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Defense on higher difficulties. Implications for a seraphim build.


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Specifically the defense rating and the 2 skills that increase it, Agility and Parrying. I am starting to think that they are mostly useless on higher difficulties. Attack can be increased in many more ways (mainly CAs) but defense is quite hard to get to relevant levels unless the character has a CA that boosts it. I have a level 170 Gladiator in Niobium with both Agility and Parrying (the better shield bonus), but his defense rating is still quite disappointing in Niobium anyway. Sitting at 8937 without HC on, enemies have about a 55-57% chance to hit. With HC, the defense goes up to 66152 and the chance to get hit goes down to about 17% chance with Heroic Courage on, a much more reasonable level where enemies regularly miss with normal attacks (although the few that use melee CAs still hit uncomfortably often, like a Hell Golem Warrior with it's 3 swing Attack which usually hits me at least twice anyway).

Now the main reason I'm asking for others' opinion is: I have started a hybrid Seraphim and was thinking whether taking Parrying is worth it or not. As she lacks any CA that boosts defense, I'm getting the feeling that it won't be worth it in the end anyway. Yes, it will definitely help in Silver, Gold and might be somewhat relevant in Plat still, but if it brings the enemy hit chance in Niobium from 70% to 62%, is it really worth it? I was thinking about taking Mediation instead of it. Yes, I know that Meditation stacks unfavorably with Regeneration Spells on Items, but I feel like it's gonna give a greater benefit in the end than Parrying. I'm gonna be getting hit most of the time anyway and Parrying is gonna cut down a couple of % at best on its own, especially without the shield bonus.

 

My plan for the seraphim was:

1. Weapon Lore (starts with it)

2. Magic Lore (starts with it)

3. Constitution

4. Heavenly Magic

5. Concentration

6. Armor Lore

these 6 are pretty much set in stone. Then I was planning:

7. Parrying, but the more I think about it, the more I am leaning towards Meditation. Even despite the unfavorable stacking with Regeneration Spells, it will still end up being worth like 2 or 3 items with Regen Spells on them. Which honestly seems better than a couple % lower enemy hit chance.

8. Probably a weapon type lore. Most likely to be Long-handled Weapons.

 

Not interested in Riding and want to make a character without Trading. My Glad already has it and I'm planning a Dwarf Blacksmither/Trader. But that is besides the point. The main question is:

 

Is a defense rating related skill (Agility/Parrying) worth it if I plan to bring a character all the way to Niobium? Would you take it over Meditation?

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5 hours ago, RuDDicK said:

Agility and Parrying are useless

Well, on my Gladiator, Agility and Parrying together give a total of like 800% bonus to defense with mostly just item skill bonuses (although I sadly did spend about 30 hard skill points on them near the beginning), which is worth 40 additional Heroic Courage levels of defense. So a pretty decent chunk and if it helps bring an enemy hit chance from 18% to 16%, it is definitely worth it. But a Gladiator can take those because he is really not demanding when it comes to skill choices. So it is just a little extra on top as there are no other skills to really pick.

 

But yeah, after having experienced the late game with the Gladiator and seeing that a defense of at least 50-60K is needed to be relevant, there is no way that Agility or Parrying alone will help there. I will go for Meditation instead of Parrying on my Seraphim. She is quite hungry for skill slots as is (already had to leave out Trading).

Very glad I made a Glad (pun intended :D ) as my first character so I could gather all the intel for future characters.

Edited by idbeholdME
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