We discuss the defocusing energy-critical nonlinear wave equation in four dimensions. For deterministic and smooth initial data, solutions exist globally and scatter. In contrast, since deterministic and rough initial data can lead to norm inflation, the energy-critical NLW is ill-posed at low regularities. In this talk, we show that the global existence and scattering behavior persists under random and rough perturbations of the initial data. In particular, norm inflation only occurs for exceptional sets of rough initial data. As part of the argument, we discuss techniques from restriction theory, such as wave packet decompositions and Bourgain's bush argument.