The Merits of Mag Defense

[GoldenFalcon]

Or do Just Guard

[Zyrusticae]

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.

Apples vs. Oranges in this case. Mobs in Tera are very typical MMO-types that don't have a whole lot of movement abilities - for the most part, their only movement-heavy attacks are heavily telegraphed and aren't actually all that fast. (Before you ask, yes, I played the game all the way to the cap and played every instance). They even have visual icons to let you know when you're being targeted at random by an attack that's going to cross the field - you don't get such a benefit in PSO2.

Also noteworthy is that while every class has an evasion ability in Tera, they all have cooldowns, so you can't just spam them like you can in PSO2.

Even more noteworthy is the fact that, frankly, most of the player base hates warrior tanking, whether it is because they have bad experiences with them (they're the most popular class, so naturally there are a LOT of bad players using it) or because they just don't appreciate the idea of a "dodge-tank", or even because there are certain enemies that warriors have a really hard time defending against (the lancer guy in Fane of Kaprina comes to mind here).


Anyway, knowing that nobody is completely infallible and is capable of dodging every single attack thrown at them at every given moment, and knowing just how tiny the impact of each individual point of attack power is, I think it's fair to say that a small investment in defense is a worthy goal. Especially when it crosses that threshold to where you're taking single-digit (or near-single-digit) damage from enemies.

[Cyclon]

Or do Just Guard

Just guard is definitely a defensive skill though. People who go all the way into offense won't get it.

[GoldenFalcon]

Just guard is definitely a defensive skill though. People who go all the way into offense won't get it.

Actually, Just Guard is a lot more offensive than spamming dodge. Absolutely no contest

[Angelo]

Or do Just Guard

Just Guard still isn't a complete solution. It's incredibly helpful, and I love the skill to death ( In fact I wish there were a way to throw more SP into it so that counter could do more damage, or even stun.), but there are still some attacks that cannot be Just Guarded entirely.

Off the top of my head I can think of two:

When the Zaudan attacks with it's boulder, if you JG the first hit, the reaction frames make it so you cannot set up your guard again to 'clank' a second time.

Another is the Catadran; when it does it's 'three-strike-slinky-head' attack (couldn't think of a better name) there isn't enough time to recover and reset your JG, so you just have to hold block and endure the next two strikes. Especially if you've cast Warcry on him and he's hunting YOU out, he's going to point his big dumb head right at you and get his slinky on.

Basically I'm just trying to say that defense is important. I enjoy playing a HU that excels in DEF, I know it's not for everyone but I'm glad PSO2 gives us the option. I enjoy playing a supportive role to the team that doesn't involve buffing and healing. There's just kind of this mentality that because PSO2 is so skill based that people get this attitude of "LOL im so uber that I NEVER get hit! defense is for babies!", it's absurd, especially for a HU.

[Cyclon]

Actually, Just Guard is a lot more offensive than spamming dodge. Absolutely no contest

That's for sure, but there's no need to spam if you're precise.

In any case, that wasn't my point; as JG requires you to put three points in the defense up talent, people going for full offense will probably not get it.

[Zipzo]

Apples vs. Oranges in this case. Mobs in Tera are very typical MMO-types that don't have a whole lot of movement abilities - for the most part, their only movement-heavy attacks are heavily telegraphed and aren't actually all that fast. (Before you ask, yes, I played the game all the way to the cap and played every instance). They even have visual icons to let you know when you're being targeted at random by an attack that's going to cross the field - you don't get such a benefit in PSO2.

Also noteworthy is that while every class has an evasion ability in Tera, they all have cooldowns, so you can't just spam them like you can in PSO2.

Even more noteworthy is the fact that, frankly, most of the player base hates warrior tanking, whether it is because they have bad experiences with them (they're the most popular class, so naturally there are a LOT of bad players using it) or because they just don't appreciate the idea of a "dodge-tank", or even because there are certain enemies that warriors have a really hard time defending against (the lancer guy in Fane of Kaprina comes to mind here).


Anyway, knowing that nobody is completely infallible and is capable of dodging every single attack thrown at them at every given moment, and knowing just how tiny the impact of each individual point of attack power is, I think it's fair to say that a small investment in defense is a worthy goal. Especially when it crosses that threshold to where you're taking single-digit (or near-single-digit) damage from enemies.

Blatantly false.

Plenty of bosses are mobile as all hell in TERA. Basilisk. Crab. Kaprima. Monkey. Red, Green, and Blue Kuma. Auracadis. Lancer isn't mobile but he makes up for that in other mechanics of the fight (pillars and fireballs). All of these bosses are atrociously prone to moving without your control, and give you very little time to react to their core abilities that will just kill you in 1-2 hits if you are not well geared. I don't want hear at all about your "typical MMO mob" stuff unless you've actually beaten Nightmare Auracadis.

