Schools of magic, and resistance
The six schools plus physical, what resistance does to a spell, and which creatures are immune.
Every number on this page is read from the 1.12 world database and the Classic Era client, not from a guide or a wiki. How this site reads the game data. Last read .
The seven schools
Every point of damage in the game belongs to one of seven schools, and the school decides what reduces it. Physical is cut by armour; the other six are cut by the matching resistance, and nothing else touches them. The spell counts below are the 1,351 class abilities this site holds, counted once per class that learns them.
| School | Class abilities | Cast most by | Creatures immune | Items with resistance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PhysicalNot a school of magic at all: melee, ranged, and anything the game calls a strike. Reduced by armour rather than by resistance, and nothing is immune to it. | 339 | rogue 110warrior 106druid 77 | — | — |
| HolyThe school nothing resists. No item in the game carries Holy resistance and almost nothing is immune, which is why a paladin or a priest healing is never resisted. | 249 | paladin 142priest 107 | 1 | 0 |
| FireThe mage's and warlock's workhorse, and the one the game most often asks you to resist — Molten Core is a fire raid. | 119 | mage 48shaman 33warlock 30 | 53 | 251 |
| NatureShaman and druid damage, plus every poison and most stuns. The widest spread of any school across the classes. | 255 | shaman 108druid 98hunter 45 | 53 | 154 |
| FrostMage control. Slows and roots live here, so frost resistance is as much about mobility as damage. | 67 | mage 41shaman 22hunter 4 | 34 | 141 |
| ShadowWarlock and priest. Drains, fears and most curses — and the school a priest can turn into a defence with its own spell. | 194 | warlock 122priest 72 | 8 | 177 |
| ArcaneMage utility and burst. Few creatures resist it and few items protect against it, which cuts both ways. | 128 | mage 77hunter 27druid 18 | 16 | 67 |
Holy is the school you cannot defend against. Not one of the 7,856 equippable items this site holds carries Holy resistance, and 1 creatures are immune. That is a deliberate piece of game design rather than an oversight: holy damage is almost entirely a paladin's and a priest's, and healing is holy too.
What resistance does
Resistance does not block spells and it does not reduce every hit by the same amount. A spell that lands rolls a partial resist — it comes through at full damage, or at a quarter, a half or three quarters off — and resistance moves the odds. What a stack of resistance buys you is the average across many casts, not a guarantee on any one of them.
- Average mitigation is resistance ÷ (5 × the attacker's level), capped at 75%. Against a level-63 raid boss that makes 315 the number worth reaching, and anything above it is wasted.
- You can never be immune by stacking. The cap is an average, and a full-damage roll is always possible — which is why a fire resistance set makes Molten Core survivable rather than safe.
- A level gap costs you resistance you thought you had. The divisor is the attacker's level, so the same 150 frost resistance is worth more against a level-40 mob than a level-60 one.
- Armour is not resistance. Physical damage is reduced by armour on an entirely separate curve, so a plate wearer with no resistance gear takes full magic damage — the commonest surprise a new warrior gets in a dungeon.
This is the one block on these pages that is a model rather than a reading. The server's resistance coefficient table is not published in the Classic Era client, so the long-established 1.12 formula is used — the same honesty the Spirit regeneration carries on the rotation trainer. Everything else here is read from the tables.
What cannot be hurt by what
Immunity is absolute where resistance is statistical: a creature flagged immune to a school takes nothing from it, however much power is behind the cast. Of the 7,430 creatures that spawn in the world, these carry a school immunity — and the pattern is the one you would guess from their names, which is exactly why it is worth checking rather than assuming.
| School | Immune | Creatures carrying resistance | Median at level 58–63 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holy | 1 | — | — |
| Fire | 53 | 572 | 15 |
| Nature | 53 | 557 | 15 |
| Frost | 34 | 516 | 15 |
| Shadow | 8 | 552 | 15 |
| Arcane | 16 | 574 | 15 |
Where resistance comes from
The most any single item gives, per school, out of the equipment this site holds. A resistance set is built out of these plus the potions and the buffs — and the gap between the best fire item and the best arcane one is why a fire set exists in Classic and an arcane one does not.
Holynothing
No item in the game carries it.
Fire251 items
- Emberweave Leggings+35
- Dark Iron Helm+35
- Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros+30
- Darkwater Robes+30
- Black Ash Robe+30
Nature154 items
- Silithid Carapace Chestguard+35
- Wormhide Protector+30
- Robes of the Triumvirate+30
- Bramblewood Helm+30
- Sylvan Vest+30
Frost141 items
- Icy Scale Coif+44
- Icebane Helmet+44
- Polar Helmet+44
- Icebane Breastplate+42
- Glacial Headdress+40
Shadow177 items
- Onyx Embedded Leggings+30
- Interlaced Shadow Jerkin+30
- Garb of Royal Ascension+25
- Darkrune Helm+25
- Darkrune Breastplate+25
Arcane67 items
- Polychromatic Visionwrap+20
- Windshrieker Pauldrons+20
- Wizardweave Turban+18
- Imperial Plate Helmet+18
- Wizardweave Robe+17
Read from the gear planner's own collection, so an item here is one you can put on the paperdoll and see the total move.
The rest of the basics
- Elite, rare, rare elite and bossWhat the dragon around a mob's portrait means, and how much harder each rank actually is.
- Creature typesThe ten types a creature can be, what can be tamed or skinned, and which spells only work on one of them.
- Attributes, and what a point is worthStrength, Agility, Stamina, Intellect and Spirit, with the per-class numbers the server itself uses.
- Which weapons each class can useEvery weapon and armour type by class, what you start with, and where the eight weapon masters stand.