Defense vs Armor

[Just J]

What is the difference between defense rating and armor?

[Ogornomus]

Armor reduces damage directly. Best against smaller fast weapons like daggers as those deal little damage every hit and fail to overpower the armor.
Also armor grants absorption, bleed and critical hit resistance. If you look at blow-by-blow details you can see armor absorption in purple.

Defense reduces your opponents chance to hit properly. There are different ranks of hit succes, defense lowers your opponents hit rank therefore reducing damage and criticals. Since it is universal it works well against every opponent.

Tank builds combine armor and defense for maximum protection.

[weaw]

This nice definition from Ogornomus could be complemented by some words about Hit Chance.
Hit Chance is a composite (and "hidden") value. It contains Attack Power as a main part which determine Hitting Power too.
Also, Hit Chance contains at least the following components:
--Strategy bonus/penalty (Activity, Bloodlust);
--Stats bonus;
--Skills bonus (Some skills adds precision although doesn't affect Hitting Power);
--Encumbrance penalty;
--Current gladiator's condition bonus/penalty;
--Random;
--Luck (Which perhaps included into random).

[Just J]

Ok, thanks makes sense, thank you both. Ok i have another question which is, my tanking blademaster RogueRouge has Create Distance skill and it never activates. It is a defensive activated skill, and i only have tank strategy, so does it not activate, like ever?

[weaw]

The Create Distance chance depends from the length of weapon which is used by skill owner. // Length is a "hidden" property too.
You may learn about weapons length (and much more) here (http://forum.pitofwar.com/showthread.php?2410-Weapons-and-Armour).

I'm not a specialist in Tank strategies, but i think the chance also depends from Activity level.

Btw,
COLETTE looks to an off handed strike to deal damage.
COLETTE seeks to cut her enemy.
COLETTE is aiming at ROGUEROUGE's midsection.
COLETTE's attack is interrupted halfway through by a timely kick in the chest! (-Create Distance-)

During the fight, Colette makes 11 attacks and RogueRouge uses Create Distance 3 times.
For me, 30% chance is not bad considering ability to stop all the attacks with Create Distance...

// And yes. To see a Create Distance work You need to switch log to "Blow-By-Blow Details" mode.

[Kreegan]

Create Distance has better chance to trigger when used with Parry-Something and Tank but it also works with Slash/Bash/Lunge, though less often. The chance for it to work is significantly greater than 30% even against long weapons, even with offensive strategy, but it has 1 round of cooldown (i.e. it can trigger every other round at most). Also, it's placed fairly early in the "hit checks sequence" so it can stop prematurely all activated offensive skills of the opponent except Crippling Might.

[Just J]

Oh thanks guys, great advice, and i see it now! Thanks a lot!