Champions Online Passive Defense Introduction

Champions Online Passive Defense Introduction by RynoHound

In Champions, There’s a good amount of Passive Powers you can have slotted into your passive slot. While Offensive Passives are pretty self-explanatory by design, the key to being a good well-rounded character, or to tank or have solo-viability is you need to know your Defensive Passives and which works best for you. Afterall, if you don’t build your character to have some measure of survivability, you won’t be able to survive.

In other Good News: Once you unlock any Role, you will be able to slot a Passive Defense into your Passive Slot, AND You don’t have to start in any of these Frameworks to pick these up once you do. You can pick any of these as early as level 5!

Defensive Passives or “Defenses” Can be slotted into your Passive Slot in either The Guardian (Balanced) or Protector (Defensive) Roles and are as follows:

Invulnerability
Lightning Reflexes
Regneration
Personal Force Field
Defiance

Invulnerability: (Technology: Power Armor)

Invulnerability has what is known as a “Damage Threshold” and “Damage Resistance.” All of your Damage Resistance is figured in before the Damage Threshold is figured in. If the number left over does not exceed the Threshold, you take 1 Damage. If this Number exceeds the Threshold, you take whatever is left over.

Invulnerability works very well for Main Tanks. It makes you completely immune to all but the strongest attacks. It makes it easy to take on Hordes upon Hordes of Minions or Villains, and makes Bosses and Archvillain’s attacks do very little to you if blocked properly.

Stats that Supplement Invulnerability are Strength and Constitution. Strength will raise the Damage Threshold on Invulnerability while Constitution will raise the Damage Resistance provided by Invulnerability.

Lightning Reflexes (Martial Arts (Any) )

The Ultimate Defensive Power for Glass Cannons or Suicide Bombers, Lightning Reflexes has two parts which are both affected by your Dexterity. “Dodge %” and “Avoidance.” Dodge % Goes without saying, it’s a percent base To “Dodge Attacks” from opponents your level. Obviously this percent is greater against lower level opponents and less against higher level opponents. Avoidance is a flat percent which your inherient damage resistance is increased by when you dodge an attack.

Lightning Reflexes, by design, is better than Invulnerability for taking on Bosses, Arch-villains and other opponents that have very large “wind up” attacks and other forms of burst damage. But since it is based off of a percent chance, it makes you incredibly vulnerable to chip-damage or large amounts of underlings.

The only Stat that affects Lightning Reflexes is Dexterity. This raises both your Dodge Chance and Avoidance.

*However, under current mechanics, Lightning Reflexes is not working as it should be. It is my strong reccomendation that you look into other powers first.

Regeneration (Supernatural: Dragon Aspect)

Regeneration is the Ultimate in self-healing. Whether you are in combat or not, whether you are taking damage or not, Regeneration is always working. Regeneration works one way, but off two stats. Every second, you regain a small percent of your maximum health back, augmented by your Presence stat. And depending on your Presence, Regen can actually crit when it ticks!

Rengeneration is probably the best all-around Defensive Passive for soloing. It’s also highly reccomended for the newer player as Blocking isn’t entirely essential to it’s playstyle. Since it’s always working, it allows you to expend very little downtime going from battle to battle, without having to stop to rest or heavily relying on healing (green) inspiration drops. However, Regeneration does not take large Alpha Strikes or un-blocked High-Damage attacks well.

As aforementioned, since Regeneration is based off of your Maximum Health, it is best supplamented by Constitution, and since that number is buffed by your Presence, Presence can only help.

Personal Force Field (Elemental Projection: Forces)

Personal Force Field provides what is best described as “Phantom HP.” Personal Force Field gives you a buffer zone of health that needs to be beaten off of you before you start taking any damage. And once beaten off or damaged, it’s protection slowly recovers itself over time when you aren’t taking damage.

Personal Force Field is great for taking Alpha Strikes, stray attacks from opponents when teaming, and is also good for breezing through short battles. You won’t have much downtime while it’s effective, but once it’s been beaten off, you will need to stop to allow it time to rebuild itself. Personal Force Field is a good Defensive Passive for those who take on a role that doesn’t intend to take great amounts of damage very often.

The higher your Endurance, the more “Shields” Personal Force Field provides you with, while a higher Ego not only hastens the rate of it’s return, but how much it recovers per second.

*To make Personal Force Field it’s most effective, it’s best if Field Surge is taken with it shortly thereafter. Field Surge brings the Personal Force Field back up to full, as well as grants you a short period of limited invincibility

Defiance (Might)

Defiance works unlike any other Defensive Passive, though it is incredibly simple by design. The more times you get hit, the more Defiance will stack on your character, up to a total of 8 stacks. Each stack of Defiance provides you with increasing levels of Damage Resistance.

Defiance works well in a prolonged fight, especially if you can withstand the first few seconds of an Archvillain or Legendary. Though, in prolonged fights with many minions, because it has no Damage Threshold like Invulnerability, Defiance does not perform very well.

Constitution is the only Stat that has effects on Defiance. The Higher your Constitution, The more Damage Resistance each stack provides you with, as well it determines how long you can keep Defiant stacks on yourself.

*To make Defiance it’s most effective, it’s best if Enrage is taken with it shortly thereafter. Enrage allows you to “cash out” up to 8 Stacks of Defiance for up to 8 Stacks of Enrage. This can lead to incredible Burst Damage and substained DPS, as well as allow the user to begin reapplying Defiance again, after the “cash out,” alongside the stacks of Enrage.