Which shield would be a greater advantage?
By
Captin_Lemming,
Posted on: 2009-07-06 02:34 in Masterminds
Remember that Bodyguard is effectively 75% resist all. Use it any time a boss is around and you won't have to worry about getting 2-shotted. I personally prefer Ranged and AoE defense from IOs plus a resist based shield for Bots, especially if you have additional defense powers. S/L/E covers a lot, but Ranged and AoE covers pretty much everything.
If you don't want to get at least 15% or so Ranged defense from IOs, I'd go Scorpion Shield though. That will give you great defense in most situations and you can rely on Bodyguard when facing things like Fire and Psy attacks. And it does give you one advantage: most melee attacks will miss so you don't have to worry about positioning as much.
As for to-hit debuffs, AVs resist those by 85% (or more if not even level). Purple con enemies also resist them a lot. Solo, most things will be affected heavily by them (except EB versions of AVs / Heroes) but on a team they'll be weaker since you'll fight a lot more grapes. On the bright side, on a team you should have less aggro unless you are tanking for the team (in which case presumably the enemies will be doing S/L damage and you won't need to-hit debuffs).
Cascade, level 50 Blaster (NRG/NRG since before it was cool)
Mechmeister, level 50 Bots / Traps MM
FAR too many non-50 alts to name
[u]Arcs[u]
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Don't forget that you can slot a Steadfast Protection Res/Def IO in Shadow fall, or a resistance based Patron sheild. That gives you an extra 3% def to all. If you're trying to pack in as much defence as you can, that might help. Getting that particular IO recipe is the only problem though; the're a tad pricey.
Grizz
"When Chuck Norris can't go on, Petra Majdič perseveres!"
Is there some list of how ranks and levels resist tohit?
A game is not supposed to be some kind of... place where people enjoy themselves!
The only rank that has a special debuff resist that I know of is the AV. Here's the article on Paragonwiki:
Archvillians
Elite Bosses, and Bosses do not generally have any special resistance to debuffs, unless the powers that the EB/Boss has provides built in resists( like Granite powers).
Grizz
"When Chuck Norris can't go on, Petra Majdič perseveres!"
Higher levels do not get resistance unless they are AVs, then?
A game is not supposed to be some kind of... place where people enjoy themselves!
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Higher levels do not get resistance unless they are AVs, then?
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Resistance? No, but your powers will be less effective to begin with. That's partly why you do less damage fighting a +2 enemy then you would fighting a +0 enemy.
"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." Lord Acton
Madam Enigma's History
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Higher levels do not get resistance unless they are AVs, then?
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Read Arcanaville's guide to Defense. She lists the numbers for the purple patch.
Example: All of your debuffs and damage are reduced by 10% against +1 foes.
Additionally, lieutenants have an innate 10% ToHit Debuff resistance, and bosses have an innate 20% ToHit Debuff resistance.
my thug/dark has the dark sheild so i went foir res because bettween all my debuffs and def allready if they wana hit they will and it hurts a llil less and i can heal it quickly and lol about it hes the calm center at the eye of chaos.
Im assuming your bots dark? I bet you could use mids and come up with a much better build, but maybe you don't want to go toward the expensive end. U can get two +3% defense uniques, one Steadfast and the other the P vs P IO unique from the resist set, which would add 6% defense all, so then u have 11% from bots, we'll say 6% from shadow fall, 4% from maneuvers, that right there 27% all right there. And u still have all the other slots u could use for IO's after that. Slot your travel power with a full blessing of zepher set (3 slots), which gives u kb protection, and u have an extra 3% ranged and aoe defenses. so now ur almost 30% defense all (but psy). Slot Howling twilight with the stupefy set and it will gives u another 3-4% ranged defense. And i bet there are a ton of other sets u could use to probably get u to roughly 40% defense all (but psy) or so, and still have your resist shield. But then u would have to build your set for maximizing defense and only go for moderate recharge or something. Just depends on how bad u want things.
I have a bots/traps build (i know, ffg gives like 10% more defense than shadow fall, but still), and my defense numbers while having charged armor as well, will end up being roughly 44% melee, 54% ranged, 47% aoe. And that's without gimping. But i also took combat jumping to slot another blessing of zepher set in it, as well as get a little extra defense and get another Luck of the Gambler +recharge in there. I did not take weave. So it's entirely doable to get high numbers, at least on sets that give at least some +defense like dark or traps for forcefields, especially paired with bots, it just depends on how bad you want it and how much you want to spend.
Also know that a lot of mezzing is psionic and dark based as well, like all those ruin mages and rikti and stuff, so s/l/e defense isnt going to save you from getting mezzed there. Might want to look into investing in a Aegis Set: Psionic+Mez Resist Unique. 20% mez resist, especially stacked with other mez resist, can help quite a bit. (unless u went the acro root, then maybe it wouldnt matter as much).
I found Acro didn't really help prevent mez. It's only applicable to holds, and gets overwhelmed by any mobs trying to hold you anyway. At least that's my experience.
"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." Lord Acton
Madam Enigma's History
Way ahead of you. I've got purples, steadfast, etc. I don't use a lot of def set bonuses because they often require 6-slotting and grant less enhancement or set bonuses. One thing I don't use is PVP sets, because at this time their prices are ridiculous, but I did make some potential builds that use them.
A game is not supposed to be some kind of... place where people enjoy themselves!
I've been thinking I would go mace, and hit the def cap with scorpion shield.
However, I just did an ITF with capped def from VEAT buffs, and occasionally some bosses can get lucky in a row. So I'm considering more of a def and res hybrid.
Base def: 13 with shadow fall, maneuvers, and IOs, or 25 with protector bot shields.
With scorpion shield:
46% S/L/E def
25% C/F/N def
13% P def
20ish% energy, negative, psi, toxic res
Advantage: I would not need external buffs to hit the cap. The vast majority of attacks have some S/L/E in them, so I would be maxed against just about everything. Most enemies that are not such use psi, which shadow fall resists. With toxic res, I deal with just about everything but the rare fire thrower. Dodges mez.
Disadvantages: My tohit debuffs and vengeance are more of a team specialty since I am capped even before using them. And purple insp do not do a lot either. Lucky bosses.
With charged armor:
25% def to any but psi
43% s/l res
62% energy res
20%ish negative, psi res
Advantages: More powerful if there is a VEAT who makes self def superfluous. Not as much of a gamble. Takes advantage of the tohit debuffs of dark. Resists res debuffs.
Disadvantages: Only works against the s/l/e portions of attacks, so it does not deal with 90% of enemies like def does. Not as strong against toxic and cold (which almost always is also with s/l). Even against the basic types, mathematically less powerful:
Def cap: 5% chance to hit
Def/Res: 25% chance to hit at 60% effectiveness
Def/Res with 15% tohit debuffs: 10% chance to hit, at 60% effectiveness
This may be a case of solo vs. teaming. What say you, especially those who have tried such builds?
One question that may be the key is: how much do various ranks and levels of enemues resist tohit debuffs?
A game is not supposed to be some kind of... place where people enjoy themselves!