for a blaster which is better defense cap or resistance cap?

[the mauler]

I made an Ice/Rad sentinel and found a build but I'm curious. Is it better to have defense(s) capped with some resistance or vice versa i.e. some defense and resistance capped?

heres the build. Please let me   know your thoughts as im at 18 and would like to proceed quickly and start collecting sets etc to prepare. Input greatly appreciated!

 

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[HelenCarnate]

If you can cap 1 or the other, defense is better.  That reduces your damage to 5-10% roughly and avoids many of the debuffs thrown your way.  You can get hit though with a few unlucky rolls in a row and take some pretty big spikes, which is the down side.  But that little bit that gets through is reduced further by any resists you have so it is good to have a least some resists to the most common damage which is Smashing/Lethal.

[subbacultchas]

I'll mirror what HelenCarnate said. Capped defense with some res is the best option. You will have to deal with spikes though.

[Crysis]

Ditto everyone else’s comments, DEF is generally going to be better than RES, but I’ll go a little further and say that positional DEF is better than typed DEF.  Ranged DEF in particular for Blasters in most cases, although Melee DEF can be highly useful for a Blapper.  Generally speaking, the easiest DEF to obtain in the game is S/L, which is also the most common attack type (especially lower levels).  

[the mauler]

My bad. I posted this in the blaster forum without realizing I was talking about my sentinel. How can I move this to the right forum?

[subbacultchas]

But you titled it "For a blaster...", so you are you sure? Really really sure you didn't post it in the right place? Maybe a Freudian slip, because you secretly love blasters more than sentinels?

[Haijinx]

Def is definitely better for blasters due to a lack of decent status protection. 

 

Sentinels though are more flexible on this point.

[QuiJon]

On ‎8‎/‎14‎/‎2019 at 6:26 AM, subbacultchas said:

But you titled it "For a blaster...", so you are you sure? Really really sure you didn't post it in the right place? Maybe a Freudian slip, because you secretly love blasters more than sentinels?

He prob rolled a sentinel and now realizing how inferior they are to, well everything but especially a blaster is just calling it a blaster hoping one day and like Pinnochio it will have just become a "real blaster".

[Rathulfr]

*/Rad is a resistance set, so you'll find it easier to work towards capping resistance than you will capping defense.  That's not to say you shouldn't try to get your defenses as high as possible, but I wouldn't prioritize defense over resistance on that build.

[oedipus_tex]

Defense is usually better (edited to add: on squishies) because Defense, in addition to preventing damage, also prevents secondary effects like -recharge, -tohit, -endurance, etc.

 

Armor sets that have a lot of resistance typically also offer resistance to secondary effects to compensate for being hit more often.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 15, 2019 by oedipus_tex

[HelenCarnate]

3 hours ago, Rathulfr said:

*/Rad is a resistance set, so you'll find it easier to work towards capping resistance than you will capping defense.  That's not to say you shouldn't try to get your defenses as high as possible, but I wouldn't prioritize defense over resistance on that build.

Resist sets are the best to cap defense.  Every bit of extra resists subtracts the damage you take but more defense divides the damage you take.  

[SlimPickens]

On 8/15/2019 at 3:55 PM, oedipus_tex said:

Defense is usually better (edited to add: on squishies) because Defense, in addition to preventing damage, also prevents secondary effects like -recharge, -tohit, -endurance, etc.

 

Armor sets that have a lot of resistance typically also offer resistance to secondary effects to compensate for being hit more often.

 

 

 

 

Exactly.

 

100% of the holds/stuns/sleeps etc that dont hit dont mez you.

 

I also find this to be true on stalkers and scrappers etc where a lower total res cap means you can only take resist so far and the mitigation is never going to be enough to really prevent "oh shit" moments as well as a defense set or build will because the def cap of 95% means only 5% of hits affect you at all.

 

the gain is far greater to have 95% of not getting hit vs 75% of damage reduction.