[Burzurkur]

I was wondering if anyone had an equation for the value of 1 armor vs 1 avoidance rating.

I know they can both be very situational to the fight but after having seen the (I think) Hodir legs that have 2.8k armor on them but little avoidance, I was wondering if those would somehow calculate to be better than a tier piece with similiar stam and some avoidance.

Having 39.2k hp unbuffed a little stam drop wouldnt seem like a bad tradeoff for some more armor for physical based fights but again, just wondering if anyone has a formula for this. Thanks.

[Satorri]

Well, you're right they really can be situational, and personally I wouldn't give them the same relative value in any given fight. The relationship also depends on which avoidance rating, how much armor and that rating you already have, and how it affects you.

Obviously dodge rating has a bit better exchange rate than parry, and avoidance vs mitigation are different relationships. Every armor increment will reduce every physical hit or reducible physical dmg by a small amount, while each avoidance increment will give you a tiny chance to just plain not take the hit. In the grand average of big number probability 1% dmg reduction from armor should equal 1% avoidance (find your values on the diminishing returns for each and figure out the relative value as each changes individually). In practical senses, I prefer to adjust each for the given fight. On Ignis and XT for example, where I generally prefer to avoid more than mitigate the monster hits, I'll swap one stam trinket for a big dodge trinket (since we use the same spec and rough gear theme). On any fight where I'm not taking upwards of 30k swings, I'll rely on big health and while I favor armor for supporting that raw health pool, and avoidance is nice as well, my focus is health first and foremost for our % health returns.

Remember one key detail about the bonus armor on the pants: the green portion (i.e. the extra amount beyond the other plate items at the same level which all have the same armor value) will not get the benefit of our +80% armor from Frost Pres.

General rule, rather than measuring the value of a given piece (since ideally, it's been balanced for us), just keep an eye on what you're gaining and what you're losing and try to support the aspects you're weaker on, or the values you want to be stronger on.

[GoBadgers]

Well its definitely a trade off based on the fight as you will get more total damage reduction from avoidance, but less spike damage from armor. I'm not certain exactly how armor translates for DKs but as a warrior my current rule of thumb is 1 point of dodge rating is comparable to 14-15 armor (this is based on the assumption of dodge in the low 20s and armor near 25k). At this ratio armor should give out about 3/4 the damage reduction of dodge, but contributing directly to effective health rather than avoidance making it more valuable as it reduces spike damage which makes up for the lower total reduction.

If the encounter hits excessively hard the importance of armor increases as damage fluctuation become the main concern thus more armor should be stacked at the expense of avoidence. On the other hand if it hits more modestly, you are likely better of just taking as little total damage possible with avoidance.

Unfortunatly though there are only a few choices for armor so there is limited room to make this itemization shift (unless you are fortunate enough to catch the ring off leviathon or the legs of kolagarn).

[kyle46]

I'm finding more and more in Ulduar that my best bet is to push my armor as high as possible. Most of the fights rely on heavy,constant physical damage which tends to favor EH as the way to gear. As a pally raid buffed with a priest or shammy MT healer I'm sitting at around 70% reduction constantly. Two weeks ago I was sitting at around 65% because I had more avoidance and now the healers all say they are having a much easier time.

[Satorri]

Dealing with bonus armor (which is the only thing that may change really with equivalent level gear), which is not subject to our Frost Pres bonus, the system's trade is somewhere in the area of 15-17 armor = 1 dodge rating, for what that is worth. That's purely itemization value from the system. I picked up the bonus armor pants from Kolo25 last night, which netted me 862 armor (nomnom). That's a 0.6% additional reduction in physical damage at my level (consider that as avoidance % for comparison which would take about 30-34 dodge rating with my gear, or a similar conversion of more like 25 armor = 1 dodge rating).

So, take-away point #1:
There is no set value for the exchange, it varies depending on how much armor and avoidance you have if you compare in terms of direct %'s (which also only play out in practical observation in very large counts of swings).

Take-away point #2:
When dealing with bonus armor you'll be dealing with only 400 armor (say 0.25% physical damage) or 800 armor (0.5% physical damage). If you're taking boss swings at around 60k unmitigated value (say XT, Ignis, etc), then those differences are 150 or 300 damage respectively, on swings hitting for around 20k. The moral of that story is, we're nitpicking over very tiny details, so I don't think there is a life-or-death make-or-break scenario to be aware of. Play it to your class/spec and you'll get the best value, but don't expect it to be a night and day difference.

As a Frost DK, I'd favor armor. As an Unholy DK, I'd favor avoidance. As a Blood DK, I'd value both the same, but focus on health, plain and simple.

[diag]

I played with the claculator a bit, using 42000 hp, 26000 armor and 58% avoidance. I got the following results,

damage reduction: 10 armor ~0.4-0.45 dodge rating

effective health: 10 armor ~9-10 hp = .77-.85 stamina

Viewing from item budget,
10 armor = 1 dodge rating = 1.5 stamina = 1 budget rating

Adding them together, 10 armor = .91 -1.0 budget rating

It turns out that bonus armor is a stat with good balance of damage reduction and effective health.