Never gave a thought to Defense

[Lusiphur Malache]

I've not given a thought to defense in any of my builds, not even tanks.  If I have a decent defense it ain't because of something I did.  I know there are high defense powersets, what AT takes advantage of them?  Be nice for a change to not get  hit or have to rely on dam resist or regen to survive.

[The Tsaurian]

I know @Croax placed the defense sets above the resist sets for Stalkers on their tier list, reason being the lower resist cap compared to Tankers and Brutes.  I imagine Scrappers and Sentinels would follow the same logic.  I want to say I saw somewhere that Brutes tend to like resist more because of their Fury mechanic, but I can't produce a source, so I may be full of hot air.  Tankers can expect fantastic results with defense or resist sets, but SR is the gold standard defense set in terms of approachability.

Edited February 15 by The Tsaurian

[Frozen Burn]

Any AT that has an armor powerset will have Defense Powerset options, so:  Tanker, Brute, Scrapper, Stalker, and Sentinel.  Even Arachnos Soldiers and Widows have their own brand of Defense sets. 

 

The thing about Defense though is... everyone has the same soft cap at 45% (for normal content - incarnate content is much higher).  With resists and regen, Tankers get the the highest caps, then Brutes, then everyone else.  But the Defense softcap is equal for all ATs across the board - including your squishie ATs (even blasters, defenders, controllers, etc can build for soft cap defenses using set bonuses, pool/epic powers, etc).  

 

Your defense armor sets are:

• Super Reflexes
• Ice Armor
• Ninjitsu
• Energy Aura
• Shield Defense
• Stone Armor

Invulnerability is a mix of Defense and Resist.

 

They all all good and all have their differences - so, pick what you like and go for it with whatever AT you want to play.  There are plenty of choices to make plenty of toons!

 

 

[Lusiphur Malache]

Of that list the only one I have is Super Reflexes, can't remember which AT though.  Thinking it is either Stalker or Brute, anyway that toon is semi-retired so I'll be making something new.  Thanks for the knowledge.

[Duckbutler]

2 hours ago, Frozen Burn said:

Any AT that has an armor powerset will have Defense Powerset options, so:  Tanker, Brute, Scrapper, Stalker, and Sentinel.  Even Arachnos Soldiers and Widows have their own brand of Defense sets. 

 

The thing about Defense though is... everyone has the same soft cap at 45% (for normal content - incarnate content is much higher).  With resists and regen, Tankers get the the highest caps, then Brutes, then everyone else.  But the Defense softcap is equal for all ATs across the board - including your squishie ATs (even blasters, defenders, controllers, etc can build for soft cap defenses using set bonuses, pool/epic powers, etc).  

 

Your defense armor sets are:

• Super Reflexes
• Ice Armor
• Ninjitsu
• Energy Aura
• Shield Defense
• Stone Armor

Invulnerability is a mix of Defense and Resist.

 

They all all good and all have their differences - so, pick what you like and go for it with whatever AT you want to play.  There are plenty of choices to make plenty of toons!

 

 

 

I see stuff about the incarnate softcap being higher but I never see anyone offer a number. Is it because we don't know what it is or is it because it varies? I think I have been told that the enemies in places like Dark Astoria  and iTrials buff each other.

 

Separately, I wish resistance was better. It's more reliable than defense and I love that. It's just not generally as available and then you see the lower cap for most ATs and susceptibility to debuffs. Then it gets harder to argue on behalf of resistance, even though I love my invuln tanker.

 

[SeraphimKensai]

if the toon doesn't come with DDR, or they don't account for that by selective content choices, teaming, or taking Ageless Radial, sometimes just padding defense might be in for a ride awakening fighting mobs that have defense debuff.

 

That said defense can be theoretically built to allow only a 5% chance to be hit. Resistance based builds are hard limited based on AT limits to a range of 75-90% resistance. Defense also has the benefit of dodging debuffs that are.tied to attacks, where resistance based will essentially deal with the debuff (subject to their various debuff resistances).

[RobotLove]

16 minutes ago, Duckbutler said:

I see stuff about the incarnate softcap being higher but I never see anyone offer a number. Is it because we don't know what it is or is it because it varies? I think I have been told that the enemies in places like Dark Astoria  and iTrials buff each other.

 

It's roughly 59%. Incarnate level enemies have around a 14% bonus on tohit.

 

See here:

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Soft_Cap

 

Edited February 15 by RobotLove

[cronus]

14 minutes ago, Duckbutler said:

 

I see stuff about the incarnate softcap being higher but I never see anyone offer a number. Is it because we don't know what it is or is it because it varies? I think I have been told that the enemies in places like Dark Astoria  and iTrials buff each other.

