Personally, I went with 32.5, but I went with typed defenses (32.5 to s/l/e/n, less to fire/cold).
If we are to die, let us die like men. -- Patrick Cleburne
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The rule is that they must be loved. --Jayne Fynes-Clinton, Death of an Abandoned Dog
Also consider going pure S/L to 45%. A lot of attacks have an S or L component to them, so softcapping S and L will avoid most of them. Mind, anything pure F/C/E/N/P will still hit, but most of it won't.
I went the route of s/l for the most part...my defensive fire/fire build is 45.10 for s/l defense however I also have 45 % melee defense which is what you need the most in postional defense anyways since your a meleer.
As far as farming goes though I have a farm build with only 8 % defense and the rest built in 85 % resistance and farm the same +2's /8 player but with bosses.no matter what im farming the recovery and recharge I have can overtake any damage...I suggest if your gonna farm you take the route I have in a purpled out toon
So, over DoubleXP weekend, I managed to PL myself up a Fire/Fire tanker to lvl 50. Whee! ~18 hours of play over the coruse of 2 days, the last six of which was in a Fire ambush farm. The rest of the time was actually spent playing the game normally, until I realized how freakin' easy it was to solo once I got the AoE's slotted.)
ANYWAY - now I'm kitting her out with IO's, and I'm wondering what the best mix is. One build has all positional defenses equal, at just over 32%; the other has melee up to 37%, with ranged down to 30%. (Basically the difference between slotting Touch of Death or Mako's bite.) Includig a gladiator's proc in there adds another 3%, of course.
So, my quesiton is: which one is better? I know that the closer you get to the defense cap, the better it gets in a sort-of doubling fashion. (ie, the last 5% is worth as much as the first 40%). However, 32% seems to be the magic number for dealing with Luck insps - pop one,and you're capped. Anything between 32% (for normal play) and 45% (with a luck) is essentially wasted - but only if we assume I have a luck to pop when things get dicey.
So it seems that the two builds are probably going to represent a 7% difference between Melee and Ranged; is that a big enough difference to justify concern? My experience in farming tells me that a lot of damage come in ranged form, but that's really just a freakin' farm mission. Should I be optimizing more on melee, or does the balanced approach work more in realistic teaming scenarios, if we assume the occasional Luck pop for emergencies?
In testing out the SO build I leveled up with in the farm, I can solo +2/x8 in regular missions, although dealing with bosses is a little dicey; basically, the insps drop faster than the damage and endurance does, but it's a bit of a roller coaster. Without bosses, it's a lot easier. I'd be hesitant to team with anyone, though - simply because I rely on insp drops to fill in, well, everything.