Def and Def. Rating (total noob here)

i'm at 514 Def and my rating is 342...is that high enough or do i need more?

490 Defense is enough to make you completely immune to critical hits from any mob in the game, including raid bosses. 485 is enough for anything short of that, and past 490, defense does not provide as much toward becoming uncrushable as do the pure crush-avoidance stats, such as dodge rating and block rating. So, in short, yes, you have plenty and could most likely benefit by sacrificing some for spell damage or dodge and block rating.
_________________

Actually, Defense do provide alot more towards uncrushable if you are not there yet. With 25 defense skill, you gain 1% to be missed, dodge, parry and block, totaling 4% towards uncrushable. These benefits still apply after uncrittable.

25 defense skill divided by 4 makes 6.25 defense skill per 1% towards uncrushable.
2.37 defense rating per defense skill, times 6.25 makes 14.81 defense rating needed to achieve 1% towards uncrushable.

Compare 14.81 defense rating to 18.92 dodge rating, defense provide more value per rating.

But of course that only applies if you are not uncrushable yet. Even after uncrushable, because block chance falls off the hit table first, only 3 avoidance (miss, dodge and parry) is useful.
25 Defense skill divded by 3 make 8.33 (or 8 and one third), times 2.37 makes 19.75

So even after uncrushable, it requires only 19.75 rating per 1% of pure avoidance. Although it requires more rating per 1%, there is an advantage in stacking defense, as it increases your miss chance. Spells cannot be dodged or parried, but spells can still miss (it comes up as a full resist) so it provides some benefits against spells compared to stacking pure dodge.

But this is only comparing between dodge rating and defense rating. To get uncrushable easier, the best is to stack block rating, as only 7.88 block rating is required per 1%. Because of this, and the slightly cheaper dodge rating, you generally get more bang for your buck by stacking dodge and block compared to stacking defense.
_________________
Tenkou - 70 Paladin, Xavius EU

Having high defense has nothing to do with how often spells will miss you. That only applies to Melee hits. Some spells are however classified as physical damage, such as Nightbane's fear for example.
_________________

So would you all say i'm good as far as defense goes here's my stats

http://wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Bloodscalp&n=Shugg
_________________
http://wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Bloodscalp&n=Shugg

sooo....playing with numbers...
332 def rating is what would be needed to achieve 490 defense at 70, right?
_________________

oh right, i forgot anticipation ><
so yea, 285 defense rating with anticipation would be 490
which fits with you having 287 and being at 491 yaymath!
_________________