Physical Damage & AP Coefficients
1.18.1 physical damage formulas: AP-to-DPS conversion, weapon speed normalization, single-roll hit table, and the per-skill AP coefficients that decide what gear actually does.
1. AP → DPS Conversion
Strength gives 2 AP per point. AP itself never deals damage directly — it converts to weapon DPS, and the converted DPS is multiplied by the weapon's actual speed for white hits.
2. Weapon Speed Normalization
Patch 1.8 introduced normalization to stop slow weapons from snowballing on instant strikes. For Mortal Strike / Whirlwind / Overpower the engine forces a fixed weapon-speed constant regardless of what's actually equipped.
3. Per-Skill AP Coefficient Ladder · Warrior
How much of your AP each warrior skill actually keeps. Bloodthirst dominates with a pure 45%; normalized strikes scale by weapon class; Execute and defensive abilities have 0%.
Damage = 45% of AP. No weapon component, no normalization — the highest gear-scaling skill in the game.
Weapon damage + 160 flat. AP scaling forced to 3.3/2.4 constant.
As a yellow-hit skill, immune to Glancing Blow — the single biggest white-damage suppressor on +3 bosses.
Triggers only after target dodges. With Tactical Mastery talents, holds extreme crit chance — best ROI rage-spender.
Replaces next white hit. 3.8 weapon = 27.14% AP; 1.3 fast 1H = only 9.28%. Fast tanking weapons hit a hidden threat ceiling here.
[1.18.1 fix] Flurry no longer compresses Slam's cast below 2.0s — locked to exactly 2.0s. Enables the precise "between-swings" Slam weave for 2H Fury.
[Nanami exclusive] Vanilla Rend has 0% AP scaling. Nanami added ~15-20% total AP coefficient distributed across ticks — bleeds finally matter on high-armor bosses.
No direct AP coefficient. Damage = 600 + (rage − 15) × 15. High AP boosts white damage → faster rage gen → more spare rage → more execute damage. Exponential indirect scaling.
Neither scales with AP. Shield Slam takes 100% Block Value, but Block Value scales weakly with Strength — this is why deep-Prot tanks hit a threat ceiling and Fury/Prot hybrid exists.
4. Worked Example · Whirlwind at Level 60
A 60 Fury Warrior with 1400 AP, 1H 2.6-speed weapon (152 avg DPH), 35% crit, 2/2 Impale, against a +3 raid boss with armor stripped to ~800.
Damage breakdown
61% (240/392) of the panel damage comes from AP alone. And because Whirlwind is yellow-hit, the 35% Glancing Blow penalty that gutters white attacks doesn't apply. This is why Whirlwind is the single-target/AoE backbone of 1.18.1 Fury — it cleanly converts late-game AP/crit gear without any white-damage ceiling.
5. Single-Roll Hit Table (vs +3 Boss)
Vanilla / 1.18.1 use a single-roll hit table for melee: Miss → Dodge → Parry → Block → Glancing → Crit → Hit. Yellow skills remove Glancing, which is the entire reason yellow rotations dominate.
6. Field Reference
Sourced from in-depth 1.18.1 mechanics research. For raid theorycraft and sim configuration.
Stat priorities (general)
Fury 2H: Hit cap (8%) → Weapon Skill 305 → Crit → AP → Haste
Fury Dual Wield: Hit cap (27% main + 8% special) → Weapon Skill → Crit → AP
Arms: Same as Fury 2H, with extra value in slow weapons for Mortal Strike per-hit damage
Fury/Prot Tank: Bloodthirst-centric threat — push AP first, then crit; Block Value covers Shield Slam