Help me understand defense %

[DrBasics]

So I see in pines that I am capable of getting defense up to 63%. Is that a hard cap? Does getting it past 58% a waste because 58% and 63% yield the exact same results?

[Luminara]

Defense ceases to be effective above 45%.  You can go higher, but there's always a 5% chance for critters to hit you.  Aim for 45% and move the slots to other powers, or change your IO sets to drop it back.

[Caulderone]

45% cap for regular content

58.75% cap for incarnate content

 

Any above that is only useful for buffer in case of debuffs.

[Sir Myshkin]

To be more precise about the reasoning on defense, enemies in the game have a range of To-Hit percentages based on their level comparable to your own, and then we have Accuracy on top of that. Simple "Can I hit, and is the hit successful." For all basic enemies in the game, up to +4 standard in the 1 to 50 game, is that the max probability to hit a player stops at 45% effective defense, as that is where the max +To-Hit enemies get against you. There are other powers enemy groups obtain that can give them boosts, but they're generally rare for the standard game, so that's why we have what's called the "Soft Cap" (45%). Anything beyond this number is essentially "wasted" defense.

 

However there are key factors that drive wanting/needing more. For enemy groups that cause Defense Debuffs, they can lower your produced defense values, and dramatically altering the opportunity to hit you with each debuff. Even just .5% below 45% has a significant enough different, and it grows dramatically every 1% further from 45% you go. Some sets have resistance to these debuffs, and in those cases can prevent a portion, to majority of that debuff from debilitating them; usually somewhere between 50-95% where possible. Even in the extreme case of Super Reflexes, which easily hits 45%, they want to carry over 2-3% extra so that even if they do get a debuff, it'll get reduced to 1-2%, and still keep at (or above) 45%. For sets/builds that have no debuff resistance, there's not much value in going above 45% because one debuff that breaks through will quickly shred what defense is there (anywhere from -5% or more on a single debuff).

 

The other aspect for wanting more is in Incarnate Content. The Incarnate Trials and TF's (and any of the upper-content Praetorian arcs that may include some Resistance factions with Targeting Drones), all enemies have boosted To-Hit values, which moves the goal-posts for defense to 59%, the value needed to reduce enemy chance to hit you back to 5% again (the minimum amount possible). Hitting this value on defense-based toons is worth consideration if it can be achieved without compromise as it helps keep your build viable without outside assistance. It may not be a consideration if it forces abnormal build choices that weaken your build, though, as you're likely still to team with players that will have support options to boost your defense anyway. It's a personal call at that point. You can also just carry a stack of purple inspirations to boost yourself periodically as well. Inspirations are also a great tool to keep a couple on hand to help fast-patch debuffs.