Health boost Vs defense, which is better

[Anastasia]

I'm still ignorant regarding charm, but so far I feel like health is better since I can tank more damage. Defense, I don't know, it feels like it's still doing nothing, because the monster still hit as hard as without the charm. Am I using it wrong, or its really better to get more health than defense?

[langnao]

Go for full HP boost. But defense is not totally crap. If u have the gem esp hard defense and the slot, it very useful at max too. I fought Safi with 900 defense and 1k plus defense, there is noticable difference. I run full hp(something i have done ever since), 1k plus defense + level 5 divine blessing and mushroom. Able to tank her esp when she targets u during the fight. Anyway go full hp and when u have spare slots then up defense...

[Hare+Guu!]

Defense is more noticeable against one shots. Lets say you take 200 hp (could be more, but just making it simple) damage from Temp Rajang with 900 def. That means without armor, you would take 2500 damage. At 1300 defense, you would only take 145 damage. It will still hurt a lot, but you won't be dead. That's why people keep parroting diminishing returns. They only see that it still hurts a lot regardless of the actual numbers.

[ʎuuǝʞ]

https://youtu.be/o5wyvzrrIUk

[Franz]

Health boost.

[Mango]

Health boost is the best defence skill in the game, and defence boost is one of the worst.

[Leoscar]

No doubt health boost is better. Some people like Divine protection but its random (even though it's effective when it procs).

[Netsa]

I don't know why people hype Divine Blessing so much. It's cheap to slot in, but if it was a choice between maxing either (for whatever reason), defense always wins out because it's not RNG.

But yeah, Health Boost is a better option than Defense Boost if you can only choose one. It's so much better that it's almost mandatory, and it's much easier to slot in since it's not a 7-point skill. Even with a 5-point Defense Charm, you would still have to make up 2 points, while Health Boost's charm fills the whole skill out.

[Tresh]

Doesn't defense boost also have the disadvantage of doing ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ against elemental damage?

[Suzaku]

Originally posted by Netsa:

I don't know why people hype Divine Blessing so much. It's cheap to slot in, but if it was a choice between maxing either (for whatever reason), defense always wins out because it's not RNG.

3 points in Divine Blessing is worth far more than 3 points in Defense Boost. Where Defense Boost might reduce the damage of an attack by, what, a couple hp? Divine Protection could take any attack that hits for 100+ and reduce it by half. Yes, it's not guaranteed to occur, but it happens really frequently for how effective it is.

I'm certain I've been saved countless times because an attack's damage was reduced by 50 rather than 5.

[Numeriku]

Dodging and blocking. After that, health boost 3, divine blessing 3-5, and 20 elemental resist depending on what you're facing, so 20 fire res for Luna as an example.

[Grottowalker]

Originally posted by Hunny:

defense is a really trash skill, level 7 defense boost gets outclassed by even 2 levels of health boost, health boost is also cheaper, its really not a hard choice

This.

[Nikana]

Originally posted by Dunathon:

Doesn't defense boost also have the disadvantage of doing ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ against elemental damage?

I used it to combine with Element resist food L. When I'm about to have a fight against random monsters that keep coming without changing gears.

Basically, I'm too lazy to change my loadout.

[Tresh]

Originally posted by Nikana:

Originally posted by Dunathon:

Doesn't defense boost also have the disadvantage of doing ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ against elemental damage?

I used it to combine with Element resist food L. When I'm about to have a fight against random monsters that keep coming without changing gears.

Basically, I'm too lazy to change my loadout.

that makes sense.

[Netsa]

Originally posted by Suzaku:

Originally posted by Netsa:

I don't know why people hype Divine Blessing so much. It's cheap to slot in, but if it was a choice between maxing either (for whatever reason), defense always wins out because it's not RNG.

3 points in Divine Blessing is worth far more than 3 points in Defense Boost. Where Defense Boost might reduce the damage of an attack by, what, a couple hp? Divine Protection could take any attack that hits for 100+ and reduce it by half. Yes, it's not guaranteed to occur, but it happens really frequently for how effective it is.

I'm certain I've been saved countless times because an attack's damage was reduced by 50 rather than 5.

Or you could just eat that attack and die because the Divines decided to take the day off. I'll take a consistent damage reduction, which could mean going under the breakpoint of an instant death, no matter how small it is. Even if it only shaves off 1 damage, that's 1 point I don't have to heal back.

I don't actually use either skill on most builds though, unless I'm using Defense's charm. Non-maxed skills on my skill list really irk me, so I would never use just 3 points of Defense Boost.

[Franz]

Originally posted by Netsa:

I don't know why people hype Divine Blessing so much. It's cheap to slot in, but if it was a choice between maxing either (for whatever reason), defense always wins out because it's not RNG.

As Suzaku said, DB amounts to more damage reduced, even accounting for the times it doesn't activate.

Consider that DB is a percentage reduction while Defense is a flat increase. Flat increases don't scale particularly well in MR, attack boost is also not really worth the slots anymore.

Edit: neither work to save you if you are in one shot range, DB sometimes keeps you out of it allowing to postpone healing, Defense makes little to no difference.