Noob question: how to read defense statFollow

Hi all

I have a prot-pally. I am doing some serious gear upgrade plan. While I search the net, I discover that the defense for a lvl 70 prot-pally should be no less than 420 defense. I check my toon's defense stat and I realize she has 391 defense and the breakdown of which is defense rating 82 (+40 defense). I want to understand what do those figures mean and how it comes to 391 defense?

Without knowing the relationship of these figures, it is hard for me to know how many more defense rating do I need to bring the total defense to 420. Plz help me out on this matter. Thanks in advance.

What level are you? If your 70, you need to have 490 defense. It takes 2.37 Defense rating to get one point of Defense.

The reason you need 490 is because every mob of equal level will always have a 5% crit rate. I really shouldn't say level. Every mob with a weapon skill equal to your base defense rating has a 5% crit rate.

70 prot pally will have 350 defense skill. All 70 mobs have a 350 weapon skill.

You need 125 defense to lower that 5% to 0%. Now for bosses (70+) you need 5 additional points for each level to catch up to their weapon skill. That makes the magic number 350 + 15 + 125= 490. At 490, you can say good bye to crits.

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Now just because you cant be crit, doesn't mean you can hit with a Crushing Blow. To dodge those you have to have 102.4% total avoidance. That will push them off the Attack Table.

If you can read and understand the links I posted, you'll be fine.

**one quick note on how to figure your Avoidance

You get some freebies. You have a 5% miss rate (mobs towards you). When you mouse over your Defense, it will tell you how much it raises your %s. Add that to the 5% base miss, than add up all your Dodge, Parry, and Block. Thats your total avoidance.

The Libram is 5.3%.