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Attack Power
Class Melee Base Ranged Base
Death Knight Death Knight (Strength x 2) + (Char.Level x 3) - 20
Druid Druid (Strength x 2) - 20 Agility - 10
Druid Druid (Bear) (Strength x 2) - 20 + DireBear: 120 Normal: 30
Druid Druid (Cat) (Strength x 2) + Agility - 20 + 40
Hunter Hunter Strength + Agility + (Char.Level x 2) - 20 (Char.Level x 2) + Agility - 10
Mage Mage Strength - 10 Agility - 10
Paladin Paladin (Strength x 2) + (Char.Level x 3) - 20 Agility - 10
Priest Priest Strength - 10 Agility - 10
Rogue Rogue Strength + (Agility x 2) + (Char.Level x 2) - 30 Char.Level + Agility - 10
Shaman Shaman Strength + Agility + (Char.Level x 2) - 20 Agility- 10
Warlock Warlock Strength - 10 Agility - 10
Warrior Warrior (Strength x 2) + (Char.Level x 3) - 20 Char.Level + Agility - 10

Attack power (AP) increases your base DPS by 1 for every 14 attack power. For example, an AP of 28 will give you 2 DPS. To convert DPS into average damage per swing:

(Weapon DPS + AP/14) * Weapon Speed. 

If dual wielding, an off-hand weapon will also receive DPS from AP with the normal damage penalty. Disregarding dual wield specialization talents, the offhand damage is then:

[(Weapon DPS + AP/14) * Weapon Speed]/2.

Many abilities add some percentage of attack power to the damage they deal.

Each point of strength increases melee attack power by 2, except for rogues, shamans, and hunters who gain 1 AP per point of strength, and 1 per point of agility. Druids in cat form also gain 1 AP per point of agility. Spell holy blessingofagility [Heart of the Wild] gives a druid in cat form a 10% increase in AP.

Players also receive 1 point of ranged attack power (RAP) per point of agility. Also, 1 AP = 1 Ranged Attack Power (RAP). Unless an item or effect specifically says "+__ to Melee Attack Power" or "+__ to Ranged Attack Power" then this is true. If it adds to Attack Power and does not specify "Melee" or "Ranged" then it always adds equally to both Ranged Attack Power and Melee Attack Power.

Although characters of every class will have a listed amount of ranged attack power, the statistic is wholly meaningless to all except Hunters, Rogues and Warriors, as these are the only classes that can use ranged weapons.

Bonuses from attack power are added to a character's DPS before attack speed bonuses come into effect. So, a character with a weapon with 10 base DPS, 2.0 attack speed, and 140 AP will have a total of 20 DPS (10 base + 140/14 from AP). If a 10% increase to attack speed is gained, DPS will increase to 22 (10% of 20 is 2) as opposed to only getting one from the base DPS, at 11, and then adding 10 from the attack power to 21.

Mob attack power

Mobs have different attack power formulas than players. Damage done per second of mobs is given by:

(DPS_from_AttackPower + Base_DPS) * Multiplier.

For most mobs, attack power is about 30% of total damage; bosses have higher multiplier than trash mobs. That means -attack power debuffs have significant effect on raid mobs. Some tests suggest Ability warrior warcry [Improved Demoralizing Shout] could reduce the damage taken from a level 60 mob by 25%. Thus Spell shadow unholystrength [Curse of Recklessness] will increase the damage done of affected mob drastically. The -AP debuff is capped at -30% total damage effect, as the formula suggests.

Player attack power

Hunter

Before patch 2.0.1, hunters received 2 RAP per agility, whereas now they receive 1 RAP per agility. Some of this loss was made up for in AP increases from items. The reason given for this change was to keep agility from being the be-all and end-all of hunter stats, allowing for flexibility into intellect or stamina without sacrificing a large amount of AP. However, this is slated to be changed back to 2 AP along with the release of Cataclysm.

After Patch 3.0.2, hunters can gain RAP from intellect or/and stamina by Survival and Marksmanship Talent. (See Ability hunter zenarchery [Careful Aim] and Ability hunter huntervswild [Hunter vs. Wild])

Shaman

Before Patch 3.0.2, shamans received 2 AP per strength. This was changed in 3.0.2 in preparation for Wrath of the Lich King. Shamans now receive 1 AP from strength and 1 AP from agility. With the talent Spell nature bloodlust [Mental Dexterity] shamans also gain 1 AP per intellect.

Druid

Before Patch 3.0.8, many weapons listed feral attack power, making these weapons highly tailored to druids and making other weapons unusable for druids. After the patch, specific feral attack power bonuses were removed. Instead, all weapons with more than 54.8 DPS grant feral attack power equal to [(DPS - 54.8) * 14], rounded down. Only druids see feral attack power in weapon tooltips. Feral attack power can be increased further with the Ability hunter pet cat [Predatory Strikes] talent.

Cataclysm

AP is no longer be obtainable from gear as of patch 4.0.1. Instead, it will be derived directly from agility or strength. In the case of rogues, hunters, and shamans, each point of agility will add 2 AP. Warriors, paladins, and death knights will gain 2 AP from each point of strength. Druids will gain 2 AP from both agility and strength.

See also

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