[Rasmfrackn]

It seems really strange that this hasn't been posted before, so maybe my search skills are just weak... I've checked here and at EJ, and haven't found a peep, and since I don't feel like replying to 10 random EJ threads to start my own post, I thought this would be a good place to start the discussion.

I strongly believe that resistance mechanics have changed in WotLK. After seeing Sapphiron a few times and watching SCT, it did not look like the right resistance rates or amounts to match our understanding. The most obvious piece is that partial resistances are not in 25% increments anymore.

I did some preliminary testing with a warlock last night, wearing different amounts of fire resist and having searing pain spammed in my face for 200+ casts. 200 isn't perfect stats, but it's only got about a 7% error on the results, which is plenty to see that things are different at the top end.

The resistance values I tried were 0% (short test, no partials as expected), 130, 215, 414, and 460 on a hunch. The hunch wasn't so conclusive, but these are the resist values I saw:


0 resist was 0%, really. I didn't see any partials.
WWS Loading... 130 FR - 25%
WWS Loading... 215 FR - 36%
WWS Loading... 414 FR - 52%
Wow Web Stats 460 FR - 55%

I fit these %s in Matlab and it fit best to a cubic poly, but I don't think my sample sizes were large enough to say that for certain, or give the formula. However, it's definitely a) not linear, and b) not 75% at 415.



Next I'm going to see what the shape of the partial resists looks like for a given resistance value. I have a feeling they want a much less swingy resist system... Even at 130 resist from just an aura, there are basically no full hits anymore. Check Sapphiron or Loatheb parses for lots of data points quickly.

Also probably of note is that there were no misses on the higher resist value trials. The 130 trial had the warlock completely gearless, so there were some misses, but for the rest she put a few pieces back on to keep her regen high enough to spam searing pain without going OOM. So I don't believe that resistance affects miss rates anymore either, which could probably have rather large implications for PvP.

I also wouldn't be surprised if there is no "cap" anymore, if it's an exponential curve (aka diminishing returns). There's no need for a hard cap with a curve that places high resistance rates out of reach just by availability and budget cost alone.

I'll get more trials at various resistances and see if I can get a likely formula out of it, but I wanted to start a discussion and see if there had already been work done elsewhere that I just haven't found yet.

Rasmfrackn

[Kazeyonoma]

interesting, I don't see why they would've changed the way it works since this has been the one mechanic in game that they've ever GIVEN us. Hopefully a few others can test this today (against PvE mobs if possible, it is possible they changed how resistance works against players for pvp purposes without changing it for pve) and see if more conclusive results can be found.

[jere]

Here are some sapphiron parses I did while offhealing in a 10 man:

130 FR:
Wow Web Stats

417 FR:
Wow Web Stats

[Rasmfrackn]

Finally muttled my way through histogramming 130 and 414 in Excel.

There are a few other oddities... such as resists coming in certain fixed values (see Sapphiron), and not taking crits into account. That is, for these trials, all my resists were multiples of 10% (plus 2%, actually... so 12%, 22%, 32%, 42%, etc.), but crits were halfway between in terms of actual %, but matched up on amount resisted (16%, 24%, but the amount resisted fell into the same absolute values as the non-crit resists) . Come to think of it, that part might be the same as ever... you only resist a % of the base damage, and all the crit damage gets through?

Anyway, Histogram of the partials for 130 and 414 in bins of 10%:





Like I thought, they're fairly... consistent now. It's not so swingy as having a 50% resistance level was before, where full hits and full resists were coming through. Now it's within a pretty narrow range most of the time.

[Rasmfrackn]

Source: Kazeyonoma interesting, I don't see why they would've changed the way it works since this has been the one mechanic in game that they've ever GIVEN us. Hopefully a few others can test this today (against PvE mobs if possible, it is possible they changed how resistance works against players for pvp purposes without changing it for pve) and see if more conclusive results can be found.

Yeah, it's entirely possible it's different in PvE vs PvP... but it's definitely obvious that the partial resist increments are now different. Looking at Sapph's aura ticks, it seemed to be 10% (or so) there too. I never saw any partials that weren't increments of 160 on the parse I was checking, on anyone in the raid. I guess that makes sense since the aura is a relatively fixed value.

