AV vs DV

[chmbr]

I've focused almost exclusively on my DV rather than AV, and I'm wondering if this is a good idea or not. I've got a level 11 character with 19 ST, 30 AG, and 24 TO. DV is 22 but AV is only 3. Am I just asking for trouble here? So far it's worked out fine for me. Just got to Grit Gate. Should I pump up my AV before tackling Golgotha? (I'm going to level up a bit either way before attempting)

[DuckBoy]

Pure DV and pure AV builds both work throughout the game, but there will always be monsters that can wreck a particular build and shouldn't be engaged in melee directly.

AV is a perfect defense against (most) physical attacks, if you can exceed their listed penetration by around 6-8, they won't be able to touch you, even on critical hits. That said, there are tons of attacks that aren't physical, various oozes, mental and physical abilities, and the various vibro blade and monster equivalents can all basically ignore your AV - as long as they touch you, you're going to take the majority of the damage. That said, being near the listed penetration values with your AV will stop you from getting ridiculous x7+ smackdowns from things like slumberlings on up with their high penetration values.

DV is a 90-95% defense against (most) physical attacks. If you can exceed their to-hit by 19-20, they won't be able to hit you, except on critical hits, which seem to be about 5-10% of strikes. This makes you much better against oozes and rusty saw blades, but your luck will eventually run out and you will get crit.

In my experience, pure DV builds tend to get one hit killed by monsters you've never seen before, whereas AV builds tend to get caught and slowly beat to death by packs of monsters you've never seen before. Pick your poison I guess.

Highly recommend playing a bit with a truekin optical bioscanner and reading the combat log in cntl M. This will show AV, DV values of mobs, as well as penetration and damage of enemy weapons that hit you, and DV rolls of enemies that miss you. Do note that finding out average hit rolls for new enemies on a pure DV build is likely to get you one shotted pretty regularly.

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tldr and some spoilers - Golgotha is full of oozes that will punch through relatively high AVs and may ignore AV entirely, but it also can spawn crabs that will perma stun lock pure DV builds if they get a critical hit and you get yourself surrounded. But I'm sure you'll be fine! :D

[chmbr]

Thanks for all the info dude. I'm glad to hear that extreme AV or DV are viable. Getting one-shotted was my main concern, so I'm not all that surprised to see you confirm it. I'll try to play ultra careful around new enemies. Also, awesome tip about the optical bio-scanner. I'm sure that will illuminate a lot of things for me.

[Uboa]

Unrelated to AV or DV, but in Golgotha specifically, the best defense I've found is ranged weaponry. If you can get your hands on a carbine or auto-pistol, you can pick off most everything on the way down before it can reach you, even without gun skills. A desert rifle isn't quite good enough for that but it still helps a lot and is much more trivial to obtain.

[chmbr]

Originally posted by Uboa:

Unrelated to AV or DV, but in Golgotha specifically, the best defense I've found is ranged weaponry. If you can get your hands on a carbine or auto-pistol, you can pick off most everything on the way down before it can reach you, even without gun skills. A desert rifle isn't quite good enough for that but it still helps a lot and is much more trivial to obtain.

Thanks for the tip. I have invested points in rifles/bows so I will try to use that to my advantage. I was going to hit up some ruins next and see what kind of stuff I can find. Hopefully I find a carbine or something.

[CHOO CHOO]

For Golgatha, I recommend picking up a lot of sower's seeds in the jungle to clear the gunk with. And when you're on the conveyor belts, don't bother fighting or looting - just run through.