Defense vs Protection

• Transcendence wrote on 2011-01-23 02:45
  So I've determined a suitable Tanker build for my giant:
  
  Build for a Tanker focused on defense: 81 base defense + 16 base protection.
  
  Build for a Tanker focused on protection: 52 base defense + 33 base protection.
  
  Note:
  
  This is endgame-wise, in which I've considered sacrificing Burgundy Bear enchants for Oblivion/Vast/etc. Base defense/protection includes bonuses from enchants/equipment/title. I am a GIANT. So in Wind Guard status, with full protection, I can reach 83% protection.
  
  
  So my question is: Should I go full defense or full protection (the second of which is actually quite balanced)?
• EndlessDreams wrote on 2011-01-23 02:58
  Protection does reduce a lot of chances for critical and injury. Monsters in later stages of the game tend to have strong critical hits.
• Blassreiter wrote on 2011-01-23 03:05
  Protection since Wind Guard is Protection based. Besides Protection has more potential for Tankers once you get a significant amount. 70 Defense cant do squat to 200 damage but 70 Protection takes off almost all the damage.
• Cryosite wrote on 2011-01-23 03:24

  Quote from Transcendence;301159:

  So I've determined a suitable Tanker build for my giant:
  
  Build for a Tanker focused on defense: 81 base defense + 16 base protection.
  
  Build for a Tanker focused on protection: 52 base defense + 33 base protection.
  
  Note:
  
  This is endgame-wise, in which I've considered sacrificing Burgundy Bear enchants for Oblivion/Vast/etc. Base defense/protection includes bonuses from enchants/equipment/title. I am a GIANT. So in Wind Guard status, with full protection, I can reach 83% protection.
  
  
  So my question is: Should I go full defense or full protection (the second of which is actually quite balanced)?

  
  
  The difference between the two sets is one is +29 defense, the other is +17% protection. Comparing just the differences against each others, the defense will stop 29 damage from attacks. The protection is a bit harder to compare, but basically if you're getting hit for around 250 damage or more it will stop more damage than the defense would. 250-81=169, 169*0.84=141.96 damage to hp bar. 250-52=198, 198*0.67-132.66 to your hp bar. Additionally, mobs would need 34% more crit to land a crit on you than they would with the defense set... 96% total. that's pretty few mobs in the game. 62% crit needed for the defense set.
  
  Since your builds are designed with end-game in mind, we can assume mana shield will also be used to further reduce damage, and you'll have a decently sized MP pool and HP pool to take hits with. Overall, I think stopping crits will be the more important factor than a few points of damage here or there, which lends weight to the protection side of things. Protection will also help more and more noticeably if you're facing bigger hits than 250 damage... the harder hitting foes you're facing and trying to be able to tank, the more valuable prot will be over defense.
  
  I'd vote protection. If you're fighting stuff that hits weakly enough that defense will be stopping more damage than protection, then your high hp/mp pools should still let you last through a lot of hits with 52 defense.