Positional Defence?

[Lost Ninja]

Trying to build a better scrapper/brute for my next character. Ideally I want to go for a positional defence set rather than a resistance set like my current brutes are. So quick question regarding Positional Defences:

1. When checking for a hit against defences an enemy attack will apply against the highest applicable defence type. So if you're shot by a demon with Flares it will check for Fire Defence, Ranged Defence whichever is higher. Amount of damage done is then applied against the fire resistance.
2. What the attacking power is intended as eg Ranged, Melee, AoE, is what the positional defence checks against not where the mob was standing when it was used. Flares used in melee range is still a ranged attack.
3. I don't know if there is still un-typed damage in the game but if so this will be checked against positional defence?

 

Am I understanding this correctly?

[MTeague]

basically correct. And yes, there are some Non-Positional-Attacks in the game. Very few, but they are there. 

They say Neener Neener to your positional defenses.  Non-Positional attacks can only be defended against via Typed defense (smashing, lethal, etc). Otherwise they just hit you.

[Dragon Crush]

IIRC there are some psionic attacks that non-positional, and perhaps some trials big glowies "avoid this" patch attacks, and toxic doesn't have typed defense but is affected by positional defense.

[Gulbasaur]

4 hours ago, Lost Ninja said:

• When checking for a hit against defences an enemy attack will apply against the highest applicable defence type. So if you're shot by a demon with Flares it will check for Fire Defence, Ranged Defence whichever is higher. Amount of damage done is then applied against the fire resistance.

That is correct. When more than one type of defence stat is relevant, the game always picks the one with the highest number. 

4 hours ago, Lost Ninja said:

• What the attacking power is intended as eg Ranged, Melee, AoE, is what the positional defence checks against not where the mob was standing when it was used. Flares used in melee range is still a ranged attack.

That is also correct. Attacks are tagged as melee, range or AoE, the actual range doesn't factor into it for defence. 

4 hours ago, Lost Ninja said:

• I don't know if there is still un-typed damage in the game but if so this will be checked against positional defence?

There was untyped damage in early versions of the game - I think most of it became toxic damage. Kheldians used to have to deal with unresisted quantum damage before  they were nerfed to boring old negative energy. 

 

There are other damage types, done by a very few bosses in trials and raids. For example, the Hamidon does electrolyte damage that needs a special inspiration for damage resistance. The Terra Volta reactor one has a shield you need to go and grab periodically and I think another raid boss does a special damage type that you use an inspiration for that drops fairly often on the map it's on. In all three cases, defence is totally ignored, but there's a way of dealing with the damage using either inspirations or the shield so it's not a problem. 

 

There are also a handful of control powers that don't have a positional tag at all (unless they were patched on Homecoming, but I don't think they were). They're all psi and mostly from the Mind Control set, so if you really want to cover every possible attack you'll see outside of raids and trials, psi defence is one you'd need to think about. I think some of the Carnies have some control powers from Illusion that lack a positional tag and the Ritki use mind control powers a bit. This is actually useful for players occasionally, like then a Paragon Protector uses Moment of Glory the pure psi attacks are still very effective against them. 

 

The big one is really when you're fighting Numina as she has a few powers with no positionals and will either be elite boss or AV-tier so can absolutely wipe the floor with you if you're not prepared. The best advice is to just use a couple of inspirations to get your psi defence and resistance high enough to deal with her. There's one strike force where you go up against her with a few other heroes and most people just deal with that by taking her down first.

Edited November 3, 2019 by Gulbasaur

[Eva Destruction]

Malaise also has a bunch of attacks with no positional flag.  I think the tentacles in the Apex TF also lack a positional flag.  The seer enemies in the IDF also use mind control.  And a Longbow Warden or two.  Council and 5th vampire lieutenants and bosses have Dominate.

 

I'm sure someone will chime in with some enemies I've missed, but overall attacks that ignore positional defense are rare.  Not worth building up psi defense for, IMO, unless you really really like fighting Carnies, although it might be worthwhile to pick up the Elusive Mind accolade, just in case.

[Shred Monkey]

I think the gas damage from those little round nemesis bots exploding is non-positional... or maybe just auto-hit.

[Marine X]

....and the Pesky Rularuu Floating Eyeballs of various Ranks just ignore all defense types it seems, not sure how, but boy they do it.

[Demon Shell]

On 11/3/2019 at 10:00 PM, Eva Destruction said:

I think the tentacles in the Apex TF also lack a positional flag.

"Alright, my +3 Dom with Power Up+Unleashed Potential has ~70% ranged def. Come and get me!"

 

"Hey man... You need an [Awaken]?"

 

"Just give me a minute to pick my jaw up off the floor."