Yeldarbs (stolen) research!

[Lama Master]

Defence shiznit (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-warrior&t=408118&p=1&tmp=1#post408118)

Interesting... Yarr?

[balrog3214]

nope

[Lama Master]

meh, i thought it was... /shoo

[MVB]

I don't know how interesting I find it. Either the game is bugged or the crushing blow data is incorrect. If the crushing blow data is incorrect, how correct can the other data be?

Still, seems to support the generally known hypothesis that once you get past 425 more defense helps, but doesn't help all that much.

[MVB]

http://evilempireguild.org/guides/defense.html

That is a write-up by Katrina.

She is sticking at 425 defense, and has reported a bug to WoW that seems supported by her testing, namely that higher defense seems to actually mildly increase your chance of receiving a crushing blow.

Either it's a bug, OR higher defense converts critical hits to crushing blows, which apparently do 50% less damage than critical hits (according to her research yet again).

At 440-450 defense, against level 63 mobs and level ??? bosses and below (upto and including Ragnaros), you gain complete "immunity" to critical hits from mobs EXCEPT for rare "autocrits" of sorts.

Using this information, and my setup, I reck'n I'll hang at high stamina and around 456-463 defense; if blizzard finds there is a crushing blow bug, and higher defense will constantly reduce that as well, I may go up higher on defense again as the opportunity arises to do so w/out sacrificing stamina.

[MVB]

Breaking down the math.

The apparent difference between a 310 defense and 440 defense in damage taken per hit is 155.4 damage per hit.

Against a mob with a 2.0s cd on swing, this translates to 4,662 hp/minute saved.


Between 441 and 484, however, the difference is 19.2 damage per hit. This translates to 576.0 hp/minute saved.

Between 441 and 500 ... 27 damage per hit, 810.0 hp/minute saved.

This is assuming 600 damage per hit regulars from MC mobs, which seems about right IME so far, though it may be even more exaggerated between 440+ and 310 due to the fact that I'm hit for around 500-600/hit at 440 and a 310 might be hit for far more (though that's probably more related to armor when actually hit ... these guesstimates are based more on deducted damage from no crits and more frequent dodge/parry/block/miss).