50-52 def is 5-7% higher than soft cap, any more than soft cap = defense debuff buffer for us soldiers.
My projected build took tough and weave because it helps me get to soft cap, but I can imagine you're safer now with a heal. 5% chance to hit you, I imagine you safely use your aid self in the middle of mobs.
Yeah, most of the time with 5% chance of being hit it doesn't really matter either way.
However when a few defense debuffs do land its hard to tell what will benefit more- being able to heal (which is harder when they can hit you now) or 17% more s/l resist and a couple extra % defense that could maybe avoid a cascading failure in the first place.
Well, if you're building in a defense buffer over the softcap, you can go a little bit over or WAY over. By far the most common -def around, standard lethal attacks from swords and machine guns and such, typically come around 7.5%. If you run ~52% def, then you have enough to take one successful shot and still be capped against the next one. That way, despite your total lack of DDR, you have to take two consecutive debuffing shots before your defense actual lowers and cascading failure becomes a potential concern.
If the defense debuffers are pulling out the BIG guns - that is, you're up against Earth Thorn Casters, Longbow Radiation wardens, Antimatter's radiation bots, or something of that sort, then one false move will smack you with enough -defense to blow conventional softcapped builds away. For those, you'd need more like 70% defense, which is not realistically possible / practical in any sense (without external buffs), so I wouldn't worry about it.
In general, I'd say that if you're already running 50+ def to all positions WITHOUT weave, then you're likely going to get more mileage out of Aid Self to patch up occasional lucky streaks from any enemy than you would taking weave, which would only matter when you're getting heavy fire from a LOT of -def debuffers. Again, I don't know what you usually fight - if your playtime is typically centered around beating down endless seas of Cimerorans and Nemesis troopers, then yes, Weave (and Tough) makes more sense.
Rule number six of an empathy defender is NEVER underestimate a blaster's ability to die. I don't care if he has CM, Fort, both RAs, bubbles (both FF and Sonic), and is fighting next to a Storm defender with hurricane on. If there is a way to die in that situation, the blaster will find it.
So I figured why not throw this out there and see if there are any other suggested tweaks that could be made. With a little patience and varied lvl range shopping it has been very affordable and prefer to keep it that way, hah.
The alternative fighting build simply replaces aid other/aid self, and classic maneuvers, uses the same slots except probably 3 titanium coating in Tough.
A couple things I particularly love about this build is very little redraw and double assault stacked with lots of IO bonuses for 51% boost when I'm just sitting and twiddling my thumbs, haha. Helps with that sweet sweet executioners strike.
Oh, and I mentally add in 5.9% defense from cloaking device when looking at defense totals as I I'm not sure if there's a way for Mids to show the suppressed value rather then the total hidden defense...
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.703
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Level 50 Natural Arachnos Soldier
Primary Power Set: Bane Spider Soldier
Secondary Power Set: Bane Spider Training
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Medicine
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Bash -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(3), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(3), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), T'Death-Dam%(7)
Level 1: Bane Spider Armor Upgrade -- Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(A), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(7), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(11), Aegis-ResDam(11), Aegis-Psi/Status(13)
Level 2: Combat Training: Defensive -- Krma-ResKB(A)
Level 4: Wolf Spider Armor -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A)
Level 6: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 8: Build Up -- AdjTgt-Rchg(A), AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg(9), AdjTgt-EndRdx/Rchg(9)
Level 10: Tactical Training: Maneuvers -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(13), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(15), RedFtn-Def(15), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(17), RedFtn-EndRdx(17)
Level 12: Poisonous Ray -- ShldBrk-DefDeb(A), ShldBrk-Acc/DefDeb(33), ShldBrk-Acc/Rchg(33), ShldBrk-DefDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(34), ShldBrk-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(34), ShldBrk-%Dam(34)
Level 14: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 16: Tactical Training: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 18: Shatter -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(19), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(19), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(21), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), T'Death-Dam%(23)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(23), P'Shift-End%(31), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(48), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(48), P'Shift-Acc/Rchg(50)
Level 22: Tactical Training: Leadership -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(25), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(25), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(27), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(27), GSFC-Build%(29)
Level 24: Cloaking Device -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(29), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(40), RedFtn-Def(40), RedFtn-EndRdx(43)
Level 26: Aid Other -- Heal-I(A)
Level 28: Surveillance -- ShldBrk-Acc/Rchg(A), ShldBrk-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(31), ShldBrk-DefDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(31), ShldBrk-Acc/DefDeb(33), RechRdx-I(50)
Level 30: Aid Self -- Dct'dW-Heal(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(46), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(48)
Level 32: Crowd Control -- Sciroc-Acc/Dmg(A), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx(37), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(39), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg(39), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39), Sciroc-Dam%(40)
Level 35: Maneuvers -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(36), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(36), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(36), RedFtn-Def(37), RedFtn-EndRdx(37)
Level 38: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(50)
Level 41: Web Envelope -- Enf'dOp-Acc/Rchg(A), Enf'dOp-EndRdx/Immob(42), Enf'dOp-Acc/EndRdx(42), Enf'dOp-Immob/Rng(42), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob/Rchg(43), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob(43)
Level 44: Shatter Armor -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(45), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(45), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(45), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46), Mako-Dam%(46)
Level 47: Mental Training -- Run-I(A)
Level 49: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Conditioning
Level 6: Ninja Run
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Code:
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I am curious.
On a Bane Spider, would you take aid other, aid self, and classic maneuvers OR boxing, tough, weave?
My medicine build defense is 50-52 and fighting would bump that a couple percent, good either way...
Discuss.