Stats

Base Stats
You gain one point to spend on base stats every time you level up.

Attack Power
One point of Attack Power grants 4% increased damage

Vitality
One point of Vitality grants 45 to maximum hit points

Dexterity
One point of Dexterity grants you 5 Armor and 2% increased damage
 * Melee Classes only

Intelligence
One point of Intelligence grants 1 mana (=additional wand charge) and 2% increased damage
 * Ranged Classes and Cleric Only

Vigor
One point of Vigor grants 2 to all resistance ratings

Speed
Speed increases your movement speed. this stat does have diminishing returns

Armor
Armor reduces the damage you take. There is an Armor curve in the game. At certain levels you are expected to have certain Armor value. The damage dealt is then decided by how far you are from that number. Thus, If you are over the number a lot, it is not very helpful to buff your armor further, as there are diminishing returns at work.
 * is found on items as a flat amount of Armor, Scaled by Character Level, Total Armor Increased by %, and Armor Increased % of that item

Hit Points
Hit Points is the amount of damage your character can withstand before it is defeated.
 * is found on items as a flat amount of Hit Points, Scaled by Character Level, and Gain Hit Points per second

Resistance Ratings
Resistance ratings increase your chance to resist status effects, up to 100% against monsters of the same level as the player. Your resist chance is lowered against higher level monsters but stacking resist rating past the cap helps against that. Resistances do not reduce incoming damage. Rating required to get to cap is 2x monster level + difficulty debuff amount.
 * is found on items as Fire Resistance Rating, Cold Resistance Rating , Lightning Resistance Rating , and Poison Resistance Rating

Elemental Damage
Elemental damage refers to the element type dealt by Weapons and Ancient Skills. These damage types can be increased by items and class buffs.
 * is found on items as Magic Damage %, Fire Damage % , Cold Damage % , Lightning Damage % , and Poison Damage %

Critical Hit
Critical hit is the chance that a attack will deal more damage than a normal blow. Both your character and monsters can deal a critical hit. You can increase your characters chance to gain critical, increase the critical damage, and heal from a critical.
 * is found on items as Critical Hit %, Critical Damage %, Heal by % of critical damage done
 * is caped at 100%

Armor Penetration
Armor penetration reduces the effective armor of the target.
 * is found on items as Armor Penetration %
 * is caped at 100%

Attack Speed
Attack speed is the speed of your characters weapon attacks. each weapon type has it's own base attack rate that can be modified by exceptional affixes in addition to attack speed increases.
 * is found on items as Attack speed increased by %

Weapon Damage
Weapon damage is your basic attack damage.
 * is found on items as Weapon minimum damage increased by and Weapon maximum damage increased by

Monster Type Damage
Monster type damage is an increase to that given type of monster.
 * is found on items as Increase damage to undead by % and Increase damage to demons by %

Magic Find Rating
Magic Find Rating will increase your chances of rolling higher qualities on items found and crafted items. Magic find rating has diminishing returns but getting at least some magic find rating will go a long way.
 * is found on items as Magic Find Rating

Gold Find
Gold find increases the amount of gold monsters drop.
 * is found on items as Gold Find %

Experience Rate
Experience rate increases the amount of experience gain from killing monsters.
 * is found on items as Experience Percent %


 * Attack Power - One point of Attack Power grants 4% increased damage
 * Vitality - one point of Vitality grants 45 to maximum hit points
 * Dexterity - One point of Dexterity grants you 5 Armor and 2% increased damage
 * Intelligence - One point of Intelligence grants 1 mana (=additional wand charge) and 2% increased damage
 * Vigor - one point of Vigor grants 2% to all resistances