IO sets - Is it easier to fill missing +defense or missing +resists?

[Zewks]

Just curious. Seems a lot of the various primary defense power sets give you either high defense, or high resist, but not both. Meaning you will need to pick up the slack for the stats that are lacking by using other means. While there are many ways to lessen damage done to you outside of resists/defense, my primary question here is simple:

 

"When it comes to IO sets, which is easier to build for? Additional +Defense, or additional +Resists??"

[Psyonico]

Defense is easier to build for partly because Power Pools have a lot more defense in them than resistance (Tough is the only power pool power that has resistance in it), it's not entirely about IOs, but there you have it.

 

[Parabola]

The bonuses are not evenly distributed. As a rule positional defences tend to be the 5th or 6th set bonus and so favour 'full set' builds. Typed defences are often available with lower investment (kinetic combat at 4 slots, eradication at 3 for example) and so are easier to fit in around other priorities like procs.

 

On the resistance side certain types are a lot easier to build up than others. You can pick up a fair amount of s/l resistance from set bonuses you pass on the way to something more interesting (and tough of course), and you get a big chunk of f/c from purple and winter sets. Psy res can also be built up pretty effectively with 5 impervium armours (that 6% io is not unique) and other bonuses. E/n is more difficult to build up though and toxic similarly.

 

So it really comes down to what gaps you are trying to plug. On the defence side tanks have such high modifiers I rarely feel the need to build for defence on a defence armour. So I'm generally more interested in adding resistance to both resistance and defence sets. Then it comes down to gaps; one of the things that makes radiation armour so strong in my eyes is the way it dovetails so well with the io system. It needs some s/l res added and the psy hole plugging, both of which are easily achievable and then you are left with a cold hole that is rarely an issue.

[ZemX]

"Which is easier?" may be the wrong question.  Yes, it's easy to hit the soft-cap on positional or just S/L defense, it being only 45%.  But whether that is worth doing is debatable.   I tend to fall on the side of the argument that defense without defense debuff resistance (DDR) is generally worthless.  In specific situations like AE farms or teams where you can rely on having defense boosted further by teammates, then having some defense to stack up on is worthwhile.  

 

But if you're wanting to be self-sufficient AND be a tanker who is going to attract most/all of the incoming attacks for a team (or solo)... go with a set that has DDR, get it to soft-cap or above, then pile in other layers: resistance, regen, recharge, slow resistance (to protect recharge), etc.  This will be tougher than Resistance Armor that tried to add defense only to have it blow away in the wind on a +4/x8 ITF.

 

Resistance Debuffs do exist also, of course, and Resistance Armors with capped (or higher) res are better able to ignore them, but they are far less common than defense debuffs.  Anybody hitting you with bullets or blades is usually debuffing defense.  Think about how common that is.  It works wonders for squishy ranged types to get soft-cap defenses with zero DDR because they're not tanking.   And when they try, you often see them doing amazingly well... until they are suddenly dead. 😛  The "why" is called "Cascade Defense Failure" and it's what happens when you don't have DDR.

 

Want to be toughest tank who ever tanked?  Take SR, Shield, Invuln, or Stone to the IO shoppe and go nuts.  Maybe Ice Armor too but it's less common.

 

That said, I am a super fan of Radiation Armor, but I built everything onto it EXCEPT defense.  It has resistance, an absorb shield, and a self-heal so I did everything I could to jack that stuff up as much as possible because even when defense debuffed into the floor, all that stuff is still working.    Recharge to make absorb shield and heal refresh faster.  Slow resistance to make sure it stays that way.  ToHit debuff resistance to make sure I can hit with that heal when I need to.   I think it does great, but a super tank build of one of those other sets I mentioned will still be even tougher.    I just think they're less fun. 🤪