Whenever someone or something performs an attack, a single /random roll is performed by WoW - for simplicity’s sake, let’s assume it’s a /random 100 roll. The resulting number is then checked against the so-called Attack Table.
This Attack Table lists the various outcomes versus a certain percentage range. When a NPC attacks a player, the Table looks like this:
Miss
Dodge
Parry
Block
Critical Strike
Crushing Blow (if the NPC is at least 3 levels above you)
Normal Hit
Miss chance is a base 5% plus the difference between the attacker’s attack and the player’s defense rating. For simplicity’s sake, in our example, if the /random 100 roll’s result is between 0 and 5, the boss will simply miss you.
Then, in order, your Dodge, Parry and Block ratings from the paper doll will come into play. Let’s say you have 15% dodge, rolls between 6 and 20 will be a dodge.
Critical Hit chance is a fixed number, a base 5% plus 0.2 per level difference - that means 5.6% from a raid boss.
Crushing Blows happen if the boss is three levels or more above the player. The chance is the difference between base attack skill minus base defense skill times 2%, minus 15%. A level 70 player’s base defense for this calculation can never exceed 350, whereas a boss’ attack is always considered maxed. So a level 73 boss has 365 attack skill, which gives us [(365-350) * 2%]-15% = 15%. If you’re entering Kara with a level 69 tank, it gets a lot worse, as the crushing blow chance is now 25%.
Finally, Normal Hits will fill up whatever’s left after adding all previous percentages and 100%.
A player attacking an NPC cannot perform any crushing blows, however, he risks performing glancing blows. So a player’s attack table vs a mob looks like this:
Miss
Dodge
Parry
Glancing Blow
Block
Critical Strike
Normal Hit
When a mob attacks you, in terms of defense, you have means to avoid or mitigate part of the damage by working on your defense stats (defense, dodge, parry, block and resilience ratings). If you are attacking, you can impact your damage by working on your offensive stats (hit and crit ratings, AP, and for magic users, spell crit, spell damage and spell penetration).
In PvP, there are no Glancing Blows, so the Attack Table gets shorter:
Miss
Dodge
Parry
Block
Critical Strike
Normal Hit
As said above, any melee hit performed is a single die roll checked against the Attack Table. At first, people (myself included) often imagine that an attack result is calculated through a series of forking paths (eg: roll once, if the result is between 0 and 5% it’s a miss, if not, roll again, if it’s between 0% and 9% it’s a Dodge, else roll again etc). But it is not so, the percentages you have in your defense paper doll vs mobs of the same level as you are taken over one to one into the attack table (or adjusted if there’s a level difference).
Pretty simple so far, eh? In the next parts, we’ll have a look at how to change the odds for the various results.
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4 Responses to “Defense Theory I: The Attack Table and You”
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[...] mentionned in the Attack Table post, the attack table in PvP has neither Crushing Blows nor glancing blows: Miss Dodge Parry Block [...]
A 73 mob has 365 “attack skill”, not 375. If it was 375, the chance to land a crushing blow would be 25%.
Otherwise it’s a good write-up.
Duh. 73*5=365. Silly maths. Thanks for the correction and the nice words.
[...] at first. As the topic is pretty broad, I’ll break down the explanations into three segments: Part I: The Attack Table and You Part II: PvE Defense for tanks Part III: PvP [...]