Comparison of defensive stats

Let's start with the comparison of Hit Points and Defense.

HP vs Defense

Hit Points are yet again assumed to give 5012.8 for every 1000 other stat points. This includes VIP. For Non VIP players 4808.8 is used exemplarily here too.

Both HP and Defense suffer under relative increase thus if both EHP ratio graphics are combined and compared against each others, one gets a linear function:

$Break even(defense) =5012.8*defense+501280$

The graphic is straightforward to use. If your toons HP and defense tuple is part of the green area, then investment into HP gives more EHP (both metrics). If your toons HP and defense tuple is part of the white area, then investment into defense gives more EHP.

HP is nowadays less worth than defense at high Item Level and investments into HP shall only be done when all stats are capped. However, for scaled content and when a player starts their fighter's career the fighter will start at ~70% defense and whatever HP. This is well aligned in the green area. Only once a player comes close to endgame HP is getting less and less good. Here is the minimum HP required before maxing defense is worth it:

$5012.8*90+501280 = 952432HP$ (VIP)

$4804.8*90+480480 = 912912HP$ (no VIP)

A fun fact for scaled content: Only the HP from IL is scaled in scaled content, thus HP sources from companions and co are in most cases (if not all) better for survivability than investments in other defensive stats!

Small Note: None of the metrics contain the amount of healing needed. Increasing Hit Points instead of Defense increases the possible amount of Healing needed, because the damage is itself not reduced. However, since healing is generally not a problem, this grain of salt is ignored here.

HP vs Awareness:

As HP suffers from relative increase and Awareness from reverse relative increase, the graphic for the MEHP ratio (and AEHP-Boss) is just “mirrored”:

$Break even(Awareness) =5012.8*(90-Awareness)+501280$

The graphic is straightforward to use again. If your toons HP and Awareness tuple is part of the green area, then investment into HP gives more MEHP. If your toons HP and Awareness tuple is part of the white area, then investment into Awareness gives more MEHP. Here is the minimum HP required before maxing Awareness considering MEHP is worth it:

$5012.8*(90-90)+501280 = 501280HP$ (VIP)

$4804.8*(90-90)+480480 = 480480HP$ (no VIP)

There is no comparison done for the general AEHP as no Combat Advantage Uptime is considered! Maybe one is added later on! (Probably not)

The small note about healing in the comparison of Hit Points and Defense is similar for the comparison for Hit Points and Awareness.

HP vs Critical Avoidance

HP vs Critical Avoidance is very similar to HP vs Awareness for MEHP.

$Break even(Critical Avoidance) =5012.8*(90-Critical Avoidance)+501280$

Read “HP vs Awareness” for more information.

Assuming 50% crit chance (= no debuffs), the graphic looks for AEHP as follows:

$Break even(Critical Avoidance) =5012.8*(90-Critical Avoidance)+1002560$

Beware the changed Hit Points scala! For the AEHP comparison, Critical Avoidance literally never wins against HP. Maybe in a few mods! (Update: It is not far anymore)

The small note about healing in the comparison of Hit Points and Defense is similar for the comparison for Hit Points and Critical Avoidance.

HP vs Deflect / Deflect Severity

Deflect and Deflect Severity yield the most harsh return. Starting from a very high value, the return of Investment gets only good when adding stats over 110% in Deflect and Deflect Severity at the optimal distribution.

The graphic is straightforward to use again. If your toons HP and Deflect and Deflect Severity tuple is part of the green area, then investment into HP gives more AEHP. If your toons HP and Deflect and Deflect Severity tuple is part of the white area, then investment into Deflect and Deflect Severity gives more AEHP. The minimum HP required before thinking about Deflect and Deflect Severity is around 1 000 000 HP considering AEHP. Of course, for smaller HP multipliers the minimum required HP is slightly less. Deflect and Deflect Severity is only relevant for AEHP and when the minimum required HP is met. There are two ways: 1) When using a Combat Companion then Deflect and Deflect Severity can be mostly ignored, because there are not enough stat points available 2) when an Augment Companion is used, then one has the resources to raise Deflect.

