Armor: Mitigation vs. Avoidance

In our first article we covered the Basics, in our second article we covered Combat Ratings and Values. Now it’s time to cover one of the greatest questions every tank has ever asked themselves since WoW is WoW … what gear should I get?

Before we go into that I’d like to go over the final combat stat, the one that is so ever-present even I forgot it.

Armor: Every piece of gear has it, everyone has been using it since level 1, it applies to clothies and tin cans (Plate Armor wearers) alike, yet few people actually know how it works. No more I say!

Armor reduces all incoming physical damage. It’s a passive ability that is always on whether you are incapacitated (stunned, feared etc) or not. The exact number of this reduction can be seen by mousing over the stat in your character page and the value is referred to as Damage Reduction (DR for short). There is a misconception out there that Armor is subject to diminishing returns (Not to be confused with Damage Reduction). Although it is true that beyond a certain point it takes more armor to gain more DR, the DR you gain is worth more:

Say your DR is 50% and you take 10,000 physical damage you will loose 5,000 life
Increase your DR by 1% to 51% and you will only loose 4,900 health … that’s 2% less health lost for 1% more DR

If your DR is 60% on the same 10K hit you’ll only lose 4000 health
Increase it to 61%and you’ll get smacked for 3,900 health that’s a 2.5% Damage Reduction increase.

On a side note when it comes to armor, your shield is your friend, it easily represents 25-30% or more of your armor. Also you should not select a piece of gear because of this stat, but knowing its effects will help you get a better picture of what’s actually going on in a fight. It also explains why a cloth wearer will take 10,000 dmg when the same hit will only cause 4,000 (or less) dmg to your favorite Tin Can.

Now that’s out of the way let’s take a look at the biggest issue there is for tanks, the one that sparks the most debate and the one is the most confusing:

Avoidance vs. Mitigation

We have the answer folks: Here it is … are you ready …

As far as I’m concerned as long as you haven’t hit the Def cap you should grab anything you can get your grubby little mitts on; you can start being picky once you have options.  The basic concept behind this argument is simple:

Avoidance is Mostly Dodge and Parry which lets you avoid the damage altogether but is more expensive to itemize.
Mitigation is reducing the damage you DO receive through Block Value and Block Rating which is far less expensive to itemize; and Armor value, which is passive (see above).

As a general rule it is better to completely avoid a hit rather than try to reduce the damage from it, that is true. You do, however, have to take into account the circumstances, that is to say: who is hitting you ? Patchwerk or the multi-mob trash pulls? In this the Paladin has an edge since he can keep agro on multiple mobs better then any other class in the game. Paladins usually end up on Add duty for that specific reason

My basic theory (Bear in mind I’m still experimenting) goes something like this: for multi mob trash pulls and/or picking up mobs during a Raid Boss encounters, Block is preferable since they don’t hit all that hard. Blocking 1600-2000 pts of damage out of a 4K hit is a 50% reduction is damage taken. Whereas avoiding 100% of the same hit 25% of the time would only be worth a ~25% reduction in damage taken.

When it comes to monsters that hit like a Mack truck on crack (Patchwerk’s Hateful strikes for example) avoiding those is by far preferable to blocking them – for now.  So, as of Patch 3.1.3 with Block value being what it is today: block the little hits and avoiding the big ones is the agreed upon philosophy almost everywhere.  The debate really picks up in speculation AFTER 3.2 goes Live. Here’s why:

In the previous article I made an obscure reference to Block Value being increased on gear on the next patch … here it is in detail (Quoted from WoWHead.com’s PTR patch notes)

• Block Value: The amount of bonus block value on all items has been doubled. This does not affect the base block value on shields or block value derived from strength.

• On-Use Block Value Items: All items and set bonuses that trigger temporary increases to block value have been modified. Instead of increasing their block value amount by 100% like other items, they have all had their effect durations doubled. This applies to Glyph of Deflection, Gnomeregan Autoblocker, Coren’s Lucky Coin, Levanthor’s Talisman, Libram of Obstruction, Tome of the Lightbringer, Libram of the Sacred Shield, the tier 8 paladin Shield of Righteousness bonus, the tier 5 paladin Holy Shield bonus, and the tier 5 warrior Shield Block bonus.

Paladins, however also get hit with this:
• Shield of Righteousness: Now deals 100% of shield block value as damage instead of 130%.

This simply means a +100% block Value (not Rating) on all items (except shields) and -30% on a single ability.  That still translates to a massive increase across the board and a slightly less massive increase (~+70% ) in that one ability (Shield of Righteousness).

This shakes things up a bit since you would be theoretically be able to reduce the damage taken on big hits to the point where healers can keep up. On a side note here; your healers love steady damage like Auras and stuff . Spiky damage gives them heart palpitations (the bad “heart attack” kind … not the “I Love you” kind).

This is purely speculation but the idea is that if you can survive 2 Hateful strikes back-to-back (thanks to Mitigation) ANY healer worth his salt in a Raid can keep up. At that point mitigation through blocking actually becomes as-good-as, if not better than, the spiky avoidance. If you stack Avoidance you’re “gambling” that you’ll be able to avoid the hits – but you may not have enough Mitigation to survive 2 back-to-back Hateful strikes.

If that didn’t convince you that Block value is becoming OP, remember what we said about Dodge and Parry in the previous article – they are both subject to diminishing returns (Soft capped at 25% each), where as Block Rating and Block Value stacks to infinity.

I know it can get confusing if you’re new to tanking or to the paladin class in general but the bottom line is this: If you haven’t started building a second set yet (a Dodge set and  a Block set), you should. Paladins should especially heed this since they end up tanking Adds half the time and Bosses the other half.

One final word on this issue: the ONLY Judges here are your Healers! They are the ones that keep you alive and if you really want to know which is better ask them if you become “easier to heal” after switching a few pieces of gear around. Even if you take more damage overall with mitigation,  if it’s more evenly spread out and easier to heal through, you might consider updating your wardrobe.

Every Tank should really listen to their Healers … after all your life is in THEIR HANDS ultimately – not your own (Isn’t that Ironic )

Avoidance vs. Mitigation; the debate continues … now get out there and Dominate (the game .. .not the debate)

(This article will be updated with values from field experience after 3.2 is released)

Articles in this thread:

Part 1 – The Basics

Part 2 – Combat Ratings

Part 3 – Armor: Mitigation vs. Avoidance (You are Here)

Part 4 – Hit Table and Threat Generation

Part 5  – Abilities and Rotation

Part 6 – Professions and Upgrades

Part 7 – Buffs and Starter Gear