Carbineer Archive
Thread: State Defenses vs Range/Melee Defenses
Skinned wrote:
All in all, State def > Melee/Ranged def, unless you have a metric *&$^ton of it.
As a general side note,just wanted to point out that even with capped out Ranged and Melee defenses, it's not all that great.
Before they fixed defense stacking, ranged and melee defense didn't havea hard cap, which meant that a Rifleman/Fencer or Rifleman/TK was near-impossible to hit. I forget the exact calculations, but it was estimated that even if someone boosted their accuracy to the max, *only* the minute "dice roll" random factor of hitting your target was factored in. Some 5% chance or so.
It's really where the whole stigma of Ranged/Melee defense came from. It used to be godly. As soon as those two primary defenses were capped at 125, though, stacking like that became drastically less effective. Some people still hold on to the belief that it works, but after considerable testing against a Fencer/TK/Pistoleer/Rifleman (a friend of mine basically tried to max both stats out as much as they could), they'd still get hit far too often.
AdmiralSpy wrote:
Skinned wrote:
All in all, State def > Melee/Ranged def, unless you have a metric *&$^ton of it.
As a general side note,just wanted to point out that even with capped out Ranged and Melee defenses, it's not all that great.
Before they fixed defense stacking, ranged and melee defense didn't havea hard cap, which meant that a Rifleman/Fencer or Rifleman/TK was near-impossible to hit. I forget the exact calculations, but it was estimated that even if someone boosted their accuracy to the max, *only* the minute "dice roll" random factor of hitting your target was factored in. Some 5% chance or so.
It's really where the whole stigma of Ranged/Melee defense came from. It used to be godly. As soon as those two primary defenses were capped at 125, though, stacking like that became drastically less effective. Some people still hold on to the belief that it works, but after considerable testing against a Fencer/TK/Pistoleer/Rifleman (a friend of mine basically tried to max both stats out as much as they could), they'd still get hit far too often.
But I believe the FS Defenses add to the +125 Cap making it +145. Then I know that SEA's increase it again, which the Backpack and other mods are not hard to get....I have about +15 Ranged and +5 Melee. Then on top of all that I have +23 Ranged and Melee Food/Drink that adds too.
Take all of that with my Carbineer/Fencer/Pistoleer template and getting over +150 and even +175 Ranged/Melee Defense sure make a difference, that I can assure you.
But getting State Defenses over +75 and even over +100 is just as important and any Defense below +50 is a waste IMO.
TAfirehawk wrote:
But I believe the FS Defenses add to the +125 Cap making it +145. Then I know that SEA's increase it again, which the Backpack and other mods are not hard to get....I have about +15 Ranged and +5 Melee. Then on top of all that I have +23 Ranged and Melee Food/Drink that adds too.
Take all of that with my Carbineer/Fencer/Pistoleer template and getting over +150 and even +175 Ranged/Melee Defense sure make a difference, that I can assure you.
But getting State Defenses over +75 and even over +100 is just as important and any Defense below +50 is a waste IMO.
Ah hm, good point. I wasn't aware that foods boosted over the cap, and was never able to prove that SEAs and items would boost over the 125 cap as well (plenty of rumors, but no official testing.)
Meh, I'll stick to my +90 state defenses any day. 
Pistol Tech 4 is way better than TK 0004, and I'd much rather spend the SP on Master Fencer instead of extra Pistoleer stuff.
But that's just me. Your mileage may vary.
TAfirehawk wrote:
But getting State Defenses over +75 and even over +100 is just as important and any Defense below +50 is a waste IMO.
"If they can be fooled, they can be killed."