+ Def Stones or Vit/HP?

TankedBeast - Lost City

Okay. I have been mulling this over for a month or so now. I cannot make up my mind. I am 1 frost away from lvl 99, and I have been trying to decide if I should shard my HH99 gear with +Def Stones, or shard for HP... Both are very appealing. With the extra defense, i won't take as much damage, so i won't need the extra hp. Yet, extra hp is always great to have. More hp usually means better meat shield. (I am a vit/sage barb)...

So, go with the traditional barb, and shard for HP.. Or become something a bit different and go for Def?

Opinions plz Thanks! b:laugh

Baalbak - Dreamweaver

idk about you, but for instance when I tank most world bosses they hit me for around 4400 (fully buffed, no defense blessing), and ~2200 with the 50% damage reduction of BB. Or at least they did just a few levels ago. Any rate.. Take the very real (albeit expensive) possibility of attaining 48 defense levels from shards alone (jade of steady defense). add in some select ornaments, and your defense level can surpass 50 without having any blessing on. School Teacher Blessing tossed in on top of that and you can achieve def level 60+.

Therefore, theoretically speaking if defense level behaves the way people claim it does, whereas each defense level you have = 1% less damage taken, 4400 * .4 = 1760, which is single cleric heal-able. Sure a world boss can be done with just one cleric and lots of HP, but at the cost of charm ticks b:surrender.

food for thought.

threepointone

VIT stones all the way.

TankedBeast - Lost City

So, 1 vote for Def (with very good reasoning), and 1 vote for VIT (no reasoning). The score is even.. Any more?

Bloody_Howl - Sanctuary

Well don't know if you thought of this or not but what about your main AoE skill Armageddon? pretty sure you're gonna want vit stones for that reason alone, def stones ain't gonna help Arma at all.

I choose vit stones.

RoidAbuse - Sanctuary

I used all JoSD in my armor. So far, working out great in pk. Vit stone is a good choice too but I chose JoSD because it's cheaper. b:laugh

Also, heals are more effective when you have a high defense level.

DragonEdge - Lost City

Baalbak - Dreamweaver wrote: »

idk about you, but for instance when I tank most world bosses they hit me for around 4400 (fully buffed, no defense blessing), and ~2200 with the 50% damage reduction of BB. Or at least they did just a few levels ago. Any rate.. Take the very real (albeit expensive) possibility of attaining 48 defense levels from shards alone (jade of steady defense). add in some select ornaments, and your defense level can surpass 50 without having any blessing on. School Teacher Blessing tossed in on top of that and you can achieve def level 60+.

Therefore, theoretically speaking if defense level behaves the way people claim it does, whereas each defense level you have = 1% less damage taken, 4400 * .4 = 1760, which is single cleric heal-able. Sure a world boss can be done with just one cleric and lots of HP, but at the cost of charm ticks b:surrender.

food for thought.

Actually, going by http://pwi-wiki.perfectworld.com/index.php/Damage one defense level does not = -1% damage.

Damage taken= 4400/(1+[1.2*{60-1(?)}]/100)
Damage taken=4400/1.708
Damage taken=2576

But then, thats assuming the boss only has an attack level of 1.

Also, there are some formulas at the bottom of the page which might be helpful.

Edit: Also, you won't be able to equip JoD's in TT99 armor. Best you will be able to do is DoD, which means only +1 defense level per stone, so you can drop the defense level by about 24.

MrSyko - Raging Tide

TankedBeast - Lost City wrote: »

Okay. I have been mulling this over for a month or so now. I cannot make up my mind. I am 1 frost away from lvl 99, and I have been trying to decide if I should shard my HH99 gear with +Def Stones, or shard for HP... Both are very appealing. With the extra defense, i won't take as much damage, so i won't need the extra hp. Yet, extra hp is always great to have. More hp usually means better meat shield. (I am a vit/sage barb)...

So, go with the traditional barb, and shard for HP.. Or become something a bit different and go for Def?

Opinions plz Thanks! b:laugh

Depends on how much you PK. So you have two options really.

1) Def stones if you do PK.

2) Hp stones if you stay as a tank and do not PK.

Just my opinion.

TankedBeast - Lost City

Well, as of right now, i don't pvp much. But, that is mostly because i've been trying to get to lvl 100 so i can use my HH100 poleaxe. ... Once i hit 100, get all my HH99 gear, I'll prolly start pvping more. But, yes, i do understand that my main aoe skill is based off my hp.

Dsholder - Dreamweaver

GO with vit stones they give a higher return when you buff yourself. Also on a side note, I'd consider making your TT 99 into nirvana before the actually sharding unless you have tons of extra cash laying around to keep shards later. More hp means more hp return with spark, more hp means more armageddon damage, more hp means more hp generated with tree of protection, and more hp means can survive many more circles stacked on your character. Also the hp will help more for your alts rather than the defense shards.

TankedBeast - Lost City

Now, there is some really sound advice Dsholder. I think i have decided to shard for HP/vit. Defense sounds really great, but I think that would be straying too far from my original plan as a Sage/Vit barb. Thanks everyone for the advice..

(Btw Dsholder, love the siggy )

Man - Raging Tide

You can't really go wrong with either, if one is significantly cheaper than the other then get that.

As far as defense i think the +2 defense gems are better contingent upon you having a 10k+ hp pool. The only draw back is less Armageddon dmg, and your top will even be for less.

Armageddon is your main bread and butter killer. Run in and Armgeddon >> run out and get chi. It can be your only spike dmg choice to kill someone.

So while the defense gems are a better choice for defense, they are not a better choice for offense, but will let you stay alive longer on offensive, so they in fact could be better for offense.

+2 def > +10 vit

But don't do pro sockets till you get your end game gear, sit down and plan out what you want, and only refine and socket that gear. Set it in your mind and don't waste money on gear that is not that gear. I used grade 9 gold leggins until i got my tt99, I used **** stuff before i got to lvl 95 to use my event helm and boots.

HippiePanda - Sanctuary

If you like your Gear sharded with Def+2 stones you need at least Lunar armors (lvl13) and these hard to farm and very expensive (gold mats).
The def+1 stones arent worth it. Even perfect citrines are better.

RioNHale - Archosaur

put it this way, if you shard vit then you will never get any def level anywhere else.

if you shard def lvl stones then u can still get hp and defence from refining orns and armor.




if you shard and refine like this you combine the best of both, if you go full vit stones u will have maxed the hp aspects but still take roughly the same damage pvp wise.

what class is hella hard to kill with def lvl buffs? white voodoo on? psys! psys with 66+ def lvl are so tough, arma does **** all to them. -.-

id pick

http://pwcalc.ru/pwi/?char=0495b37d81c7351a

over

http://pwcalc.ru/pwi/?char=165fa0152a898da5


endgame, if you plan to nirvana.



however, potentially you could shard a combination like so:

http://pwcalc.ru/pwi/?char=1d7361e3a7eb74e6


this maybe more balanced and suitable, if you plan a hybrid sharding like this, i recommend lunar robe with vit stones due to it being g12 and unable to have JoSD b:dirty

TankedBeast - Lost City

I have been looking at prices, and def stones are A LOT cheaper.. I might try to go with some HP shards instead of Vit Stones.. Simply because i don't PK, and i do plan on eventually being a cata puller. I will keep considering everyones opinions. Thank you all for your advice!

Zozun - Heavens Tear

I took set of fully upgraded gears adn put both stones in every slot and added buffs sage since im sage.
Vit+10= gives 7,840 more hp,1,930 phy. def., and 880 mag. def.
Def lvl+2= rough average for top def +2 stones is 50 def lvls=constant BB for ur barb.I dont know what all bosses att lvl is but regardless if u didnt have the def lvl there u woudl be takign 1% more for each att lvl they have so its not that def lvl is worthless if they have att lvl they jsut match and cancle.
The safe bet go with vit+10 u know how it effects eveyrthign and it also amps up ur skills like armagadon.
I perosnaly will be going Def lvl 2 stones and def lvl 1 in my weapon since i cant use 2's in my weapon(Barb+BB=awsome).

WnbTank - Archosaur

With low refines, vit stones might be better but then again nobody who is refining with vit stones got low refines on their gear, at least shouldn`t(Unless waiting for orb sale). When refines get the fat barb into 20k+ hp fully buffed, I`d say w/o any maths that def stones are better, as long as we`re talking `bout the 2 def lvls ones.

The barbs who should be even really considering these options are high ones, kinda rich, with base gear of nirvana/R9. That gear refined to +10, would give pretty much give any kitty ~30k hp. Now would vit stones turn that to 40k(gives less), I`d still take the def lvls. The difference PvP wise turns tables towards def stones even more as def lvls cant be purged, their flat, wont go anywhere like hp. Real nukes got attack lvls so I`d use an estimation of taking one third less damage than with vit stones. So as long as vit stones wont add over one third more hp, go with def lvls.

So what about arma? When you got 25k hp humanoid, ToP, not too many things be alive when you check the scene for survivors. It`s kinda irrelevant if you hit robes for 20k or 25k, non crit. You`ll be dropping most HA with def lvl build if you happen to crit or zerk.

Ps. I may have some flaw on my logic, vit stones turnout doesnt seem as bad as I thought.

Pps. Numbers are estimates, shouldn`t be too far from the truth though. I was actually doing math behind which is better not long ago, exact numbers I have sadly forgotten.

TankedBeast - Lost City

I'm starting to think a hybrid would be best. There are just too many pros for each without enough cons to out weigh the other. :S

TwiztidPain - Harshlands

well thinks of it this way your a barb you lack magic deff. unless you have a cube belt and warsong necklace and coa rings all =12 -_-

if you not pure pure pure vit its nothing for a mage to one shot you so there for vit stones that alone will help your pdeff.