New patch and Block Capping

[Vaxas]

SO the new patch hit today, and now Holy shield gives 10% more damage blocked (down from adding block chance).

So I like the idea of not having to jam out HP and hope I don't get smashed before getting holy shield up, but i'm sitting at 90% avoidance now (blizz also upped mastery from 2.00 to 2.25)

Is it even viable to get block capped in this gear?? Possible? Even worth it? I still have another icc to go to lol.

Ideas?

Heres armory if you care (sig is a bit out dated)

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-shee ... g&cn=Vaxas

[vexryn]

Just a quick note - bear in mind that now tankadins can use Divine Plea to get 3 Holy Power. So you can at least go into a pull with 3 HP already up and pop a SotR as soon as you're in melee range to put up HS immediately.

In point of fact, if you really wanted to, you could pop Divine Plea for the 3 HP, and hit yourself with a Word of Glory before the pull to get your Holy Shield up, as long as you have at least one talent point Guarded by the Light.

[Digren]

SO the new patch hit today, and now Holy shield gives 10% more damage blocked (down from adding block chance).

So I like the idea of not having to jam out HP and hope I don't get smashed before getting holy shield up, but i'm sitting at 90% avoidance now (blizz also upped mastery from 2.00 to 2.25)

Is it even viable to get block capped in this gear?? Possible? Even worth it? I still have another icc to go to lol.

Ideas?

Heres armory if you care (sig is a bit out dated)

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-shee ... g&cn=Vaxas

While it's not possible to be block capped any more, at least without greatly gimping your stamina, reducing the majority of incoming hits by 30% is still one of the best ways to increase your overall survivability. When our stamina pools are larger in Cata, and healers theoretically have enough time to react to damage spikes, such frequent (though not guaranteed) mitigation will be doubly valuable.

The math I saw indicated that mastery rating is better than dodge or parry rating in terms of total damage reduction. Thus, in general, continue to reforge dodge and parry rating (and unwanted threat stats on survival gear) into master rating. If you don't get to the block cap (and you won't), don't sweat it.

[MudNova]

well i know it doesn't really matter anymore since we are 2 weeks away from cataclysm, however, i did got to the block cap with this 'nerf'... I had to get rid of about 5k HP, but i got from 87% avoidance + block to 102.4%... 5k hp vs 40% reduced damage from every melee attack, is a huge advantage.. maybe its not very useful for some fights in ICC, but then again, we're about to see cataclysm, and the enconters there will be different. And like always, it is good to have different sets of gear for the different kind of encounters we are going to see; maybe 40% less damage from melee attacks wont be useful when fighting a caster-like boss

[Vaxas]

Thanks for the insight dirgen, thats pretty much the conclusion I came to as well on my ICC run last night.

Did not see any real difference in damage intake. And my healers said everything seemed normal.

Also not mitigating by 30% mind you 40% now when HS's up.

Cant wait to see what's in store for us in cata encounters!

[vexryn]

The math I saw indicated that mastery rating is better than dodge or parry rating in terms of total damage reduction. Thus, in general, continue to reforge dodge and parry rating (and unwanted threat stats on survival gear) into master rating. If you don't get to the block cap (and you won't), don't sweat it.

I've actually been looking for some of this math. Is it buried somewhere in one of Theck's threads and I just missed it? :/

[Dantriges]

If the macro in the thread is still correct I reached block cap. Ok I regemmed and took some stamina socket bonuses, so it didn´t seem to be such a big deal . The biggest exchange was the Corpse Tongue Coin but trinkets are changed easily prefight.

[Digren]

The math I saw indicated that mastery rating is better than dodge or parry rating in terms of total damage reduction. Thus, in general, continue to reforge dodge and parry rating (and unwanted threat stats on survival gear) into master rating. If you don't get to the block cap (and you won't), don't sweat it.

I've actually been looking for some of this math. Is it buried somewhere in one of Theck's threads and I just missed it? :/

It wasn't Theck's math; it was someone else's. And no offense meant to whoever did it, but it wasn't documented in a way that I'd swear by it. I think it was buried in a thread in the Cataclysm forum, and it came to the conclusion that mastery rating surpassed dodge or parry rating when dodge/parry percentages exceeded about 7% in 4.0.3a (compared to 20something% in 4.0.1).

And everybody is going to have at least 7% dodge/parry.

[theckhd]

It's actually about 10%, both at 80 and 85 (different amounts of rating, obviously).

[Digren]

It's actually about 10%, both at 80 and 85 (different amounts of rating, obviously).

Is that the best link, or will it be incorporated into a math thread? I'd like to link to a post with the top-to-bottom math and a clear conclusion when I tell people to favor mastery over dodge or parry when reforging, selecting yellow gems, etc.

Thanks for pointing that out.

[theckhd]

The rest of the derivation is quoted in the first post of that thread, though it's not updated for 4.0.3. Here's the whole thing from start to finish, updated to reflect the 4.0.3 changes:

H = hit size
A = Avoidance
B = Block

Damage taken = H(1-A-B)+0*A + 0.6*H*B = H(1-A-0.4*B)

Now trade avoidance dA for block dB:

DT'=H(1-(A-dA)-0.4*(B+dB))

Diff=DT'-DT=H-HA+HdA-0.4HB+0.4HdB-H+HA+0.4HB = H(dA-0.4*dB)

Thus, you take less damage if the avoidance you lose is less than 0.4 times the block% you gain.

Assume 10 of each stat. Mastery is fixed at 179.28 rating per point of mastery, and each point gives us 2.25% block. 10 mastery therefore gives us 0.12550%% block, and we'd need 10 parry to give us less than 0.05020 avoidance for the trade to be worthwhile.

According to the MATLAB model, that occurs when you have 942 parry rating (5.139%), or 10.139% parry on your character sheet. At level 80 it's only 234 rating (4.997%), still around 10%.

It's the same calculation for dodge, but we have slightly more base dodge at level 80 (5.5182% with base AGI included) and slightly less at 85 (3.9705% with base AGI). So at 85, it would be 8.9705% dodge, and at 80 it would be 10.5182%.

Again, note that these are just the break-even points for damage taken. Most theorists agree that it's still worth reforging avoidance to mastery below these points to smooth out damage intake, but it's hard to say anything with certainty until we're actually experiencing Cataclysm raid encounters.

[Digren]

Awesome. Concise and makes sense. Plus we needed more calculus in our hobbies.