The simple facts that take you away from Defense mods are:
- The difference is negligible when you introduce RNG in the formula.
- No character skills are affected by Defense, but a lot are affected by Health.
- Defense mods are behind Jedi restriction.
- Health and Defense mods are mostly placeholders.
Even if you stack defense on all possible mod primary stats and substats + set bonus, it still has low value, because you can't go very high at the current point in the game (armor gains value the more you have it).
Now if they introduce a character that has some kind of synergy with Defense, its another story.
The simple facts that take you away from Defense mods are:
- The difference is negligible when you introduce RNG in the formula.
- No character skills are affected by Defense, but a lot are affected by Health.
- Defense mods are behind Jedi restriction.
- Health and Defense mods are mostly placeholders.
Even if you stack defense on all possible mod primary stats and substats + set bonus, it still has low value, because you can't go very high at the current point in the game (armor gains value the more you have it).
Now if they introduce a character that has some kind of synergy with Defense, its another story.
Everyone uses RG in arena, and defense mods make his defense up more impactful. So there's that at least.
For some reason I was under the impression Defense was Armor which was physical damage only. Is that not the case?
Armor is physical only, resistance is special only. Defense is both.
if i have a 11% defense mod , where do i see this number in the stats screen ??
because i can't see it at all and combine armor + resis = less than 11%
There are two sections in the start screen, physical survivability, and special survivability. Both of them have a damage reduction percent. Armor and resistance are both still stats, but they are not shown on the stat screen any more in the interest of making the game mechanics less clear. But defense percent still increases these numbers of armor and resistance by the percentage indicated, which is then translated into damage reduction, and added to the displayed percentage damage reduction.
You can check armor and resistance numbers on swgoh.gg to find out who benefits the most from defense mods, but you'll have to check in game to see what those numbers actually mean in practice.
The simple facts that take you away from Defense mods are:
- The difference is negligible when you introduce RNG in the formula.
- No character skills are affected by Defense, but a lot are affected by Health.
- Defense mods are behind Jedi restriction.
- Health and Defense mods are mostly placeholders.
Even if you stack defense on all possible mod primary stats and substats + set bonus, it still has low value, because you can't go very high at the current point in the game (armor gains value the more you have it).
Now if they introduce a character that has some kind of synergy with Defense, its another story.
Well your 3rd point isn't as strong when you consider a lot of players have farmed 5 Jedi to get Yoda.
A lot of characters that are affected by extra health aren't viable in arena.
Even if both set bonuses are placeholders, it's better to have the superior set bonus when you can.
I've got health Mods like the rest of you, most likely, and have yet to get my 5th 5* Jedi.
I did this to test the rationale of hiding a seemingly inferior set behind Jedi restrictions. I found it wasn't inferior at all. Until JonVaper brought up the resisting humbling blow point, my tank was going to be using one of thE two, defense or health.
I've got health Mods like the rest of you, most likely, and have yet to get my 5th 5* Jedi.
I did this to test the rationale of hiding a seemingly inferior set behind Jedi restrictions. I found it wasn't inferior at all. Until JonVaper brought up the resisting humbling blow point, my tank was going to be using one of thE two, defense or health.
What does the 1.15 represent in your equation?
X = 1 - {[Protection + Health]/[Protection + (Health*1.15)]}
Also, I noticed on a couple mods that the defense increase in an integer and not a percentage. How does the game handle that calculation? Is it more of a multiplier then?
The simple facts that take you away from Defense mods are:
- The difference is negligible when you introduce RNG in the formula.
- No character skills are affected by Defense, but a lot are affected by Health.
- Defense mods are behind Jedi restriction.
- Health and Defense mods are mostly placeholders.
Even if you stack defense on all possible mod primary stats and substats + set bonus, it still has low value, because you can't go very high at the current point in the game (armor gains value the more you have it).
Now if they introduce a character that has some kind of synergy with Defense, its another story.
Well your 3rd point isn't as strong when you consider a lot of players have farmed 5 Jedi to get Yoda.
A lot of characters that are affected by extra health aren't viable in arena.
Even if both set bonuses are placeholders, it's better to have the superior set bonus when you can.
Yes but that is another story... it would be like saying whales have Empire and they can get Potency, well yes.
Yes again to your second remark, but then, its just arena. Their value increases in GW for example.
