What is "Mitigation"? What does it do for me as a warrior? What do I need to do to improve it? Etc.....

I thought AC increased Avoidance? from my understanding there are two ways to increase you mitigation there is the AA way, and then the equipment way. For equipment you want gear that adds shielding. I believe there is a shielding cap of 35%. And yes Mitigation reduces the damage you take.

AC affects both avoidance and mitigation. The avodiance ability, as the name would indicate, only affects avoidance.

ok just to make everything as clear as dirt here is how it all works, please skip to next post if it is late at night and you don't like formulas, edited to add that this is more about shielding than ac, but it does go into abit about ac

Mobs have 3 variables. DB = Damage base, DI = Damage Interval, and Attack = how often they will land a hit and how high of an interval they will hit at on average.

Damage = DB + (1-20)*DI

Thus there are 20 discrete values for the damage a mob may do, ranging from:

Minimum Damage = DB + 1*DI
Maximum Damage = DB + 20*DI

DI is established by collecting data on the mob and finding the difference between the 2 closest hits. Maximum damage can be determined by sitting and letting the mob hit you. It will hit for maximum. Subtract the DI value you established earlier from the maximum hit and you get the mob's DB.

Warrior innate mitigation = DB + 0.95*(1-20)*DI
Warrior defensive discipline = DB + 0.5*(1-20)*DI

So, let's use two extreme examples:

Mob_A - DB=50, DI=100
Minimum hit is 150, 250, 350, 450, 550, 650, 750... and maximum is 2050 for non-wars
Minimum hit is 145, 240, 335, 430, 525, 620, 715... and maximum is 1950 for wars
Under Defensive, minimum hit is 100 and maximum is 1050

There's a big difference between the maximum hit under Defensive and without it. Further the range of possible hits (maximum hit-minimum hit) when not under Defensive is quite high making healing needs a bit unpredictable.

Mob_B - DB=1800, DI=10
Minimum hit is 1810 and maximum is 2000 for non-wars
Minimum hit is 1809 and maximum is 1990 for wars
Under Defensive, minimum hit is 1805 and maximum is 1900

There is very little difference between the maximum hit under Defensive and without it. Further the range of possible hits (maximum hit-minimum hit) is nearly identical with or without Defensive.

Thus, if a is mob hitting for a wide range of values, the chances are that it's DI is high and you will benefit from using Defensive. If two values are pretty close and it's consistantly hitting for very simular values, the DB is doing most of the damage and DI is likely fairly low - use Evasive.

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With that said, let's say an average Tacvi named that has a DB = 500 and DI = 250 (this seems to be the case with a lot of Tacvi mobs who hit between 700's-5000+). This means it's range is (DB+1*DI) 750 up to (DB+20*DI) 5500 for any class or (DB+0.95*1*DI) 738 up to DB*20*0.95*DI) 5250 for warriors with the inherent 0.95 DI mod without using any discs.

Shielding modifies the DB but not the DI nor does it affect avoidance.

Hence a warrior with 0% shielding will be hit for (1*DB+0.95*1*DI ~ 1*DB+0.95*20*DI) = 738 ~ 5250 on this mob.

A warrior with 10% shielding will be hit for ([1-0.1]*DB+0.95*1*DI ~ [1-0.1]*DB+0.95*20*DI) = 688-5200 without any discs.

Hence, a mob that has a DB of 500 and DI of 250 will hit for:

Non-wars w/o shielding = 750-5500
Wars w/ 0% shielding = 738-5250
Wars w/ 10% shielding = 688-5200
Wars w/ 15% shielding = 663-5175
Wars w/ 20% shielding = 638-5150
Wars w/ 25% shielding = 613-5125
Wars w/ 30% shielding = 588-5120
Wars w/ 35% shielding = 563-5095

So a war w/o any shielding will be hit 738-5250 and a war w/ MAX 35% shielding will be hit 563-5095 for the average Tacvi mob.

The average hit is variable for each mob with this set DB and DI based on its attack.

Defensive modifies DI to 0.5 but does not touch DB. Hence a defensive war will be hit for ([1-shielding percent]*DB+0.5*1*DI up to [1-shielding percent]*DB+0.5*20*DI) or:

Non-wars w/o shielding = 750-5500
War (defensive) w/ 0% shielding = 625-3000
War (defensive) w/ 35% shielding = 450-2825

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Let's look at a trash mob in Txevu with DB = 800 and DI = 100

Non-wars w/o shielding = 900-2800
Wars w/ 0% shielding = 895-2700
Wars w/ 35% shielding = 620-2420

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Let's look at another Tacvi named with a higher DB but lower DI. DB = 1000 and DI = 200

Non-wars w/o shielding = 1200-5000

Wars w/ 0% shielding = 1190-4800
Wars w/ 35% shielding = 840-4450

War (defensive) w/ 0% shielding = 1100-3000
War (defensive) w/ 35% shielding = 750-2650

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I hope this clarifies how shielding works. Hence, shielding is useful but not as game-defining as a lot of people seem to think because most mobs have high attack which means they will hit with higher DI (so closer to 5250 vs 5095 for someone w/ 0% shielding compared to someone with 35% shielding) than on the lower end. Hence on a max hit on a defensive warrior, 35% shielding = 5% mitigation on the first Tacvi example or 11.7% mitigation on the 2nd example.

