If you can only have one defense is the way to go...but only if you can reach the magical soft cap. But the best way to go is to have a mixture of defense resistance and regen. layered protections will increase your survivablity far more than just having one or the other
Lornac
Mighty Lornac lvl 50 Fire/fire/Flame Blaster
jarlxaz Lvl 50 Claws/regen Scrapper
Beware the Bowtie lvl 50 Dual blades/willpower brute
Static Guardian lvl 50 FF/Elec Defender
and a few others
Are you talking about which is better to gain from set bonuses? Defense all the way, slotting for resistance bonuses is terribly ineffective.
[U][URL="http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=251594"][/URL][/U]
If it's to help you choose for a secondary set, they are equivalent.
Defense alone: You'll be invincible, but as soon as two-hit lands in a row, you're dead.
Resist alone: If you're at 90% against that particular damage type, it will take a long while to die, but you will eventually.
For both, you need either lots of regen, an heal that comes fairly often, or a good mix of res/def.
For def, regen alone might not be enough.
For res, regen alone could be enough, if you get good numbers (all the heal uniques, and a few set bonuses)
Heal will do for both.
"It's a scrapper. If he can't handle it, no one can." -BrandX
What is better to have in general? And specifically for fighting AVS and Heroes?