And 3rd, people shouldn't be farming either of those post-nerf (unless they are whales AND crazy)
My point is that they provide a ridiculously small upgrade over health, for no good reason besides "I already have Jedi".
I'm not saying "Don't farm defense set". I'm saying that's a waste of resources. That doesn't mean I don't value Defense as a substat.
I rather have extra Health mods for other charaters, than extra defense mods.
I've got health Mods like the rest of you, most likely, and have yet to get my 5th 5* Jedi.
I did this to test the rationale of hiding a seemingly inferior set behind Jedi restrictions. I found it wasn't inferior at all. Until JonVaper brought up the resisting humbling blow point, my tank was going to be using one of thE two, defense or health.
What does the 1.15 represent in your equation?
X = 1 - {[Protection + Health]/[Protection + (Health*1.15)]}
Also, I noticed on a couple mods that the defense increase in an integer and not a percentage. How does the game handle that calculation? Is it more of a multiplier then?
The 1.15 is a 15% increase in Health which 3 sets of Health mods will give you. I was only calculating and comparing defense set bonus, 3 sets actually, versus 3 sets of health mod bonuses.
The 15% isn't added on top of your existing soak. It's added as a percentage of your existing soak. So, for example, my Old Daka has 11.37% physical damage reduction (soak, because armor soaks damage like a sponge) at gear level 8 (all full except the Droid Caller). With six Defense mods attached she is gaining 2.28% soak, for a total of 13.65%.
Including the +Defense% directly provided (as primary or secondary stats) on the mods, she's gaining 23.56% total. 11.37/13.65 doesn't equal 23%, but there's some variance because one mod gives a flat +3 Defense and one of her gear items gives +2 Armor.
There's a distinct numerical value that determines your Armor rating, you gain it from items and any mod effect that says +X Defense (it's also possible some characters have some Armor baked into them to start with, we don't know because this value is hidden now--it was visible before the patch). That rating is then converted into a percentage that's shown in the UI. Anything that increases Defense by a percentage will increase the percentage shown in the UI by that amount, not the flat amount that we don't see. This is why you'll see a big jump in soak when you equip an item that gives +10 Armor compared to something that gives +10% Defense.
Not sure what you mean by "this isn't the case". That 1.15 represents the 15% increase in HEALTH from the sum of 3 health set bonuses: that is a straight multiplicative increase. I get there is some soak happening already. That's gonna happen whether we have health mods or defense mods on. Everything that existing soak accomplishes gets wrapped up in the damage you currently take. That damage is in both equations but as the denominator of both, so it's multiplied out. That X is the INCREASE IN ARMOR % needed to make defense mod bonus better than health mod bonus, not the actual armor %.
So using that equation, if you see AN INCREASE OF X or more in your armor %, then defense mod bonus is better.
Defense % does not increase armor % by the displayed amount, you have to check the screen that shows stat differences after you equip the defense % mod or get the bonus from having the sets.
The armor % increase is different for everyone, and the resistance % increase is likely different than the armor % increase. Neither will be as high as the defense % increase.
You have to check the increases against X in the equation. If X is lower than the armor % increase, as a percentage not nominally, you observe, then defense is better.
Comparing set bonuses is futile. As others have mentioned, the amount of benefit you get from a set bonus depends a lot on the character you're using. For example, if I theoretically put a speed-set bonus on a character with 100 speed, that character gets +10 speed. If I take the same speed-set bonus and apply it to a character with 200 speed, that character gets +20 speed instead. Therefore, in general you probably want to match up your set bonuses with the characters that typically already have high stats in those areas (i.e. health for RG, speed for Rey, etc.).
In addition to that, the mod's primary stat can often be more important that the set bonus you receive. For example, you might get +10 speed from a set bonus, but if a single mod provides +30 speed (even though it's part of a defense set, or whatever), then obviously it's better to simply have the single mod than the set bonus.
Going back to the original comparison of health vs. defense mods, you probably just want to give defense mods to characters that already have high defense and often get defense-up, whereas you probably want to give health mods to characters that already have high health.
It assume 15% defense decreases damage by 15%. It doesn't. It increases current damage mitigation by 15%. So if an attack was doing 10,000, and a character was mitigating 2500 of that, they will now mitigate 2875 of that. A mere 375 damage saved on an example with a character that has high defense on a decently powerful attack. Defense % is worthless. Flat defense is decent as a secondary stat.
