Caps, defense and resistance

I'm finally delving into Mid's and have a few questions about defense and resistance and the caps. I read up on the Wiki and just wanted to clarify a few things and make sure I got them right.

My understanding of defense from the Wiki:

Defense is how easy you are to hit. So the higher the defense the less likely you are to get hit. And increasing it above the soft cap of 45% gains no benifit unless the opponent uses a debuff or a to hit debuff.

Additionally if an attack has a dual aspect to it's damage (say lethal and fire) only the highest form of defense is counted.

Defense is an all or nothing power, it either stops all of the attack or it fails completly.

My understanding of resistance from the Wiki(I'm working on damage mitigation at the moment I'll look at debuff resistance once I get this):

Resistance is the other side and mitigates incoming damage if it gets past defense. There is no soft cap, but there is a hard cap depending on AT.

Resistance of 75% means you'll only take 25% of the damage of the attack.

This is where I'm unclear though: If an attack has both lethal and fire components I assume that the resistance is applied to each type individually so if you have 75% lethal and 20% fire resistance you'll take 25% of the lethals damage value and 80% of the fire damage value?

Now to the tricky part... What's better to concentrate on? Resistance or defense and which parts? At the moment it seems to me that getting lethal and smashing defense up to the soft cap and then getting the resistances as high as possible would be the best way.

I know that some sets are more resistance based and some are more defense based, I'm looking at a stone tank that I can run without granite except as an 'oh ****' button but am more curious than anything for the future.

Regarding which is the best to concentrate on, it's going to be defense because you can't concentrate on Resistance except to take Tough, the shield power in your APP if you have one, and any other power that helps resistance. There essentially are no sets that help your Resistance.

Most ATs lend themselves to certain things. One defense strategy will be easier than the other. Usually you can only get 50% or so Resist in S/L or capped in something like Energy if you are Electric Armor.

Def is nice, but it's rolling the dice. Resistance always works.

In regards to the question of which to focus on, it truly depends on the build.

As a for-instance:

Using IO sets, my Katana/Fire build focuses on S/L defense primarily. Layered under that are his normal toggles, plus tough, so anything that misses is mitigated by 53% S/L resistance and capped Fire resistance.

Alternatively, my Fire/Shield Brute is all about defense. Using IO sets he's at 45% defense to Melee/Ranged/AoE. He gets hit FAR less than my Kat/Fire, but his resistances underneath that are less, so when he gets hit, he gets hit harder and cannot recover as easily.

Optimally, if you wanted a character that had super-high values on both, I know an Elec/Stone tank can reach 45% S/L defense (which cover a large majority of all attacks in game, including the Cimerorans), 35%+ E/N defense, with 79% resistance to most types and capped to energy damage layered under that.

Why do I consider that optimal? Enemies using S/L have a 5% chance to hit you, and you only take 20% of the damage. At 35% E/N, enemies have a 15% chance to hit (I think, be gentle on my math), but the energy only comes in at 10% of its value. Negative hits a bit harder, but elec has a heal to cover it which also boosts regeneration.

The build is the most important factor: Knowing where the holes are in your character is key. If it's a blaster, ranged defense is the way to go, controllers usually run for global recharge. It depends on the build and playstyle

I can provide build links for reference if you want.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deus_Otiosus This entire post should receive some kind of award for being both hysterical and fantastic. Well done.