Did I just step into the conscious part of the forum or something? I am pleased
Defense is a very powerful stat.
A typical statement for instance was “What would you do at 200 and Blue Spion Archers”.
Blue Spion Archers should be hitting you for 1 damage non crit with Spiral Arrow if your class is not forced by skill requirements to not use a Shield, excusing Deeds of Valor/Suicide. You can go from Spiral Arrow being a 1 shot, to needing 20,000 casts of Spiral Arrow to kill you by just throwing on a Shield + Aspersion.
With Pardoners a lot of the damage woes in this game are solved by using 3 slots for Defense (Top, Shield, Bottom) + Aspersion and it’s ridiculous how many enemies look like they do magic damage but actually are hitting us with physical.
Though part of the issue is probably the misunderstood love for elemental daggers when doing
11%> more damage with an elemental dagger rarely justifies taking 40, 50, 60, or 300* more damage from not having a Shield to drop damage to 1 after Aspersion.