Defense, and thus armor and resistance, stat is all jacked up. Some how with recent update it was converted to a % but mods can still add a flat numerical value via secondary stats. I don't disagree that it seems to have more of an effect on damage dealt, however you can easily upgrade the armor and resistance stat using secondary stats of other nods.
Example
Base maxed Chewbacca
Armor = 13.04%
Resistance = 14.41%
So based on those numbers I could add ~ +16 defense via secondary stats and get a better boost than using 6 level 15 defense mods.
You may also notice that armor and resistance don't go up by the same amount with the add which goes back to I believe they are still flat numerical numbers that are somehow converted into a %.
It assume 15% defense decreases damage by 15%. It doesn't. It increases current damage mitigation by 15%. So if an attack was doing 10,000, and a character was mitigating 2500 of that, they will now mitigate 2875 of that. A mere 375 damage saved on an example with a character that has high defense on a decently powerful attack. Defense % is worthless. Flat defense is decent as a secondary stat.
@Bulldog1205 It absolutely does not assume what you just claimed. I've made it clear where that 1.15 is coming from and it may be beneficial for you all that are having trouble with the assumptions to actually read with the intent on comprehending what has been written. If you are certain the claims are as you say, show where I wrote that.
If you continue to have issues, read all of my posts not just the first one. Any further misunderstandings you may have are likely a disconnect with the math, so maybe triple read the equations.
The only assumption is that armor % reduces physical damage by the % it is rated. Nothing is assumed about what the defense % increase is doing. You'll need to check what it's doing to armor % and compare that to X (as a %, so X=.0697 is 6.97%.)
There are no assumptions about what defense is, what the % influences, or that is effects characters the same. Any derivation of what defense does has nothing to do with anything I've posted.
Whatever is happening can be observed by placing a defense mod on and then looking how armor % and resistance % has changed. This change is what we are interested in, not the mystical defense to armor % formula. We don't need the intermediate steps when the results are given.
I've tested it myself in GW the other day. I added a full set of defense mods to a character and ran the same node and tracked Unbuffed damage from the same character against the same character for 5 turns. Ignoring crits. The damage was actually HIGHER with the mods. It wasn't even strong enough to overcome RNG. The net gain in armor was less than 2%. Using defense % as a mod is a big mistake.
I'm comparing, all other thing equal, health mod set bonus versus defense mod set bonus. If you have sweet health mods, then use them. If you've got a sweet crit damage up mod and have no intent on completing a set, but it's got a +30 speed bonus, you'll likely want to use it.
But magine every main and secondary stat on your mods are identical, you are just choosing which set bonus is better: health or defense. You know, like you don't have any mods at all and you're choosing which to do. I've given a way to see which is better, and it's more often than not defense.
@StormTro0p3R_H I got that and definitely good info and way to look at things. Mods can change so much and the more info out there the better. Just adding more info
I just wish they would switch armor and resistance back to the flat number it was so you could easily calculate how the mods will affect the stat instead of the add and see method.
@StormTro0p3R_H I got that and definitely good info and way to look at things. Mods can change so much and the more info out there the better. Just adding more info
I just wish they would switch armor and resistance back to the flat number it was so you could easily calculate how the mods will affect the stat instead of the add and see method.
Yeah, that would eliminate a somewhat tedious step.
I've tested it myself in GW the other day. I added a full set of defense mods to a character and ran the same node and tracked Unbuffed damage from the same character against the same character for 5 turns. Ignoring crits. The damage was actually HIGHER with the mods. It wasn't even strong enough to overcome RNG. The net gain in armor was less than 2%. Using defense % as a mod is a big mistake.
Not all characters benefit in the same way. If the net armor increase was only 2% then defense mods wouldn't be better for that character.
I've tested it myself in GW the other day. I added a full set of defense mods to a character and ran the same node and tracked Unbuffed damage from the same character against the same character for 5 turns. Ignoring crits. The damage was actually HIGHER with the mods. It wasn't even strong enough to overcome RNG. The net gain in armor was less than 2%. Using defense % as a mod is a big mistake.
Not all characters benefit in the same way. If the net armor increase was only 2% then defense mods wouldn't be better for that character.
That 2% was for the highest armored character I have. Defense is good for NOBODY. You would need armor of up near 50%. Now, I don't have any tanks maxed, but unless you are telling me gear 10/11 pushes armor up to that level then defense will always be poor. I don't have anyone with armor over 20% pre mods.
