New Resistance Mechanics - WotLK

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New Resistance Mechanics - WotLK

Postby Rhaegal » Tue Feb 03, 2009 6:40 am

Wrath of the Lich King saw an overhaul of how resists work. The old system is now obsolete (at least in PvE--I assume this also applies to PvP, but I don't know for sure). There are three key important differences; the rest are merely implementation details. The three changes everyone should be aware of are:

1) The formula for calculating average resist has been changed. It is now:

Code: Select all
Average Resist = Resistance / (CasterLevel * 5 + Resistance)

What does this mean for actual amounts of resistance required to meet a desired amount? Let's take two values of resistance, and assume a level 83 (boss) mob:

100 Resistance
Old formula: (100 / 83) * 0.15 = 18%
New formula: 100 / ( 83*5 + 100) = 19%

1245 Resistance
Old formula: (1245 / 83) * 0.15 = 225%
New formula: 1245 / ( 83*5 + 1245) = 75%

In other words, it requires a lot more resistance than it used to in order to resist cap you, but small amounts of resistance are just as good or better.

2) Partial resistances are now possible at multiples of 10% as opposed to before, where they were only multiples of 25%. There's not much to go into here, until the next point...

3) For a given amount of resistance, there is now a minimum possible partial resist. That means that once you have enough resistance, you'll no longer ever take 100% damage from a spell of that school. This takes a huge RNG factor out of gearing for resistance fights, if you know the maximum amount of damage you can take is, say, 60% of the spell, because the average damage is 45%, for example. If you just want a quick reference for how to find out what that minimum partial resist is, here you go:

The minimum possible partial resist is 20% lower than your average resist. But remember, partial resists are granular--they can only be some multiple of 10%. If your average resist is 30%, your minimum partial resist is 10%. If your average resist is 31%, your minimum partial resist is 20%.

So, how exactly does this work? How are partial resists calculated now? Glad you asked! Partial resists are now on a two roll system. The first roll does the following:
50% chance - Average partial resist
25% chance - Average partial resist - 10%
25% chance - Average partial resist + 10%

The second roll then decides whether to round up or down to the nearest 10%, and will be based on the relative difference between the two possible values (i.e., if the first roll results in a 39% partial resist, the second roll will have a 90% chance of resulting in a 40% partial resist and a 10% chance of resulting in a 30% partial resist). An example from EJ:

350 Fire resist yields a predicted resistance of 46.67%. There is a 50% chance that 46.67 will be chosen, a 25% chance for 36.67, and a 25% chance for 56.67.

If the first "roll" selects 36.67, this must be rounded to 30 or 40. The probability that 40 is chosen is 66.7%, while the probability of choosing 30 is 33.3%.

This system yields possible resists of 30%, 40%, 50%, and 60% at 350 FR


If you remember the old system, any amount of resistance could still result in 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% resists, so someone who was capped at 75% average resist would still sometimes take full damage (0% resist) to the face--sometimes twice in a row. Now, if you're capped at 75% average resist, the lowest possible resist is 60% (or 40% damage), reducing spike damage considerably, and overall making for a much more friendly healing experience.


One more note to anyone interested in browsing combat logs and interpreting data. Any damage modification effects (such as Defensive Stance or Shadron's aura) occur only to the unresisted portion of the damage. Say a Protection Warrior is tanking Sartharion with Shadron (but no disciples) up, and Sarth casts a flame breath on the tank, with a base damage of 10,000. The resist rolls result in a 50% resist, so 5,000 damage is resisted while 5,000 damage is still incoming. The incoming damage is then modified by (Improved) Defensive Stance and Shadron's Aura, to yield 5,000 * 0.84 * 2 = 8,400. Thus, the combat log entry will read "X takes 8,400 damage (5,000 resisted) from Sartharion's Flame Breath" even though it was a 50% resist.
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Re: New Resistance Mechanics - WotLK

Postby Undra » Tue Feb 03, 2009 11:45 am

So that was why on the last Sapph fight, with just a little frost resist totem up, I was consistently seeing a 10% reduction, with the occasional 20% tick every now and then. but never a full aura tick.

Slightly tangentle:

Does a Frost Knight's Aura stack with a paladin's or totem's resist aura? I'm not seeing it on the De/Buff list.
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Re: New Resistance Mechanics - WotLK

Postby Rhaegal » Tue Feb 03, 2009 11:48 am

It doesn't. I actually just tested this last night in a heroic with Rad's DK's aura and my Nature Resist Totem.
Alex, 27 Human Chemist
Rhaegal 85 Goblin Shaman
Panser 85 Tauren Druid
Eisbrecher 85 Tauren Warrior
Shalaffi 85 Blood Elf Hunter
Jezi 85 Troll Priest

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