Any value in going over the DEF soft cap a bit?

[Story Archer]

I'm finishing up a DEF build (DB/Ninjitsu) and I'm playing around with the last few slots. With the understanding that the power set doesn't have much in the way of Def DeBuff resistance (about 35%), is it worthwhile to run those defenses up to the 47-50% range to help offset some of the occasional debuff's I'll come cross, or does that not really make much of a difference in real game world?

 

So to speak.

[bAss_ackwards]

There are some benefits. If you get hit with a Defense Debuff and go from 45% to 40%, you're now at 10% hit chance. If you're going from 50% to 45%, you're still at 5% hit chance. If your build can afford the buffer because of low to non-existent Defense Debuff Resists without sacrificing other parts of the build, I say why not? It will also help with Incarnate content, which has a higher softcap percentage.

[Uun]

I just finished leveling a Ninjitsu sentinel. It runs at 48-49% defense (51-53% with Agility Alpha) and I'm pretty happy having the cushion.

[Doomguide2005]

Short answer yes, it is potentially valuable to help in particular with avoiding cascade defense failure.  Soft cap means a roughly 5% chance to be hit and debuffed below the cap.  If your overage of defense can absorb the debuff without dropping you below the cap then your odds are 1 in 20 times another 1 in 20 or a 1 in 400 chance of initiating a defense cascade.  

[Koopak]

Worth noting this 5% is against even leveled enemies. Higher level enemies have increased accuracy, accuracy multiplies tohit. Specifically a +4 enemy against an incarnated +1 player has a 6.5% chance to hit you at cap. This makes the danger of -def even greater, to use the example above, if you are at 45% and take -5% you will be at 40% defense meaning a +4 mob will have not a 10% chance, but a 13% chance to hit you.

There is also the concern of 'incarnate cap' and 4 star hardmode tfs namely specific endgame content actually sees the enemies having +tohit which means to reach defense soft cap you actually need MORE defense.

However on the flip side, building for that cap yourself only really makes sense if you don't expect to have any defense buffs in your team. Traditionally many players take Maneuvers at the least so i expect a full team to be rocking +10% defense at a minimum most of the time, with it usually being much higher due to support. Even without Barrier its not uncommon for my 4 star teams to be providing over 60-70% defense from support powers.

At the end of the day the value comes down to the content you are doing and the team you are doing it with more than any hard and fast rule.