Questions about Soft-Caps...

[eetorres76]

Ok, so back in the day I remember reading this lengthy guide that explained defense in City of Heroes.  It was considered the definitive text on the subject and multiple forum posts referenced it. This document had formulas and everything; I had to print it out, study it carefully for like 2 days and use highlighters. I even got help from a friend at the time who majored in math.

 

So... It's 2019 and I think I remember the important stuff, but I wanted confirm a few things to make sure I remember correctly.

 

1.  Soft-Cap for any defense value, regardless of damage type or position, is %45, correct?

 

2.  Any defense value above %45 does not actually offer more protection in a fight, because mobs always have at least a minimum chance of %5 to hit you, correct?

 

3.  Any defense value above %45 simply offers a buffer against -Defense Debuffs, correct?

 

4.  Ideally, you want to focus on the three positional defense values (AoE, Ranged and Melee), because they offer protection regardless of damage type, correct?

 

5.  +To Hit bonuses are preferred over Accuracy bonuses, because they affect a defense value directly, whereas Accuracy are part of the formula, correct?

 

Thanks in advance for your time.

[Mikazuki]

That is mostly correct, yes.

 

But:

 

3) Defense debuffs and +to hit on enemies as well (we all love nemesis, dont we?)

 

Only other factor is the rank multiplier plus difficulty setting. ie: a +4 boss(which cons +2) will have a 5% extra to hit bonus against you. a +4 archvillain will have a +20% to hit bonus.

[Adeon Hawkwood]

The Defense Soft Cap is generally 45% however there are mobs out there with To Hit Buffs which raise the soft cap. In particular the soft cap is 59% in Incarnate Trials since all enemies have +14% To Hit (although your league is probably throwing around enough defense buffs that you don't care. So for general play a defense greater than 45% will only provide mitigation against defense debuffs.

 

Regarding tags, most people opt to focus on positional defense (Ranged, AoE and Melee) since that is easier to build using IOs. Building up typed defense is harder although it is a viable approach in some cases. Invulnerability has solid typed defenses so benefits from building on those instead of going for positional defenses. Additionally squishy characters have an option for a S/L defense power in their Epic so some people opt to build on that. Smashing and Lethal are the most common damage types so building up defense there is a viable strategy. Finally I'll add that some Psionic attacks don't have a positional tag and can only be defended against using Psionic Defense but this is an edge case.

 

In general it's best to have a mix of To Hit and Accuracy since they multiply in effectiveness. Accuracy is a lot easier to get since plenty of IO sets give accuracy as an early set bonus while To Hit is only available in the Kismet proc or by taking powers that buff it. At a basic level you are multiplying your To Hit and Accuracy bonuses so accuracy bonuses make your to hit bonuses stronger and vice verse..

[KelvinKole]

How does Defense and tohit debuffs interact with eachother at or near the defense soft cap? If you have 45% defense will there been any benefit seen from debuffing the enemy tohit?

 

What about not at the cap? If you have 25% defense and can bebuff enemy tohit by 25%, is that practically the same as 45% Defense?

[Adeon Hawkwood]

Functionally speaking To Hit Debuffs add to your defense. So if you're at the soft cap you won't see any benefit but you will see a benefit below the softcap. However the downside is that since they are debuffs they are subject to the purple patch and will have reduced effectiveness when you're fighting enemies that are higher level than you as well as when you're fighting AVs.

[eetorres76]

The Defense Soft Cap is generally 45% however there are mobs out there with To Hit Buffs which raise the soft cap. In particular the soft cap is 59% in Incarnate Trials since all enemies have +14% To Hit (although your league is probably throwing around enough defense buffs that you don't care. So for general play a defense greater than 45% will only provide mitigation against defense debuffs.

 

So, if I want to make a Tanker that works really well for ALL content in the game, I should shoot for 59% soft-cap in AoE, Ranged and Melee, then?