Best way to up your Defense?

[PozerWolf]

Running a melee spell breaker, my DPS is fine. Everything melts in front of me on Ultimate. Problem is, I melt just as fast.

I'd post my build, but I feel my general idea of the game is quiet lacking. I'm just wondering the best ways to build up resistance and defense by any means (via states, equipment, etc.)

Sorry for being vague, but I feel any info would help on this subject.

[Ryvucz]

Factions give items that you can augment your gear further with resistances. Just take a look at your current resistances, find out what's hurting you most and get the appropriate augments.

[BreadWithMayo]

Augments, defensive ability, raw hp, + %hp. As a spellbreaker you have on demand heal, 2 invulnerabilities, evasion, a - damage skill.

[Matthew]

Base health is the most important. Everything else feeds off of it... resists, dodge, %-based heals, etc.

Your class already has some powerful mitigation tools (Maiven's/Shadow Dance), but generally lower health. If you focus on sources of boosting your health up, it should help out a lot.

[PozerWolf]

Thanks for the info. Yea, there were some things I overlooked that I didn't even think about "like Faction items"

[DeadlyDanDaMan]

Spellbreakers are already pretty darn tanky. You really shouldn't be having problems. Not with Maiven's, Mirror, Blade Barrier, and Pneumatic Burst w/Shadow Dance....if you have good resistances and have kept your Physique topped out (I hope you weren't pumping Cunning and Spirit), like I said, you shouldn't be having many problems.

[Atech66]

Originally posted by Matthew:

Base health is the most important. Everything else feeds off of it... resists, dodge, %-based heals, etc.

Your class already has some powerful mitigation tools (Maiven's/Shadow Dance), but generally lower health. If you focus on sources of boosting your health up, it should help out a lot.

I can vouch for this.. not that you doubted it ;) I went from 5500 to 7k in Ultimare and my quality of life as well as staying that way drastically improved. I made a point of hitting all the vendors when i was in town.. every time whatever location and you can find some nice medals and rings that darn near took care of my resists.. I found resists all over 50% but as high as i could get them within reason was huge. I also let go of some dmg.. One pair of pants i found at a vendor has 86 Str on them and thats a decent bump up until better things arise. Also I took another hard look at my Devotions and changed some Offense for Defense. GL :)

[Azunai]

i think it's important to note that going all out on the offense isn't really required. if you planned your build reasonably, you'll probably have like 1000% damage bonus to your main damage type(s) (probably cold/frostburn for a spellbreaker ?). so adding some pants or boots that give you another +50% really only increases your total damage by 5% or something. that's barely even noticeable when looking at the numbers and will usually just create more "overkill" against most of the critters that die from 1-2 solid hits anyway.

so in my experience, it's a good idea to dedicate some slots for defensive stats (resists, HP, defense, physique). you may even end up killing stuff faster that way, because you don't have to retreat and can just plough through the trash like a juggernaut.

check out some of the endgame builds on the crate website (they have a forum section for builds and related discussion). most of the endgame builds will have a bunch of legendaries (often set items) and some slots with well rolled green items that contribute defense stats.

[PozerWolf]

Just to get a better idea here is what im working with

http://grimcalc.com/build/1008-FlRH6K

http://i.imgur.com/GEj4nlI.png

I'm willing to make dramatic adjustments
Sorry for now posting each equipment, don't have much time right now.

[KG]

Put a point in Nullification, Mirror of Ereoctes, and Blade Barrier.

Your hp, for an unfinished Spellbreaker, is not... terrible. But your poison and piercing resist are yuck & the others (cold fire lightning excepted) aren't good. Going from 0 to max resist effectively multiplies your hp by 5 against that damage type. Even 50% is doubling your effective hp - and that is far easier to accomplish than a massive raw hp increase. Farm that faction rep if you aren't maxed and apply those augments. The black legion offers a poison & piercing resist augment. Add components to the rest of your gear, too - chest, shoulders, boots, rings, amulet, medal.

You should have pretty good resists after that if you choose carefully. Check the wiki for faster cross-referencing of component and augment possibilities.

[Matthew]

Resists are probably okay. Missing a couple components and I have a suspicion there are no augments on the gear. A couple of silk swatches, an anti-venom salve, a bunch of 7% aether/chaos resist augments, and the resists would be pretty good.

The Black Legion also sells a nice weapon augment with like 200 hp, some OA, and some elemental damage%.

If you don't have Black Legion rep maxed out yet, I'd go back to elite and blow through a few rep quests to get it maxed out. That would likely solve half your defense issues right there.

[Matthew]

If you don't need the ectoplasm, then I'd put corpse dust on all your jewelry. The vit resist adds up, and the %health is great. Mark of Illusion is decent if you are trying to reach a DA breakpoint to not get crit by Nemesis bosses.

http://gracefuldusk.appspot.com/items/7551-Mankind's-Vigil
http://gracefuldusk.appspot.com/items/5827-Creed's-Cunning
http://gracefuldusk.appspot.com/items/5869-Survivor's-Ingenuity
http://gracefuldusk.appspot.com/items/2443-Mark-of-Illusions

[DeadlyDanDaMan]

Originally posted by KG:

Put a point in Nullification, Mirror of Ereoctes, and Blade Barrier.

+1 to this. These are absolute "must have" skills. Mirror and Blade Barrier will save your life more times than you can count, and Nullification is THE BEST one-point wonder in the entire game.

[PozerWolf]

This is great info, thanks a lot guys. Currently re-working my build and grinding it up.

[PozerWolf]

BTW for the black legion, I'm not seeing those items posted here. Do more show up if I max out with them?

[Matthew]

Mankind's Vigil and Creed's Cunning should be on the last tab at the vendor.

Survivor's Ingenuity is from Devil's Crossing I believe.

Anesteria has a lot of other 200 hp augments, but I'm assuming your build uses a variety of elemental damage, so Creed's Cunning is probably best. But you can take a look and see if she has something more suited for your build.