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There have been a lot of posts about which Defense powers stack with other Defense powers; some of this has been accurate, but some of it hasn’t.
Seemingly, we lost sight of a basic principle of Design: players shouldn’t make uninformed choices. Namely, some buffs had no effect on a player if he had certain Defense powers active.
Intuitively, a buff such as a Force Field should provide protection to a player – whether he is a Super Reflexes Scrapper, an Ice Tanker or an Invulnerability Scrapper/Tanker.
As a result, we went through ALL of the Defense buffs in the game and ensured that they provide a benefit to players, regardless of build.
This means that every Defense buff WILL stack to some degree with a player’s defenses, regardless of his power set.
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In principle, this is a good thing. However, the players are understandably skeptical as to whether this was done correctly, and even if it was, to what degree - apparently there is a lot of interpretation possible with regard to "will stack to some degree." And in fact, its almost impossible to actually meet that goal given the way defenses are currently typed, so the precise details would be nice to have, so we know how *you* interpreted "will stack to some degree."
[Guide to Defense] [Scrapper Secondaries Comparison] [Archetype Popularity Analysis]
In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
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Can you just clarify one quesiont.
I am an SR Scrapper with Agile + toggles. I get drained of endo from sapper and my toggles drop. A FF defender has me within her Dispersion bubble. I get attacked by a fire blast.
If the the base of Agile is 5% against Ranged, and the base value of DB is 10% against Fire....under the old/current system, only DB would count against the attack.
Do changes mean that Agile and DB combine to give me some benefit greater than just DB?
Thanks.
Good thing too, It looks like tankers will be needing the fighting pool once Enhancement Diversification comes along.
ack doublepost.
Yulp ..... it now means we'll get a 5% defense bonus for that 6slotted bubble of yours. Good job States ....vague and uninformative as usual ... just what we've come to expect from you and your team.
I've a question about parry, from what Cuppa posted it has a defense to Lethal as it's only damage time. While I realise that making it def to all except psionics would be overpowered since then it'd be giving awsome ranged defense I would like to see work done on it so that it gives def to all except psionic but only in melee since my main is a katana/invun scrapper and currently I'm getting little benefit at times from having the two together.
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Seemingly, we lost sight of a basic principle of Design: players shouldnt make uninformed choices.
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WHen do you figure this happened? Cause I gotta say... making people respec their toon every Issue for the past year is a sure fire way to confuse the hell out of the player base...
Thanks for fixing this, but I can't help but feel this is a situation of waving you left hand around, while you tighten up your right hand into a fist via the dreaded "E.D."
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Because people get too caught up in the numbers and try to quantify their "fun" using those numbers. "Fun" cannot be boiled down into a math equation. We don't need the numbers. Better, clearer descriptions? Yes, that we DO need. But the numbers themselves are not necessary.
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Bingo!
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This means that every Defense buff WILL stack to some degree with a players defenses, regardless of his power set.
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What do you mean by "to some degree", in the interest of informed choices...
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Seemingly, we lost sight of a basic principle of Design: players shouldnt make uninformed choices.
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Too bad the entire concept of building characters is based on uninformed choices. The manual doesn't list all the effects of every power, it is not updated for every release. There is no place within the game to find out how much benefit you get from power A over power B, you don't tell us how much benefit we get from slotting a power. Uninformed choices seem to be the rule rather than the exception. What is the big deal about not releasing effect numbers? Let us have them.
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Because people get too caught up in the numbers and try to quantify their "fun" using those numbers. "Fun" cannot be boiled down into a math equation. We don't need the numbers. Better, clearer descriptions? Yes, that we DO need. But the numbers themselves are not necessary.
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Not trying to quantify fun via math equations. If I have an option to choose two powers and what the most defense/attack/debuff/etc... possible and it says that Power A gives 10% benefit and power B gives 12% benefit then I want to be able to choose power B.
I haven't done a single math equation since playing this game. I hate math. Still I would like to know the base benefit each power gives for better informed decisions. If you don't you don't have to use it. No one would be forcing you to.
To me the phrase no uninformed decision means exactly that. That means everything needs to be out on the table for people to make their choices.
"...we went through ALL of the Defense buffs in the game and ensured that they provide a benefit to players, regardless of build."
-- Statesman
I knew you would. Thank you.
I support the Diversification plan in principle, but please review what it does to the already suffering SR. Thanks.
Thanks Jack.
The Dark Blade
"I've felt your mouse on me before, you perv...." - Troy Hickman
Paragon Wiki
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This means that every Defense buff WILL stack to some degree with a players defenses, regardless of his power set.
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At first glance this seems like a lot of smoke and mirrors. Terms like "to some degree" are at best inadequate and at worst deliberate subterfuge.
