TW/FA build toward Res or Def?

[Hedrondesign]

I been looking at abuilds and also spent hours in mids. I am honestly not sure if I should be leaning into Resistance primarily or Defense primarily. Please led your advice and input. I am so unsure on this build with so many cones in the attacks seems like a lot of the same enhancement options for attacks. Of course I am taking tough, weave and combat jumping. If going defense I guess I should throw in maneuvers but I am so unsure on this build. It is a very different build aproach to my other brutes.

[Spaghetti Betty]

My advice would be to focus on RES first since it's your primary mitigation. As TW/FA, your layered mitigation would be healing, then KD spam. I would consider any DEF built to just be a happy accident on top of that.

[SeraphimKensai]

I agree with @Spaghetti Betty as any defense you build towards will have no DDR, so you'll be highly susceptible to defense debuffs.

 

that said depending on the content you're running, defense debuffs might not be an issue.

 

Fiery aura is a resistance based set that uses healing to compensate for incoming damage. I would slot enough slow resistance to prevent slows from affecting your healing flames and also have a reasonable degree of recharge which would help with that and your burn. Knockdown also can mitigate further damage as well.

[Zect]

Res is overall more durable than def on a 90% resist cap AT, even though on paper it mitigates less than a def softcap. It is less susceptible to debuff, does not care whether enemies are incarnate or not, and doesn't melt in the face of most of the really high-damage stuff (multi-venged nemesis, HM EB critters, etc.) - you know, the things you actually want armored AT survivability for.

 

However, FA brutes cannot hardcap SLENFC resists without trying, unlike tankers, if you are trying to build for rech and slow res at the same time. As an example, there is only about 40% slot-efficient EN res (the toughest resistance to build for) for brutes in the IO system, for example; added to 35% from native toggles, that still only brings you to 75%, well short of the brute resist cap. And there is no point to building for resists on a brute if you are not utilizing the higher brute resist cap. You may need the resist alphas (resilience or cardiac) or 2min barrier core to cap; cycling other res defensives such as melee core; or living with either a cold and/or psi hole, possibly both. A high recharge, high slow resist FA brute requires careful attention to build design.

Edited February 28, 2023 by Zect