Real-World: Build or DEF or REGEN?

So I have a love-hate relationship with blasters, and figure I'll try using the invention system to make my next blaster(s) playable for me. Simple question:

I am experimenting with capped DEF and 150% regen, versus respectable DEF and 300% regen. Which in your real life situations is better?

My gut tells me that taking fewer shots with such low HP (DEF) is the better choice, but with decent DEF, do you take few enough hits that the regen stitches you up fast enough to keep you alive?

Thanks!

Go with your gut! As an archetype that has low HP levels from the get-go, having 300% regeneration is, by definition, not going to be as effective as it would be on a scrapper or tank. If you go with the regen, I feel like you'd end up disappointed when you realize that the extra regeneration won't really add that much to your survivability when compared to what having a great defense would..I think you might be over-estimating the effect the Regen would be having on a Blaster...

Getting hit less often is by far the better choice here. Defense FTW.

EDIT: That is, assuming money is no object. Regeneration sets are typically much cheaper.

My Blaster (Fire/Fire) used to have a build with 300% regen and capped HP. I can tell you from experience that it isn't as good as any respectable amount of def (which also stacks better with ally buffs). I'm currently using a build with 20% melee and ranged def, and 45% S/L resistance.

So a follow up question then. DEF or RES? My gut tells me... okay my gut's confused. I would presume DEF still is better, but I think there may be some villain types that can get past high DEF. Is the same true for RES, or is RES "always active," meaning if a hit gets through, it is always reduced by some mathematical formula. If I had to pick one, again, because of base HP, I'd have to say highest DEF should be my highest priority.

Def, most def. Options for stacking Res are very limited; you can get high levels of defense more easily.

I run a 3xElec Melee Blaster with approx. 20HP/s (290%) regen at capped HP, 20% S/L defense, 30% Melee defense, 40% S/L Resistance and 30% Energy Resistance. He also has Surge of Power "just in case" things get bad. He's an absolute blast to play (no pun intended ) and I haven't had much trouble taking on anything solo, much less with team support. I keep Lightning Field (PBAoE) active all the time and spam Ball Lightning (TAoE)like it's going out of style and I still rarely find myself in a predicament I can't manage. Of course... My build also has 3 Mag-3 Holds, which is pretty much unheard of in blaster builds, and definately adds to his survivability since I can hold bosses and tough opponents with ease.

I think getting some defense on blasters is important, they can be uber squishy. but since they have no defense debuff resistance I think it's also important to have something keeping you alive in the event your defense falters. I used defense in my blapper build mostly as a survival buffer and don't rely on it solely. My other mitigations work in tandem with the defense and their efficiency is improved IMO.

Your best bet is really to experiment and see what works best for you. Only you know how you play and what you like in the end. I spent a good amount of time copying my blaster to the test server and respeccing into different builds before I found what I really liked and what suited my playstyle, YRMV.

There are a lot of experienced and knowledgeable people here on the forums that can give you good advice, take it... try it.... and come up with something you enjoy playing

Defense with resistance.

Since toggles don't drop anymore when mezzed, I actually prefere to take Tough/Weave (Weave if getting in more defense through sets) on the squishies, to stack with their epic shield.

my elec3 has....400% regen + max HP and works just fine...

but I cant help but wonder if itd be overkill to sacrifice some of it for some other Migitation, even with my 3 holds, end drain, etc...

Generally speaking, +regen only becomes useful as a survival tool (rather than just a downtime reducer) when you have other meaningful mitigation to layer it with. This can be in the form of mezzes, defense, or resistance, but a fire/fire blaster without other buffs active generally won't get a whole lot out of their regen if they faceplant within 15 seconds. +HP, which quite frequently accompanies +regen in IO sets, is very useful though; getting up towards the HP cap (~133% for blasters) is often enough to let you survive nasty alpha strikes and provide a healthy buffer for extra reaction time in case things go sour.

Resistance lowers all incoming damage (of the appropriate damage type) by some percentage, making it very reliable. If you have the resists of an Invulnerability or Electric tanker, for instance, you can tell exactly how much damage you're taking over time and take appropriate measures to deal with it before it becomes a real problem, rather than just getting an unlucky streak and getting twoshotted before you can react. As a blaster though, the only meaningful resists will come from your epic pool's toggle, and possibly Force of Nature / Powersurge. Still good to have, for sure.

