Talk:Elza/@comment-27085172-20151016220421/@comment-17760674-20151114213803

Unfortunately, the wording is inconsistent, but having more defense power seems to be the same thing as taking less damage, etc.

(damage taken) = (enemy's attack) * (what % the enemy's attack is reduced to) - 10 * (weapon bars filled for defense)

"what % the enemy's attack is reduced to" value is 1 or 100% by default. I'm pretty sure defense does not go up with character level.

(tangent: I'm also pretty sure defense buffs are multiplicative in the sense that (theoretically speaking) two 60% defense buffs reduce damage to 40% * 40% = 16% and that they don't multiply like 1.6 * 1.6 = 2.56 or 256% because that doesn't make sense but I haven't run numbers on this lol but that's why I worded the thing as "what % the enemy's attack is reduced to")

Say you've got Elza with a maxed Defender's Sword (18 defense) facing a melee enemy that normally hits for 500. (only specifying "melee" because the mechanics for reduced damage from ranged attackers seem to be different depending on whether you're calculating ranged attacks or the default halved-power melee attacks and I don't know the formulas for them)

While she doesn't have low health, she'll be taking 500 - 180 = 320 damage per hit from that enemy.

While she's low on health, she'll be taking 500 * 0.5 - 180 = 70 damage per hit from that enemy.

Since the defense bars on weapons are calculated after defense buffs (similar to how--much to our dismay--attack bars on weapons are calculated after attack buffs 99% of the time), weapons with high defense really shine on units with defense buffs of some sort. Parchelle in particular becomes an awesome tank with Defender's Sword in battles with many waves.

That's not to say that weapons with high defense suck on everyone else, though lol it's just that they work best with defense buffs