Fencer Archive
Thread: Melee/Ranged Defense vs. High level Mobs
I've been having a few issues with melee and ranged defenses against high level mobs. I haven't noticed this until recently since previously I didn't have a high amount of defense in these areas, but after reaching the cap for melee defense, and almost ranged defense as well, I have to question there usefulness.
As I stated above, I am currently capped on my melee defense (125 melee defense) and almost capped on my ranged defense(114 defense). I also have +3 ranged and melee defense from a lightweight military pack, making my defenses +128 melee and +117 ranged. I decided to test how effective these defenses were.
For my first test I chose Jantas since they are a decent level mob, and you can find them easily when in a solo group on Dantooine. I also ate some food to increase my stats (assuming it works). I consumed the following:
Pikata Pie -- Inreases chance to dodge by 52% (According to TH it affects the chance for a mob to miss you, not your actually chance to use the dodge skill. Dodge is just the word they chose to describe it)
I also had a Brandy and some Ahrisa for my mind.
The first Janta camp the Jantas hit me a total of 12 times and missed me 35 times.
The second camp was very similar with 13 hits and 37 misses.
Finally the third camp they hit me 12 times and missed me 34.
All in all pretty good results. The problem with melee and ranged defense is when you go up against hard mobs. A lot of the hard mobs have very high accuracy. I decided to go up against Nayx on Corellia to test out a harder mob. He has around 52k HAM Medium armor and high kinetic resistances (I believe 80%). The ideal weapon would have been a DXR6-B Rifle since he only has 10% acid resistances and the rest of his resistances are high (95% energy resistances). Since he had such high kinetic resistances he would make for a good test subject.
I lived for 56 hits. After dieing I went threw my log and noticed I didn't avoid a single attack. After my stomach emptied, and I recieved more buffs, I went back to him. This time I also decided to take the following food (In addition to my previous food):
Elshandruu Pica Thundercloud -- +20 Ranged Defense
Muon Gold -- +500 to all mind stats
I chose ranged food instead of the melee food (Vegeparsine) since he didn't switch to melee when I attacked him, and instead kept using his pistol.
This time I managed to live threw 87 hits before dieing from mind. Even with the added +20 range defense from the Elshadruu I didn't avoid a single attack.
This annoys me, and makes no sense. As a Fencer/TKA you would think you would be a very decent tank. However against certain mobs with very high accuracy this isn't the case. If you stuck a novice artisan in my armor, and gave them the same buffs/food/spice they would have been just as good at tanking.
I understand caps were put in because of PvP defense stackers, but for high end PvE the accuracy of some of the mobs make melee/ranged defenses useless. I would like to see the accuracy for some of these mobs decreased (or at least looked at) so that someone who has their melee/ranged defense capped, and is using the best foods/drinks would avoid at least one freaking attack out of 87...
Message Edited by SyrahRydia on 05-14-2004 04:24 AM
Ranged and Melee defense are indeed not that helpful for high level PvE MOBs. Most of the top-level nighsisters will also constantly hit with a CoB macro running, even if you cap all defenses in-game.
As for tanking with the current template, its more of a choice of food and equipment over the template itself. Against Nyax, for example, an 80% special protection Energy suit of composite with an effectiveness-sliced Imperial PSG and Synthsteak works far better than buffs + muon or any dodge/defense foods. Things like Intimidate 2 from Master Brawler also help a lot.
But it's definitely a good thing that you worked out the numbers for pure defenses- all in all, Fencers aren't the ideal tanks for high-level MOBs (you'd be better off with say MHS/Rifleman and dishing out extreme damage.)