I'm actually reviewing the optimization of my GF. Atm i got 37AC, 21STR/26CON/15DEX, 5217 Defense (38%), 2425 Deflection (17,4%) for a total of 51,5% DR and 24,9% Deflection for a fair amount of 30551 HP. My "Protection" value is 8134, don't know how it works and how to understand it ...
Check my armory at Magnus@mqgnus if you want to know more. ^^
Except for my T2 set and both weapons, i have to get some more optimized shirt/pants, rings, belt and neck but i don't know wich one to get since i don't know exactly how to aim my next stats' investments.
In any case, i just want to applause and thanks all of you for this, it's amazing i feel like a little boy at Christmas' day.
Hope this thread is not dead and i will get a proper answer, good bye.
PS : Don't blame my english please, i stopped school a couple of years ago ...
Top tip for passing the time : Read a book, write a book or book a holiday for your book !
I don't get why people so cheaply forget how Defense is easily reduced by Armor Pen, Plague Fire, and Defense reduction sets. You can stack your Defense skyhigh in vacuum, but you'll get it sliced no time in PvP
This may not be relevant for the fighter classes, but it very well may be for the others. I don't know how much armor penetration mobs and bosses have (someone should investigate this!), so I can't speak on the PvE side of things, but in PvP many DPSers are stacking pretty crazy armor penetration. Deflection, on the other hand, can't be penetrated.
You should obviously sink points into whatever stat further enhances your expected damage resistance. Defense and deflect augment each other in such a way that the effects of AC and "flat" feat gains may be disregarded for the purpose of deciding which stat you should prioritize.
Now consider a guardian fighter with a defense of 3000, a free defense slot and rank 8 azure and silvery enchants.
Adding 220 more points of defense to his score (azure) would improve his expected damage reduction by 0.8%. Adding 220 points in deflect (silvery) should at least match that increase in order to consider it optimal.
The expected damage reduction from Deflection is the deflect chance multiplied by the deflect severity -- 0.5 in case of guardian fighters. Thus, the silvery enchant should be slotted if the following inequality is true:
In the current example, this is the case if the fighter's deflect score is lower than 1290.
However, keep in mind the fact that your Defense-based DR might be completely ignored! Given how easy it is to stack Armor Penetration, this isn't even unlikely for characters that aren't stacking a lot of defense. An armor penetration score of 2500, which is what most PvE boss-DPSers aim for, ignores 23.8% of damage resistance. You only need ~1500 defense to match this (Guardian Fighters will have a hard time finding end-game gear which doesn't provide this out of the box!), but if you're playing a squishier class which has to put in some effort to reach that (other DR-increasing effects from feats etc. notwithstanding), you may find it more worthwhile to simply ignore defense altogether and purely stack deflect. This decision can be made easier by high deflect severities, like the rogue's.
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May i bump this ?
I'm actually reviewing the optimization of my GF. Atm i got 37AC, 21STR/26CON/15DEX, 5217 Defense (38%), 2425 Deflection (17,4%) for a total of 51,5% DR and 24,9% Deflection for a fair amount of 30551 HP. My "Protection" value is 8134, don't know how it works and how to understand it ...
Check my armory at Magnus@mqgnus if you want to know more. ^^
Well, according to this : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aj1iYKPu1WmAdGN2NW1ydzFYdkdwUzE5SmRiNGZLVkE#gid=0 , i just quite perfectly fall after the last point where 500 Defense point still worth more than 1% DR. Shall i reduce or stay there or go higher, assuming my T2 Grand Regent set (more def, more power) ?
Except for my T2 set and both weapons, i have to get some more optimized shirt/pants, rings, belt and neck but i don't know wich one to get since i don't know exactly how to aim my next stats' investments.
In any case, i just want to applause and thanks all of you for this, it's amazing i feel like a little boy at Christmas' day.
Hope this thread is not dead and i will get a proper answer, good bye.
PS : Don't blame my english please, i stopped school a couple of years ago ...
This may not be relevant for the fighter classes, but it very well may be for the others. I don't know how much armor penetration mobs and bosses have (someone should investigate this!), so I can't speak on the PvE side of things, but in PvP many DPSers are stacking pretty crazy armor penetration. Deflection, on the other hand, can't be penetrated.
You should obviously sink points into whatever stat further enhances your expected damage resistance. Defense and deflect augment each other in such a way that the effects of AC and "flat" feat gains may be disregarded for the purpose of deciding which stat you should prioritize.
We have the following equations:
DR(defense) = 50*defense/(1644 + defense)
DeflectChance(deflect) = 31*deflect^1.4/(41967 + deflect^1.4)
Now consider a guardian fighter with a defense of 3000, a free defense slot and rank 8 azure and silvery enchants.
Adding 220 more points of defense to his score (azure) would improve his expected damage reduction by 0.8%. Adding 220 points in deflect (silvery) should at least match that increase in order to consider it optimal.
The expected damage reduction from Deflection is the deflect chance multiplied by the deflect severity -- 0.5 in case of guardian fighters. Thus, the silvery enchant should be slotted if the following inequality is true:
0.5 * (DeflectChance(deflect + 220) - DeflectChance(deflect)) > 0.8
In the current example, this is the case if the fighter's deflect score is lower than 1290.
However, keep in mind the fact that your Defense-based DR might be completely ignored! Given how easy it is to stack Armor Penetration, this isn't even unlikely for characters that aren't stacking a lot of defense. An armor penetration score of 2500, which is what most PvE boss-DPSers aim for, ignores 23.8% of damage resistance. You only need ~1500 defense to match this (Guardian Fighters will have a hard time finding end-game gear which doesn't provide this out of the box!), but if you're playing a squishier class which has to put in some effort to reach that (other DR-increasing effects from feats etc. notwithstanding), you may find it more worthwhile to simply ignore defense altogether and purely stack deflect. This decision can be made easier by high deflect severities, like the rogue's.