question about defenseFollow

Quick and simple answer, they are refering to skill, not rating.

So how is defense calculated? I am wearing a ton of Defense Gear, but instead of my defense going up, my rating has skyrocketed.

Defense skill and defense rating are two different things.

Defense rating adds to defense skill.

Gear has defense rating; ie: +5 defense = +5 defense rating not +5 defense.

At 70 2.37 Rating = 1 defense
At 80 4.92 rating = 1 defense


It can be a little confusing sometimes if you're new to it.

Basically it helps maintain balance between old gear and new gear. For example if gear directly added to defense skill instead of defense rating then with old level 70 gear you could easily obtain your def caps at level 80. This would leave you open to add more stamina and dps stats as a tank. It screws up the balance. With rating all Blizzard has to do is increase the conversion rate at higher levels. So that same level 70 gear now only gives about half the defense at 80. Well why doesn't Blizzard just use one defense and put it on gear? Imagine that a tank with high def from gear but as they get better gear they improve their dps. Maybe it's a little too much and let's say a nerf is necessary in this case. So you could nerf that class. The problem is you're not really fixing the issue that's going on, in this case it's the gear that's causing the imbalance not the class. So nerf the gear right? Well that can be a very big problem. Thousands of pieces of gear will need to be readjusted on their stats. That can be very tedious and even with automation it can cause problems. What happens if you nerf it too much? Well you've got to make a readjustment to all that gear again. Instead you set a stat rate conversion table. If I need to lower defense by just a tad I don't have change any gear whatsoever. All I need to do is change the conversion rate for whichever levels need the nerf. If I lower it too far I can easily increase it slightly again. It's an easy way for Blizzard to maintain the balance of gear as levels and stats increase in the future. Otherwise it's either going to increase too much or it's a lot of work to change everything.

I hope that makes sense.

Basically I don't believe there is any gear that increases defense but instead increase rating. There are some talents in specs and maybe procs or special abilities that do increase the def skill.

Hit and crit ratings are the same way. There's hit, hit rating, crit and crit rating.