Pure defense sets with Incarnate content?

I have a Bane with gobs of defense who I use in incarnate content often. To be honest, the character is perfectly fine and doesn't run into problems.

She has aid self, but to be honest I think it is pointless as I don't need it 99% of the time and the 1% of the time I do need it I just use a green inspiration as that is quicker.

If Mist is with a particularly sucky BAF (doesn't happen much any more) which has somehow wiped and has a million reinforcements summoned and then tries to solo the 2 AVs plus the million reinforcements, she will die. But in pretty much every other situation she is impervious to damage and perfectly ok.

To the original poster: I wouldn't worry about it. Just roll the character you want.

Make sure to pack a lot of green and purple insps. in your lunchbox, to keep yourself at the iCap and heal up all that iDamage that you'll be autohit with.

Destiny can help you cover your bases when you get it, if you don't need to use it on Ageless to keep your blue bar afloat.

I24 Proc Chance = (Enhanced Recharge + Activation Time) * (Current PPM * 1.25) / 60*(1 + .75*(.15*Radius - 0.011*Radius*(360-Arc)/30))
Single Target Radius = 0. AoE Non-Cone Arc = 360.

I took Rebirth on my MA/SR scrapper and he's fine. He also has ~53% DEF to all three positions, so he's got that going for him. I've been saving up for a Gladiator 3% to put him up to ~56% but it has thus far eluded me.

But soon, VERY soon, he will be invincible!

Of course you could all just get real, pick DM to match with SR, get SL into your DPS chain, and feel secure knowing that while you are pummeling your enemies into oblivion you are constantly healing yourself and throwing out -to hit on everything you touch. Throw in a T4 void judgement for the 30s of 50% DR and T4 Rebirth for the regen goodness and you can laugh maniacally at the futility of your opponent's attacks because for a short while you are a SR/Inv/Regen scrapper with a self healing DPS chain.

ooo, the incredible "I know you are but what am I" defense. Well played.

Pure defense can work quite well when they softcap, however...

resistance based sets work even better when they can softcap defense.

With the prevalence of +Defense bonuses via IOs, the more powerful values luck inspirations versus sturdys, and the much more frequent +Defense buffs from teammates, resistence sets just generally fare better in this game environment.

That said, defense sets can steamroll through some of the toughest content, it's just in environments with auto-hit damage (e.g. incarnate trials), resistance fares better. And on the very top end, defense sets can't compete with a resistance set that is also soft capped with IOs. Sure, defense debuff resistance helps defense sets maintain their mitigation, but resistance sets can often keep themselves softcapped via careful management of their inspirations.

When a small luck provides 12.5% defense whereas a sturdy provides only 10% damage resistance, it only takes 4 lucks to cap ones defense, where it takes 7-10 sturdys to cap ones resistance. In addition, 12.5% defense will make things miss 1/4 of the time, where a sturdy only reduces damage by 1/10. Lucks provide more mitigation per inspiration value, and thus give more bang for your buck until you have maximized their value by hitting the soft cap.

Nothing wrong with defense sets, they work very well, it's just in +4/8 content, resistance sets, I've found, generally can perform better (not that defense sets can't run this content too, I've just found my resistance based characters to have an easier time doing so).

umm... So there are no level and rank accuracy modifiers anymore?

Example 1: a same level boss in paragon has a 50% chance To Hit, but a 1.30 accuracy modifier for being a boss.. which should give said boss a 65% final chance to hit (50 x 1.30acc).

Example 2: a +1 level minion, has a 50% chance To Hit, no rank accuracy modifier, but a 1.10 level accuracy modifier, and so should have an accuracy modified To Hit of 55% (50 x 1.10)

Example 3: a +2 level Lt. has a 50% chance To Hit, a 1.15 rank accuracy modifier, and a 1.2 level accuracy modifier, and so should have an accuracy modified To Hit of 67.5% (50 x 1.35) (combined 1.2 & 1.15)

for reference:
minions 1.0 acc
Lt's 1.15 acc
bosses 1.30 acc
AV/Hero 1.5 acc

+1level 1.1 acc
+2level 1.2 acc
+3level 1.3 acc
etc.

Is that no longer the case? Did they take out the level & rank accuracy modifiers which affect the final To Hit chance?

I haven't looked at the mechanics of acc & tohit for mobs in several years, but I used to examine it pretty closely. Did they get rid of the acc modifiers? or change how the acc modifiers apply? (as in, after defense is applied, etc?)

I didn't read most of suggestions in here but I will be using elude in DA. From my old experiences elude is a great single content power since its duration if long and you can time crash between mobs. Its also more like a panic button if I don't get under half of my health I don't use elude and even than I only use it if i am surrounded by a big mob.

It will need a little tweaking in my build to get elude in but nothing major and with new ATO coming in, I can experiment with various possibilities. Also I have enough enhancement modifier to get a little more edge.

So far my only toon that has completed the full incarnate path (T4s in all five slots) is a fire/sr scrapper. He was softcapped, had perma-hasten and was completely purpled out. He had his T4 alpha as well, so he was level shifted. But When the BAF and Lambda sector came out he still died a decent amount.

However, things improved a lot. Partly it was just about learning the new content. But I also made a couple changes to my build. I found out that Elude had a use again. And once I picked up the lore pet and the Rebirth destiny, he was pretty much invincible again. I still die occasionally, but that's mostly just bad luck, and it doesn't happen any more on incarnate content now than it did on non-incarnate content before.

So yes, pure defense sets will do just fine with the new incarnate content. They may have a bit of a rough road at first, but in the end they'll be just as awesome as they were before.