Defense is, in my opinion, the nicest thing to build for on a blaster, because defense avoids not only damage but also mezzes and debuffs that would otherwise ruin your day. If you want to go for smashing and lethal defense, you can take Frozen Armor from the //Ice epic, and possibly use the Gladiator dayjob defense toggle as well, as a foundation to build on with IOs; this covers almost all melee attacks, along with a lot of ranged and AoE attacks (especially versus mundane enemy groups). Note that S/L defense is most prevalent in Melee IO sets, so all-ranged blasters may find this undesirable. I built my archer for Ranged defense, which has allowed him to do crazy things like solo Archvillains without insps/temps.

Whether heavy defense is worth designing for at the expense of all your potential +recharge and +damage is a matter of personal preference, but I believe you can get enough defense to make a noticeable improvement in your quality of life without making any serious sacrifices in your offensive output.

Replying to OP's title:

In the Real World, Def = just wear a coat and your seatbelt, good against cold and lethal damage. Regen = take vitamins, get protein and sleep enough. No reason not to build for both.

... Postie threw me off there.

The extra 150% Regen would be equal to 1 small green insp every 40 seconds. Capped Defense is harder to simulate because it's only SOME attacks that are almost entirely stopped. Capped Defense to all is like four purples all the time.

Def means not getting hit, and hence not getting debuffed or being mezzed, so I'd place it above both Res and Regen for that simple reason alone.

Real world: I've built for Regen on the lower-HP toons (corrs, defs, blasters, etc.) and I've built for Softcaps. The Softcaps always have a higher survivability.

I don't know if it's been a quirk of the particular IO sets I've chosen, but I've also found that building for Recharge is often building for Regen at the same time (i.e. the sets have both bonuses), whereas building for Def can leave me with very little by way of Recharge and Regen unless I want to spend a LOT of inf to cover everything.

So a Def build might lead to lower DPS. It's something that'll depend on your specific powers and slotting, but it's something to pay attention to when plotting your build.

Re: Softcap vs "respectable" Def.
Your base chance of getting hit by an even-con mob is 50%. Def subtracts from that. So 30% Def = 20% chance of getting hit, and 45% Def = 5% chance of getting hit.

(Obviously, this is a lot more complicated with higher-level mobs, AVs, debuffing, etc., but that's the most basic way of putting it.)

If you're getting hit 4 times more often with "respectable" Def than the Softcap, that's 4 times as many attacks to resist and heal, and/or recover from the mezzing, and/or recover from the debuffs. I can definitely feel that difference in-game.

Awesome feedback. Thank you.

I personally go for higher regen on my blasters. They always have some form of mitigation to get enemies from killling you. Blasters do have a higher HP to boot for starters. However, like i said with mitigation, and even pay more attention on teams as well, i find the regen to be ultimately more helpful.

For one, when you are going for a "defense" build, the blaster has no defense powers to start you off outside of devices and cloaking device. So you start out with nothing, to get reasonable defense you are gimping your build to do so in some way shape or form. Secondly, you'll most likely be going for ranged defense. Which while solo, ok can be nice, but on teams especially, there is usually a melee tanker or scrapper or the like that will start the fight anyways, leaving you mostly with either aoe defense to worry about, or just a few pop shots. In which case the regeneration lets you attack, take a few hits and heal up.

There is always aggressive vs passive playing. I like to play aggressive, but if you do, for say go in melee to use some powers (which btw, would be getting aoe and melee attacks on you, not ranged for the most part, or of which it wouldn't matter) then you go in, use those powers, take a couple hits, then when you back out to use your ranged powers, your regen will help you get your health back up.

I find it much easier and more reliable on a blaster to have high regen, and to use mitigation forms to keep my blasters alive. The only time i'd find building for defense reliable enough would be if your going to try capping your ranged defense on a hover-blaster or mostly pure-ranged build. Otherwise I'd defenitely go for regen, which is usually hand in hand with Max hp bonuses anyways and often times cheaper.