Preventing Defense Debuffs

I don't know how, I'm asking how.

With all the ITFness this week, I've run it either four or five times, but only two with my scrapper. On my hoverblaster, no worries unless I draw some aggro, but my scrapper is down there in the fray.

And seeing my DA-induced 80ish percent melee/lethal shoot down to -40% instantly. I try to hit and hit and hit the medium def insp asap, but it's not good enough sometimes.

I've got a kat/wp that I'm most concerned about, she's a 50 and I understand that the Alpha stuff can get her some protection. She's 39% def on ENFC with close to 70% S/L resistance (I think), but that doesn't help the defense debuffs.

So..how?

resistance doesn't aid in Defense Debuffs, and defense doesn't help in it either. Resistance resists resistance debuffs, but they had to make DDR (defense debuff resistance) to do the same for defense debuffs. As of right now, you can't get any more DDR outside of what your set provides, which for most sets, is 0 or ~50% (Shield and SR can get to 95%, but the others cannot). DA, for example, gets 0 DDR, while WP gets roughly 18%.

I do believe one of the i20 powers does have a DDR buff, although I'm not well-versed in the upcoming stuff and have only scrolled through some of the pictures.
That will be the only way to get more DDR for yourself.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iggy_Kamakaze I hate to be the bringer of bad news... but Willpower sucks!!! you're better off rolling a regen

short version: You don't

The long version is: Defense Debuff Resistance

All Melee Armor sets that are Defense based receive Defense Debuff Resistance D.D.R. works under the same mechanisms as all other debuff resistances: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Resistance_%28Mechanics%29

If I read your post correctly you don't mind using insps, so my advice would be to use insps proactively instead of reactively. Keep your defense at 45% before you even engage a spawn, or even 50-55% as to have a buffer against debuffs, and you shouldn't have much of a problem. I know you're saying you're at 80% with DA, but I doubt you're actually at that value when cascading defense failure happens. Most likely you jump in, and debuffs start piling in while you're still building defense with DA.

What I sometimes have to do on my WP characters is bounce out of the spawn for 3 to 7 seconds. I pretty much do it by sound anymore. If I hear a lot of swords connect, I know without looking (although I still do usually look) that my defense is debuffed dangerously. I'll leap right out of the center of the spawn and kite it for a few seconds. This is tough with WP, because you want to be in the middle getting the RttC regen buff, but the damage from Romans can and will come in too fast if you stay in melee once debuffed. I will often pop a purple as I am kiting (very needed on my scrapper, not as much on the tanker), so that once the debuffs wear off, I can re-engage with more confidence.

With Katana, you may not need the purple inspire, you may be able to use DA while kiting.

I monitor my positional defense and my base defense. The instant base defense goes red, I know I've been debuffed and react immediately. But honestly, I had no problem with cascading defense failure on my Katana/Dark on the ITF I ran last week. Well, I got hit with about 50% debuff in an instant at one point when I was completely separated from the team, but I punched a large purple immediately and was back in the game.

Willpower does have a little defense debuff resistance in Heightened Senses, but it looks like it's unenhanceable.

Iggy Kamakaze did a master of ITF on his Katana/Willpower before inherent fitness or incarnate abilities with no temps, no inspirations and no deaths. I want to say that means it's possible, but everyone knows that Iggy is hax, because he routinely does things that are obviously impossible. We keep petitioning the devs to nerf him, but so far, judging by his continued awesome, they haven't addressed this important balance issue.

My DB/WP w/S/L def at just over 45% has comparatively little problems w/full spawns of Romans, at least at +0. Over a long time, they'll eventually overwhelm my regen (and yeah, my def will go into the red pretty fast), and I'll pop SoW, and if that runs out and I'm out of insps, I may run into trouble, but by then, most things will be dead, and I'll have a fresh trey of insps. I will say, if I'm on a buff-heavy team, and my def is already in the 80s to begin the fight, I rarely see it dip into the red unless I spend a considerable time alone against a full group of Romans.

Werner, that's a great idea monitoring your base def as well as your totals. Never would've thought of that.

Well, my Fire/Fire/Pyre Tanker usually has to kill her way out of crowds of Romans while they chew up her defense (from set IOs), using the old, much-maligned "offense makes up for lower defenses" method. I'd think a Scrapper would be even better at "out-killing" the Romans.

Eh, the OP is a WP Scrapper with a hit point boost and 80% defense (thanks to Divine Avalanche). I thought that was hardier than a Fire Scrapper. Still not hardy enough?

And don't Scrappers do more damage than Tankers? Where are all the "Tankers don't do any damage" people in this thread? :P

Werner's post's numbers make a lot of sense when I compare it to my in game needs on my Fire/Ice/Earth tanker and my Fire/WP/Wpn Scrapper.

The tanker easily has much more time to react, although in my case the scrapper does have a good deal more offensive output, but when it goes bad, choosing FSC instead of flee and drop a purple or two can be a death sentence very, very fast. Choosing wrong on the tanker usually allows me more opportunity to correct the error.

Until you get the Destiny Incarnate power unlocked, Defense Debuffs are just something WP is going to have to get used to being vulnerable to.

I wonder... Werner, will you be getting the Debuff Resist Destiny power for your Katana/Dark Armor character? I seem to remember you saying that Defense Debuff was a real killer for that character. With that out of the way, you'd be unstoppable!

Basically for Ageless the final two are:

One of them is a full Endurance fill, +Recharge, and +Recovery.

The other, a full Endurance fill, +Recharge, and +Debuff Resist to: Movement, Recharge, Accuracy, ToHit, Endurance, Recovery, Resistance, Defense, Perception, and Regeneration.