Crushing Blows Question

I recently had a discussion with my guildies that made me wonder something: What is the minimum level that a mob can get a crushing on you?

Personally, I'm past the magic 102.4% uncrushable mark, but can a level 72 mob crush you (assuming you're level 70)?

According to WoWWiki, the formula for calculating crushing blow chance is:

(Mob's weapon skill - Your defense skill [max 350]) * 2 - 15 {answer as a percentage}

So, applying that to a level 71 mob (assuming mobs get 5 weapon skill per level like players):

(355-350) * 2 - 15
= 5 * 2 - 15
= 10 - 15
= - 5%

So level 71 mobs can't crush. However, level 72:

(360-350) * 2 - 15
= 10 * 2 - 15
= 20 - 15
= 5%

This seems to contradict a lot of what I've read. I was under the assumption that only level 73 mobs could crush (15% chance). So what am I missing here? I get the feeling I've done something fairly dumb. If someone could point it out, it would be much appreciated.
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"OOM does NOT mean I'm out of monsters and want more."

Actually when people say a mob 3 levels above you can crush, it assumes that you have capped your base defense skill for your level. If you haven't yet capped your base defense skill, you can and do get crushed by lower level mobs.

The most important thing to note is your base defense skill, which means any bonuses from defense ratings that comes from items do not apply. I haven't tested from talents but I also assume talents doesn't apply either.
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In theory, any mob can be designed to crush you. In practice, 99% of the time, only mobs 3+ levels higher than you can crush you.

The only value that matters is the difference between your base defense and your attacker's weapon skill. If that difference is 15 or higher, then you can be crushed.

If you cap your base defense at 350, then in most all cases, only level 73 mobs can crush (365 weapon skill). However, there are a couple 72 mobs that have higher weapon skill than normal. The hellfire warders in Mag's lair come to mind as they are level 72 and can crush. However, in general, you typically will not see a crushing blow from a mob less than level 73 (or 3 levels higher than you).
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A crushing blow can occur when the mob in quesion has 15 more points of weapon skill (5 * mob level) more than you have defense.
Since your capped base defense for any given level is (5 * Player level) then if you are capped with def, only a mob 3+ levels higher can crush you.

You can only apply a maximum of 5*yourlevel of def against a crushing blow, thus the 3+ mob level cap.

Also, if you drop below the cap for your level by:

5 pts, +2 levelmobs can crush you
10 pts, +1 levelmobs can crush you
15 pts, same level mobs can crush you.


Now: a lot of fuss is made of the base defense, since when this is capped, this is the max def you can apply against a mob. Any +def from gear will not help


However, it would be interesting to see (I don't know, will have to test this), whether:
IF you are below the cap for your base def, +DEF from gear will be added towards not being crushed until the level cap is reached again.
E.g
A level 60 has 275/300 def, therefore can be crushed by a level 60 mob.
If he adds 15 def rating due to gear, to get 275+15=300/300 def, can he be crushed now by mobs below 63?
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Yeah, I posted that assuming you'd have the maximum base defence, 350.

I understand how and why the chance a raid boss has to crush you is 15%.

However, according to the same formula, a level 72 would have a 5% chance to crush you. So why don't they? Is it just an extra thing in the code, or is there an actual mathmatical reason why they can't?

If you follow the formula of 2% crush chance per point of weapon skill difference minus 15 (i.e. difference * 2 - 15), then the formula for the crush chance of a level 72 mob would be:

(360-350) * 2 - 15
= 10 * 2 - 15
= 20 - 15
= 5%

According to that, a level 72 mob would have a 5% chance to crush you. So, why can't it?

I'm just really confused at the moment.
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"OOM does NOT mean I'm out of monsters and want more."

Ah. I was wondering if there was a mathematical reason why, and it was really confusing me. Mathematically, according to the rule, level 72 mobs could crush you, even with capped defense, so it makes sense that there's a start point.

Thanks for clearing that up.
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"OOM does NOT mean I'm out of monsters and want more."

Oh there is a way to represent it mathematically:

crush % = u(ws-15)*[(mobs_ws - max(your_defense_skill,350)) * 2 - 15]

Where u(ws) is the unit step function with respect to weapon skill
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