Model's Defense stat by faction - who's the worst? Who's the best?

[nix]

In the Calmdown - Malifaux suggestions thread there was a comment made that really intrigued me. The comment was:

For thematic reasons Ressers tend to be very easy to hit (we have almost universally terrible Df scores across the board), but somewhat resilient as we have slightly above average wounds for point total, and Hard to wound as the sop to prevent cheating and to make up for low df.

I will admit that this just adds to my Reser-curiosity appearance as a number of recent activities have. In addition, I started to wonder not only how accurate this statement was, but also who was the best/worst from a faction standpoint.

Thankfully Rotating Panda has an amazing thread he named Malifaux by the Number. I emailed with RP a bit and he shared some of the numbers with me. I dug through them and here is what I found:

On Defense for just minions:

Faction	Avg Df	High Df	Low Df
Neverborn	4.89	Candy, Kade (7)	Bad JuJu (3)
Arcanist	4.74	Coryphee Duet (7)	Ice Golem (2)
Resurrectionists	4.45	Bete (7)	Mindless Zombie (2)
Outcasts	4.34	Bishop, Piglet (6)	Pigapult (1), Desolation Engine (2)
Guild	4.27	Witchling Handler (6)	Executioner, Guardian, Lawyer, Ryle (3)

So, by averaged Res are actually right in the middle of the pack. I found it interesting that Guild was at the bottom, but they also have far fewer outliers overall to drag the total up or down.

That made me want to look at just counts. How many models were at which defense in the faction:

Faction	Df 1 or 2	Df 3	Df 4	Df 5	Df 6 or 7
Arcanist	1	4	7	10	9
Guild	0	4	12	9	1
Neverborn	0	1	10	10	7
Outcast	2	3	16	18	2
Resurrectionist	1	4	8	14	2

This look I found to be the most interesting in terms of the original comment. In reality, Resers have the second highest number of Df 5 models in the game, behind outcasts. Thier distribution is actually at the higher end of defense across thier models, compared to other factions.

So, after reading through all that and looking at the numbers, here is a quick question for the community. Do these numbers line up with your feelings about your chosen faction? Were you surprised by anything in here?

[Sliver Chocobo]

There's more to defence that just the stat

[nix]

Fair enough, the comment that spurred my thoughts was very specific about the stat however.

[Fastenhate]

There's more to defence that just the stat

I would ammend that to "There's more to reducing income damage than just the stat."

In a lot of situations a high Df is just plain better. When attacks have on hit effects (i.e. slow, poison, paralysis, ignore armor, gaining counters, kill triggers, etc.) getting that miss is huge.

Yes, hard to wound, armor, spirit and the other defensive factors are all usefull but when a fast or melee expert model gets miss, miss, miss that can be a game changer.

Not to mention chain paralysis. Paralysis is so powerful and low defense models have no answer but to stay away.

[RotatingPanda]

This is a great idea for a thread ;)

I'm honestly surprised to see Arcanists with the most high Df models. It's funny as this kind of reinforces my feelings on Df: when I see a 4, I think "Huh, average" but when I see a 5, I think it's decent. Anything above that always strikes me as "exceptional."

[nilus]

These numbers tell me that I can start complaining about Guilds poor defense

[Gruesome]

These numbers tell me that I can start complaining about Guilds poor defense

Defense and red jokers are OURS! Find your own thing to whine about.

And my perception of rezzer defense is much more valid in my head than any stupid math...

[RotatingPanda]

With all the Stubborn and Fear Not Death floating around The Guild, I think their defensive strength is supposed to be their Willpower. Plus, with so much ranged fire power throughout, they can take relatively easy advantage of cover.

[Sliver Chocobo]

I would ammend that to "There's more to reducing income damage than just the stat."

In a lot of situations a high Df is just plain better. When attacks have on hit effects (i.e. slow, poison, paralysis, ignore armor, gaining counters, kill triggers, etc.) getting that miss is huge.

Yes, hard to wound, armor, spirit and the other defensive factors are all usefull but when a fast or melee expert model gets miss, miss, miss that can be a game changer.

Not to mention chain paralysis. Paralysis is so powerful and low defense models have no answer but to stay away.

I wasn't thinking of that
Zoriadia and lucius give to the Cb of any attacker
Tuco has a spell to gain this effect
A few models can't be targets by ranged spell
Lilith has a trigger that reduces the Cb of an attacker that misses her

[Korrosion]

Seeing two book 1 models tied for the highest defense in Neverborn surprised me. Same for the Outcasts.