Bio Armor and Defense values?

[Noob1]

Hi,

Bio Armor is a resist set, but I was trying to get my Defense values up also.

I am currently leveling a Beam Rifle/Bio Armor Sentinel. I am at

Defense

42% ranged defense

22.5% Melee defense

20% smash and Lethal

58.7 Energy and negative

40% fire and cold

20% AOE

 

What I have no way of knowing is that for sentinel are these values considered ok?

What values need to be higher/What can I reach theoretically and how?

 

Any advise is appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

 

[Sovera]

As a sentinel you can up in the air with hover, or out in the distance, so you can focus on AoE/Ranged defenses and ignore Melee. The magic number is either 45% or 33% with small purples.

 

If you're working with AoE, Range and Melee you can ignore the defenses to smash, defenses to energy, etc, since those three will cover all the others.

[marcussmythe]

Hi,

Bio Armor is a resist set, but I was trying to get my Defense values up also.

I am currently leveling a Beam Rifle/Bio Armor Sentinel. I am at

Defense

42% ranged defense

22.5% Melee defense

20% smash and Lethal

58.7 Energy and negative

40% fire and cold

20% AOE

 

What I have no way of knowing is that for sentinel are these values considered ok?

What values need to be higher/What can I reach theoretically and how?

 

Any advise is appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Damage comes in with one or more types (Fire/Cold/Smash/whatever) and along one of three vectors (Ranged, Melee, AOE).  Basically EVERY attack has a component from each category.  Thus a pistol is a Lethal Damage Type applied on a Ranged Vector.  A Rikti Energy Sword is Lethal AND Energy, Melee Vector.

 

This matters because it checks the BEST defense to every keyword on the incoming attack.  So you can basically try to raise your vector defenses (also called positional) or your typed defenses.  All things being equal (and they never are) positional defenses ARE BETTER - since there are less of them, and once your covered, you have no holes. 

 

Further, a Sentinel, being a pure ranged attacker, can often build for just Ranged and AOE Defense - and use some form of flight to avoid most melee.

 

You, being Bioarmor, dont get that option - at least not as much.  Bioarmor already slants to TYPED Defense out of its powers.  Now, we can ignore that and go for ranged and AOE - but thats going to be overly costly, IMHO, and Psionic and Toxic Damage arent all that common (also, you are Bioarmor.  You heal fast).

 

So, we probably want to focus our IOs on Typed Defenses.  How much?

 

The common targets for defense are 45% (basically everything hits you 1/10th as much as they would otherwise), or 32.5% (Because thats still pretty durn good, and a small purple will make it 45%).  Now, its not utterly wasteful to go over 45%, because debuffs are A THING - but Id not spend much resources on it unless your a Defense Tank.  A Bio Sentinel is neither pure defense focused, nor a tank.

 

(theres essentially ANOTHER softcap up in the 50s, because certain special high-end content has special to hit bonuses.  Dont worry about that, you wont get to Incarnate Softcap, and you dont want to wreck your character trying).

 

So your sitting at 58.7% Energy/Negative.  Im really curious how you got that.  Thats crazy nuts high.  Thats 'are you sure you dont mean Resistance' high.  Thats plenty and lots and more than youll ever need.  Id really look at your Smashing/Lethal Defense.. try to get that to 32.5, if not 45 (45 will be painful).

 

Fire and Cold are also worth attention, but if your already at 40% DEF vs Fire and Cold, you likely wont feel a need to chase the last 5%.  'Pure' Cold attacks are very rare, and 'Pure' fire ranged attacks arent that common either unless your fighting a lot of CoT Fire Demons.  But Smashing/Lethal are every gun in the game, almost.

[Noob1]

I used 3 4 sets of thunderstrike in my build plan that gives me my ranged defense. (set of 6 which I used gives me +ranged defense twice within the same set) The side effect is that from those sets i get some good Neg/Eng defense also.

 

Hmmm maybe i can take out one of the thunderstrike sets and put in something against melee damage instead.

I am currently trying to rework the build a bit at the moment anyway. So I can see what I can do with the Enchancement sets....

 

I need to look at the purples, since I haven't used purp sets since I came back to COH and cant recall which ones give + Melee.  I assume it is horribly expensive :)

 

Thanks

 

Hi,

Bio Armor is a resist set, but I was trying to get my Defense values up also.

I am currently leveling a Beam Rifle/Bio Armor Sentinel. I am at

Defense

42% ranged defense

22.5% Melee defense

20% smash and Lethal

58.7 Energy and negative

40% fire and cold

20% AOE

 

What I have no way of knowing is that for sentinel are these values considered ok?

