How significant is Defense Rating?

How important and significant is the armor/defense rating? Does 30 points or so really make a difference worth sacrificing for? I know the calculations vs. AR are a little wonky and hard to judge, but what would you all say from your experiences?

Here's a video that will explain everything you need to know about Defense and AR. It'll be much better than anyone else on these forums can tell you on a whim.

Someone made somekind of research on this and all I can remember is that after 400 def the difference is almost non-existant.
From my own experince I can say that yes, def has importance, but not much. 30 def doesn't really show in anything but 100 already shows a little.
Most noticable is when you fight with someone with full Giant/Havel setup, but other than that I don't see a MAJOR difference.

I just use what I think looks cool.

While that video does a great job to show how important defense is, I don't find it to be important.

Dodging and poise always seem to trump defense ratings. Higher health investment has always resulted in better results for me than higher end investment for more defense points.

Also, 500 Ar is low and that is the extent the video goes to. Many pvpers will be using buffs or true strength weps 2 handed with ARs from 700-1000+. At that point, due to increasing returns and crit attacks, defense becomes down right meaningless.

defense is good, but don't sacrifice for it.
Versus a weapon with 470 AR, I take 240 damage a hit with 420 slash defense. With 470 slash defense I then take 204 damage. With 630 slash defense, i take 167. For a point of reference, this shows that stacking defense is good, but it is not worth making sacrifices for. Despite this, the ring of steel and protection is a larger net increase to your effective HP than a Tiny Beings Ring under nearly all circumstances.

imo poise is actually more important than defense rating, high defense rating doesn't make much of a difference when you go up against a buffed weapon, you're still gonna die in three hits or less.

Who cares about how quickly buffed weapons will kill you? Just kite them. Defense is worth sacrificing vitality in some cases, but it depends on how much defense you're getting and how much health you are giving up. The graph in Lunarfog's video gives you a good general idea.

Saturday-Saint wrote:Who cares about how quickly buffed weapons will kill you? Just kite them. Defense is worth sacrificing vitality in some cases, but it depends on how much defense you're getting and how much health you are giving up. The graph in Lunarfog's video gives you a good general idea.

you might've heard about dead angling, a good pvp'er wont just stand there and let you kite or tank.

It's easier to kite somebody than it is to chase down somebody who is kiting you.

RantFromRant wrote:

Saturday-Saint wrote:Who cares about how quickly buffed weapons will kill you? Just kite them. Defense is worth sacrificing vitality in some cases, but it depends on how much defense you're getting and how much health you are giving up. The graph in Lunarfog's video gives you a good general idea.

you might've heard about dead angling, a good pvp'er wont just stand there and let you kite or tank.

I'm very glad that those players who buff their weapons rarely are good players.

Juutas wrote:

RantFromRant wrote:

Saturday-Saint wrote:Who cares about how quickly buffed weapons will kill you? Just kite them. Defense is worth sacrificing vitality in some cases, but it depends on how much defense you're getting and how much health you are giving up. The graph in Lunarfog's video gives you a good general idea.

you might've heard about dead angling, a good pvp'er wont just stand there and let you kite or tank.

I'm very glad that those players who buff their weapons rarely are good players.

This

but when they are you're toast ^^
ot: i'd say for a melee build you want to have around 300phys def. before applying humanity. @ 350phys def. a lot of the elemental weapons do embarrassing dmg to you (compared to +15 versions). it would help if you posted the exact numbers you're playing around with...

Because of my extensive use of a certain armor set up I'm so used to having ~300 defence everywhere

When I use like 3 piece giants and have 400 physical defences I really notice it. I should honestly use heavier armor more I think to myself.

Starting to prefer Havel's to Wolf because of it.

As many have said before me, poise usually trumps defense. Many of my characters are set up so that if I swap a ring out for Wolf Ring, they will have 53+ poise.

This wiki explains all you really need to know.

It would be intersesting if poise was tied into your physical defense rating (i.e. 345 def equals 53 poise); this is usually how it works anyways without the wolf ring. This way though you could stack some poise with light armor like the gold trimmed set. The steel ring would be slightly more viable aswell i geuss