What exactly does the defense stat do?

[Agent]

I hate to pull anyone away from their weird obsessions and review bombing but perhaps someone playing the game could help me out? What exactly does the Defense stat do? It's not physical resistance, that's a different stat. There aren't dice rolls to hit so I dont see how it could function as an armor class. So little help here? What does a higher or lower defense stat mean exactly for combat?

[Agent]

Could it be straight damage reduction? That would pair with physical resistance being a % reduction?

[SpockEndil]

Originally posted by Agent:

Could it be straight damage reduction? That would pair with physical resistance being a % reduction?

Just guessing here, because I'm still learning the new systems. I doubt that it's damage reduction. That's armor. I think it simply reduces the chance of being hit. That's how it worked in Origins.

[SpockEndil]

My earlier comment can't be correct. It was for DAO, but it can't be for DAV. I think you might be right about damage reduction. Hopefully somebody who has figured it out will chime in.

[Agent]

My other theory is that it is defense against things like stagger but I really don't know.

[Cutlass Jack]

Defense is a flat reduction to incoming damage.
Its covered in the glossary in game (combat tab)

[Agent]

Thanks so it was straight damage reduction after all! I'll look at the glossary first if anything else comes up.

[Mr.Ficarazzi]

to me it feels like a flat damage soak, e.g. enemy hits you for 1000, your defense is 200, the gross damage income is 800, which is then reduced by the relative resistance, OR it's the other way around, so before kicks in the resistance and then the defence.

the point is: i'm playing nightmare and whenever you get hit your health bar depletes very quickly (i have 3200hp) to the point that it is way better dodging or parrying rather than just soak, thus the defense stats seems pretty moot anyways. Perhaps at lower difficulty levels it could make some difference, but overall you don't need to beef it up because it seems to me that it isn't as strategic as you would think.

i'm a sword and board warrior in this playthrough.

[Lucky_Icarus]

Originally posted by Mr.Ficarazzi:

to me it feels like a flat damage soak, e.g. enemy hits you for 1000, your defense is 200, the gross damage income is 800, which is then reduced by the relative resistance, OR it's the other way around, so before kicks in the resistance and then the defence.

the point is: i'm playing nightmare and whenever you get hit your health bar depletes very quickly (i have 3200hp) to the point that it is way better dodging or parrying rather than just soak, thus the defense stats seems pretty moot anyways. Perhaps at lower difficulty levels it could make some difference, but overall you don't need to beef it up because it seems to me that it isn't as strategic as you would think.

i'm a sword and board warrior in this playthrough.

Well there is either a shield(?) or skill that adds defense into shield atk dmg so for a SnS Warrior in that instance, having high def is pretty good.

[Agent]

I'd come to the same conclusion as Ficarazzi in that on nightmare the defense reduction to damage wasn't enough to be something to focus on but I didn't realize there was a skill that added defense to shield damage.

I really wish there was a search on the skill tree that let you search for all the skills that affect certain things. Like you could search "deflection" and all the skills that affect deflect would be highlighted. I know I played a game that did that not long ago and it was very helpful. I think maybe it is Diablo IV?

As is, I have to sllloooowly mouse over every single skill to find ones that look useful to my character. I should really write them down because I keep forgetting and having to do it again.