What values need to be higher/What can I reach theoretically and how?

 

Any advise is appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Damage comes in with one or more types (Fire/Cold/Smash/whatever) and along one of three vectors (Ranged, Melee, AOE).  Basically EVERY attack has a component from each category.  Thus a pistol is a Lethal Damage Type applied on a Ranged Vector.  A Rikti Energy Sword is Lethal AND Energy, Melee Vector.

 

This matters because it checks the BEST defense to every keyword on the incoming attack.  So you can basically try to raise your vector defenses (also called positional) or your typed defenses.  All things being equal (and they never are) positional defenses ARE BETTER - since there are less of them, and once your covered, you have no holes. 

 

Further, a Sentinel, being a pure ranged attacker, can often build for just Ranged and AOE Defense - and use some form of flight to avoid most melee.

 

You, being Bioarmor, dont get that option - at least not as much.  Bioarmor already slants to TYPED Defense out of its powers.  Now, we can ignore that and go for ranged and AOE - but thats going to be overly costly, IMHO, and Psionic and Toxic Damage arent all that common (also, you are Bioarmor.  You heal fast).

 

So, we probably want to focus our IOs on Typed Defenses.  How much?

 

The common targets for defense are 45% (basically everything hits you 1/10th as much as they would otherwise), or 32.5% (Because thats still pretty durn good, and a small purple will make it 45%).  Now, its not utterly wasteful to go over 45%, because debuffs are A THING - but Id not spend much resources on it unless your a Defense Tank.  A Bio Sentinel is neither pure defense focused, nor a tank.

 

(theres essentially ANOTHER softcap up in the 50s, because certain special high-end content has special to hit bonuses.  Dont worry about that, you wont get to Incarnate Softcap, and you dont want to wreck your character trying).

 

So your sitting at 58.7% Energy/Negative.  Im really curious how you got that.  Thats crazy nuts high.  Thats 'are you sure you dont mean Resistance' high.  Thats plenty and lots and more than youll ever need.  Id really look at your Smashing/Lethal Defense.. try to get that to 32.5, if not 45 (45 will be painful).

 

Fire and Cold are also worth attention, but if your already at 40% DEF vs Fire and Cold, you likely wont feel a need to chase the last 5%.  'Pure' Cold attacks are very rare, and 'Pure' fire ranged attacks arent that common either unless your fighting a lot of CoT Fire Demons.  But Smashing/Lethal are every gun in the game, almost.

[Noob1]

As a sentinel you can up in the air with hover, or out in the distance, so you can focus on AoE/Ranged defenses and ignore Melee. The magic number is either 45% or 33% with small purples.

 

If you're working with AoE, Range and Melee you can ignore the defenses to smash, defenses to energy, etc, since those three will cover all the others.

 

I dont have hover at the moment just fly. I already figured out the fly up in the air so things can punch you tactic, out of necessity :) I am respecing and will add Hover at your suggestion. It makes a lot of sense. Thank you!

[marcussmythe]

'Things Not Being in Melee' is a really great form of mitigation.  Ive not done the math, but my perception is that most mobs have both ranged and melee attacks, and fire off whatever isnt on cooldown - and most mobs have lots of down time in their attack cycles.  Thus if they are in melee, they throw all their ranged attacks and all their melee attacks.  If they cant get in melee, they just throw their ranged attacks.

 

Also, they do amusing things like run up the stairs, jump on the railing, jump out into the air towards you, punch you as they fall past, fall hitting the ground for damage, and then run back towards the stairs.  The value it adds may only be comedic, but the comedic value is golden.

[Astredax]

Go for typed defenses instead of positional ones.  You can cap every type except psi and get psi to the low 30s - enough for capping it with a purple.

 

You will have to slot three melee attacks to cap the S/L def, though.  Brawl, boxing, and one of the APP attacks.  If "wasted" slots drive you nuts, you can try going for pure ranged defense, I think it would be possible since my build has 42% melee that I wasn't actually trying for. 

[Noob1]

Go for typed defenses instead of positional ones.  You can cap every type except psi and get psi to the low 30s - enough for capping it with a purple.

 

You will have to slot three melee attacks to cap the S/L def, though.  Brawl, boxing, and one of the APP attacks.  If "wasted" slots drive you nuts, you can try going for pure ranged defense, I think it would be possible since my build has 42% melee that I wasn't actually trying for.

 

What an interesting idea! I don't know if I will implement it, but I for sure am gonna play around with it in mids.

Thank!