Free WoW Guide: Warlock stat basics

This is a debatable topic, as some players will prefer to focus on different attributes or simply prefer a different playstyle and have their gear complement it. On average there is a consensus about the order of importance for attributes to look for in items though, which is as follows:

Stamina > Intellect > Spirit > Agility > Strength

Putting stamina first might not seem like an obvious choice as primary stats to a beginning warlock, but there is a simple reason for this: We can trade our life out for mana using lifetap (With a 20% bonus with the improved lifetap talent), but we cannot trade our mana back for life nearly as quick or efficiently. Seeing that running out of hitpoints will kill you, and running out of mana does not, the reason for stamina as a primary stat becomes clear. You will be much more resilient while soloing and grouping, have better chances in PvP, and live through painful AE’s during raids longer. Having a smaller manapool as a result does not harm you as much, as you can trade hitpoints for mana whenever you need to. Lastly, more stamina also helps you survive longer when you use hellfire.

I’ve seen some warlocks that chose not to use lifetap, which is a bad idea. If you have a full healthbar, and you can use some mana, there is no reason not to use it. You will benefit from both health and mana regeneration. Furthermore, you can use bandages, drain life and siphon life (If you have the talent for it) to gain life back faster after lifetapping.

Intellect is second. You do need some mana to work with, and beside that, intellect increases the chance that your spells will land a critical hit by 0.01% per point. So 100 intellect will give you +1% chance to land a critical spell. I was a little underwhelmed by such a small improvement. It is nice to have a lot of intellect for the increased manapool and extra crit chance, but it wont help you last longer when you end up taking damage. This is not as important if all you do is group, but for solo and PvP play you will need the extra hitpoints.

Spirit comes third, after intellect, because your health does not regen in combat. Furthermore, your mana does not regen for 5 seconds after casting a spell, making the spirit stat only of any real use when you are not fighting. And while not fighting, you can use food and drink, which is a lot faster then any amount of spirit you might possess. Spirit does have its uses at times, and is nice to have in combination with improved drain soul. But stamina and intellect take precedence.

Agility comes third because its main positive effect on you, a bonus to your dodge chance, is small. It also gives you an increased chance to land a critical hit in melee, but if you melee enough to warrant focusing on agility, you might try making a melee char instead of a warlock.

Strength is last. It’s for melee characters, and you don’t need it. Sure, you can put out a little melee damage with that dagger or staff, but looking for strength in gear as a warlock is not a good idea.