Deflection

Learn how the Deflection armor trait in Tyranny works, how it affects combat, and its importance compared to other stats like Finesse and Spectral Blur.

Hey there! Let's talk about a really neat defensive mechanic in Tyranny called Deflection. Think of it as your armor's way of saying 'nope' to incoming attacks. Basically, it gives you a percentage chance that any attack aimed at you gets downgraded. So, a critical hit might just become a regular hit, a regular hit could turn into a graze, and a graze might just miss entirely.

Now, some specific items might only mess with one type of downgrading, but the general Deflection you find on armor usually applies to all of them. It's a pretty sweet deal for staying alive.

You might remember that Finesse used to be a huge deal for this, especially back before patch 1.1. It used to add its deflection bonus to each piece of armor you wore, which was pretty wild. Now, it's just a flat bonus, which is a bit more balanced. It's still worth investing in, but honestly, things like Spectral Blur can give you even more deflection these days, and that's saying something!

So, how much does this actually help? If we're talking about a character with no armor facing an enemy with a similar accuracy, you can figure that each point of Deflection you stack will knock off about half a point of net damage in the long run. So, if you see +4% Deflection, that's roughly like getting -2% damage taken over time. Armor can make this effect even more dramatic, but it gives you a decent ballpark to start with.

Here's a cool little quirk: a character with high Deflection can actually do *better* against heavily armored enemies using two-handed weapons than a dedicated tank might. Why? Well, those two-handed weapons can dish out a ton of damage, especially with special abilities. Heavy armor is good at reducing damage, sure, but when Deflection downgrades a massive 50-damage hit down to a 25-damage graze, or even turns it into a complete miss, that can totally outshine the damage reduction from heavy armor (which usually caps out pretty low anyway). The catch, though, is that this damage mitigation relies heavily on luck. So, while it's great for your overall damage taken in the long run, expect some moments where you'll suddenly take a huge chunk of damage all at once.