45% will lower a mobs chance to hit to the floor up to and including +5. Additional defense is useful in the face of debuffs, or against mobs that have tohit buffs of their own.
Very few toons have any kind of (or at least significant) defense debuff resistance, which means given the obscene amount of defense debuffs that enemies throw around it is often a good idea to have excess protection.
At the same time, few teams rely soley upon defense as mitigation. In your case as an emp you have regen aura and direct heals, so pushing beyond softcap may be unnecessary for the majority of your playtime. ymmv.
Soft cap is 45%, hard cap is somewhere around 200%. In most cases (like 99% of them) more than 45% Defense does nothing useful. Then again, if you only rely on buffs for Defense, I'd suggest getting somewhere around 50% Def so that you have a buffer for Def Debuffs.
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For me it basically comes down to 2 scenarios.
Scenario A) I am soft capped at essentially 45% with no ddr. The first hit requires the foe get 'lucky' and hit me. Roughly 1 in 20 chance. Second foe and later foes however now have chance to hit me that is much greater, relatively, as I am now no longer soft capped. Give or take a bit many of those -def attacks are -10%. My defense against subsequent attacks is now roughly 35% vs 45% and a potential cascade defense failure is imminent against a large mob of foes. Basically 1 'lucky' hit sets me up for major issues.
Scenario B) I am soft capped at around 55% with no ddr. The first 'lucky' hit drops my defense to 45%. I am still soft capped, the next to hit roll is still floored and needs to get 'lucky', it hasn't effectively removed me from the soft cap. Basically the foes need 2 lucky hits to set me up for a cascade failure. So Scenario A is 1 in 20 to avoid cascade issues, while Scenario B is 1 in 400 to avoid cascade failure issues.
Now obviously that's very simplified, but I think is essentially what it comes down to. The size of the mobs and the amount and frequency they use -def attacks is what to consider in deciding whether the 'extra' defense cushion is worth it (and to an extent how much cushion).
If I recall correctly, you were triple boxing a defender team, right? In that case, I would keep everything and stay at ~60% def. I'm sure you're going to be fighting up-level foes, so the purple patch would increase the size of any defense debuffs they might land on you. Staying at 60% (a 15% buffer) should ensure that no single defense debuff can ever drop you below 45%, even with the purple patch amping up the debuffs.
@MuonNeutrino
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Thanks for all the replys guys, that made things very clear.
But opps. my team is not 3 emps. rather 2 emps and a Grav/therm troller, and I thought Forge had a +Def component to it, but according to Mids it doesn't so.
Now it's back to
1st Emp. Fort, 3x Man about 37% DEF with +Res Shields
2st Emp. Fort, 3x Man about 37% DEF with +Res Shields
Troller, 2xFort, 3x Man (in the 60% DEF Range) with Tough for a +Res Shield
I took the Troller for a secondary with a little of everything, has heals, and some debuffs and shields, it's hard to keep track of three Emps becuase Fort doesn't stack with the same caster, it's a pain.
Thanks again all.
I can skip the fighting pool on the two Emp's and get combat jumping for the extra +DEF to put them at around 42% and when I am hovering get it to 45%
It does depend, as mentioned, on the frequency of the -Def effects. Something that stacks up a ton of -Def [Longbow, I'm looking RIGHT AT YOU] makes it worthwhile going over the softcap.
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In normal content it's often not that big a deal. If you run AE Gauntlets it's a much bigger one, since even a single enemy with Aim or Build Up will trivialize your defense, and there is nothing Defense Debuff resistance can do about it (not that any Defenders shields have that).
Can someone clarify this for me?
My understanding is that the DEF softcap was 45%, yet my team can get it to 60% or higher (2x Fortitude with 3x Maneuvers does it easily), so do I not get any benefit past 45%? just wondering if I should drop Maneuvers for something else?
Can someone explain this please? thanks!