Champions Online : Ask Cryptic

         Can we take multiple defense sets, or mix max between them? (Steamtank)

         Defense is going to come from several different sources. The first of which is your gear. Whether it’s that your vest is made of Kevlar, or some sort of nano-gear, or you’re shielded by your heroic certainty. That’s not the majority of your defense, though. The majority comes from your choice of defensive powers. The defensive powers in the game have been reworked such that while they can stack, they all have differing areas of coverage. For example, the Forcefield defensive power is extremely strong at the start of a fight, but it will wear down and weaken during the course of that fight. Conversely regeneration will ramp up in effectiveness, being a very slow heal as you’re first getting wounded, but the more times you get hit, the faster you’ll regenerate – up to a certain cap. Similarly Invulnerability and Lightning Reflexes are on their own axis. Also, every defense has an active power, a button you can press on a cool down which gives you an extra little burst of defensiveness. All of these powers have a certain amount of inherent strength, and they’re also going to be driven by your stats. No two defenses use the same stats. While there is some stacking, because the defense powers all have different areas of specialty coverage and are all pumped up by different stats, you’ll never be able to get maximum protection from all of them at the same time. This is our inherent balancing factor.