Why is reaching the soft-cap so important?

Numbers over twelve are witchcraft. Nobody I know has that many fingers.

But I agree, this ought to be a guide. The thing about defense is that, at least before the soft cap, adding even a little adds a large benefit. 3% defense is worth pursuing. 3% resistance is a joke.

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"At what point do we say, 'You're mucking with our myths'?" - Harlan Ellison

Very nice post. I've been looking for this for awhile now, as I didn't really understand what you just explained very well. Thanks!

I have a WP brute with 37% defense to Fire/Cold/Energy/Neg Energy, and was planning on spending 600million on a PvP IO for an extra 3% defense to all. Now I'm thinking the difference between 37% and 40% isn't worth 600 million Inf. :P

I love the math in the post.

That said, My wife primarly plays her lvl 50 Kat/SR scrapper. She solos invin mishs, or heroic 8 person mishes. She never rests, never takes a breather during a mish. She just pushes forward at non super speeded 58 mi/hr (she slotted quickness, swift, and sprint for speed so she doesnt suffer suppression). Its like watching a blender. She doesn't use elude because the crash slows her down. Before Sets her def was at about +35% and face planted a bit too often. With each 5% she lasts quite a bit longer. At +40% she still died, even with insp, at +45% she doesnt die unless she is soloing an AV.

Also soft cap is important bacuse of def cascade. The higher your def, the more you can lose before always getting hit. For her SR toon, this is somewhat important.

It might be harder to build resistance than defense because everyone and thier mom debuffs defense, while resistance debuffers are somewhat rare.Just a thought.

Great job OP on a well written post. I think you explained that much better than the Queen O' Maths (Arcanaville) has in the past. I shall now hide before she smites me from her tropical island lair.

Excellent guide, just proves "close enough" just doesn't cut it.

Now put one together on whether it is more beneficial to soft-cap positional vs typed defense. And not pure theory, but based on how prevalent the damage types are to the game.

Seriously, I wanna see this, and well, my ADD says I can't do it myself or all the shinies will get away.

I would like to thank whoever moved this to the guides section! I expected to see a redname post so I'd know who to give my thanks to, but regardless, thank you!

Quote:

Originally Posted by _Deth_ Excellent guide, just proves "close enough" just doesn't cut it. Now put one together on whether it is more beneficial to soft-cap positional vs typed defense. And not pure theory, but based on how prevalent the damage types are to the game. Seriously, I wanna see this, and well, my ADD says I can't do it myself or all the shinies will get away.

Thanks! As to typed vs positional? Eeessh, I wouldn't know how to come up with hard numbers about that! My initial thoughts are to go with positional. Everything has a position, minus a few psychic attacks which are negligible because typed defenses will most likely disregard psionic defense anyway, so you wouldn't have to tailor your game experience to avoid certain damage types.

Interestingly, I disagree with one point, at least in regards to my experience with my Shields tank.

The last 3% was Not the most noticeable. I was already almost completely unkillable at 42%. The most noticeable 3% was the 3% from 37% to 40%, iirc.

Anyone happen to know how much defense the day job accolade provides? I'm wondering if I spend the money on that 3% defense to all PvP IO, and keep the Day Job Accolade charged, if I can get my current 37.9% defense to 45.

Omg!!! This is wonderful! You've given me the inspiration to IO out my super reflexes scrapper. I've noticed that with the approximate 25% he has now I'm still hurting alot so this has given me hope for his future. thank you, my friend.

Quick Question: when expecting to soft cap defense, can I count tohit debuffs I can expect to have (like, for instance, RttC) in most cases when deciding whether I've soft-capped or not?

Does anything other than AVs have to-hit debuff resistance?

It is, except for the taunt portion on EBs/AVs.

One thing I'd like to point out is that not all squishies are devoid of +def. Electric Armor underperforms (hence the new heal to help) due to being a pure +res set.

I am hoping after reading this guide that getting a good 20% def or so on my electric brute and new tank will help survival immeasurably.

Thanks for the reply. Yes I suppose a better way to say it is that not only are squishies the only ones devoid of defense

Roughly for brutes its about 40% resist to all and 90% vs energy. For tanks its about 55% resists to all and 90% vs energy.

I'm seeing that I can get about 18% defense (all positions) on my tank/brute without much trouble and perhaps a bit more if I juggle slots around. Glad that it'll make a difference

Here's a really easy example.

ie
If I have 1000 hp and 40% def I die when 10,000 incoming damage has been delt.
If I have 1000 hp and 45% def I die when 20,000 incoming damage has been delt.

*Well in both cases you could die after 1001 damage, but I mean over enough samples that is what it would come out to be.

Other factors* because damage generally occurs over a time frame adding in regeneration and resistance extends the timeframe longer for the 45% than it does for the 40%. Meaning that softcap can even exceed being twice as good as 40%.

Many toons find it unnecessary to reach softcap for their play experience, while others still have it as their main goal for a build.

Regarding positional vs typed: I good guideline to follow is build whatever is easier for your toon to hit high levels with. ie if you have frozen armor as an epic choice that already gets you ~half way to 45% s/l maybe take a look at that rather than building for positions from scratch.

Lastly, teams often easily offer ways to go far beyond softcap for many builds and also don't be afraid of inspirations. For instance, being at about 32.5% def is 1 small purple away from softcap, don't be afraid to use it. My fire/sr scrap is currently in that boat, so I'll pop an insp and can tank +2's for a full team. ya it will be softcapped on his own eventually, but for now use the tools available.

But we all know that the RNG can be a cruel mistress. Def can be streaky, resistance on the other hand is always steady and consistent in its performance. I don't think the devs overvalue resistance, it is very good. I think they undervalue defense personally and that's why it is so much easier to boost defense