Scrawling? or Gimping? Or Scimping? etc...

Well, here i am at level 19, and my beautiful Stalker has been smashed to bits quite regularly- (i still dont have DO's).
Whilst i like the look of /darks defences, the fact that they are res-based makes them just a wee bit useless-its a shame, they look v. nice. I was just thinking- is it possible to get decent defence by taking the passive in /dark, Combat jumping, Weave, and other pool power defences ( i forget if there are any more- mebbe concealment?) or will this constitute gimping, and should i forget the defences, learn to live with it, and get the /dark aoes later when they are available?



Any Statmonkeys/Forumhobbits who can give me advice will be richly rewarded with good karma and positive energy.

why would you want to ? .. Res is alot more better than def anyway.
Maxs def i can get without taking stupid weave as its only 4% def and stupid end cost is 13% but when you have 67% AOE def what else would you need anyway ?
Trust me Res is better than def.

oh just to clarify /dark hide is 45% AOE def and since the only thing that can hit you while hidden are AOE's .. well enough said.

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Trust me Res is better than def.

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I would disagree in the case of stalkers where not being hit so you can get back into hide and land criticals in important. However, dark does indeed have good resistance which should make a /dark stalker better at taking down the remaining enemies if you have to scrap them plus the other cool non-armour stuff dark does. Regardless, it isn't likely to be worth your while to take pool powers for the sake of defence, there's probably some much better powers you could be taking to increase your survivability.

just take the stuff in dark..don't rely on pool powers

just make sure you got placate nicely slotted and take a power like air sup which can knock your enemy up till your big damage powers are up again..

just DON't...TAKE...WEAVE:P

(hasten is also a must imo)

Ty for the advice chaps- saved me from a horrible horrible fate i guess. Also restored my faith in /dark, thanks!

Although im not taking hasten- its great, but looks daft on me...

The /dark set i'd say is more scrapper like than any of the other set because its Res based.
Thing is the other sets might perform better in PVE because of the def but in PVP your going to get hit nomatter how much def you have this is because everyones running FA and tactics to spot stalkers thus making defence pretty much worthless.
So in that respect Res would be better.
just my 2p worth.

Good point chelsea-

i think i read somewhere that SR tops out at about 40% defence... SO if someone's attacking you with a bas 100% accuracy power+ 2 accuracy SO's...The set is basically rendered worthless.

So mebbe its best to assume that you WILL be hit, and just take the pain.

yep SR tops around 40% .. /nin is 35% ish
Duing the RV event i made jokes of all the spine scrappers there and had many fights with spines/regen and won with a /dark stalker and thats because its Res .. i would of had no chance with def at all.

Hmmm correct me if im wrong...

In terms of damage mitigation Def = Res x2 (using the calculations) i.e. 5% defence = 10% resistance, both effectively giving 10% damage mitigation.

Defence is superior in that it will additionally prevent mez / secondary effects (like knockback). This is a huge advantage.

Defence also increases the likelihood of interuupstable powers (like AS) not being interrupted, and for hide to reactivate (because you are not hit).

Defence is inferior in that it exposes you to the "run of bad luck" where by misfortune a series of attacks hits you and rapidly plummets your HP. This is of course more of a problem when you have a low HP character (so more of a problem for stalkers than tanks).

However, on balance I would say that defence is superior to resistance under most circumstances.

And bear in mind that even considering just damage mitigation 5% defence = 10% resistance. They are not comparable.



In PvP things are somewhat different I suppose, but judging how thoroughly hard it is to take down an Ice Tank in PvE I wouldnt dismiss defence lightly. Again, defence is better for high HP characters like tanks who can ride through the transient accuracy boost of a aim / build up I suppose.