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Balance

Defence Reduction

Review signals

Start with the scale and shape of the thread before reading the asks.

136 Messages excluding OP
22 Participants unique contributors
30 Reactions thread total
6 Primary asks Balance Change

Summary and sentiment

The short read before diving into the detailed asks and evidence.

Overall summary

Players are overwhelmingly asking for a hard cap on Defence Reduction (DR), which can currently stack beyond 100% in PvP, making builds functionally immortal. The debate is primarily about where the cap should sit (30–70%) and whether Bulwarks or class skills should receive exceptions.

A secondary concern is that DR is not the only stat enabling unkillable builds — armor, Blitz Tactics OS, and DR-reducing debuffs all interact in ways players find opaque and unbalanced.

Sentiment read

Most participants agree that DR needs a cap, making this one of the less contentious feedback threads.

However, sentiment is frustrated rather than constructive: players feel the problem is obvious and overdue for a fix, and late-thread commentary (Ventz and Lani) predicts balance changes won't arrive until after December and expresses concern about the Steam release.

The minority position — held mainly by Caelan — argues that existing DR-reduction tools (scans, bleeds, target acquisition) are underutilised counters rather than proof the stat is broken, which generates pushback but also some genuine educational exchange.

A small thread of discussion about whether DR and Armor are redundant stats reflects a deeper systemic concern that goes beyond a simple number cap.

Primary asks

Actionable requests extracted from the synthesis.

#01
Balance

Implement a hard cap on Defence Reduction (commonly suggested at 50–70%)

Raised by
Skiepher
Echoed by
Rezo, JB, Ventz, ||Shadow||, Kye, Viscera, R3N, Unidos
#02
Balance

Apply class-specific DR caps — Bulwarks allowed higher cap (e.g. 70%) when shielded from the front; other specs capped lower

Raised by
Ventz
Echoed by
LaClown, JB
#03
Balance

DR cap should apply to gear/skill chips only, with skill-granted DR stacking on top of the cap

Raised by
JB
Echoed by
Ventz
#04
Balance

Apply consistent PvP stat normalisation across all specs, not just DR in isolation — cap damage output alongside survivability (e.g. Vanguard double-barrel, Medic healing, Pharma aggro)

Raised by
El Gato
Echoed by
Dyanizuses, Chewbarka
#05
Bug / Balance

Remove DR reduction from percentage-based damage sources (bleed, poison) — those should bypass DR

Raised by
Ventz
Echoed by
Caelan
#06
Rework

Replace or merge the dual damage-reduction stats (DR + Armor) into a clearer single system, or remove DR from gear entirely and rely only on skill/talent sources

Raised by
Ventz (raised the redundancy question)
Echoed by
Lani (proposed removing DR from gear rolls)

Community voices

Representative comments preserved from the synthesis.

Voice 01 Discord message
Yes, DR needs to be capped. This game should not allow for builds where a player be indefinitely immortal regardless of how much damage is applied to them.
JB Jun 3, 2026
Why it matters

Cleanest statement of the core problem; sets the tone for nearly all subsequent discussion.

Voice 02 Discord message
If you want nerf DR, you should also nerf the damage cap of Vanguard's double barrel, Aegis' extra health on PvP, or medic's constant healing amount
Dyanizuses Jun 3, 2026
Why it matters

Raises the important caveat that DR cannot be addressed in isolation without distorting other class balance relationships.

Voice 03 Discord message
PvP in resurgence has hit rockbottom for me. My DPS is currently 2 mil, and there are moments where it's just impossible for me to take down a tank (with broken OS protocols) in DZ. You don't even need any pvp skills or good build knowledge when you can just build your class around DR, with barely any DPS or anything like that
Viscera Jun 10, 2026 4 reactions
Why it matters

One of the most emotive and widely-agreed-with messages; underscores how DR removes skill expression from PvP.

Voice 04 Discord message
Hard cap it at 60 as others suggested
Skiepher Jun 3, 2026 2 reactions
Why it matters

First explicit numeric cap proposal; the 60% figure becomes the rough consensus floor.

Dev notes

Editorial synthesis for developer review.

The consensus in this thread is unusually clear for a balance discussion: virtually every participant agrees that DR should be capped, and there are almost no voices defending the status quo.

The disagreement is procedural — where exactly should the cap sit, and should Bulwark (and to a lesser extent Medic) receive class-specific exceptions above that floor?

The range proposed spans from 30% (@chewybarka) to 70–80% (@ventz_arctic for Bulwark-shielded specifically), with the practical consensus landing around 60% as a baseline.

The class-exception framing — cap gear-sourced DR but let skill-granted DR from class abilities exceed it — is the most technically coherent proposal and is endorsed by multiple participants.

A secondary issue deserves attention: players are frustrated by the opacity of two overlapping survivability stats. DR reduces incoming damage before Armor reduces final damage, and neither stat has documented breakpoints or interaction clarity in-game. Several players discovered interaction rules (e. g.

bleed/poison damage also being reduced by DR; DR debuffs not affecting Armor) mid-thread rather than from in-game documentation. This suggests a tooltip and stat-communication problem alongside the balance problem.

The thread also surfaces a related balance concern developers should note: the "Pharma aggro bug" mentioned by @caelancromwell grants Bulwarks full invulnerability to all damage except poison, which is a separate and apparently critical bug that sits outside this thread's scope but is directly related.

From a dev perspective, the immediate ask is straightforward: introduce a hard DR cap (likely in the 60–70% range with class skill exceptions) and ensure DR-reduction debuffs (scan, bleed, target acquisition) function meaningfully even against high-DR targets.

Players have also implicitly asked for clearer stat documentation. The broader systemic concern — that capping DR without addressing other over-performing mechanics creates new imbalances — is well-articulated and should inform the sequencing of balance changes.