Armor value vs. defense value

[Tallera257 0]

Okay, I'm a bit confused. I'm working on a Dryad character who uses Ancient Bark as her main buff. I just unlocked my first upgrade for it, but the Bronze level upgrades for AB are confusing me!

 

According to the wiki, the Bronze mods for Ancient Bark are as follows:

 

* Rugged - Increases all armor values. (20% + 5% per CA level increase)

* Slippery - Increases defense values. (20% + 5% per CA level increase)

 

To me, this begs the question.....what's the difference:) So I checked the wiki some more. There is no explicit definition for the term "armor value" (probably because it seems self-explanatory), but "defense value" is defined in the glossary as "the additive value of a character's armor, shield and defense modifiers." That makes sense to me.

 

So given that armor value is only ONE PART of the total defense value, why would anyone ever choose the Rugged upgrade? I understand that not all characters use shields (including my Dryad), but why not give the percent bonus to your total defense value (armor + random defensive modifiers) rather than just armor?

 

My conclusion is that either this "choice" between Bronze mods is a no-brainer, or I'm fundamentally misunderstanding something about how armor value relates to defense value. Can anyone shed some light on this for me? Thanks in advance!!

[thinkingofaname 0]

armor reduce the damage you take, defense lower your chance to be hit in the first place.

[gogoblender 3,071]

I've always taken Armor over def for that bark skill choice. There is no way to completely eliminate hits against you...but adding some extra resistance against all successful hits is possible and very useful with the choice of rugged.

 

 

gogo