Defense is fake

[Thomas Devlin]

So until yesterday I had been wearing the black robe set for the entire game, it was maybe half way maxed out because I could never get enough twinkling titanite, but after getting my ass kicked by the gauntlet before the Ivory King I decided that wasn't cutting it anymore and I completely maxed out the faraam set thinking I would barely get hurt anymore. I think maybe it soaks up a tiny bit more damage, I went from a sort of leveled light armor to a maxed heavy armor set and somehow the difference is almost intangible. Defense is fake, just wear whatever armor looks the coolest

[JellyPuff]

Defense is real, but the damage reduction is only a flat one and comparatively small. That means, you will get the least mileage out of physical DEF, the more single hit damage an enemy deals and lategame/DLC enemies tend to hit hard.

Black Witch Robes (assuming that's what you were using before) already have pretty good resistances overall, especially for it's weight. You will definitely notice a difference, going naked from a full Faraam-set. But yeah, after certain point, more phys-DEF compared to medium armor just becomes more of a nice-to-have, especially the heavy stuff, that often means not being able to use the best ring in the game[darksouls2.wikidot.com]. Same with poise.

Elemental-DEF is where it's at. It's not flat, but %-based. 10 points of elemental DEF = 1% less damage (can never fully reach 100%). You and every single enemy in the game has at least 10% elemental damage reduction innate already.
The Black Witch Robe at +5 alone gives you 10-13% damage reduction in every element on top.

If you want to increase your bulk against phys-DEF more: Vigor. It softcaps at 50 - go for that softcap on every build. With rings, you can easely get over 2400 HP and if you add Lifegem spam to the mix, facetanking actually becomes a viable strat.

[NightmareGats]

If you don't get hit, you don't take damage.

[Heck]

try a great shield if you dont know how to roll

[<color=#CD3210>Lunatic]

(in a sarcastic movie trailer announcers voice) In a game where everything is trying to kill you, you think armor will HELP, but it WONT, a game where players rush in & die OFTEN. Careful mages and bow users KNOW how to lure and kite, the SAVY dex powerstance however handles it all with ease. SO do you want to look like a knight but still be cut like butter, then play dark souls.

[RuleofTwo]

Playing all of these in a row, ds 1-3, I am starting to miss armor that actually does something as an rpg mechanic besides weigh my character down or providing fashion.

[Squirel_squire]

physical defense is almost never worth it

ELEMENTAL defense on the other hand....

[jekylllpain]

unless you don't know how to defense you r gonna take damage anyways

[Crypto Gamer]

Physical defence is I think 5 or 6 phys def reduce damage by 1.


Heaviy armor likely allows you to survive 1 more hit over light armor but you need more vit stat to wear it and you regen stamina slower but you can likely poise 1 hit......

Light armor can raise vigor and not vit and might survive the same hits........but can not poise.

Elemental defence is 10% +every 10 def points gives 1% dmg reduction effectively capped at 890 defence which is 99% dmg reduction which is actually reachable in this game.
So player takes 1% damage.

There is a ring which gives +50 phys dmg IF your max carry weight is 60 or below so your vitality must be low so you likely do not wear heavy high phys defence armor.

So heavy phys defence(weight)armor even sacrifice damage.......needs more vit or at low vit you will have slow stamina regen.......




Now if you or the enemy is in water gain+300 fire defence and minus 150 lighting defence capped at 0% for enemies.

Some PVE enemies are 100% immune to elemental damage type.

Good thing about physical damage cause they way it is calculated no enemy can be immune to it.

So even for casters rarely enemies can have 80% plus resistances a phys damage weapon can be a useful backup.


So compared to Dark souls 1 heavy armor has much more downsides.

And in DS2 light armor(especially caster) often have better elemental defence than heavy armor.

And % reduction scales well in NG+ cycle too.

[spaceweezle]

Definitely not as effective as the first game. But that might be a good thing in terms of balance.

Even in the context of champions covenant, damage from bosses is quite forgiving even with that +33% tacked on.

According to some tests I ran the other day, there doesn't appear to be a massive difference in lethality between bosses and regular mobs. The halberd wielding undead just outside cardinal tower does boss-like damage and is quite relentless. So potent that even at 700-800 physical and 65 poise I could not chug a single estus while face-tanking him due to an endless chain of attacks.

I think this model is an improvement over DS1 where you could literally just face-tank the scariest bosses in the game. I guess that might be possible to some degree in this game.

Yesterday I faced Velstadt while in COC and made virtually every mistake possible. got hit a bunch of times which at best took me down to half hp (1672 hp- 28VIG) There was never really a moment where I felt threatened. I beat him first go without even knowing his moveset. I felt kind of lousy about that victory.

So I figure if that's the typical outcome in COC, then the regular intended damage model must be quite forgiving, likely not enough to even justify having more robust forms of mitigation.