Health mods in general, don't do much in my opinion. All six being health mods gives 15% health and all six being defense mods gives 15% defense. Best I've noticed when testing armor increases, the defense bonus will give you 12-13% damage reduction.
Lets say you have 15000 health and 15000 protection. Your enemies have an average damage of 6000. You reduce that 6000 by 12.5%, meaning they only hit for 5250. Then it takes 5.714286 turns to take you down. If you had health mods then you'd have 17250 health and 15000 protection. You wouldn't reduce any of the 6000. Then it takes 5.375 turns to take you down.
You see in this case Defense mod set bonus is better. Adjust the protection, health, and damage numbers however you'd like and defense remains better in every case. In fact, as long as the total damage reduction you get from 15% defense is greater than 7%, you're better off with Defense than Health for mod set bonuses.
Keep in mind as far as primary stats go, you should be getting protection rather than either of these if possible (diamonds are only defense if I'm not mistaken.) I'm talking about mod set bonuses only.
It's a mistake to follow this advise on most characters.
Firstly Armor and Resistance do not increase by 15% on top of your current percentage. I.e my Daka has ended up with left over defence mods (3 full sets) and her armour increased from 9.23% to 12.28%. This includes the 15% set bonus and various primary and secondary stats adding to defence.
I've not done the maths here, but you mention a 7% increase being better than health. For characters to get this, with the 15% set bonus, their armour would have to start with 41%.
I don't know of a character who has this. I've checked a few in my squad and most seem to be between 10%-20%. Therefore the 15% set bonus gives them a 1.5% - 3% bonus.
Health mods in general, don't do much in my opinion. All six being health mods gives 15% health and all six being defense mods gives 15% defense. Best I've noticed when testing armor increases, the defense bonus will give you 12-13% damage reduction.
Lets say you have 15000 health and 15000 protection. Your enemies have an average damage of 6000. You reduce that 6000 by 12.5%, meaning they only hit for 5250. Then it takes 5.714286 turns to take you down. If you had health mods then you'd have 17250 health and 15000 protection. You wouldn't reduce any of the 6000. Then it takes 5.375 turns to take you down.
You see in this case Defense mod set bonus is better. Adjust the protection, health, and damage numbers however you'd like and defense remains better in every case. In fact, as long as the total damage reduction you get from 15% defense is greater than 7%, you're better off with Defense than Health for mod set bonuses.
Keep in mind as far as primary stats go, you should be getting protection rather than either of these if possible (diamonds are only defense if I'm not mistaken.) I'm talking about mod set bonuses only.
If you're talking about mod set bonuses only, you're assuming that all three set bonuses together (15%) will increase your defense stat for another 15%. But that's totally wrong, def is added multiplicative and not additive. So it totally depends on the base def of your character. If your char has e.g. 10% base def, those +15%def set bonus nets you a total of 11.5% defense total. So that is 1.5% damage reduction added, which is far less than your 7% rule. In contrast, health is added additive (as the base stat is absolute and not percentage based), as are also other percentage based base stats (e.g. 10% crit rate/potency/... totally nets +10%).
To have your example become true, the base def must be higher than 50%, which is extremely high. The fact that you have recognized a boost of 12-13% to defense (I really hope you took the numbers and didn't tried to guess those numbers from combat records) may be because the mods you've applied have also secondary stats increasing def.
So long story short, your assumption is wrong, hence the example is wrong and def is the worst bonus you can go for, except you have extreme high base defense. In any other case you're better off with ANY other bonus.
i v been farming health for a while i got good enough jedis to finish t 3 challenge so i guess i got nothing to lose but a bit of energy... slowly working on my jawas
I have been wondering about def vs health mods but I haven't got the jedis for the tier 3 def challenge, so it's a bit of a moot point for me. My concern is that there are many attacks that ignore armor/resistance, so this could have a big impact on mod effectiveness.
Replies
- The difference is negligible when you introduce RNG in the formula.
- No character skills are affected by Defense, but a lot are affected by Health.
- Defense mods are behind Jedi restriction.
- Health and Defense mods are mostly placeholders.
Even if you stack defense on all possible mod primary stats and substats + set bonus, it still has low value, because you can't go very high at the current point in the game (armor gains value the more you have it).
