View Full Forums : +defense greater than stamina?


Mazikeen
06-24-2005, 10:02 AM
I posted the below in the warrior forums, and actually got 2 objective responses. I thought I'd share it with you druids and pass along my decision, which is;( as always, interested in your feedback as well)

Replace my phantasmal cloak with the Cloak of warding and replace 3 of my 4 armor packs with Core Armor paks, that will top me out at 343 defense which for a druid, seems a solid number coupled with my other stats. I will also eventually replace my +100 to chest with another core armor pack when I pick up the leather for it. I still have my bone ring helm to grab and it will make up for the 120 stamina I lose off the cloak and losing the 100 from the chest still isn't painful as I'll have 5800+ hp

So, anyway, +24 defense seems much more viable than 120 armor points, especially if you just look at percentage of gain, so there you go.

BTW, I tanked Voone last night (7 man raid, no warrior, I was MT) He critted a MS on me with only 312 defense, I was hit for 2043, but absorbed 945. So, from the warriors responses, that absorb was directly from my defense. As it actually worked on that occasion as was worth near 30%, I'm all for trying out my stat max without sacrificing my rarer high armor count gear.

------------------------------
Hey Warriors, I'm looking for people to compare and tell/teach me what +defense is worth. Let me start by saying, warriors are the right people to ask, and I please, don't want to start some 3 page thread on "Druids can't tank" we're a hybrid class, that can't do anything quite as well as the class that's primary designed for the task, I truly understand that. :-)

I'm considering changing out my phantasmal cloak (662 armor +12 stamin +12 strength) for the cloak of warding (1022 armor +7 defense) so my question is, is it worth it? I do not understand how the +defense works in the game. Is the +7 defense and the extra armor equal or greater in returns than the 120 stamina I'll be giving up?

This question will also answer in regards to my armor packs. I have enough core leather for 2 core leather armor packs. The druid class armor packs are not included in the 360% multiplier, so they are worth only 40 armor in bear. Is the +8 defense better in that regard as well?

What exactly is the +defense to a warrior? Strictly a increase in the chance of dodge? or more for block/parry as in bear I don't beleive I have any ability to miss damage but a dodge, can't recall ever catching a block or parry on my combat log.

I do a solid amount of MT duty on stealth runs, fill in for 5 man tanking in my guild for farming DM and such, and a solid amount of offtanking main/minion bosses while the dps crew works over the mobs. I am not designed or equipped for dps, merely to hold aggro and survive while the crew does their job. I want to make sure that anything I do to change my current build is better in regard to surviveability, as I'm not having any major trouble with any bosses up to and including whyrmkin at this time. The more surviveable I can make my bear, the more resources from the priest that are available to the rest of the team.

for a baseline, my current build

AC 9400
Defense 312
HP 5460
+32 attack power (think my total right now is 486)
+25 shadow resist
+10 arcane resist
+1% to hit
+1% to dodge
58 agility
134 str

I may edit this tonight when I have a chance to check the character and list the totals after MoW and verify the str/agi numbers.

anyway, thanks for the help. I'm very interested, based on the above numbers, what the + defense would add and the extra 400 armor compared to the 120 hp I lose.

Badgemagus
06-24-2005, 02:58 PM
This is interesting, I'd like to know this as well.

Vrax
06-30-2005, 09:39 AM
Maz, one of the better places to look for resources is The Steel Warrior. They should have a breakdown of the benefits of + defense, amongst other things. Even if they don't have one, I am sure that they can help you out.

Ahadiel
07-01-2005, 01:21 AM
No, defense for druids is not as good as stamina in tanking situations. Defense is only better when you can do all of the defense dependancies are effect, these being dodge, block, and parry.

Druids can only dodge, meaning we only get 1/3 of the bonus defense provides. Considering how +20 defense is only .2% to dodge/block/parry this is not the way druids should be focused.

For druids

Armor>Stamina>Defense for tanking.

Badgemagus
07-20-2005, 01:33 PM
I agree with Ahadiel about Druids defense not being as effective.

On the other hand, Armor and Stamina are respectively better in different situations.

You have 9000AC and 5000HP
Armor mitigates approx 57% of damage.
Mob hits you for 2000 which you mitigate around 1200 damage.
Armor > Stamina

You have 6000AC and 7000hp
Armor mitigates approx 50% of damage.
Mob hits you for 1000 which you mitigate around 500 damage.
Stamina > Armor

This may not be the best example but I hope you guys see what Im trying to say. My numbers are not exact by any means, but Im trying to convey that the harder the mob hits, the more AC you want. If he doesnt hit for as much, more Stam is more effective.

Pray
07-20-2005, 02:12 PM
Armor will always be the most effective. Now obviously if you have an underwhelming amount of hp, thats going to be a problem if a mob hits you for 2000....

Basically, Stam is the most important for PVP where Burst DPS is king. Your going to need that buffer to counter / heal / kill.

In normal PVE situations, armor will always be the most important thing. (again, assuming you have a reasonable amount of HP). + Hp or Stam is very situational, basically, it's only helpful if your health bar is getting close to empty.. Otherwise, it really rarely comes into play.