Defense vs. Protection

• Shan wrote on 2010-06-15 17:34
  So I finally got some good armor (Claus) and I'm going to upgrade it soon. I've been looking at the upgrade sequences, and there are basically three areas of focus: Defense, Protection, and Dura. I'm thinking I want to focus on one of the first two.
  
  From what I understand, your Defense is a number that is taken out of an enemy's attack? Where if you had 0 defense, their attack would do 10. If you had 6 defense, their attack would do 4. Is that right?
  
  And Protection is a % taken out? Where if you had 0 Protection, their attack would do 10, but if you had 10 Protection their attack would do 9? (If my math is right <_<)
  
  So which is more important to you? I'm more of an offensive melee "hope I can kill them before they even hit me back" kind of player, so I'm by no means a tanker or anything like that. What would you recommend focusing on?
  
  This goes for my shields as well.
• Fumy wrote on 2010-06-15 17:39
  Depends on the enemies you fight :o if they deal high damage(like 100+ maybe 200-300) Protection is better If they deal low damage like 50 ish defense is better. Well I walk around with 0 def and 0 prot and I don't have any problems with that^^
  
  Example: Something deals 50 dmg and you have 50 def it hits a 1 if you have 50% prot it deals 25 dmg
  If something deals 200 dmg and you have 50 def it hits 150 and if you have 50% prot it deals 100 dmg
  
  so ya depends on the enemies you fight :P
• EndlessDreams wrote on 2010-06-15 17:42
  Don't think of protection as reduce % damage, but rather, reduce chances of critical and injury rates. Wiki don't say much about critical rate of monsters though, but any critical rate reduce is a good thing right?
  
  If you are an "offensive melee" (according to your definition), why are you using shields? Dual wield or Smashing with 2hander type will gives you much more damage to kill the monster quickly. (Unless you are an elf)
• Shan wrote on 2010-06-15 18:01
  I mostly run SMs and do easy dungeons (Math, Rundal, Rabbie, Ciar, etc.) and the monsters there aren't too hard.
  
  I'm a human and I dual wield glads (used to be cutlasses, but got too expensive), and my aux. equip is a Battle Sword and Kite Shield. Although occasionally I'll go with a D. Blade instead.
  
  Thanks for the info, though. :)
• paladin wrote on 2010-06-15 20:14
  overall its based on your enemies
  If you plan to take on high dmg enemies ie ciar adv
  Prot will come in more use due to crit blocking and the % drop
  If you plan to nto go high level for a while go crit
• Haydrian wrote on 2010-06-16 04:27
  Defense is easily obtainable, protection isn't. I have a balanced defense/dura upgraded dustin i plan to retire for a new 6/4 body to upgrade for protection. When i was upgrading the first Dustin i didn't think ahead at all for stats just for longevity of the equipment which in the end was redundant as it's never lost a bout and is almost 100(100%) in prof.
  
  After you get high defense your basically set in that area. There are many good enchants that help your defense as well. Protection is a great help as it reduces the chance of an enemy hitting you with critical and will reduce the injury rates obtained. Together is a good defense and your a true tank.
  
  The only reason anyone cares about the barrier spikes master title is for the protection bonus.
  
  
  I'd go for either the max defense route as it has alright protection added or go full on protection.
  
  Considering your going to be upgrading claus it may be wise to do protection as claus is only 6/2.
• Ghost wrote on 2010-06-16 18:01
  I don't usually use armour and dont care for defence much but I do like defence over protection because you're not gonna get a critical hit on you all the time right?.. But then again, when that does happen, I usually get screwed...
• Syrphid wrote on 2010-06-16 19:17
  Protection is only useful in bulk. Since you aren't devoting yourself to tanking, protection isn't very useful. Defense is effective in moderate amounts and is very easy to get, allows you to take nips from black ship rats and makes your windheal a lot better. Protection is worthless against small critters. I would get as much defense as is convenient and throw protection out the window.
  
  Against bigger enemies you're dead if you're hit anyway, unless you play low HP (prot useless) or specialize in tanking via mana master, so protection doesn't seem to have a place for you.