It's never late to learn (I hope).

[hentacle]

Believe it or not, even though I've played the game for almost a decade now, I STILL have to idea how Defense/Evasion/(Resistance) works for mages - official S&F forums were always broken to me and refused to load and nobody (except for me who still stubbornly raises them on occasion) really gives a crap about the two dump stats. Does anyone have an actual damage reduction formula they are willing to share? It's a matter of principle at this point.

[Leander Playa Games]

Their damage - your resistance....and you have 10% armor. For example, if a scout has 100k dexterity and you have 4k evasion/dexterity, he attacks with 96k dexterity...then the damage formula with weapon etc. comes into play...and 10% of the total damage are lost because of your armor.