Before they nerfed Nightmare Kaprima, if you got hit by the whirlwind as a Slayer or a Warrior? Dead. He's also almost 3x as fast as his normal counter-part, and even in the normal it's hard to gauge his queues on all of his whirlwind chains when you're a newer player.

Have you even seen the Nightmare Kelsaik fight? I'm sorry, I just don't buy it, pal.

Your experience is akin to playing on the "easy" difficulty setting of a game.

[RocSage]

If I were going to build a completely Defensive Hunter I'd go for something like this...

Units: Snow Soul / Mutation 2 / Stamina V / Ability V / Stamina Boost / Body V / React V / Mind V
Weapon : Power V / Power Boost / Gwana Soul / Vol Soul / Mutation I / Ability V / Body V / Stamina V

190 HP / 30 PP / 25 S-ATK / 25 R-ATK / 25 T-ATK / 25 ABL / 65 S-DEF / 65 R-DEF / 65 T-DEF
190 HP / 30 PP / 25 S-ATK / 25 R-ATK / 25 T-ATK / 25 ABL / 65 S-DEF / 65 R-DEF / 65 T-DEF
190 HP / 30 PP / 25 S-ATK / 25 R-ATK / 25 T-ATK / 25 ABL / 65 S-DEF / 65 R-DEF / 65 T-DEF
125 HP / 27 PP / 160 S-ATK / 35 R-ATK / 35 T-ATK / 25 ABL / 65 S-DEF / 25 R-DEF / 25 T-DEF

Total: 695 HP / 117 PP / 235 S-ATK / 110 R-ATK / 110 T-ATK / 100 ABL / 260 S-DEF / 220 R-DEF / 220 T-DEF
MAG: 0 HP / 0 PP / 0 S-ATL / 0 R-ATK / 0 T-ATK / 0 ABL / 50 S-DEF / 50 R-DEF / 50 T-DEF

Skills:
Lv 10 - HP Up 1: 50 HP
Lv 10 - S-DEF Up 1: 50 S-DEF
Lv 10 - Guard Stance 1: 200 S-DEF / -100 S-ATK / -100 R-ATK
Lv 08 - War Cry:
Just Counter
Just Reversal


Without consider the actual equipment in those slots, which I would assume would be about the best Strike Armor and probably Vol Scale for the weapon at best, you'd have...
~1100 HP, +500 S-DEF, +270 R-DEF +270 T-DEF

The units would give at least 130ish S-DEF I don't know what the higher units are but I think I've seen one with like 150S-DEF.

That I think would be pretty good Damage mitigation.

[Zyrusticae]

Blatantly false.

Plenty of bosses are mobile as all hell in TERA. Basilisk. Crab. Kaprima. Monkey. Red, Green, and Blue Kuma. Auracadis. Lancer isn't mobile but he makes up for that in other mechanics of the fight (pillars and fireballs). All of these bosses are atrociously prone to moving without your control, and give you very little time to react to their core abilities that will just kill you in 1-2 hits if you are not well geared. I don't want hear at all about your "typical MMO mob" stuff unless you've actually beaten Nightmare Auracadis.

Before they nerfed Nightmare Kaprima, if you got hit by the whirlwind as a Slayer or a Warrior? Dead. He's also almost 3x as fast as his normal counter-part, and even in the normal it's hard to gauge his queues on all of his whirlwind chains when you're a newer player.

Have you even seen the Nightmare Kelsaik fight? I'm sorry, I just don't buy it, pal.

Your experience is akin to playing on the "easy" difficulty setting of a game.

Yeah, no, I just don't agree. All of Tera's bosses so far have been rather slow and easy to dodge unless you're just not paying attention. Most of its difficulty comes from mechanics other than having to dodge attacks, like the cannon and mirror at the end of Balder's Temple or the insta-kill mechanics (cheap and lazy design there, btw).

Also, lol @ using basilisks as an example. Seriously? The only attack they have that's not heavily telegraphed is... ... ...

...Nope, can't think of one.

Also, using nightmare bosses is kind of a cop-out considering we don't yet have Ultimate Mode in PSO2 (the closest equivalent this game is going to have to Tera's hard mode).

[Zipzo]

Yeah, no, I just don't agree. All of Tera's bosses so far have been rather slow and easy to dodge unless you're just not paying attention. Most of its difficulty comes from mechanics other than having to dodge attacks, like the cannon and mirror at the end of Balder's Temple or the insta-kill mechanics (cheap and lazy design there, btw).

Also, lol @ using basilisks as an example. Seriously? The only attack they have that's not heavily telegraphed is... ... ...

...Nope, can't think of one.

You haven't done hard mode, so your opinion is pretty much invalid.

Every single boss gets a speed multiplier on nightmare. Yes, in easy mode it's easier to catch attack queues. That's because it's supposed to be easy, ya nincompoop.

If you do not utilize your dodges properly on Nightmare Auracadis, you will die. It has little to do with the fact that the mechanics are unforgiving, you are capable of dodging out of everything, but it is incredibly difficult at the speed Nightmare bosses put out abilities.