How does defense work?

[WindsorW]

New to this game after picking it up during the Steam winter sale, and loving it so far. :-) But there are a few things I am confused about -- like defense. How does it work?

The tool tip indicates that increasing defense will reduce damage taken, but no real info is given about how much. Boosting defense looks like it will require spending gold on equipment (since very little is found as loot) plus eventually skill points to allow wearing more armor (strength and armor skill). But is it worthwhile, or should I be putting my gold and skill points elsewhere? Just how much difference would a 30 defense rating make, compared to say 15?

Thanks!

[Ser Cartoon of House Head]

Not everyone needs defence, your caster and ranged would benifit more from agility, speed and enchanting. I would give your tank lots of defence and HP, a little to the other front line troops. The back line evasion would be better.

No idea about the actualy numbers of defence, but for a tank i would suggest stacking defence resist and HP.

[Tyria]

I calculated out the defense formula. First of all, all attacks will do 100%-85% damage at most, if attacking someone with low defense. Low defense is anything that your attack rating is 3x. So for instance, If I have 100 attack, and I am attacking something with 33 armor, my attack rating is 3x their defense so I will do 100%-85% damage, which is maximum. If my attack goes down to 2.5x their defense I will lose about 5.5% damage against full. If it goes down to 2x, I will lose about 19% against full. 1.5 is about 30% down. So, if you can raise you defense a lot higher than their attack rating, you will be taking a lot less damage.

[WindsorW]

Thanks for the info, Iria_J! So it is a relative thing, between the attack and the defense ratings. But there is a cap...hmmmm. So I either need to "keep up" with the growth in enemy attack ratings as I face tougher and tougher opponents, or just ignore defense altogether while spending my resources elsewhere. Will have to think about my options.