Defence>Evade or Evade>Defense

[Sitka]

In considering end game armors/frames and barriers/shields, do you consider a higher defence to be better than a higher evade or vice versa?

I'm debating relative merits of some different barriers/shields such as Rico's Earrings vs. Safety Heart vs. Standstill Shield vs Tripolic Shield vs Regen B.P. - things like that. Oh, and Gratia versus Kasamai Bracer.

I think on xbox I settled on a nice Luminous Field and Standstill Shield on my 200 Racast.

My characters are Hucast, Hucaseal, Fonewm, Fonewearl and I'm just thinking through various equipment options for each of them.

A good example would be deciding to go for the extra slot by using Blue Odoshi Violet Nimadou on my Hucast instead of the high def (300), low eva (-200) Black Hound Cuirass.

[Tycho]

I think it depends on whether your class already had a lot of EVP. A HUcast won't be able to evade lots anyway, while it'd be a waste to not expand on a RAmarl's EVP some more. That being said; Kef disagreed with me and thought Luminous Field or things like that would be better on Casts though.
And who am I to oppose that? I can't say I've had any non-FOnewearl character at sufficiently decent levels to be able to know from experience.

[Sitka]

Thanks Tycho, but let's look at something specific:

You have both BOVN and BHC on your subjective recommendations for Hucast as well as Gratia and Kasami Bracer.

I looked at these options and chose BOVN and Kasami as it seemed to suit my style. Now, not having either BHC or Gratia either more, I'm not sure as my character continues to climb whether I should go back and pursue those options. The high defense on BHC is nice, but that evade penalty scares me. I like the ATP boost on Kasami, but the high EDK makes Gratia nice for megid areas.

Oh well, at least we have options.

[Hrith]

I agreed with what you said on HUcast, Tych.

But Black Hound Cuirass (BHC) is only good for Forest, Mine and Ep4, thanks to its incredibly low EDK.

I always relied on DFP more with hunters, especially androids, since you cannot consistantly heal, taking very low damage is better than taking higher damage but less often.

That being said, BHC adds 300 DFP, 2 EDK and nulls your shield's EVP.
If you use Standstill Shield, Shield of Delsaber, S-Parts ver2.01 or any other shield that you do not care about its EVP, BHC is great.
But if you use Kasami Bracer, Tripolic Shield and the likes, BHC will result in a -250 EVP on average, which is not worth the +50 DFP it gives compared to a good Luminous Field, not mentioning the +13 EDK from the latter.

I tend to prefer EVP on my Rangers, even when meleeing.

[Sitka]

Thanks Kef - still, the thought of wearing any armor that actually reduces your evade by that much - meh.