A lot of people have been wondering about what exactly happens when warriors & paladins lose their free 20 defense skill from talents (it's being changed to 5% dodge for 5 talent points for those unaware). Here we're going to discuss the issue & what exactly we can do as an immediate resolution.
Do we still need 490 defense to tank at 70? What about 80?
Yes, warriors & paladins will still need to be uncrittable (that's why we increase our defense rating, it reduces the chance to be critically hit). Druids will need to achieve this as well, but I'm not going to comment on druids very much right now (lack of experience & knowledge on talents). At level 80, one will need about 540 defense against a L83 (raid boss).
My defense dropped to . . . What can I do to bridge the gap?
First of all, try hard to replace some of your gear. Hope you didn't throw away all those trinkets! Beyond trinkets (a list at the bottom) there are other ways such as enchants (also listed below). The first enchant to use if going that route is Enchant Chest - Defense. This is better than the others because pure health won't scale with most raid buffs or talents (such as Vitality or Blessing of Kings).
Is there any other way?
Resilience. Point for point, resilience rating increases your critical hit reduction by a greater amount than defense rating. The problem with resilience is that it does nothing else whereas the defense rating we lose equates to about a 2.44% loss in avoidance (dodge & parry combined) & chance to block.
How much resilience does it take to make up the lost defense?
The defense skill we lost was 20. That's about 48 defense rating which reduces chance to be critically hit by 0.8%. It would take about 32 resilience rating to achieve 0.8% critical hit reduction (with a little extra).
So what's the quick fix you mentioned?
Merciless Gladiator's Shield Wall (for warriors) & Merciless Gladiator's Barrier/Redoubt (for paladins). These three shields are a great "quick fix" & for many players offer a humongous upgrade from Heroic/Karazhan gear.
The Shield Wall gives 31 resilience rating (0.79% critical hit reduction) & the twin shields for paladins give 27 resilience rating (0.69% critical hit reduction). Paladins will need at least 473 defense using the two Spell Power shields.
Trinkets & Enchants Mentioned Above
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3 comments:
The easiest way - which I have taken - is to replace some stamina gems with defense gems.
Replacing the gems in your gear is definitely one route which is probably the fastest, but not necessarily the most optimal. Perusing the Auction House can net some good deals, but I wouldn't dare spend all my money on defense gems.
Personally, I didn't have to use a single defense gem. This is probably not the case for many players, though. I view regemming as a last resort.
Thanks for your article, very useful.
Being an alchemist, I am thinking about getting Guardian's Alchemist Stone, to get 54 defense rating in one piece of equipment.
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