Now if they introduce a character that has some kind of synergy with Defense, its another story.
Alright , that explanation seem pretty clear
Well your 3rd point isn't as strong when you consider a lot of players have farmed 5 Jedi to get Yoda.
A lot of characters that are affected by extra health aren't viable in arena.
Even if both set bonuses are placeholders, it's better to have the superior set bonus when you can.
Make Zader Great Again!
I did this to test the rationale of hiding a seemingly inferior set behind Jedi restrictions. I found it wasn't inferior at all. Until JonVaper brought up the resisting humbling blow point, my tank was going to be using one of thE two, defense or health.
What is your RG's tenacity? I've never seen my QGJ's humbling blow get resisted, only dodged.
Make Zader Great Again!
What does the 1.15 represent in your equation?
X = 1 - {[Protection + Health]/[Protection + (Health*1.15)]}
Also, I noticed on a couple mods that the defense increase in an integer and not a percentage. How does the game handle that calculation? Is it more of a multiplier then?
Yes but that is another story... it would be like saying whales have Empire and they can get Potency, well yes.
Yes again to your second remark, but then, its just arena. Their value increases in GW for example.
And 3rd, people shouldn't be farming either of those post-nerf (unless they are whales AND crazy)
My point is that they provide a ridiculously small upgrade over health, for no good reason besides "I already have Jedi".
I'm not saying "Don't farm defense set". I'm saying that's a waste of resources. That doesn't mean I don't value Defense as a substat.
I rather have extra Health mods for other charaters, than extra defense mods.
But yes people, there is a small increase.
The 1.15 is a 15% increase in Health which 3 sets of Health mods will give you. I was only calculating and comparing defense set bonus, 3 sets actually, versus 3 sets of health mod bonuses.
The 15% isn't added on top of your existing soak. It's added as a percentage of your existing soak. So, for example, my Old Daka has 11.37% physical damage reduction (soak, because armor soaks damage like a sponge) at gear level 8 (all full except the Droid Caller). With six Defense mods attached she is gaining 2.28% soak, for a total of 13.65%.
Including the +Defense% directly provided (as primary or secondary stats) on the mods, she's gaining 23.56% total. 11.37/13.65 doesn't equal 23%, but there's some variance because one mod gives a flat +3 Defense and one of her gear items gives +2 Armor.
There's a distinct numerical value that determines your Armor rating, you gain it from items and any mod effect that says +X Defense (it's also possible some characters have some Armor baked into them to start with, we don't know because this value is hidden now--it was visible before the patch). That rating is then converted into a percentage that's shown in the UI. Anything that increases Defense by a percentage will increase the percentage shown in the UI by that amount, not the flat amount that we don't see. This is why you'll see a big jump in soak when you equip an item that gives +10 Armor compared to something that gives +10% Defense.
Not sure what you mean by "this isn't the case". That 1.15 represents the 15% increase in HEALTH from the sum of 3 health set bonuses: that is a straight multiplicative increase. I get there is some soak happening already. That's gonna happen whether we have health mods or defense mods on. Everything that existing soak accomplishes gets wrapped up in the damage you currently take. That damage is in both equations but as the denominator of both, so it's multiplied out. That X is the INCREASE IN ARMOR % needed to make defense mod bonus better than health mod bonus, not the actual armor %.
So using that equation, if you see AN INCREASE OF X or more in your armor %, then defense mod bonus is better.
Defense % does not increase armor % by the displayed amount, you have to check the screen that shows stat differences after you equip the defense % mod or get the bonus from having the sets.
The armor % increase is different for everyone, and the resistance % increase is likely different than the armor % increase. Neither will be as high as the defense % increase.
You have to check the increases against X in the equation. If X is lower than the armor % increase, as a percentage not nominally, you observe, then defense is better.
In addition to that, the mod's primary stat can often be more important that the set bonus you receive. For example, you might get +10 speed from a set bonus, but if a single mod provides +30 speed (even though it's part of a defense set, or whatever), then obviously it's better to simply have the single mod than the set bonus.
Going back to the original comparison of health vs. defense mods, you probably just want to give defense mods to characters that already have high defense and often get defense-up, whereas you probably want to give health mods to characters that already have high health.
