Defensive Stats What's the defense cap at level 80? Defense cap is a terrible term - it's not like you will stop adding defense. I like
critical minimum instead.
- For raid bosses (level 83) you need 5.6% reduction in critical hit chance. That's 140 defense skill, or a total of 540 defense (at level 80, that's +689 defense rating from gear).
- For heroic bosses (level 82), you need 5.4% reduction in critical hit chance. That's 135 defense skill, or a total of 535 defense (at level 80, that's +665 defense rating from gear.)
I added up the numbers on my gear and I should have +500 defense, why does the character sheet only show 501 total?
You have 500 defense
rating from your gear. Every 4.92 points of defense rating makes 1 point of defense
skill, so 500 rating becomes 101 skill. Adding 101 to your base 400 skill (for level 80) gives 501 defense skill. Welcome to the combat ratings system. More on defense:
Defense
More on combat ratings:
Formulas and Relationships and
WoWWiki: Combat rating system I have over 540 defense skill, but I have less than 689 defense rating, halp!
You're a Deathknight with Stoneskin Gargoyle on your weapon. It adds 25 defense skill directly which is equivalent to 122 defense rating, but the SSG rune doesn't increase your defense rating total, only your defense skill total. Yes, you still have the required 5.6% crit reduction.
Why does my defense keep going down as I level?
Because at each successive level, you need more defense rating to make 1 point of defense skill. At level 80 you need 4.92 rating to make 1 skill. At level 79 you only needed 3.05 rating to make 1 skill, and so on.
What is the difference between dodge and parry?
When you dodge an attack, you avoid all damage it would have caused. When you parry an attack, you avoid all damage it would have caused and your next white damage attack is sped up (this is called parry haste).
Why do I have so much less avoidance than I did in Burning Crusade?
1) As with defense above, you need more dodge or parry rating to make 1% at every level past 70 than you did at 70. For example, at level 70 you needed 18.92 dodge rating to get 1% dodge. At level 80, you need 39.35 dodge rating to make 1% dodge.
2) Your dodge, parry, and chance to be missed are all subject to diminishing returns now.
Diminishing returns, what?
For dodge and parry rating (which convert directly into percentage), each point of rating is worth slightly less percentage than the point before. For defense, each point of rating always converts to the same amount of skill, but the amount of dodge and parry you gain from the defense skill diminishes. See here:
Diminishing Returns - Avoidance
Chance to block does not diminish whether it comes directly from block rating or defense skill.
What? That sucks!
Maybe you liked Sunwell Radiance?
Are the numbers on my character sheet after diminishing returns or not?- The dodge and parry numbers shown on your character sheet do have diminishing returns taken into account (look here for how that works)
- The miss chance on the defense tooltip does not have diminishing returns taken into account
- Block chance is not subject to diminishing returns at all
Does a boss that parries me get parry haste?
Most do, yes. Generally, bosses that hit very hard, like Patchwerk, do not.
How come people make fun of parry stacking?
Because even after the 3.2 changes, parry is still generally inferior to dodge.
Okay then, how should I stack avoidance?
Read here:
Diminishing Returns - Avoidance Does my crit reduction from defense have diminishing returns?
No, and neither does crit reduction from resilience. You can see this by taking your defense skill, subtracting the base 400 (assuming level 80) and multiplying by 0.04%. For example, my defense skill a the time I wrote this was 553. Subtract 400, leaving 153, and multiply by 0.04% gives me crit reduction of 6.12% - exactly what the tooltip tells me I have. (Whether I actually have 6.12% or 5.6% is a different discussion)
I heard that block has diminishing returns now?
Your chance to block still is not subject to diminishing returns. Nor is the amount of incoming damage that you can block - you can stack that as high as you want. What has happened is that the contribution of block value to damaging abilities such as Shield Slam and Shield of the Righteous have become subject to diminishing returns. Basically, a maximum of 2760 block value will be applied to these abilities when calculating their damage. More detailed information is here:
Blocking Can I combine defense and resilience to become uncrittable?
Yep. 82 Resilience = 123 Defense Rating = 25 Defense Skill = 1% less chance of being crit. You want 5.6% reduction for a boss, so 460 Resilience = 689 Defense Rating = 140 Defense Skill = 5.6% less chance of being crit. Mix and match as needed.
What about uncrushable?
Only mobs at least 4 levels higher than you can perform crushing blows now. Most tanks will never need to worry about them. See here:
Crushing Blows I took a crushing blow! It's right here in my combat log! Crush - Spell - World of Warcraft is not a crushing blow, it's an effect that happens to be called "Crush". If you actually take a crushing blow, you'll see something like "Soandso hits you for 4578 (crushing)". You can see this if you are under the effects of Thorim's Unbalancing Strike where any arena adds that are hitting you can crush you (though Thorim himself has had his crushing blows disabled.)
Frequently Asked Questions
