Nerve Alpha question

Hi all,

I have a Fort that is currently sitting at softcapped ranged defense, just shy of that in melee defense, and about 25% in AoE defense (without Mind Link active). As I get more money to throw at recipes that will hopefully get better.

I have been thinking of going the Nerve Alpha route as it will help with defense buff enhancement, but it occurs to me that a significant portion of my defense is being supplied with IO set bonuses. Does anybody know how much of a difference the alpha will make for my defense levels? Would I be better served going a different route? I don't really need the accuracy bonus.

Right now it's very hard to die from anything except when I am fighting DE, but I haven't taken her on any of the new TFs yet and I'm worried that, if fighting level 54 enemies, she will get squashed.

If you are getting some def from manuvers and weave or double manuvers, then the bonus gained from the rare/very rare is about 2-3%. Not really a game changer unless you are on the edge of softcap.

DE lt's drop the quartz that gives 100 to-hit. Basically they have a 95% chance to hit you after that, even if you have 45 def. There's no real counter to it besides killing the crystal, and running at a lower setting than normal (since gaining an extra 100 defense isn't terribly likely).

As for +4 enemies, enemies do not gain any to hit for being +4, so adding more defense to be safer from +4's will do absolutely nothing unless the enemy has naturally higher to hit (or to hit buffs). Enemies do not gain to hit just for their level until you get to +6. Note that +4 enemies do have a higher chance to hit you than even levels, but it's not something defense can overcome.

Thanks Fritz and Ocasta. I guess I won't worry about it too much then, and instead concentrate on defense from set bonuses. Maybe I'll stick with Cardiac. I had a Tier 1 cardiac slotted before I started going down Nerve, and it meant I never EVER ran out of endurance. That's pretty nice.

Yeah, I have found I get great use of the cardiac on my toons. I tend to build for high recharge and, even having some end redux from sets in the powers, I was still chewing blues in long fights (EB/AV/GM/fast paced team). With the cardiac that's a thing of the past.