The Merits of Mag Defense

[NuhSieh]

I put S-Defense on my mag and SP on the S-Defense in the Hunter skill tree... just because I wanted to equip some units.

If you are patient enough to wait for the level cap to equip some "new" units, then put points on whatever you want.
If you're not so patient like me, go for Def.
And I'm pretty sure you can't even equip some S-Def units as a Hunter even by being lvl 50 without putting anything in Sdef on your mag or your skill tree.
Well, depends on your race/gender I suppose.

[Dammy]

the thing is - when they raise level cap they will add NEW units with even MORE requirements..
so im not sure if "wait and equip them later" strategy will work

[Arika]

They will alway releases item for standard stat and item for high requirement together. Item with higher requirement usually a bit stronger than the item with less requirement that come together, but it won't be better than item that will release in later patch even thought requirement may be less.


Basically sega is giving ppl with higher than standard stat little boost gear every patch


On topic, it is debatable which is better, so just go what ppl prefer. Most of the time bosses are all easy anyway. It is only little serious when you plan to TA competition in leader board.

[Angelo]

I can't help but ask this. When you all are putting Def on mags, are you putting points into all types of defense, or just specific ones? I don't have a max level character, so I am not sure of all this stuff yet. Thanks for any info tossed my way.

Basically I use it to even out and 'patch up' the natural flaws of my race/gender/class combo.

HUmars have naturally high Striking Defense, on par with HUcasts.
They have decent, but not great Tech Defense, and fairly lackluster Ranged Defense.

So if, say, my MAG is level 100 it looks something like this:

S-DEF: 20
R-DEF: 45
T-DEF: 35

[Saffran]

The thing is, PSO (first introduction to mags) had different mechanics.
Back then, 1 point of def was 1 point on your base def, while 1 point of ATK was 2 points base on your character. Likewise for mind. Plus you could raise ATA (2 pts on the mag was 1 on your character) which was, after the DC version, *only possible* through either mag or really rare units.
Furthermore, the game had a stat called "evasion". You could avoid hits simply by having high enough EVA stats, and I sure used that with my Hucaseal. But even THAT had a higher point where it was just "useless" (Ult towers and seabed...).
We knew how defense worked in PSO. It was a combination of atk reduction (5 EVA for 1 ennemy ATA + 1 DEF for ? Ennemy ATK).

My point is, we still don't know the formula on PSO2.
Nowadays, each of our three defense units (and possibly equipment in the future!) can have up to 12 enhancements. (4 natives and 8 slots) Heck, even weapons can have 9 enhancements (up to 8 in defense if you want it to)!
That is a unholy load of defense possibilities, and you know what? I have a hunch that we *need* them. Maybe it's the fact that a lv21 baboon can kill a lv20 hu in 3 hits. But i feel that defense works in a very different way than it did on the "older" PSO.

Right now I haven't thought much about the damage formula, but ATK is clearly disadvatanged in regards to defense. In PSO1, you'd max out defense fairly easily, just from leveling and one or two units (which you'd need on your character anyway). We don't know how it's going to be near endgame.
As far as I am concerned, the lv100 charts that were datamined are completely obsolete - lv 40 characters are almost there already.

So for the time being, and since I don't know how much of a gap my max lvl stats will have with my max race/gender gap, I'll put my money in the bank - level atk and def equally until we know for sure and then my last 300 AC will finally find some use.

[iwerkout]

I do fine just by dodging correctly.

If you can be patient, even the most aggressive monsters (Infected Wolf Bosses anyone?) expose themselves after certain attacks, and those are the moments you need to take to do damage. Yeah you can't just stand still and attack them, expecting to take hits and survive, but that's what makes it a challenge.
I don't think PSO2 should just be a cake-walk of a game. You should be expected to either try to better yourself as a player or sacrifice better stats for your want of survivability.

[RocSage]

You should be expected to either try to better yourself as a player or sacrifice better stats for your want of survivability.

The thing is, you make it sound like "dodging" is what a good player does, when in reality that causes all sorts of problems the could very well be solved by actually tanking.

[Macman]

What RocSage said.
For example: if you're bobbing and weaving all over the place, it's going to cause the snow panther bosses to just fly all over the field, making it harder for your teammates to keep track of what's going on, and ultimately suffering their damage rates.
With a tanking strategy you can stay reasonably close and guard attacks for negligible damage, giving your team a much easier time wailing on the boss as it's busy trying to execute close-range attacks on you.

[Omega-z]

I agree, it's way to soon to tell for sure. But the AI of the enemies are just at the tip of the ice berg. The panther are just start of a little bit of a heavier fighting system compared to the monkey's, Which there still slow. But the AI will catch up and will be faster, so dodge yes, but to wait for the attack to happen no. Since you have to dodge all the time then and have a 3 sec window to land attack and dodge again or else you get 1 hit K.o'd even if you did 50k. The game is slowly scaling which mean's is the game going to end at 200? or is there going to be a huge spike in AI performance?.

ATK even tho is great it's not as important as it used to be. As long as you are scaling with the Foe's with your damage then you don't need to worry as much unless you have a spike then just adjust for it, ATK<----->DEF it's a two way street.

[Zipzo]

What RocSage said.
For example: if you're bobbing and weaving all over the place, it's going to cause the snow panther bosses to just fly all over the field, making it harder for your teammates to keep track of what's going on, and ultimately suffering their damage rates.
With a tanking strategy you can stay reasonably close and guard attacks for negligible damage, giving your team a much easier time wailing on the boss as it's busy trying to execute close-range attacks on you.

I'm going to call BS on this.

In TERA there is a Warrior class. That class is aimed at being a "dodge tank". You wear leather but have great mobility, thus you 'tank' by keeping aggro, but at the same time avoiding attacks. It's a higher skill cap than playing a lancer (Sword and board tank) because it requires much more attention to detail, but it's really the same concept. You should not be face tanking expecting to get healed in this sort of game. There is really no logic that allows you to garner that mindset.

If the boss moving around is your argument, keeping the boss somewhat stationary as you dodge attacks is not difficult either. It's the core of the Warrior class in TERA and is essentially the role here for Hunters as well.