01-23-2004, 03:15 PM
Well, not really ATTACKING you per se, obviously. Just want to point it out , that against a lot of attacks defense does not matter. And when I write a lot of, I actually mean MOST attacks.
Let's just consider the dangerous foes in the game:
(1) elemental attackers
They come in various shapes and numbers, from gloams through knights and finger mages, ending with the act bosses (4 out of 5 are parctically sorely elemental). Against these, most feared of attacks defense obiously means nothing (that's what resists are there for).
(2) stunners
Urdars, yeti and minion of destruction are in this group, with VERY fast attacks that ignore defense.
(3) archers
skeleton archers and quill rats are made more powerful in 1.10, and I believe against them defense does work. (Not sure about burning dead archers... does the fire part always connect if you fail to block?)
(4) Strong melee monsters
Basically minotaurs and thresers - ok, strong frenzy monsters.
Honorable mention are the dolls, who are fearsome for the explosion but otherwise are rather manageable.
Now as you mentioned, blocking is gamble - but so is defense. I also had a -DAM character back in 1.09 (a barbarian), who was very fun to play in a /GODMODE kind of way throughout normal and nightmare. I do not know wether this is viable or not in 1.10, but the fact is, defense could be said to be less useful than it was in 1.0 - since "defendable" melee is not much of a threat in 1.10. -DAM has the added advantage of working against the deadly stunners and the (not so deadly) death maulers, and you do not have to "sacrifice" the merc for defense.
The more I think about it, the more I want to try out a build like that... then again we'd need to ascertain wether it works or not. I KNOW it works in nightmare, since my MDR(80) DR(40) assassin is nearly invulnerable, but at times she feels the hits (probably only criticals hurt her in NM).
Maybe I'll feel like doing some research in the weekend :)
Let's just consider the dangerous foes in the game:
(1) elemental attackers
They come in various shapes and numbers, from gloams through knights and finger mages, ending with the act bosses (4 out of 5 are parctically sorely elemental). Against these, most feared of attacks defense obiously means nothing (that's what resists are there for).
(2) stunners
Urdars, yeti and minion of destruction are in this group, with VERY fast attacks that ignore defense.
(3) archers
skeleton archers and quill rats are made more powerful in 1.10, and I believe against them defense does work. (Not sure about burning dead archers... does the fire part always connect if you fail to block?)
(4) Strong melee monsters
Basically minotaurs and thresers - ok, strong frenzy monsters.
Honorable mention are the dolls, who are fearsome for the explosion but otherwise are rather manageable.
Now as you mentioned, blocking is gamble - but so is defense. I also had a -DAM character back in 1.09 (a barbarian), who was very fun to play in a /GODMODE kind of way throughout normal and nightmare. I do not know wether this is viable or not in 1.10, but the fact is, defense could be said to be less useful than it was in 1.0 - since "defendable" melee is not much of a threat in 1.10. -DAM has the added advantage of working against the deadly stunners and the (not so deadly) death maulers, and you do not have to "sacrifice" the merc for defense.
The more I think about it, the more I want to try out a build like that... then again we'd need to ascertain wether it works or not. I KNOW it works in nightmare, since my MDR(80) DR(40) assassin is nearly invulnerable, but at times she feels the hits (probably only criticals hurt her in NM).
Maybe I'll feel like doing some research in the weekend :)