<p>To enhance the high-temperature erosive wear resistance of AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel, WCNiCrBSiFe composite coatings with varying WC loadings were fabricated on 304 stainless steel substrates via laser cladding in this work. A systematic investigation was conducted to examine the influence of WC content on the microstructure, microhardness, high-temperature erosion mass-loss rate, and the corresponding wear mechanism of the laser-cladded coatings. The experimental results demonstrate that as the WC content increased, the microstructure of the laser-cladded coatings was significantly refined, accompanied by a corresponding improvement in microhardness. The 25% WCreinforced coating had an average microhardness of 722 HV0.2, approximately 3.2 times that of the uncoated substrate. When the erosion temperature spanned from ambient to 600°C, the hightemperature erosion wear resistance of the specimens was positively correlated with increasing WC content. However, at an erosion temperature of 800°C, the erosion mass loss rate of the 20% WC sample was notably lower than that of the 25% WC sample, reaching only 0.37 mg/g, which accounted for approximately 53% of the value measured for the uncoated 304 substrate. At this temperature, the coating's high-temperature erosion wear mechanism was primarily “metal erosion” and slight fatigue spalling. Excessive WC content in the coating can exacerbate fatigue spalling, and the critical WC content threshold for the coating was determined to be 20%. This study on the performance of lasercladded WC-NiCrBSiFe high-temperature erosion-resistant coatings offers a novel technical approach and material design concepts for improving the wear performance of 304 stainless steel and other high-temperature wear-resistant materials.</p>