Tank combat table confusion

[Riverune]

Hi everyone.
I'm trying to figure out exactly how the combat table ( Miss->Dodge->Parry->Block->Critical->Ordinary Hit )
works. I understand priority is from left to right, but does this mean (without the reduced crit talent and being "normal" hit capped) an incoming attack cannot normal hit but can only crit as a "direct" hit?
I also believe this is not a "1 roll system", but something more like 1 roll for miss -> block (if block a new roll for crit block), 1 roll for hit (new roll for crit). Obviously I don't think that is accurate but if someone could help explain it to me, it would be appreciated

edit: I also read you can block a critical hit, I don't really understand how that works either. Is it calculated by checking whether the incoming attack was blocked, or a crit first?

Hope I explained it clear enough to get an idea of what I mean ^^, thanks.

[leethaxor]

The Combat Table

[Fetzie]

I'm just going to quote what I wrote in my Paladin guide (because then I only need to copy-paste it and not write out all the tables again, linked in my signature):

9.1 Combat Table Coverage aka. Unhittability aka. Block Capping

The reason we go into all this trouble understanding Diminishing Returns, and what Mastery does is the quest for removing normal hits off the Combat Table.

This is what the normal combat table looks like:

Crit	Taken care of by Sanctuary (5.6% chance, +200% damage)
Crush	Only when attacked by a level+4 enemy (+150% damage)
Hit	Normal Swing damage
Block	Blocked Swing (=30% less damage)
Parry	Parried Swing
Dodge	Dodged Swing
Miss	Swing that misses

We only really need to worry about Hits, blocks, parrys and dodges as we never* encounter crushing blows or critical strikes in a normal fight.

In tabletop terms, the game rolls a D10000 (with faces 0-9999)to determine what happens with the swing (this allows for 0.01% steps in avoidance. Your avoidance and block chances change the amount of times the boss hits you with a full swing. Let us say a tank has 15% dodge, 15% parry and 50% block against the enemy attacking him:

Hit	8500-9999 (15%)
Block	3500-8499 (50%)
Parry	1999-3499 (15%)
Dodge	500-1999 (15%)
Miss	0-499 (5%)

The boss has a 15% chance to land a normal hit.

Now let us imagine that our tank has magically got 15% block out of nowhere (maybe he equipped two mastery trinkets).

Hit	Cannot be rolled for
Block	3500-9999 (65%)
Parry	2000-3499 (15%)
Dodge	500-1999 (15%)
Miss	0-499 (5%)

Our tank has got so much block that the normal hits have no more valid numbers that the game can choose, so the tank can no longer take a normal hit, only taking blocks or not being hit at all. Increasing the values for avoidance gives the game less possible values to deal a blocked swing, even if the block chance on paper remains the same:

Block	4500-9999 (55%)
Parry	2500-4499 (20%)
Dodge	500-2499 (20%)
Miss	0-499 (5%)

Now what a Warrior's critical block does is, in the case of a Block, it rolls again. You then have a chance to critically block (for 60% of the swing's damage) which is dependent on your Critical block chance (increased by mastery and the Hold the Line talent). If you do not roll for a Critical Block, you block for the normal amount (30%).

Did this help?

[Riverune]

Thanks for the link leethaxor, it was exactly what I needed. I guess I just looked in the wrong places, but I do that when I learn about mechanics...it breaks my brain sometimes ^^ and thanks Fetzie for the table
/cookies

[Fetzie]

Don't forget to look in the Critical Guides and Articles Library section next time, it is called that for a reason

[leethaxor]

Don't forget to look in the Critical Guides and Articles section next time, it is called that for a reason

A lot of it is old, but is worth taking a look at. Because while it was dug up a long time ago blizzard has this great habit of re-using old concepts and not reworking core game mechanics. :P

[Fetzie]

Never change a working system (or at least one that doesn't give you that many headaches ). The mechanics themselves may be 6 years old but they are still relevant to this day.

[Riverune]

Yeah I'll make sure to do that next time. Though I did notice lots of mechanic posts weren't exactly published to this date, which got me worried 'just in case' I was learning something out of date, not to mention some obviously incorrect posts I'd seem regarding certain mechanics. None the less thanks for the clarification and links!

[jere]

Hey Fetzie, as a note, you actually have crit and crush mixed up. Crushing is only 1.5x damage while crit is 2x damage, so it is the last to go (if you don't account for crit reducing talents or mobs over 4+ levels higher)

So:
Crit
Crush
Hit
...and so on

[Fetzie]

ah ok, I'll change it later.