Caster defenses still terrible

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For defenses, I played until lvl 85 with full dodge + acro + phase acro + MoM + AA + endu charges, and warlord's mark on a Herald of Thunder COH.

By having to go into all of these you have proven that caster defense is awful.
As an archer I won't go into MoM or endurance charges.
As a marauder/melee templar I won't go into MoM or acro (under normal circumstances).
As a int based caster I can and will be expected to go to both the str and dex sides of the tree in order to get a sufficient amount of defense.

yeah, it's like if you are playing other builds you get to specialize, but if you are a caster that's not max block then you need to do ALL of the things. Which just means you don't really have good options and are forced to do everything as a last resort.

We'll go take a look at defenses available, referencing Jennik's character.

First, Helm Links.
Incinerate Totem... With absolutely no utility whatsoever.
You could easily use a Blind Gem here and increase the survivability of your character by a lot. Decreased chance to hit and critical chance. That's just 1 Gem.

Weapon Link, Movement.
No Comment, Every Build Knows Movement is Important.

Shield Link, Flammability...
This is another problem, especially in Tempest. Enfeeble is one of the strongest curses defensively. Even at a low level on a CWDT setup, this is incredibly effective. This was used by Etup in his character.

Almost everyone and their mother is using an Immortal Call Setup, even with variable amounts of Endurance Charges, they would still use this.


So, even taking a look at those things, we see the problem. You're not taking advantage of double curses, which are considered caster defenses. (Since we're extremely near the Whispers of Doom Notable.)

Temporal Chains + Enfeeble, I brought it up, the response was it's clunky. It takes a 4L to easily apply this to a pack in one click. That's a 4 Link I'm willing to invest in.

Arctic Armor, the reasoning was no Dex. Well, sucks for you. Arctic Armor is amazing at mitigating when you get stunned, and when you're casting spells. This is where most casters are vulnerable. Almost everyone wants to use this because it's that good. This was traditionally something used by casters.

Vaal Grace - Wonderful Panic button for Boxes and Bosses.

Abyssal Cry's usefulness is to Kite Melee. When combined with Temp Chains and Chilling Ground, you basically make them move/attack to a standstill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQvyZNoKD84
While it won't be as good, getting a reasonable amount of investment in curses does make the difference.

for 2 4 Links, you'll get this much reduction:
30% Movement Reduction
30% Attack Speed Reduction
30% Cast Speed Reduction
50% Less Critical Strike Chance
50% Less Hit
This from Chill and Blind

27% Less Damage
25% Less Critical Strike Chance % Multiplier
30% Less Hit
23% Less Movement Reduction
23% Less Attack Speed Reduction
23% Less Cast Speed Reduction
Level 10 Enfeeble and Temporal Chains

Apparently, these two stacks additively. You basically reduce most monsters down to babies at this point.

If you want to go overkill, you can do the traditional Physical Damage Reduction 4L
This leaves you 2 3 Links for utility, 1 which is used by Movement, the other you can run Vaal Grace, Arctic Armor and Clarity.

If you use Flame Dash as your movement skill, you can also throw in your Golem into the mix, or attach him to your CWDT IC setup.

How many buttons do you have? 1 for Movement, 1 for Curse on Hit, 1 for Enduring Cry, 1 for your Main Skill.

CWDT-GMP-Arctic Breath-Blind
CWDT-CoH-Enfeeble-Temporal Chains
CWDT-IC-Chaos Golem-Enduring Cry
Lightning Warp-Reduced Duration-Faster Casting
Arctic Armor-Vaal Grace-Clarity

There's your defensive setup. If you have this much mitigation, you need a good buffer for it. That is what MoM and ES do, they're giant buffers that let you soak damage, but you have to generate mitigation from playstyle+gear and links.

This is without a Cloak of Flame or Taste of Hate. You'll still also have some armor if you're running AR-ES pieces. You'll still have block chance from your Shield. You'll still have granite. If this doesn't help you.

How does this setup help versus Rakango. The Tail Bursts will come out at a crawling pace, making them easy to land. You cannot tank a lot of them, not even Melee can do this well.

Stop complaining, or at least reword your complaints. There's an ES/CI Complaint Thread which I would agree it's a problem. Don't label this as caster defenses having a problem, since casters have a lot of options. MoM+AA is better now since we have an AA that reduces far more than old AA did.

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I use lightning warp around bosses/mobs so AA always on when it matters so to me AA is tons better. I run in open field with my 41ms
here is example
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEeQ1L04NR8&t=4m43s

I like MS as much as anyone else and usually have boots with 30 on them but you have to adapt to use AA to fullest. About the only way AA is worse is no move speed bonus on quality anymore. Its almost like Fortify for casters otherwise. Just awesome!