Avoidance vs. Mitigation – The difference
In the comments on a recent post at Albinobeard’s DefensiveStance.com there once again came up on of the oldest of tanking-stat arguments: Shoud Avoidance be part of Mitigation as well? I say no, and I’ll just copy’n'paste my comment to over here.
Hm, I guess it depends on your point of view. If what we’re talking about is overall DMG then, from a hardcore-logical point of view, avoidance is mitigation as far as you can add them up and say: “That’s the amount of damage that has not been reaching the player”.
However, if we’re talking more specific in-fight combat system stuff, they are not the same. An attack that procs another effect or ability will do so even if mitigated, but not if avoided, for example.
That said, if you fight mobs that will poison you on every hit: With 80% dodge / 0 armor you’ll receive far less damage than with 0 dodge / 80% armor dmg reduction.
And while the very first thing still stays true, I think that by keeping avoidance and mitigation separate we can avoid a lot of confusion, of which there is plenty already :)
So I say:
- Miss + Dodge + Parry = Avoidcance, not Mitigation
- Block + Armor = Mitigation, not Avoidance