Weave and Toughness

Are these worth putting into my build. I have a level 29 blaster, and I have both of these, for defense and damage resistance, but is it really worth it?

My general opinion is not unless you're doing a high defense IO build but at the same time if you don't have anything else you'd rather take then the extra survivability can help.

I would think that at level 29 there are a lot of other powers that could be quite helpful to a blaster instead.

I agree with Adeon. You often see that on end-game builds for better survivability when everything in place.

They're pretty small values for a Blaster.

The Fighting pool is useful if you're going for a specialised Defence build using IOs - Weave provides Defence and Tough gives you a place to stick the Steadfast IO, but it costs you in terms of power picks and influence.

I'd recommend against it as a general rule.

The only characters, other than scrappers, brutes, and tanks, that I consider this on are the ones where I think I'll be in melee range a good bit more than normal. Some builds with some PBAoE attacks and the like might make it worth a pick some time to supplement your epic pool defense power.

They are toggles remember. If you want to see if they are really worth it play for an hour with them on then leave them off for an hour and see how your character plays.

I'm planning on taking them both, and slotting Boxing as well (with 4 Kinetic Combat)

I put together a build that softcaps Smashing/Lethal defense, and gets around 30% to Energy/N.Energy, so for me Weave is definitely worth it as I would end up 4% short or so without it.

That said, I'm taking the Fighting pool very late in my build, when the only other things I have to choose are Epic powers (going Cold Mastery for Frozen Armor and Hibernate)

I don't play my 50's much, and that build doesn't get where it's going until level 45 at the earliest.

So if you're me, that's not really the main attraction to the build. Most people aren't me, in my experience.

Yeah, for levelling, their appeal is pretty marginal, but not totally negligible.

Say you're making a Ranged Defence Hover-blaster, which is probably your best bet to leverage some defence through IOs.

In the 30's, you could expect to have a Blaster with 4 sets of Thunderstrike (3 primary + Teir 1 immobilise or 4 primary for Psi) and 2 pairs Blessing of the Zephyr (Hover + Flight) for 23% vs Ranged whilst Hovering.

Weave with Red Fortune (5.6 + 2.5) and Tough with Steadfast IO (+3) will give you an extra 11% Ranged Defence, bringing you up to 32% Ranged Defence. You're paying the END cost for Weave, Tough is just a stepping stone and an IO mule here, and doesn't need to be run unless you want the resistance.

I reckon you could probably get all this in your early to mid 30's, so you're benefitting for typically half your playtime on the way to 50 (at which point I also dump characters).
Add in a full set of Stupefy in a stun power and you're even better off.

You've spent three powers, a pool and 5 extra slots to get this. It means you need 1 small luck pill to cap Ranged Defence instead of 2.

You are of course still wide open to Melee and AoE attacks, unless you can hover out of melee range.

Exactly why I'm going with Smashing/Lethal defense instead.

I plan on playing as a blapper both in melee and at range, and I believe someone once proved that smashing/lethal covers some 65-70% of attacks in the game. I wanted reasonable defense in a variety of situations over nearly unassailable defense in a very narrow situation. Ranged defense does no good at all if you can't stay at range. Try hoverblasting in a low ceilinged cave and tell me how that worked out for you.

Not trying to say that ranged defense + hover isn't a solid tactic, I have a hoverblaster myself and he very seldom gets defeated. Just this time around I want a ranged/melee damage dealer. So for me, I slotted Tough and took Weave in order to achieve what I was aiming to do.

For a strictly team blaster that has a lot of support, no, the fighting pool isn't worth it. If you're trying to maximize what you can get in terms of reliable defense, it is absolutely invaluable.

I decided to go with Smashing/Lethal when I realized that I didn't have to sacrifice as much from the build to achieve it. And since I was going with Cold Mastery anyway to get Hibernate I figured I might as well build on what Frozen Armor gives me.

I'm not taking a travel power at all on this toon, so the only place I have for Zephyrs is Combat Jumping. My character is Ice/Electric so I don't even HAVE a PBAoE to slot Obliteration in.

I'm kind of limited in what I can use on this particular character, and I've also never softcapped Smashing/Lethal on a squishy, so I figured I'd try it out.

Cool, sounds interesting Claws

Maybe one day defenders will have an Ice epic to help maximize overall defense like that.

Too bad about Obliteration, but I know the feeling, I have all my melee defense IO bonuses in a Hold and an Immobilize (Neurotic Shutdown, Enfeebled Operation). The only Oblit I could have slotted would have been in dark mastery.

Perhaps, you will find another powerset combination lends itself better to this idea.

I would like to 5 or 6 slot with IO sets for both.
I have hover 6 slotted with Gift of the ancients.

It almost sounds like jump, and the other powers there would have been a better choice.

Thanks for all the input by the way. When I was leveling early on, I gave up taking some powers so I could round my blaster out, but not so sure having read the posts that that was a wise move.

Oh, and he is a NRG/NRG blaster, so I don't mind wading into melee, just not for extended periods depending on the team.

You are correct FireWyvern

I had not looked at the numbers in that way, but the smaller the number, the closer it is to a 1-to-1 trade-off.
So 15% Hps is more like 13% resistance. Still small enough to make me pursue hps rather than Tough.

The ONLY thing that makes me consider Tough, rather than waiting for an Epic Toggle is the ability to slot the Steadfast IO earlier in a build. (POSI TF anyone ?)
With that as my only exception, I prefer getting S/L resist from the epic powers and +HP from sets/accolades rather than tough.

Just one way to look at it

It's true that Steadfast is a huge point for tough. It really helped me around lvl 30, when i got it.

Tough was usefull while i leveled, but now that i'm at 50, it's seems a lot less essential since i have an epic shield. (force mastery) Definitively the less usefull of my toggles.

But in a way, i mostly see "fighting" as weave + steadfast unless i really want the s/l resist. (one of my invuln, that's about all...) =P

Well..... i took and use kick on my blapper cause i wanted to be almost 100% melee. =P
And i get my -KB protection from the KB set. (a lot less costy then the procs, specialy when i made the character)

But yeah, it's annoying to have to pick boxing/kick to start the pool on anything else. Never used it.

To the OP: There's something we have maybe been taking for granted and not mentioning.

Defense and Resistance are both things that, the more you have, the better they work. So Weave, BY ITSELF, is not much good. Tough, BY ITSELF, is not much good. If you have Weave, and 3% Defense from somewhere else, and 5% from a third place, you're maybe starting to get somewhere.

An Explanation.

I have been going for IO sets, so I have been reducing the endurance cost on all of my powers, and I also of course have stamina, which right now is 3 slotted, and when I get around to it, I will slot 4 or 5.