As you can see shielding is highly DB dependent and and most Tacvi mobs seem to range from 500-1000 on DB. But the fact remains that 35% shielding is NOT 35% mitigation which some people seem to believe.

In relation to AC, it basically modifies attack rating of a mob. Attack affects how often a mob will hit someone as well as what range in 1-20 DI it will hit on average. How this actually works, I cannot explain it in full detail because I don't understand it fully. From what I understand, it might change both the chance of being hit (although some wars state that it does not) and it definitely affects the average DI to make it lower. AC does NOT affect DB.

HP's is self-explanatory, but most people state that AC and shielding are more important than HP on the high end. So why does 1000 hp difference mean very little if AC and shielding are equivalent between 2 tanks? On a mob with DI = 500 and DB = 250, they will be able to take less than 1 more hit on average (median is 2994, mean varies with attack but basically a war would need 2000+ hp difference to take even one more HIT).

AC and shielding are the more important variables because it will cut down the DI and DB respectively, meaning lower average damage which equates to lower spike damage meaning a tank will live longer. This fact becomes even more salient if you consider that pious light will heal for ~ 6000 non-crit or ~ 12000 crit, meaning you can't heal a tank fully over 12000 hp anyway unless you crit a CH. Once a tank has over 12khp, in theory if they are fully healed it takes another 2k+ hp to survive ONE additional hit.

So what does this all mean?

Shielding is good for mobs with high DB and low DI
AC is good for mobs with low DB and high DI
Generally, shielding and/or AC >> HP for tanks once a tank is over 12k range
HP is useful for mobs that proc or cast spells a lot

Relatively speaking =

On non-proc pre-GoD trash, DB is low and DI is low = AC > Shielding > HP
On proc pre-GoD trash, DI is low and DB is low and procs are also low = AC > Shielding > HP

On non-proc GoD trash, DI is moderate and DB is low = Shielding >> AC > HP
On proc GoD trash (kyvs), DI is moderate and DB is low but procs are high = HP > Shielding >> AC

On non-proc PoP era bosses, DI is moderate and DB is low = Shielding > AC > HP
On proc-PoP era bosses, DI is moderate and DB is low and procs are relatively low = Shielding > AC > HP

On non-proc GoD bosses, DI is moderate and DB is high, DI is moderate and DI is high = AC > Shielding > HP
On proc GoD bosses, DI is moderate and DB is high and procs are relatively moderate = AC > Shielding > HP

Can you make a relative scale for the Shielding vs. AC vs. HP? Not really, since it is variable by each mob based on DB, DI, Attack and Procs. But the AC mitigation curve is pretty linear under 2000, has diminishing returns over 2000 and is believed to become fairly flat at 3000. Shielding is linear and caps at 35%. HP is linear without a cap, but in terms of returns it is diminishing over 12khp limited by heals.

But you still want a rough estimate of what a relative scale would be? A parse on a riftseeker's TRASH shows:

1% shielding = 40-50 HP = 24 AC

Keep in mind that this varies a lot by the mob you are fighting. Extrapolation for what we face would probably be roughly:

Non-proc GoD trash ~ 1% shielding = 50HP = 24AC
Proc GoD trash (kyvs) ~ 1% shielding = 25HP = 24AC
Non-proc GoD boss ~ 1% shielding = 90HP = 15AC
Proc-GoD boss ~ 1% shielding = 70HP = 15AC

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Keep in mind that this is primarily for tanks. For casters, shielding will mitigate the same. HP will be the same. But AC is a lot more useless since the effect it has on DI will be a lot less for non-tank classes on the inherent tables.

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Summary:

1. Shielding does not work as % shielding = % mitigation
2. DB = base, DI = interval from 1-20 and all mobs are DB + (1-20)*DI in their damage
3. Shielding affects DB but not DI
4. AC affects DI but not DB
5. HP does NOT affect either
6. Shielding is best for mobs with high DB but low DI
7. AC is best for mobs with high DI but low DB
8. HP is best for mobs that proc a lot
9. For casters, AC is almost useless because of their inherent tables, making shielding and HP more important

Edited, Fri Apr 21 16:22:07 2006 by Tawynia