It assume 15% defense decreases damage by 15%. It doesn't. It increases current damage mitigation by 15%. So if an attack was doing 10,000, and a character was mitigating 2500 of that, they will now mitigate 2875 of that. A mere 375 damage saved on an example with a character that has high defense on a decently powerful attack. Defense % is worthless. Flat defense is decent as a secondary stat.
Example
Base maxed Chewbacca
Armor = 13.04%
Resistance = 14.41%
Add 11.5% defense thru mods
Armor = 14.41%
Resistance = 15.85%
Add +9 defense thru mods
Armor = 14.16%
Resistance = 15.49%
Add +11 defense thru mods
Armor = 15.01%
Resistance = 16.32%
So based on those numbers I could add ~ +16 defense via secondary stats and get a better boost than using 6 level 15 defense mods.
You may also notice that armor and resistance don't go up by the same amount with the add which goes back to I believe they are still flat numerical numbers that are somehow converted into a %.
@Bulldog1205 It absolutely does not assume what you just claimed. I've made it clear where that 1.15 is coming from and it may be beneficial for you all that are having trouble with the assumptions to actually read with the intent on comprehending what has been written. If you are certain the claims are as you say, show where I wrote that.
If you continue to have issues, read all of my posts not just the first one. Any further misunderstandings you may have are likely a disconnect with the math, so maybe triple read the equations.
The only assumption is that armor % reduces physical damage by the % it is rated. Nothing is assumed about what the defense % increase is doing. You'll need to check what it's doing to armor % and compare that to X (as a %, so X=.0697 is 6.97%.)
Whatever is happening can be observed by placing a defense mod on and then looking how armor % and resistance % has changed. This change is what we are interested in, not the mystical defense to armor % formula. We don't need the intermediate steps when the results are given.
Compare armor % increase to X.
I'm comparing, all other thing equal, health mod set bonus versus defense mod set bonus. If you have sweet health mods, then use them. If you've got a sweet crit damage up mod and have no intent on completing a set, but it's got a +30 speed bonus, you'll likely want to use it.
But magine every main and secondary stat on your mods are identical, you are just choosing which set bonus is better: health or defense. You know, like you don't have any mods at all and you're choosing which to do. I've given a way to see which is better, and it's more often than not defense.
I just wish they would switch armor and resistance back to the flat number it was so you could easily calculate how the mods will affect the stat instead of the add and see method.
Yeah, that would eliminate a somewhat tedious step.
Not all characters benefit in the same way. If the net armor increase was only 2% then defense mods wouldn't be better for that character.
That 2% was for the highest armored character I have. Defense is good for NOBODY. You would need armor of up near 50%. Now, I don't have any tanks maxed, but unless you are telling me gear 10/11 pushes armor up to that level then defense will always be poor. I don't have anyone with armor over 20% pre mods.
It's a mistake to follow this advise on most characters.
Firstly Armor and Resistance do not increase by 15% on top of your current percentage. I.e my Daka has ended up with left over defence mods (3 full sets) and her armour increased from 9.23% to 12.28%. This includes the 15% set bonus and various primary and secondary stats adding to defence.
I've not done the maths here, but you mention a 7% increase being better than health. For characters to get this, with the 15% set bonus, their armour would have to start with 41%.
I don't know of a character who has this. I've checked a few in my squad and most seem to be between 10%-20%. Therefore the 15% set bonus gives them a 1.5% - 3% bonus.
This is not true! As I've written here: https://forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com/discussion/comment/571292/#Comment_571292.
If you're talking about mod set bonuses only, you're assuming that all three set bonuses together (15%) will increase your defense stat for another 15%. But that's totally wrong, def is added multiplicative and not additive. So it totally depends on the base def of your character. If your char has e.g. 10% base def, those +15%def set bonus nets you a total of 11.5% defense total. So that is 1.5% damage reduction added, which is far less than your 7% rule. In contrast, health is added additive (as the base stat is absolute and not percentage based), as are also other percentage based base stats (e.g. 10% crit rate/potency/... totally nets +10%).
To have your example become true, the base def must be higher than 50%, which is extremely high. The fact that you have recognized a boost of 12-13% to defense (I really hope you took the numbers and didn't tried to guess those numbers from combat records) may be because the mods you've applied have also secondary stats increasing def.
So long story short, your assumption is wrong, hence the example is wrong and def is the worst bonus you can go for, except you have extreme high base defense. In any other case you're better off with ANY other bonus.