User:Raine Valen/Musings/Health and Armor

The Test:

For the sake of conservatism, we'll use the minimum possible armor-respecting damage and maximum possible armor-ignoring damage. For example, we'll use the minimum possible weapon damage, even though this is impossible at the given attribute levels. Also, we'll round any fractional part of armor-respecting damage down, while we'll do the opposite for armor-ignoring damage.
Anyhow!
Let's do some simple math based on a hypothetical situation involving a very spike-oriented, more-or-less Balanced team hitting an unprotted 60-armor target:

The Team:

Axe Warrior

Spiking with Eviscerate, Executioner's Strike, and Agonizing Chop (@ 15 Axe & Strength):

• 6 + 6 + 6 armor-respecting (15% armor penetration)
• 31 + 100 + 40 + 20 armor-ignoring
• Additional assumption: target has at least 500 Health and is not suffering from Deep Wound at time of application.

Hammer Warrior

Spiking with Devastating Hammer, Crushing Blow, and Heavy Blow (@ 15 Hammer & Strength):

• 19 + 19 + 19 armor-respecting (15% armor penetration)
• 20 + 20 armor-ignoring

Ranger

Spiking with Burning Arrow and Savage Shot with Expert Focus (@ 15 Marks & Expertise):

• 15 + 15 armor-respecting
• 30 + 10 + 10 + 98 armor-ignoring
• Additional assumption: burning lasts for full duration.

Water Ele

Spiking with Shard Storm and Freezing Gust with Mirror of Ice (@ 15 Water):

• 85 + 80 armor-respecting
• 35 + 35 armor-ignoring

Esurge Mesmer

Spiking with Shatter Enchantment, Energy Surge, Spiritual Pain, and Unnatural Signet with Mind Wrack (@ 15 Domination):

• 100 + 25 + 90 + 25 + 75 + 25 + 75 + 25 + 100 armor-ignoring
• Additional Assumption: Target foe does not run out of energy until Unnatural Signet hits.

Total:

• 270 armor-respecting damage.
• 987 armor-ignoring damage.

Conclusion from Calculation:

• Approximately 21% of damage from this spike is armor-respecting.

Also consider:

• This spike is very much skewed toward a high armor-ignoring damage percentage.
• This same team build is very unlikely to coordinate armor-ignoring damage off of spikes, while armor-respecting damage will often be on the same targets (because they're warriors).
• Most of the armor-ignoring damage in this build can be mitigated by either swapping to low energy sets or by stripping Mirror of Ice; the rest of the armor-ignoring damage is mitigated by the same means as armor-respecting damage.

Some Hard Facts:

Armor and Survivability:

• Adding 5 Armor at any Health level:
  • Decreases armor-respecting damage by 8% (rounded down).
  • This reduces 270 armor-respecting damage by 21 (rounded down), to a total of 249 damage.
  • This damage reduction is an approximate 4% (rounded down) increase in survivability.

Also consider:

• All professions can add at least 10 Armor (common armor Insignias) at the opportunity cost of 40 Health (Survivor's Insignias). Most professions can add more armor at the same opportunity cost.
• As total Health increases, the relative survivability gain per point of armor added added remains constant, while the total survivability increase increases.
• As total armor increases, the amount of healing required to fill a bar remains constant.
• As total armor increases, direct damage reduction (as per Shielding Hands) becomes more effective.

Health and Survivability

• Adding 30 Health (at 480 Health; low-end):
  • Is an approximate 6.25% increase in survivability.

Also consider:

• All professions can add at 40 Health at the opportunity cost of at least 10 Armor; for most professions, the opportunity cost is higher.
• As total Health increases, the relative survivability gain per point of health added decreases, while the total survivability increase remains constant.
• As total Health increases, the amount of healing required to fill a bar increases.
• As total Health increases, direct damage reduction (as per Shielding Hands) remains equally as effective.

The Hard Question:

I'm not going to ask you which is better. You've got the data from a test skewed very much in favor of armor-ignoring damage, and you've got the facts that you need in order to interpret that data.

Addendum

Now that we've seen first-hand what tweaking armor-v-health balance does...

Yeah. I was right.