Just looking at any Sapphiron parse though, if you know you were at the usual 417 for all 3 crafted pieces, it's probably going to say somewhere between 47% and 52%. I haven't seen much outside of that range.

What I'm really hoping to do is get our Arcane mage in a full setup so he's around 550, and see how much he resists next time.

[Rasmfrackn]

Source: jere Here are some sapphiron parses I did while offhealing in a 10 man: 130 FR: Wow Web Stats 417 FR: Wow Web Stats

Thanks for a separate set of data, Jere.

WWS shows his 48% overall resist amount, and
Wow Web Stats
is what I used to filter out all his numbers.



His resist values are also always in multiples of 160, which probably makes sense. Doing the same filter for Deathblooms on Loatheb is another consistent number if you put up NR aura.

[Kazeyonoma]

Hrm... I'll be following this thread but I haven't raided against a resistance based fight in a while so I can't test.

[Rasmfrackn]

Source: Kazeyonoma Hrm... I'll be following this thread but I haven't raided against a resistance based fight in a while so I can't test.

I think what I'm seeing is pretty consistent. Of course the important next steps are to most importantly find the formula, and then maybe find a decent breakpoint where the DR on the curve turns from helpful to a waste of budget. My impression is that ~36% from 216 is a heck of a lot more efficient than ~48% from 416.

I'll see how much more my warlock friend is willing to push her 2 key.

[jere]

Actually if you think about it, my numbers are always multiples of 120 (10% of 1200 in the 10 man version of Sapphiron)

360 = 30%
480 = 40%
600 = 50%
720 = 60%

Another interesting thing this shows is that damage reduction from talents, etc. comes after the resisted portion is taken out.

[Rasmfrackn]

Source: jere Actually if you think about it, my numbers are always multiples of 120 (10% of 1200 in the 10 man version of Sapphiron) 360 = 30% 480 = 40% 600 = 50% 720 = 60% Another interesting thing this shows is that damage reduction from talents, etc. comes after the resisted portion is taken out.

Ah, good point.

And yeah, my 2% offs are probably due to ShotT and GbtL being an always-on 9%. So spelldmg reduction talents really improve as you resist, since the resist portion is taken out first. That's nice.

[jere]

I may have had BoS on by mistake too. I sometimes forget to switch to wisdom when I swap from tanking to offhealing. I would need to do the math to find out.

[Rasmfrackn]

Since this is actually getting some circulation, I wanted to follow up a little.

I haven't found time to get better statistics on my trials, but I did get pointed to this blog post by a friend trying to wrangle a Sarth3D kill.

Greedy goblin: Elemental resistance

His findings looks a lot like mine, except his curve goes down from 100% instead of up from 0%. His findings also seem to suggest a cap of sorts, but only due to level difference. It's an interesting piece of additional information, but doesn't have much implication for raiding where we know everything we care about is coming from a +3.

I promise I'll get better stats at a couple breakpoints this week now that our raid nights are over.

[Ghladum]

Good work on these numbers!

So far the takehome message seems to be that it's harder to reach resistance numbers that knock off as much School Magic Damage as we're used to on old fights like Hydross, but on the other hand, a smaller amount is needed for a more significant reduction than before, and this reduction seems to be in a tighter normal curve around a mean reduction percentage...

Interesting implications for future dungeon design.

[zoefschildpad]

is there a limit to resistance now? I'm talking mathematical limits here, if you have say, a billion resistance, where would that put you? more than 100% reduction or is there an asymptote?

[Rasmfrackn]

There's an asymptote. Looks like someone over at EJ finally did some more thorough testing, and has a much more likely formula than just fitting the resist curve. It basically follows the armor format:

Resist / (Level*5 + Resist)

So, as Resist approaches infinity, the resistance value approaches 100%, but never quite reaches it. 415 would be 50% resist against a boss, but you'd need ~1245 resist to get to 75%.

Resistance Mechanics in WotLK - Elitist Jerks
Cross-posting is fun!

[GravityDK]

Source: Rasmfrackn There's an asymptote. Resistance Mechanics in WotLK - Elitist Jerks Cross-posting is fun!

Thanks. EJ gives me headaches.