 

Separately, I wish resistance was better. It's more reliable than defense and I love that. It's just not generally as available and then you see the lower cap for most ATs and susceptibility to debuffs. Then it gets harder to argue on behalf of resistance, even though I love my invuln tanker.

 

I believe incarnate softcap is around 60%. 

I am not the best informed person so take that with a grain of salt

[Duckbutler]

That's good to know, thanks! I've always thought it was weird that defense is balanced around how much enemies suck. If they stop sucking even a little bit it can result in a huge swing in actual damage taken. Like when you're fighting Nemesis and the LT goes down and you could have sworn that back on the live servers that's how you were supposed to do it....

[Frozen Burn]

1 hour ago, Duckbutler said:

 

I see stuff about the incarnate softcap being higher but I never see anyone offer a number. Is it because we don't know what it is or is it because it varies? I think I have been told that the enemies in places like Dark Astoria  and iTrials buff each other.

 

Separately, I wish resistance was better. It's more reliable than defense and I love that. It's just not generally as available and then you see the lower cap for most ATs and susceptibility to debuffs. Then it gets harder to argue on behalf of resistance, even though I love my invuln tanker.

 

 

As stated above, it's around 59-60% for incarnate soft cap.  And yes, some incarnate enemies have buffs, but by that time, you also may have some debuffs as well to counter them, depending on your build and incarnate power choices.  And yes, incarnate enemies are found in iTrials, DA, and Cimerora.

 

Resistance can't get any better than it already is.... Resist sets and bonuses are widely available just as Defense is. 

 

Generally, you want a combination of Resist, Defense, and Regen/Heal.  Whether you take a Resist set and layer on Defense, Regen, and Heals... or take a Defense set and layer on Resists, Regen, and Heals - both routes make strong combos to play.   This is why sets like:  Willpower, Invuln, Stone, Bio, Rad are so successful.  As well as Dark and Fire armors due to having strong heals (in place of regen) and being able to shore up resists and defenses with set bonuses.  It is so easy to argue FOR resists sets. 

 

Your defense sets are similar and will provide resistance and/or heals to back up along with Defense Debuff Resistances (DDR).  And it's really easy to reach incarnate levels of Defense with these sets, and layered resists and regens/heals underneath.... they can be unstoppable.    

 

1 hour ago, Duckbutler said:

That's good to know, thanks! I've always thought it was weird that defense is balanced around how much enemies suck. If they stop sucking even a little bit it can result in a huge swing in actual damage taken. Like when you're fighting Nemesis and the LT goes down and you could have sworn that back on the live servers that's how you were supposed to do it....

 

That's the game... it'd be boring if there was no risk, so that is why devs have it that at a bare minimum, foes have a 5% chance to hit no matter what. You layer on your defenses and debuffs to enemies and you increase your odds.  

 

This is why Dark/SR (or any defense set) is such a strong combo - it adds a ToHit debuff to your opponent which makes your defense stronger.  But do not let that limit your thinking either.  My Ice/Energy melee Tank is a beast.  So are my Shield/Street Justice Tank, Staff/Energy Aura Brute, Ninja/Ninjitsu Stalker, MA/SR scrapper, Kin/SR scrapper.  

 

And yes, back on live - just as it is now - Nemesis LTs give vengeance (+ToHit, +Dmg) to their allies when they die.  So that is why you typically want to kill them last, but can be difficult to do as they always rush into melee range making easier targets and get caught in AOEs.  (Brilliant strategy on their part and that's why I love Nemesis so much!)  😄  

 

[JJDrakken]

8 hours ago, Lusiphur Malache said:

I've not given a thought to defense in any of my builds, not even tanks.  If I have a decent defense it ain't because of something I did.  I know there are high defense powersets, what AT takes advantage of them?  Be nice for a change to not get  hit or have to rely on dam resist or regen to survive.

 

Pure Defense: Super Reflexes, Energy Aura, Ninjitsu, Shield Defense,

 

Mixed Defense Sets: Ice Armor, Willpower, Bio-Armor, Stone-Armor, Invuln.

[Lusiphur Malache]

Got to checking old semi-retired characters and stumbled across my street justice/super reflexes stalker  there defense numbers were okay, nothing great, but then I noticed I had another toon, a psi/nrg stalker that I have no recollection making or had played in the last 6 months.  Their defense numbers were amazing, way over softcap across the board except for psi.  Played very different from my other stalkers in that I could kill one mob with assassin's strike, wait for it to recharge and kill another, wait for it to recharge and kill another.  No red numbers or very few.  I have a newfound respect for defense now and how it changes playstyle.