The small note about healing in the comparison of Hit Points and Defense is similar for the comparison for Hit Points and Deflect / Deflect Severity.

Defense vs Awareness

As Defense suffers from relative increase and Awareness from reverse relative increase, the graphic for the MEHP ratio (and AEHP-Boss) is just a linear function:

The graphic is straightforward to use again. If your toons Defense and Awareness tuple is part of the green area, then investment into Defense gives more MEHP. If your toons Defense and Awareness tuple is part of the white area, then investment into Awareness gives more MEHP. As one fighter starts in the white area and its goal lies in the white area too, its wisest choice is to maximize Awareness before touching Defense. However since Defense plays a far more important role in AEHP this statement is weakened.

(A small math note for those who noticed: The function does not mention any % comparison like the usual “adding 1% to the value Awareness gives more return than adding 1% to Defense”. This is intentional! Else the break even function would be Awareness(Defense)=89-Defense with a small green area for all tuples with Awareness > 89. If one would change the 1% stat increase to 10% then the break even function would be Awareness(Defense)=80-defense with an even bigger green area for all tuples with Awareness > 80. Thus the chosen stat increase for this function approaches 0!)

There is no comparison done for the general AEHP as no Combat Advantage Uptime is considered! Maybe one is added later on! (Probably not)

Defense vs Critical Avoidance

Defense vs Critical Avoidance is very similar to Defense vs Awareness for MEHP.

Read “Defense vs Awareness” for more information.

Assuming 50% crit chance (= no debuffs), the comparison Defense vs Critical Avoidance can be shortened by looking on the stat increases:

In short: Critical Avoidance yields never more AEHP increase than Defense!

Defense vs Deflect / Deflect Severity

For MEHP: Because Deflect and Deflect Severity are not part of the MEHP formula, Awareness wins the comparison.

For AEHP: Defense almost always wins against Deflect / Deflect Severity when using the AEHP metric (both). The small range of outliers does not justify any taking of Deflect / Deflect Severity over Defense.

Here again the two curves next to each other:

Awareness vs Critical Avoidance

Awareness and Critical Avoidance have a similar MEHP formula. Thus it was already expected that whatever stat is higher is giving a better MEHP increase if further increased due to the reverse relative increase.

As not to draw the wrong conclusion, let's recall that MEHP describes survivability against single, big hits that crit (thus 100% crit chance). It does not describe the survivability of normal boss fights! In such a comparison - AEHP-Boss- Critical Avoidance would under no circumstances be better than Awareness. See the graphic below for the comparison.

There is no comparison done for the general AEHP as no Combat Advantage Uptime is considered! Maybe one is added later on! (Probably not)

Awareness vs Deflect / Deflect Severity

For MEHP: Because Deflect and Deflect Severity are not part of the MEHP formula, Awareness wins the comparison.

For AEHP-Boss: This comparison is similar to Defense vs Deflect / Deflect Severity. Awareness is almost always better than Deflect / Deflect Severity. See the graphics below.

Here again the two curves next to each other:

There is no comparison done for the general AEHP as no Combat Advantage Uptime is considered! Maybe one is added later on! (Probably not)

Critical Avoidance vs Deflect / Deflect Severity:

For MEHP: As Deflect and Deflect Severity are not part of the MEHP formula, Critical Avoidance wins the comparison.

For AEHP: Deflect / Deflect Severity only wins against Critical Avoidance when stacked high. Since Critical Avoidance is hard to bring below 50% without trying, Deflect / Deflect Severity gets comparable results at around 115% stats invested. That is pretty high and hardly well achievable. Thus Critical Avoidance should be focused.

Here again the two curves next to each other:

Based on the stat insights and the definition of metrics, one step further is reached for defining stat priorities.