seen mentioned elsewhere numerous times in the past, that seems to be a point of confusion…
Spell Power (or rather, one of it’s original derivatives: healing) used to affect Mend Pet. However, after a video was released during The Burning Crusade in which a 70 Hunter solo’d a world boss dragon (Azuregos) utilizing pieces of a shaman healing set to help keep his pet alive, this was nerfed. Spell Power no longer affects Mend Pet.
You can find the video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_-_3tfmU-o
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I think everyone (or close to) has run into the case where, like the trinket mentioned above, you pick up a suboptimal piece of gear specifically because, all told, it fills a hole better than your current gear. For a bit in my mid-70s I wore the caster mail belt from AN simply because, all told, it was STILL an upgrade from the green belt I had been wearing.
That said, you just don’t do it on purpose. If you HAVE to, sure, but don’t go lookin’ for it
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HI Lass – welcome back
And thank you! I’ve been a hunter as you know since WOW came out. But with all the nerfs (or as someone on another blogg told me- they aren’t nerfs – they are rebalance. yeah, what’ever) I haven’t played one (except as bankers) since LK came out. I love my deeth knight to deeth, but with their “rebalance” I will go back to my hunters. So this article is needed (and more please). I totally forgotten what’s good and what’s bad for hunter.
I generally go for “of the birdy bird” (agi and int, I think) or “of the grumpy old man” (I think that is int and sta). Sometimes I have pure int on (like a cloak) and sometimes I go for int or agi or sta with spirit as a secondaary. So with your article, I am going back and rethinking what the surly lvl 30 orc male hunter totally wears. I am not putting aftershave on though….
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Excellent article. It’s bookmarked for easy reminding and to help out fellow hunters. Bravo.
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I am confused. I used to believe that spell penetration decreases enemy resistance, so as to increase my spelldamage-dealing shots’ damage. As there are cases when the log says x damage (y resisted), I tend to believe that spellpen is against these resists.
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Hey Lass – on the other article posted ont he site about hunters and patch 3.2 is this little note – “All pets now receive 40% of their master’s resilience and 100% of their master’s spell penetration.” This has me confused for what was said in this article here no to equip spell power armor. Does Blizz not know we don’t have spell power?
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@Sigrdrifa
Not to jump in on Lass’s knowledge here, but my thought when I first saw that line was Warlock pets. I’m assuming that ‘locks use spellpower at lease, I honestly have no idea, the highest I ever got a lock was lvl 7.
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Hi Galomesh – thanks. All I can say is “I don’t know.”
I would think that if the patch notes are written under the hunter, then it is only about what affects a hunter and whats written under a locky is what affects lockys. But you probably are correct – they could have messed up and forgot to read over their notes before publishing and left locky pets in the wrong area. And now you see why I am confused. (well actually pretty simple to confuse me these days, ahem.)
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Resto/Elemental Shammy Gear on Hunters: Some people think its funny to log out in something that is ridiculously offset from what you should be wearing. Enter hunters in resto shammy gear. I have a little bit of SP gear, from alt runs and gear nobody wanted that I have sitting in my bank. I haven’t gone the extra mile to gem it up and actually set it up as a secondary equipment set yet, but might in the future. As others have said though, sometimes its infinitely better than what you currently have (while leveling) that you take it even though you might not normally.
Spell Penetration: Based on some of the information I’ve read, this is commonly used for PvP to help cut through some of the resilience. Based on the logs, our shots are considered “spells”, so a little bit of spell penetration seems to help keep some of it from getting blocked. Beyond that, I haven’t seen any information that implies that its good for killing bosses.
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If you’re going to point out Careful Aim and its bonus with Intellect you might also want to point out Hunter vs. Wild and its bonus with Stamina.
I haven’t been caught with spell power on my Hunter, but I was eyed suspiciously when I carried around a Feral Druid staff for many levels. It had more Agility than anything else my baby Survival Hunter could find!
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This is a great writeup! One comment though is, people dont get too crabby with people who are leveling a Hunter and have some funky stats. If they dont understand mechanics then let them know but if they respond “i know” then just leave them be.
I have switched back to Horde and my Hunter is lvl 52 atm and has a dagger that is str/agi. Yeah str wont do crap for me but I refuse to buy a wep in the AH for 30g-50g. Most items on my server that are agi/sta are 20+g. Even in the 70-79 range some enh shaman gear may be better than what they currently have on.
Yeah teaching huntards is fine but remember, quote House “You cant always get what you want”.
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@Sigrdrífa — It’s my belief, as Galomesh pointed out, that the bit about spell pen for pets was applicable to Warlock pets. That note in the patch notes was actually under “Classes: General”, not Hunter specifically, which lends credence to this supposition.
@Voider — The reason I mentioned Careful Aim and not Hunter vs Wild was primarily because otherwise Intellect would only be good for increasing your mana pool, which yes means more shots fired, but AotV fixes any problems with mana regen typically. My point here is that this talent converts an otherwise relatively “ho-hum” stat into something that’s actually very worthwhile to stack for it’s increase to Attack Power. Hunter vs Wild, on the other hand, doesn’t give a conversion from one stat into Attack Power, and thus isn’t a talent that would bring a particular stat from “ho-hum” to desirable.
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