MAJOR question about enchants

asmodeus451

ok, so Defense (the stat) increases Damage Resistance, right?

and Armor Penetration allows you to ignore Damage Resistance.

so doesnt that mean that if i have enough ArP to bypass the DR entirely, wouldn't that mean lowering the stat that contributes to DR (Def) would be, well, redundant?

and given that, doesnt that make the Defense debuff on Terror and Plague fire enchants, well, worthless, as long as i have the ArP necessary?

PLEASE tell me i'm wrong about this, that there is something i'm missing.

*oh, and the above pertains almost entirely to PVE. i can definitely see how they'd still be useful in PVP, as getting enough ArP to bypass the DR of some PCs is tough or even impossible*

bioshrike

The way I understand it is that armor penetration *ignores* a percent of a target's existing damage resistance - no damage resistance, no benefit from armor penetration. All players/enemies benefit from damage resistance as a result of gear and stats, so this always exists in some form.

Similarly, defense debuffs specifically target the defense stat of an enemy - if they have no defense, then no benefit. OTOH, if they have a lot of defense, that percent debuff will reduce a numerically larger amount of it. Similarly, if a target had little or no defense, and instead relied heavily on deflect instead, a defense debuff would do little to them.

That being said, I'm not sure if one or both of these stats could push a target into the negative - where you not only fully ignore the target's damage resistance, but you actually make them suffer from more damage by causing it to go into the negatives...

Of course, I could be completely wrong here - there are many many people who have crunched the numbers to a much greater extent than I have...

asmodeus451

right, but as far aas i can tell, the ONLY function of Defense is to increase Damage Resistance.

so if you can already bypass DR, why bother lowering Defense?

beckylunatic

The PvP and gameplay forum would probably get you better answers, since that's where the number-crunchers tend to hang out.

chaoscourtesan

OP-

I am probably misunderstanding..

But in case I'm not.. your ArmPen has absolutely no relevance to your defense or damage reduction.
Your armpen penetrates defenses possessed by your enemies, player or npc.
Your d/r reduces incoming damage from those players or npcs. They may have powers or armpen themselves which would reduce the effectiveness of your damage resistance.

If I understand the mechanics/terminology correctly, where you see 'damage resistance ignored' on an ability or power, it is talking about your ability to penetrate damage resistance. This comes from armpen and from ability bonuses depending on your class.

Sometimes, I think your damage resistance is going to be negated. And that's when deflection and higher HP values come into play. And sometimes your armpen is going to be irrelevant, but I think usually only against common mobs.

This is just the way I understand it, and I am sure a hundred or so forum readers will very quickly correct me if I'm wrong.