How do you like my Arcane Knight's defenses?

[Not So Clever Hound]

NOTE: Deflection against Non-Veil Piercing attacks is actually at 232, it doesn't show as it is conditional, same for Divine Purpose adding another +20 defense against MIG, DEX and RES Afflictions. Also the conditional -15 defense of Blood Mage doesn't show here of course. Also of course, all enemies are permanently bathing in several layers of Chill Fogs that Blind and debuff their ACC by -15.

Hello, I'm Bobby the Goldpact/Blood Mage and I firmly believe that the best defense is defense. Of course, I also think that the best offense is offense. Anyway, here I am with all my defenses over 220 thanks to  a careful mix of item/ability selection, stacking buffs prolonged via Wall of Draining as well as some nice No-Rest goodies. (No Strand of Favor trick involved at all).

 Having the lowest defenses at 221 means that in order to get 1% chance of Grazing this toon, an enemy needs to have an accuracy of 147 (147+100-221=26 [Graze]). Any ACC below that level cannot breach his defenses with an Attack Roll (of course things like Minoletta's Minor Missiles, Thrust of Tattered Veils or Brand Enemy can still hit since they don't require an Attack Roll).

On paper, this should make more than 99% of enemies in the game irrelevant. Not bad! Now, the funny thing about Upscaled PotD is that I can still find non-Megaboss foes that do manage to Graze him from time to time!  Even then, with a constant regen of 60HP/3sec and 19+ AR, this toon is pretty safe.

The funniest thing is that so far I never had to reload a single fight in the game playing Solo, EXCEPT... fighting Soul Mirrors. Their defenses are too high because they copy my toon AND have Upscaling AND PotD bonuses on top... and they have Blood Mage  + Lethandria's Devotion constant regen, plus a ridiculous AR stacking with Stoic Steel... I actually have to switch to unarmed when the mirror is created (i.e. without sword & broad), then switch back to sword & broad if I want a chance to defeat them.

Anyway, I thought I'd share for all you min-maxers out there .

 

[Manu22]

After the “Things @Boeroerlikes”, lest go with the

Things @Not So Clever Hound Likes:

Wall of Draining

[Boeroer]

 

If you use the Mask of the Weyc and the Cape of Magnificent Escape and combine it with Wall of Draining you could add +100 (or +80, depends) to your deflection (Mask used to not stack with Arcane Veil but Mirrored Images) iirc. 

For the Cape-Escape-bonus of +50 (which used to stack with everything but the original Escape) you need to become bloodied first - but no poblem for a Bloodmage I guess. 

I did that late game with my Steel Garrote/Bloodmage with WotEP/Offensive Parry because I lacked a shield obviously. 

Edited August 23, 2021 by Boeroer

[Not So Clever Hound]

22 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

Mask used to stack with Arcane Veil but Mirrored Images

Thanks!

Mask stacks with Mirrored Images and with Wizard Double but not Arcane Veil, I just tested. Since I'm using Wizard's Double above, I will have a total of 272 Deflection against Non-Veil Piercing attacks with it. Now who besides a very pissed-off Belranga can sport an ACC of 198+?

Right now I'm using Acina's Tricorn for Shootist +ACC on spells (it can't be all about defense I guess ).

I forgot about the Magnificent Escape Cape indeed! I really like the +17 All Def except Deflection that I get from the Giftbearer Cloth, as non-Deflection defense become increasingly important late game. My goal was just to see if/how I could get to 220+ on all defenses .

[Boeroer]

Sorry, I meant to write "used to NOT stack with Arcane Veil but Mirrored Images".

It stacks with everything but Arcane Veil afaik. 

Yes, Giftbearer's Cloth is very good later on when nasty afflictions are common or Arcane Dampeners can really ruin your day.

[Not So Clever Hound]

3 hours ago, Boeroer said:

If you use the Mask of the Weyc and the Cape of Magnificent Escape and combine it with Wall of Draining you could add +100

Actually you know, I thought about this more and I wonder if we have an interesting case here. I'd like to share some more thoughts:

Defenses are always considered as having increasing returns in Deadfire when you choose to invest in them. So from that perspective, it's hard to argue against the logic of adding the Mask to this toon's panoply as you suggested .

However, this toon is already able to reach Non-Veil Piercing Deflection of 232 once fully buffed... now of course going from 232 to 272 is a huge numerical bump but I'm not sure that actually the incremental effect on the game would be that crazy... Because 232 is so high already. On the other hand, the Acina's Tricorn hat is really nice because it adds to my already great ACC, although sadly Shootist doesn't help landing Wall of Draining (wall spells are so funky), it is a significant driver of my offensive potential. In that very particular case, the cost of losing +5 ACC might be higher than the benefit of getting +40 DEF. (??)

Now this is still Upscaled PotD, so I might be thinking that and in 5 min a random group of enemies might get a couple of very lucky strikes and hand me over my b*tt.  Anyway, curious to hear anyone's thoughts on this.

Edited August 23, 2021 by Not So Clever Hound

[Boeroer]

One could argue that you could drop RES and deflection items entirely and invest in the other attributes and items in order to raise the non-deflection defenses more - since deflection can be brought to similar heights just by using those two items.

But of course you'd have to play with a quite unbalanced defensive setup for the majority of the game. I mean the Mask is from FS and Wall of Draining also comes rather late for multiclasses. Don't think it's worth it. 

I was looking at it from a "look how high my defenses can go" point of view - not from a practical one.  

[Not So Clever Hound]

31 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

I was looking at it from a "look how high my defenses can go" point of view - not from a practical one.

That's fair, thanks for the feedback anyway! Agree with your other points. I was already only on 8 RES then +2 with BB and then more along the way with the No Rest goodies. I was also using Hands of Light for the Interrupt immunity so as to use the Vaporous Grimoire in acceptable safety without Rekvu's Fractured Casque + Wound.

[‿‿۶ ͡ジ‿‿]

Hi, looks great, can you show your characteristics and abilities?