Quick Invuln question

Exactly what the title says, I have one quick Invuln question.

Is it easier to softcap positional or typed defense?

Since Tough Hide, Invincibility and Weave all offer defense to everything (mostly) I was thinking that typed might not be a bad way to go, since a lot of the IOs I would be using will be fairly cheap to acquire.

But, I'm not sure. I've been around quite a while, but this is my first serious attempt at playing an Invuln tank.

It's Invuln/Electric btw, in case it makes a difference.

Every post I see talking about it focuses on typed defense over positional. See Call_Me_Awesome's guide in the Tanker's guide stickied thread. It's very well put together.

It's much, MUCH easier to cap typed defense. Invul HAS typed defense in Invinc and Tough Hide, but it has no positional defense. so with positional you're starting from zero defense, where with typed you have ~12% defense to begin with (that's a guess from memory) so of course it's easier to get to 45%.

Claws, although Weave, CJ and other pool powers do have def to all, including all typed and positional, defense sets generally do not. Invul is strictly typed def to S/L/E/NE/F/C; all types except Psi, and gives no positional defense.

It's even better than that, iirc. Typed by a mile.

I built my Inv tanker without using Mids, which means I had to use a calculator, and I remember the number crunching.

Tough Hide is 5% for Tankers, enhanceable to 7.8% at the ED cap. For some reason Red Tomax says it's to "Smashing" typed defense, but I am sure it covers all types except Psi.

Invincibility with one foe in range gives 5% plus 1% for that foe, which is 9.36% at the ED cap, to the same types.

End result is, once slotted typically, you can get 17.16% (give or take, depending on how closely you adhere to the ED cap) defense to all types except Psi damage before set bonuses.

That's a big hill to climb if you wanted to do positional. IMHO Inv Tankers who want to slot defense set bonuses should always seek typed defense bonuses (unless they are trying some exceptionally odd experiment, I guess).

Thanks for the numbers; I didn't have time to check Mids, but I knew that there's no question that typed is better for Invul than positional.

Building for typed defense is a lot easier than it used to be. They combined typed def into dual types (s/l, f/c, e/ne) as well as gave 50% typed/positional def to the opposite type (melee - s/l, ranged - e/ne, aoe - f/c). Since Invuln has a gigantic def base already, it would be very foolish to go with a positional def build.

Some sets that you'll find useful:

Steadfast (res): +3% to all (unique)
Kinetic Combat (single target melee): +3.75% s/l (4 slots)
Perfect Zinger (taunt): +3.13% s/l (6 slots)
Aegis (resistance): +3.13% f/c (3 slots)
Eradication (pbaoe): +3.13% e/ne (3 slots)
Mocking Beratement (taunt): +2.5% s/l (4 slots), +3.13% f/c (5 slots)
Reactive Armor (resistance): +1.25% s/l (3 slots) e/ne (4 slots)
Rectified Reticle (tohit): +1.88% s/l (2 slots)

Thanks guys, kind of what I figured, but it's always good to get confirmation before you start spending money.