How far do you go with defense?

[Fluffballer]

I had a zealot sitting around from before I even started on Bnet, and decided to start stuffing him full of gear like vamp gaze and HoZ and see what happens. I noticed, even in the level 50s his defense was nearing and then surpassing that magic "10,000" defense. I always hear that number as the number to do or not at all. But I realized I don't know crap about defense as I've never really gone that route before. Is there a number to stop at? Is it worth it to max HS and defiance, or even get a defiance merc? Are there diminishing returns?

[pancakeman]

It depends on your personal preference, really. I've never been one for blocking, so I usually put all my spare points into HS and get a Defiance merc, after all a zealot has fanaticism anyway.

I'm not going to bring up my 35k defense barb...:rolleyes:

[Asmodeous]

The thing is with Zealots is that once you have maxxed out holy shield, fanatism, zeal and sacrifice along with the pre reqs, you end up with extra skill points to spend, which is about level 80 or so.

Some people build Lightning resistance for the increased cap, or smite for some PvP or you can build the holy shield synergy.
My level 94 zealot has 14 odd points in the holy shield synergy and along with his set up gives him 27,500 approx defence. With that kind of defence, act 5 hell difficulty monsters chance to hit him are in the low teens which stacks with shield block. So if you have a one in ten chance to avoid hits from defence and one in four from shield block, then overall your chance to be hit is one in forty.
But it's like anything. 14 points in lightning resistance would increase his max light resistance to 82% which is real handy when facing glooms and LE's.

Defence does have a diminishing return but because of the way it stacks with blocking, every percent chance to avoid being hit translates to a 4% overall chance to avoid being hit. So the diminishing return isn't that bad.
But then you have to wonder about the value of defence at all given the penalties when running and the multitude of attacks that ignore it.

But once you hit level 80 approx with a zealot, you might as well spend those skill points on something.

[LoneBarb]

I think if you do not duel 10K defence ais good. But if you want HIGH defence, aim for 15K... but use normal Zealot equipment... dont put things like this:

Steel Carapace
Shadow Plate
'Pul'
Defense: 2929
Durability: 70 of 70
Required Strength: 220
Required Level: 66
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 99
Fingerprint: 0xf2cb6de6
+250% Enhanced Defense
Regenerate Mana 15%
Damage Reduced by 14
Cold Resist +60%
20% Faster Hit Recovery
8% Chance to cast Level 6 Iron Maiden when struck
Repairs 1 durability in 20 seconds
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired), Socketed (1: 1 used)

[Fluffballer]

I'm not going to bring up my 35k defense barb...:rolleyes:

No do. How does he play? How do things like frenzytaurs, gloams, dolls, or average melee monsters affect you?

Thinking about this, it seems like your normal monster wouldn't be an issue compared to the mentioned monsters, among others. Since defense is sort of redundant with block AND PDR AND PD%, I wonder if resist lightning isn't the better choice?

[pancakeman]

Against most monsters, he fairs pretty well if his mercenary is by his side. This is b.net, though, and I havn't played him in months, so to be honest I am not quite sure how he does in specific cases. However, gloams can take him down quite easily.
I took screenshots, not sure where they went though.

[Hrus]

Steel Carapace
Shadow Plate
'Pul'
Defense: 2929
Durability: 70 of 70
Required Strength: 220
Required Level: 66
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 99
Fingerprint: 0xf2cb6de6
+250% Enhanced Defense
Regenerate Mana 15%
Damage Reduced by 14
Cold Resist +60%
20% Faster Hit Recovery
8% Chance to cast Level 6 Iron Maiden when struck
Repairs 1 durability in 20 seconds
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired), Socketed (1: 1 used)

Nice Steel Carapace. Is it self-found?

[Thyiad]

I'm not going to bring up my 35k defense barb...:rolleyes:
Forgive the thread-necromancy but I don't play barbs much - how the Diablo do you get 35k defence?

Gib tips please! :grin:

[CdMagicFind]

Fortitude's Chilling Armor + Shout. etc.

[pancakeman]

Forgive the thread-necromancy but I don't play barbs much - how the Diablo do you get 35k defence?
Max Iron Skin, Shout, use Concentrate as my attack, and wear a 2.3k Stone.

Of course, you don't have to go that far, I think you could put around 10 points into Iron Skin and it would still hit 30k. The build isn't that great at killing anything, but I thought it would be neat for dueling.

[Arreat_mercenary]

@Fluffballer: Defense in the 10,000 mark is pretty good. But don't focus every piece of your equipment for defense: resists, life, +stats should come before defense.

With such defense, normal melee monster will have a very low chance to hit you, which is very nice since you won't enter much in the blocking animation, having more time to land hits, kill and leech. But remember there are monsters with the ITD attribute and if a monster spawns with the blessed aim aura, your defense also greatly reduces its effectiveness. Also, remember that when surrounded, walk insted of running.

Still, 10k defense is wonderful and makes a char MUCH more survivable

[Fluffballer]

With such defense, normal melee monster will have a very low chance to hit you, which is very nice since you won't enter much in the blocking animation, having more time to land hits, kill and leech. But remember there are monsters with the ITD attribute and if a monster spawns with the blessed aim aura, your defense also greatly reduces its effectiveness. Also, remember that when surrounded, walk insted of running.

Fortunately that defense came from using everyday items I had just laying around plus Holy Shield.

Isn't Zeal uninterrubtable even when I block? How does that work? I haven't noticed me blocking anything but that may be because the defense is much higher than the monsters can keep up with (he was untwinked until 50 or so, then I just dumped on all the stuff you give a pally and his defense went through the bloody roof.)

If that's the case, it's not even worth maxing HS, let alone the defiance synergy, as I get more than enough leech from BKWB + Vamp gaze.

Even still, the combo of big defense + 75% blocking plus a good bit of PDR, I think it's much more worth it to put points in RL or RF. As you mentioned, the worst monsters are the ones with special attacks or ITD. I couldn't care less if I get surrounded by Ice Boars. :laugh: