The paradox of vigorous/refreshing defence

[Dr <3]

In these days i am testing some fighter/_____ builds.

In the beginning i used to cast both unbending and vigorous defence at the start of the fight. After some testing, it turned out that it was a "mistake", since unbending alone could more or less completely outheal all the received dmg ( unless constitution affliction hitting you ofc), so cast vigorous defence is kind of 0 return investment of 2 discipline points. This change little with heavy/light armour.

This insight posed me a question: in wich situation refreshing defense could be better than unbending?

If you are a low deflection, low AR type: usually unbending is way batter, since unlesd you have very poor might you will be constantly at high health, no matter about how hard you are hit

If you are high deflection, high AR type: you can maybe reach the "untouchable" state with your +20 to all def, but it will be for a brief time, because if nobody hits you, the duration will not increase ( no refreshing). And again unbending could take a better care of the low incoming dmg.

 

TL, DR:

I'm puzzled after understanding that a very good abiliy on paper actually could be quite useless in real fights.

Edited September 19, 2018 by Dr <3

[Haplok]

Unbending doesn't protect you from hostile afflictions/cc though. Vigorous Defense does. Also the Concentration point it provides is useful too.

[Boeroer]

I had Unbending on a Assassin/Devoted and it didn't prevent me from dying at all. Refreshing Defense did.

[Hulk'O'Saurus]

I'd activate both, then spam tier nines on top of it. 

[dunehunter]

I'd activate both, then spam tier nines on top of it. 

 

Then u run out of resource in one sec

[Hulk'O'Saurus]

 

I'd activate both, then spam tier nines on top of it. 

 

Then u run out of resource in one sec

 

 

Scroolls… lots of them. 

[Dr <3]

Ok i was just interested in hearing others people opinions

[Manveru123]

Unbending Shield is awesome with a Streetfighter multi because it keeps you alive without overhealing, so you remain Bloodied. Combine with Refreshing Defenses to become very sturdy while still dealing a ****ton of damage.

 

EDIT: I only tested this in Solo though, in a group you probably don't need Unbending at all.

Edited September 19, 2018 by Manveru123

[Haplok]

If you lead the charge with dumped Deflection, then you do need it. The cool thing is that you CAN lead the charge, be Flanked and Bloodied and still (usually) survive.

Edited September 19, 2018 by Haplok

[Raven Darkholme]

Unbending is great in fights with a high amount of trash mobs.

Vigorous Defense is really good vs damage over time fights, like BoW dragon.

Unbending doesn't do anything against relatively low damage ticks which get applied over very long time, so if you solo BoW dragon, once your fighter passive runs out your kinda ****ed in terms of heal and Unbending does next to nothing to help you here (Unless maybe you're a priest mc with Salvation).

Now Vigorous defense combined with plate AR helps you to only get grazed/missed a lot and makes sustain much better in a fight that goes on for several minutes if you solo.

[mant2si]

You miss situation when you has middle defenses and high armor, when you don't want to receive crits very often because then armor will be useless, good example is Devoted/Paladin without shield, you will have good AR but low deflection, +20 deflection will make you completely immune to boss crits

Edited September 19, 2018 by mant2si