The post gives very little information other that something will be done, somehow, someday, but there are no details.
We need less of this and more real information.
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Seemingly, we lost sight of a basic principle of Design: players shouldnt make uninformed choices.
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As you brought up the subject:
How about we look at the very first choice an Inv Tank has to make i.e. to choose between Temp Invuln and Resist Physical Damage. An uninformed player might reasonably be expected to select RPD, but doing so before lvl 30 is probably a very unwise thing to do. So can we change the choice to something reasonable, like between Tough Hide and Temp Inv?
I know someone on the Dev team can see the logic of this because of things I am not allowed to talk about in this forum.
Then there is the choice that is Unyielding. The uninformed player might reasonably select this power and expect their defenses to improve. The informed player knows that this power will actually make them take more S/L damage. Therefore can we get rid of that stupid debuff now because $deity knows it serves no purpose.
thanks.
*Jagged grabs shovel and head to the elephant enclosure*
This is a song about a super hero named Tony. Its called Tony's theme.
Jagged Reged: 23/01/04
Thank you for taking care of this one. Of course I don't think it affects me, but thanks. 
Princess Grace - MA/Inv scrapper
Solana - Mind/Energy dominator
Lyonette - Kat/SR scrapper
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Because people get too caught up in the numbers and try to quantify their "fun" using those numbers. "Fun" cannot be boiled down into a math equation. We don't need the numbers. Better, clearer descriptions? Yes, that we DO need. But the numbers themselves are not necessary.
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Bravo! Thanks LiquidX for writing a nice response to the numbers.
Looking forward to October 24 for all the new names that will be available from all the people that are leaving because of the changes. Can we please have more changes because there a few more hero names I would like for my alts. 
Yay! Thank you for admitting to and fixing this. That said, could you please post the specifics of it?
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This means that every Defense buff WILL stack to some degree with a players defenses, regardless of his power set.
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I fear the phrase 'to some degree' because... well... who knows what in the heck it actually means. It's subjective.
If some powers don't stack as well with eachother, or have diminishing returns, or miniscule returns, or whopping ones, it would be oh so nice if the player base would be informed up front, with numbered specifics or preferably, something in game that graphs it out for them (like health and endo bars.)
Otherwise it's nothing more than 'well this sounds like it would stack cool...' while the reality is they may be getting little bang for their buck. And frustrated as hell when they get their butts kicked in PVP by someone who scours the boards. Or die repeatedly, when their choice makes their power contribution seem 'worthless'.
Once again, I throw out the idea that much of this could be resolved by some sort of DEF/RESIST summation bar. It doesn't have to give numbers, but if it shows what your cumulative resist/defs are (running at any given time), then a player can say 'THROW ANOTHER ONE ON ME, I'm not topped out.'
So much of our number whining would fade if we had a way to directly gauge our power results in game. AND - nice little bar graphs like that can be read and understood by the majority of casual players.
The thing I don't get about Defense buffs is that sometimes you consider them equivalent to double their value in Resistance -- you give a 10% defense buff and consider it equal to a 20% Damage Resist buff; and other times you consider Resist buffs to be four times as powerful as defense -- you give a 5% Damage Resist insp and consider it equivalent to a 20% Defense inspiration.
To players, though, they're about equivalent - though situationally variable. 20% resist and 20% defense feel about equal. Resist helps you more when you're fighting purples who discount your defense by a lot; defense counts more when fighting whites with a lot of status effects that could turn off your toggle buffs.
For us new people it is all overwhelming. I want a SR Scrapper but all the information I am recieving on SR and wht the defense is as far as toggles and passives and what stacks with pools and to what extent... argh! New people want a simple list of this powers and percentages, BEFORE we buy enhancements or choose powers or slots. Is that so tough? Can't we get an updated guide?
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This means that every Defense buff WILL stack to some degree with a player’s defenses, regardless of his power set.
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Been thinking about the right way to phrase my question as simply as possible:
If its true that all buffs will stack with all defensive sets, is it also true that all buffs will stack with each other?
Because if they don't, it'll still be a problem if buff A stacks with my defenses in one way, and buff B stacks with my defenses in a different way, and the net result is that I don't get to actually benefit from both - in effect, I don't get one of them.
[Guide to Defense] [Scrapper Secondaries Comparison] [Archetype Popularity Analysis]
In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
(Please support the best webcomic about a cosmic universal realignment by impaired angelic interference resulting in identity crisis angst. Or I release the pigmy water thieves.)
If two force field defenders each put a bubble on me of the *same* type...will the effects stack? With some of the posts I've read re: stacking they seem to be implying that they won't.
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This means that every Defense buff WILL stack to some degree with a players defenses, regardless of his power set.
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to some degree???