As far as I consider it, it is better to have never been hit than it is to regen quickly. Always build for defenses.
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If you have 1200 health, you recover 5 health per second. 3% more regen means you'd get another 0.15 health per second.
Now let's say you're getting hit 95% of the time (the worst possible case for +defense). For +3% regen to be worth more than 3% defense, you'd need to be fighting something that did less than 5 dps (before taking your defense into account).
Which means that the only way that 3% regen would be better than 3% defense is if you happened to be fighting an enemy so weak that it could never kill you in the first place (since it can't overcome your base regeneration with its damage).
Note: This isn't strictly true if the +3% defense goes over the cap and grants you no benefit.
Thank you! I knew someone would understand the difference well enough to explain it where I could understand. I thought I remembered defense being numerically better than regen, but I couldn't remember the details.
--Virtue--
My 50s:
Tigra Swipe (BS/SR/Dark Scrapper)
Galena Storm (Emp/Ele/Ele Defender)
Master Tolarin (Psi/Fire/Force Blaster)
When working on a build for a blaster, have y'all found a point at which taking the set bonus hit on defense in favor of more regen makes sense?
ie: which is better? 3% defense or 3% regen?
--Virtue--
My 50s:
Tigra Swipe (BS/SR/Dark Scrapper)
Galena Storm (Emp/Ele/Ele Defender)
Master Tolarin (Psi/Fire/Force Blaster)