WoW Classic Armor Reduction Calculator

Armor reduction is a process that alters the amount of physical damage that an attacker can do to a boss. Armor create a gate through which physical damage pass to the target. The armor gate determine the amount of damage that the boss take.

There are three debuffs that alter the armor gate: Sunder Armor from warriors, Expose Armor from rogues, and Faerie Fire from druid. A boss with high armor will negate the hits from the attackers. In contrast, a boss with low armor will take more damage from each hit from the attackers.

How Armor Reduction Works

Because armor reduction have the ability to significantly alter the outcome of a battle between a boss and an attacker, it is treated as a resource that is shared between all members of a raid group. To calculate armor reduction correctly, three different inputs must be made into the calculation tool. This is because each of the armor reduction debuffs has its own unique rule.

For example, Sunder Armor removes armor based on the number of stacks of the debuff applied, and there is a maximum possible number of five stack. Expose Armor works in a similar way to Sunder Armor but uses combo point instead and can be increased with certain talents. However, Expose Armor will replace Sunder Armor if both are applied to the same boss.

Faerie Fire and Curse of Recklessness belong to a different category than Sunder Armor and Expose Armor. Therefore, they will add on to the total armor reduction instead of replacing any existing debuffs. The calculator tool track these categories to help avoid the necessity of remembering which armor reduction debuffs will conflict with others and which ones will add on to the total armor reduction.

The most important factor for the armor reduction calculator is the amount of armor that the boss has. Bosses with a high amount of armor will negate a lot of the damage that is done unless the armor reduction debuffs is active. The armor value will have diminishing returns; the less armor the boss has, the less each point of armor reduction will increase the damage done to the boss.

To take into account this diminishing return value, the armor reduction calculator will provide the actual damage increase that will result from the application of armor reduction debuffs. This value can be used to determine if additional debuffs or weapon procs are worth applying to the boss. It can also provide insight into whether or not the raid group has already hit the point of diminishing returns for armor reduction.

The same mathematical principles can be applied to calculate the effective health of the boss. A tank with high armor will take less damage than a tank with low armor. However, the application of armor reduction debuffs can reduce the armor of the tank.

From these calculations, it is possible to determine the percentage loss of the physical effective health of the boss. This percentage is important to know for both duels and off tank scenarios. The level of the boss will also impact the armor reduction calculations.

The constant in the armor to mitigation calculation changes with the level of the attacker. For this reason, the default setting for the level is 63, the level of the Classic expansion. Bosses in dungeons are of level 62.

Therefore, the same amount of armor reduction will remove a larger percentage of mitigation from a level 62 boss. The level can be altered so that armor reduction can be calculated between different targets. Many people make mistakes when calculating armor reduction.

One of the most common mistake is treating all armor reduction debuffs as if they are of equal value. For example, some may choose to add the armor reduction of Sunder Armor and Expose Armor as a means of calculating the total armor reduction value. However, Sunder Armor and Expose Armor do not have the ability to stack.

Another mistake is to not consider the actual damage done from the armor reduction calculations. People must determine whether or not the next armor reduction debuff will increase the actual damage done to the boss or whether it will simply be wasted. Groups that wish to plan their armor reduction will likely use one major armor reduction debuff and then add other debuffs on top of this.

Warriors can maintain five stacks of Sunder Armor so that it provides as much armor reduction as possible for their raid group. Rogues with the Improved Expose Armor can provide more armor reduction than Sunder Armor if they have five combo points. However, they have to spend effort maintaining their Expose Armor uptime.

Adding Faerie Fire and Curse of Recklessness on top of Sunder Armor will provide more armor reduction without the conflicts between debuffs. However, it is up to the raid group to decide whether or not the extra weapon procs or flat armor reduction are worth keeping track of once the boss armor is near zero. Finally, the floor for armor reduction is used when the armor value reaches zero.

For most raid groups, armor has no value if it is below zero. In this situation, the additional armor reduction skills beyond the point where armor hits zero will not increase the damage done to the boss. While the floor can be disabled, it is a helpful parameter that displays whether or not the last armor reduction applied mattered or simply vanished into the floor.

While the armor reduction calculator performs the mathematical calculations for the raid group, the raid group must make the decision of which players will have which debuffs and when it is no longer worth the effort of maintaining those debuffs.