Defense vs. Parry and Dodge

[Slaytanicus]

If I have a choice between an item with 25 defense rating on it vs. 25 Parry rating vs. 25 dodge rating, does the 25 defense rating always win?

Does 1 defense rating > 1 parry/dodge rating?

Does 1 defense rating = 1 parry rating + 1 dodge rating + 1 block rating (wasted dk stat)?

[antidan]

If I have a choice between an item with 25 defense rating on it vs. 25 Parry rating vs. 25 dodge rating, does the 25 defense rating always win?

Does 1 defense rating > 1 parry/dodge rating?

Does 1 defense rating = 1 parry rating + 1 dodge rating + 1 block rating (wasted dk stat)?

Well pre-uncrittable almost certainly.

1 Parry rating is really expensive stat so that item will probably be better overall.

[psicorp]

defense also decreases chance to be crt and increases generic +hit chance

[comablack]

defense also decreases chance to be crt and increases generic +hit chance

wrong

defense reduces your change to be hit and crit, and increases your change to dodge and parry

[Ethanlien]

some talents also enhance % of one stat over another, I believe. so might be worthwhile factoring that in.

[Remesh]

It also increases your chance to block with your shield (for warriors/paladins). Each point of defence adds .04% to block/dodge/parry. I do not know how much defence rating at level 80 = 1 defence point, nor how much 1 dodge/parry will give you. I do know that more parry rating is required to raise your parry than dodge or shield block rating. It has always been a harder (perhaps hardest??) of the defence stats to raise.

As one responder said, it is not a straight up answer. If you have not reached 540 defence you should be choosing defence over straight dodge/parry/shield block. At that point, if you have that much gear to choose from (I notice a lot of these discussions leave out that most times you don't have 15 options staring you in the face) you'll need to manually calculate the effect or get an add-on that does it for you to see which piece overall gives the most in way of avoidance and/or mitigation. Don't forget too the str of the item. Not only does it now help with your TPS by adding +%AP to many of your specials, the block value (if you are a shield using class) added from strength has been greatly improved (you can see how much by hovering over the description of str in your character sheet). One final consideration is that tanking stats are subject to diminishing returns now so unless you have no choice (ex. druids more limited in their options that warriors/paladins) avoid stacking any one stat too heavily. Again, manual calculations or add-ons can help you figure out when you are starting to do this.

*****Just noticed you are a DK. Ignore my rant on Shield Block then but most of what I wrote still applies. Need more coffee.***

[Remesh]

some talents also enhance % of one stat over another, I believe. so might be worthwhile factoring that in.

This too and unfortunately I do not know for a DK what those would be. But regardless of class, 1 defence always increases by .04% increments though the amount of rating required varies.

[pansertjald]

if you are gonna raid you need to have your def up to 540@lvl80.... thats the limit for uncrit in wotlk...... so until you have 540 def allways wins

think i saw a blue post where it said that the def was the same for DK`s and warriors...... i could be wrong

[psicorp]

wrong

defense reduces your change to be hit and crit, and increases your change to dodge and parry

mis-keyed that. meant generic -hit chance. the guy had also already covered increased chance to dodge or parry.