Defense for the TriFormer?

I tried, maybe a year or more ago, to build a tri-form Peacebringer in Mids with decent defenses, and failed miserably... I had to 6-slot a lot of powers, meaning there were not enough slots for certain other powers. So I went for a high recharge (well, as high as I could reasonably go... I don't purple out or use LoTGs too often, as I'm not THAT rich), HP, and recovery build.

It seems to do okay in all three forms, but whenever I get hit by a bunch of debuffs, I rather wonder if I should go with defense instead, as I know it helps a lot with my Fiery Aura Tanker, for instance.

Going for defense seems more possible on a single or dual form build, but I'm wondering if with the IO defense changes awhile back people have had more success with triform builds.

It's not really very viable to slot for defense on a Tri-Form build....although, I have a little over 30% Ranged defense on mine. It's not very possible to squeeze out more without paying tons of Influence(or getting lucky with drops). I find that 30%+ works pretty darn well though.

I think it is possible to get defence, you may even be able to softcap one positional without losing out on much.

But I would always build for recharge at least until you have perma-eclipse, because perma-capped resists to every damage type is just fantastic! And has the bonus of making you able to attack more and mitigate damage 'actively'.

If you had the budget I could see it being possible to get perma-Eclipse and then going for 20-30% defence without losing much in the way of effectiveness, but I think that would need purples to make up for the recharge lost while chasing that defence.

It is also apparently possible to cap ranged defence and have perma-Eclipse, but until I get shown otherwise I think that has to be sacrificing something to get that defence.

Additionally I don't think capping just one positional is going to do you much good after you have perma-Eclipse.

Firstly the majority of mez is AoE, second the heavy hits are melee, and third, you are only really going to be at range in nova, so the other forms won't get such a benefit from the defence.

Secondly when you are only taking 15% ranged damage anyway, mitigating part of that isn't as important as if you were taking the full brunt of each hit.

Thirdly, once you reach perma-Eclipse (Actually even before that) you would probably be better trying to make sure you have the best slotting in each power rather than chase a second bonus, so that you can kill or stun the enemies before they hurt you.

While writing this though the thought occured to me about maybe trying to get as much smashing or lethal defence as possible, because the majority of attacks in this game have a smashing or lethal component, but I don't know how possible that is.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aggelakis PrincessDarkstar: "RAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH SOMEONE IS *WRONG* ON THE INTERNET!"

Oh I would also say that defence debuffs are more common than recharge or resistance debuffs, so recharge is still the way to go.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aggelakis PrincessDarkstar: "RAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH SOMEONE IS *WRONG* ON THE INTERNET!"

Just a quick note the OP said they have a peace bringer not a warshade so they don't have eclipse. It seems like a PB could get a decent amount of defense but it would seem unlikely that you could get to the soft caps while in a form. Although a dwarf with a decent amount of defense backing up its resistance is rather tough so I could see the use of picking up a decent amount of defense from IOs.

From my experience with a TriFormPB, building for defense, as you say, isn't the most affordable, nor the most flexible for the PB, but usually with 3 heals and the mobile knock-back platform Nova can be, things aren't too bad unless I'm running with my All Kheldian SG against really tough stuff.

Yeah, whenever I'm in Nova, I wish I had more ranged defense (at least solo). Same thing for Dwarf... I really like having defense on my blasters and tanks, so it's kind of a habit of mine. But with a triform PB, it seems like pushing a round peg in a square hole... too many powers would get underslotted, as hardly any of mine have 6 slots (I think I have 2): I made an IO build that does well with less. As it is, I still have powers I'd like to slot more. And going for defense would cut down on all the recharge bonuses I've found, and +recovery and HP.

I probably just need to stop wishing for it on top of all the great things I already have, heh. I've managed to squeeze in more +recharge than I have with any other hero, after all, and without tapping into Purple sets.

Seems like an all human WS could do great with a good amount of AOE and Ranged defense, and have the slots for it. Or am I wrong in thinking that?

Anyway, if there is anyone that thinks it'd work for a tri-form PB, let me know.