Quote Originally Posted by Kaeko View Post
The part about DEF and it mattering more on lower level mobs is actually not entirely accurate. To generally say that "DEF matters more on lower level mobs" is a fairly accurate statement; however this has NOTHING to do with dLVL.

DEF is simply better the lower amount of damage you are currently taking. It doesn't matter what level the mob is relative to you or what you actual DEF rating is at the time. In general, if you are taking less damage, adding another point of DEF is better than a situation where you take more. This again has NOTHING to do with dLVL. If for some reason an R58 mob was hitting you for 100 damage and an R50 was hitting you for 200 damage, DEF would matter more for the R50 than the R58. Again, this is because the efficiency of adding DEF has NOTHING to do with dLVL. The main factor is simply how much damage you are taking.

If you want to see what dLVL actually does for DEF, fighting higher level mobs actually INCREASES the efficiency of defense with all other damage being kept equal. So if you have an R50 and R55 mob that both do 100 damage, adding 1 DEF actually is more meaningful for the R55 scenario than the R50. The reason people generally say DEF is bad on high level targets is because they have higher stats, hence do more damage. More damage taken = DEF matters less. But this really has nothing to do with dLVL and more to do with the fact they do more damage from higher stats.

Now regarding your actual argument, I think it still ends up being the same. Most high level mobs do more damage, so yes DEF does mean less. But again, I just want to stress that it's the high damage that makes DEF not as good - not the actual dLVL amount. I hope this clarifies things.
My mistake.

Thank you very much for chiming in Kaeko. Good to know that despite the error in my statements, that Defense still ultimately less important against the stronger enemies that essentially are the focus of these adjustment proposals. For a second there I was about to question my entire collection of experiences in game which told me Defense wasn't helping me much against these powerful bosses like it did for mobs in general.