Damage reduction Armor damage reduction . Armor reduces physical damage done against you by a certain proportion against all attackers . It depends entirely on the level of the monster ( or player ) hitting you and your own armor . Your level doesn ' t matter . By hovering your mouse over Armor on your Character screen , you can see the percentage value of this reduction for damage done by enemies that are at your current level . This percent reduction will actually fall as soon as you gain a level if you ' re still wearing the same armor . You haven ' t lost anything , it ' s merely showing you that your armor isn ' t as effective against monsters one level higher than you used to be . The most important thing to remember about armor is : An X % increase in armor means an X % increase in armor ' s contribution to the amount of damage you can take . The formula for the base armor value is : Gear armor is the armor value from the gear you are wearing . Magic armor is the extra armor from buffs such as scrolls , mage armor , armor kits etc . Note that talents which give a percentage bonus to armor ( like druid bear form ) do not include magic armor in their boost to the armor rating . This is especially important for druids since bonuses received from armor kits , sets and green effects in general are not affected by Bear , Moonkin , or Tree Form or armor - increasing talents . For enemies from level 1 to 59 , the reduction to physical damage , as a percentage , is given by the following formula : For enemies from level 60 and up , the reduction to physical damage , as a percentage , is given by the following formula : For level 80 and raid bosses , this simplifies to : Note that the maximum damage reduction is capped at 75 % . The 15232 . 5 and 16635 numbers in the denominator are often confused . The constant is based on the attacker ' s level , not the target ' s level . Use 15232 . 5 for your attacks ( outgoing ) and 16635 for damage received . For level 83 bosses , as described below , armor caps at 49905 . The Diminishing Returns on armor as you approach the cap are rather harsh ; both functions are graphed below . < br > Armor required to get X % damage reduction . To calculate the amount of armor needed for maximum mitigation against a lvl 59 or below enemy , one can use the following formula : Thus a lvl 59 character who wants to achieve 75 % reduction vs . lvl 59 mobs would need 16245 AC . Note that this changes beyond lvl 59 , as the formula to calculate damage reduction for levels 60 and up requires much more armor to get the same mitigation . Despite the much higher armor values required for 75 % reduction at levels 70 and higher , it is currently possible for a well - geared druid to reach this point ( see ) . Or a more general formula . The amount of armor needed for a specific reduction is : Against a level 59 and less : Against a level 60 and up : Armor required to get 50 % , 60 % , 70 % and 75 % damage reduction against lvl 60 , 63 , 70 and 73 mobs . % Reduction Formula < br > That EXTRA armour that I need - General formulae . This section is written to answer the question " What ' s the amount of extra armour that I should add in order to gain extra 5 % or 7 . 3 % or 27 . 4 % or whatever EXTRA percentage that I wish to gain in damage reduction ? " . The most straightforward / obvious solution is to use the " armour - damage - reduction " formulae given in the section above . However , there is an exact general formula to find the answer for each case - either against a level 59 or lower mob or against a level 60 or higher mob . The formulae are given below the example of straightforward solution . Example of straightforward solution : ( you may skip this part ) If your current total amount of armour provides you with 35 % in damage reduction and you wish to add extra 10 % to get a total of 45 % , what is the amount of extra armour that you should add ? Against a mob with level no higher than 59 , you could do the following subtraction : Extra armour = new armour - current armour " Current armour " is the total amount of armour that you currently possess . " New armour " is the new total amount of armour that you want to have in order to gain that extra percentage in damage reduction . From the previous section , " new armour " = ( 400 + 85 * Enemy Level ) / ( 100 / 45 - 1 ) and obviously you get the value " current armour " by summing the amount of your equipments armour . Then , by doing the subtraction you get the amount of " extra armour " you need in order to gain extra 10 % in damage reduction . Note though , that you need to calculate your current percentage in damage reduction by solving the armour formula with your current armour value . The general formulae . Before looking at the formulae , please note the following representations : A = current amount of armour < br > formula _ 1 = extra amount of armour that you need to add to your current amount of armour to get certain extra percentage in damage reduction < br > R = current percentage in damage reduction provided by your equipments , buffs , etc . < br > formula _ 2 = extra percentage in damage reduction that you wish to add to your current percentage in damage reduction < br > L = enemy ' s level Please also note that these formulae are derived based on the equations given in the previous section which are still lacking in citation . Against a level 59 or lower mob : Against a level 60 or higher mob : These formulae are in fact more general than the formulae given in the section above . In addition to using these general formulae to calculate difference , if you take R to be 0 , these general formulae are in fact the same as the formulae given in the previous section . Example : From the table in the previous section we have the following figures : If your current armour provides 50 % in damage reduction against a level 63 mob , you have 7285 armour . However , if you want to add another 25 % on top of your 50 % to get 75 % , you ' ll need 21855 armour . So the EXTRA amount of armour that you need to add is 21855 - 7285 = 14570 . Let ' s see if we can get the same extra amount of armour ( 14570 ) by using the formula given above ( note : please punch the numbers into your calculator carefully or use wolfram alpha ) . For level 60 or higher mob , we have : A = 7285 < br > R = 50 < br > formula _ 2 = 25 < br > L = 63 Proofs . Warning : college level calculus is required . proof : against lvl 59 and lower proof : against lvl 60 and higher There are only two steps in each of the proofs . 1 . Differential < br > 2 . Integrate both sides with the following limits : < br > Resilience damage reduction . Resilience is an defensive attribute that provides damage reduction , but only against enemy players and their pets during PvP . Each point of resilience provides about 0 . 01 % damage reduction against all damage done by players and their pets or minions . Damage soak . Although the character sheet tooltip gives the amount of damage that the armor absorbs , it is more useful to think of how much more damage the player can take . In general , the armor reduction formula can be written as If the enemy is lower than level 60 , X = 85 * Enemy _ Level + 400 . If the enemy is level 60 or higher , X = 467 . 5 * Enemy _ Level - 22167 . 5 Therefore , the amount of damage that the player takes after their armor ' s damage reduction is applied is : So the ratio of damage dealt to damage taken is : Therefore , the " increase " in the amount of damage the player can take compared to having no armor at all , as a percentage , is : Therefore , an X increase in armor ( compared to 0 armor ) means an 100 % increase in the amount of damage the player can take . e . g . For a level 70 enemy , X = 10557 . 5 . So a player with 10557 . 5 armor attacking a level 70 enemy would be able to take 100 % more damage . A player with 31672 . 5 armor would be able to take 300 % more damage than a player with 0 armor ( which is the maximum ) .