No defense on tankgear

[fuddjupp]

I really don't know what Blizzard's intention was when they gave us gear without defense on it. I have several issues with these new items which would be:

- Tier 10 Chest
- Pillars of Might (craftlegs)
- Craftboots
- Tank-Gun from Trash (only for warriors)

I took a look at my gear yesterday an wanted to see how many defense I could loose in order to pick up these upgrades (especially Pillars of Might). I would wear up to three items without deff rating which would be Gun, Legs and Chest (Chest only for 4pc ilvl 277 T10). In my current gear my defense would drop to 546 when using these items. I really don't feel comfortable with my defense being on Naxx-level when using the highest gear ingame.

Issues:
1. The game mechanics aren't designed for tankgear without defense
2. Defense is the best avoid stat for tanks (especially warri/pally who even get some mitigation from block)
3. Why are "the great items" that we should expect in ICC (Blizzard's promise!) itemized so worse?
4. I don't want to be my defensive stat to be as low as a ilvl 200 tank when I kill Arthas and stuff. It just feels wrong to me.

[Skaggi]

Hi there!

There are already some threads on this one but here comes what I deduced for myself.

You're not talking about mitigation here since defense doesn't help us mitigate damage. What you loose when choosing this upgrade plan is avoidance. So more hits will connect with you doing damage. Nevertheless you're still crit immune with a defense rating above 540 so no problems there. What you gain is armor in massive amounts and that's mitigation. Every hit you take will be a smaller one.

Choose your own poison but it's no wonder all progression tanks choose armor stacking at the moment.

Cheers!
skaggi

[swelt]

1. The game mechanics aren't designed for tankgear without defense
2. Defense is the best avoid stat for tanks (especially warri/pally who even get some mitigation from block)
3. Why are "the great items" that we should expect in ICC (Blizzard's promise!) itemized so worse?
4. I don't want to be my defensive stat to be as low as a ilvl 200 tank when I kill Arthas and stuff. It just feels wrong to me.

1. No, but they will be. I think Blizzard have been doing a little pre-expansion experimentation in the itemisation, as seen in the craftables and the +armor gear.
2. Due to stat inflation, it takes less slots with +def on them to get you above the minimum, so these give you an option to go for other stats.
3. It's just an option, if you want high defense, there are other options. I didn't get the crafted boots or the tier chest for this reason.
4. It will only be that low if you choose to go for those items.

Get cataclysmic chest instead of the tier, wait for boots to drop, problem solved.

[Maèl]

I wouldn't dismiss the mitigation that comes from def. Well, there is some for us shield bearing types since it also gives sbr which to my knowledge is not subject to diminishing returns.
In fact since I don't have any sbr on my usual tank sets anymore def is the only stat that gives me sbr.

Still I like the way they are handing armor out and that they changed it retroactively on the tier sets. But due to how def works I still prefer that over dodge when the avoid benefit for me would be the same/only slightly lower than getting a dodge gear upgrade.

I really hope Tank Points gets the mathy stuff right because that is what I base my decisions on.

[Skaggi]

Block(SBR beeing the chance to block and SBV the amount) is no constant mitigation since you can easily be stunned, hit in the back or whatever inconvenient else and then you won't block even while beeing blockcapped.

Armor is always effective and due to that fact a part of EH calculation which blockvalue isn't.

Just a thing to remember when building the set for an encounter or a certain role in an encounter (am thinking Anoob here).

[Aethelas]

Odd. I remember many guides and calculators including block in their definition/calculation of effective health. Seriously how often do you get stunned or have mobs walk behind you? (anub adds being a different problem here). If anything else the increase in armor is making block/blockvalue a little stronger. I hope I remember correctly but a block is factored in after mitigation through armor.

I do think the amount of missing defense on the Tier 10 chestpiece and the crafted items is quite nasty to miss out on. It's a significant amount of chance to miss, and a bit of mitigation through block (which I think is nearly neglegible because of the increased armor that's 100% effective). I'm not much good with numbers - but It'd be nice to see a total breakdown of the gearsets vs a specific preset of incoming damage.