Project Lore

Part 2 of our series on the basics of melee DPS (Part 1 - Melee DPS 101: The Hit Cap) brings us to the category that confused me the most, Expertise.  When I began looking up Wrath of the Lich King's changes to my class' required stats, I was expecting to find pretty clear cut answers.  That was not the case for Expertise. My initial research confused me something fierce due to my own stupidity.  I kept coming across a pair of vastly different numbers that were recanted as the expertise needed for dual and single wielding DPS.  Then the compact fluorescent light bulb went off, the synapse was crossed and I put the final piece of the puzzle together. Expertise and Expertise Rating are convertible statistics, not the same thing.  It really is quite simple and works like Hit and Hit Rating.  The more Hit Rating you have, the more you will connect with your target.  I do not know why this confused me for the length of time that it did, but I never claimed to be Einstein. Let's get to the facts now that you know how slow I can be without my morning tea.  Expertise is a very easy to understand requirement that is the same for all melee DPS classes.  For starters, Expertise is the statistic that will help minimize a mob's ability to Dodge or Parry your attacks.  Once again, our focus for the discussion will be on boss mobs.  Before we begin, it should be noted that all DPSing should be done from behind the target.  This will cut out the need for additional rating, since the mob will have its Parry attribute removed from the equation table. Assuming that you are "hitting it from behind," a melee DPSer will require 214 Expertise Rating or 26 Expertise (you can check this on your character sheet).  Roughly 33 ER or the equivalent of 4 expertise will reduce a mobs chance to dodge/parry by 1%.  If you hit those numbers, you will surpass the 6.5% Dodge chance those pesky Boss mobs are handed and maximize your DPS potential. Here's another "at a glance" guide for easy reference.

All Melee DPS:

Expertise/Expertise Rating = 26 and 214 respectively. You just need to hit one of these numbers to negate a mob's chance to Dodge or Parry (when attacking from behind).  Expertise is generally gained from various talents (Vitality, Combat Expertise, Weapon Expertise, etc) or racial traits (Humans gain 3 Expertise for Swords and Maces), while Expertise Rating is typically obtained from item bonuses. 1 Expertise = 0.25% Dodge reduction, 32.79 Expertise Rating = 4 Expertise = 1% Dodge Reduction and the numbers you are trying to overcome are 6.5% Dodge and 12-15% Parry (Parry percentage remains in debate).  Don't forget, Parry can be ignored if you are attacking from behind.

Tanks:

I am not sure what the sweet spot is for tanking, but it is higher than Melee DPS.  Since a tank is obviously in front of the mob, they don't benefit from dropping Parry from the calculation table.  Therefore they would need additional Expertise/ER to drop negate a the other half of the Expertise equation.  However, if you are generating enough threat per second, you may be able to perform sufficiently with the DPS numbers above, since TPS is a tank's primary concern. I hope this clears up any confusion out there.  Remember to always attack from behind for the avoidance mitigation!  Brownie points to the commentator who can give us the necessary tank numbers.  Next up, all the other statistics out there.

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Today I would like to continue the tanking discussion we started the other day and dive a little deeper into the world of tanking stats. Last time around I discussed defense, which is the first major stat you need to get capped as an up and coming tank. It actually carries over quite nicely into today’s topic. Once you have 540 defense and are “capped” you can keep stacking it to improve all the stats I am discussing today. In fact some argue “cap” is the wrong word as you continue to see benefit from additional defense. Now, I would like to talk a bit about avoidance. So lets get right into it!

Avoidance –

What is it? Just because mob swings at you doesn’t mean he has to hit you! In fact we generally prefer that he doesn’t. This is where avoidance comes it. When a mob swings at you there are basically 5 options if you are at or above 540 defense. He either a) hits you b) misses you c) you parry the attack d) you dodge the attack or e) you block the attack.

Our goal is to make it so that A is not an option. Miss is a built in game mechanic which we have little control over (defense will help some here), fortunately we have lots of control over block, dodge, and parry. We need to stack these stats so that we avoid as much incoming damage as possible. Block technically falls into the “mitigation” category where it only stops a portion of the incoming damage, so I will cover that next time, for now let’s talk about dodge and parry.

Dodge: This stat increases that chance that you will dodge the attack, avoiding the damage from the swing completely. That’s right, you take no damage if you dodge! This makes it one of the best stats for a tank to stack. This is obviously better than avoiding just a portion, and therefore all things being equal is preferable to block. It is harder to stack than block (less rating per point on your gear), but it’s well worth seeking out the gear to help with this.

Parry: You didn’t think it could get any better than avoiding all damage, but it can. When you increase your chance to parry an attack the tank benefits from the avoided damage. The swing timer on YOUR attack is sped up after a parry which results in more damage from you, and higher threat on your target. This stat is especially useful to warrior and death knight tanks (especially DKs). Bears can’t parry and Pallies see little benefit. It also happens to be the most difficult to stack in terms of points per overall avoidance percentage.

How Much Do You Need? It can obviously be bit of a balancing act getting all these stats straightened out. Overall a tank can become “block capped” at 102.4% avoidance. This means when dodge, parry, block, and miss add up to 102.4% every incoming attack will be affected by one of those stats. This is not easy to do, but remember to take into account class abilities. Paladins for example have a fairly easy time of reaching this because holy shield gives 30% extra block rating, and it is possible to keep it up 100% of the time. If you do reach the block cap then it is time to stop stacking block and replace it with the superior dodge. Ideally just stack as much avoidance as you can, because it rocks. Just strike a balance, some of it is more effective, some is easier to stack.

A few things to keep in mind are that there are diminishing returns on these stats, so taking one of them way above the others may not be your best bet. However when in doubt dodge is almost always your best option for an avoidance statistic. This topic goes pretty deep so feel free to read around for more info, I am just giving you the basics here.

What Is The Real World Raid Application? You can see how this would be very important in a raid. With raid bosses hitting as hard as they do, pushing some of that damage completely off the table is a huge plus to your raid. Looking at fights like Patchwerk, having an off-tank with high avoidance means some of his huge hateful strikes go away completely!

I would argue that avoidance is the most important stat for tanking as it has a profound affect on how much damage is coming it. You can have all the health in the world, but if you are taking lots of damage then you are still hard to heal, and are likely a big drain of mana on your healers.

That is my overview of avoidance, my personal favorite tanking stat. Next time I will go over mitigation, and how to take a chunk out of the damage that gets through!

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