Weapon Defense vs. Damage Taken

Primarily percentage skills will always be the best way to reduce damage... the reason they're effective is that they reduce a percent of the total.

True, but combining the two, armor and buffs, has greater results. I read, back on SW, about a warrior who had 707 w.def, unbuffed (very possible with shield mastery). Now, combine this with powerguard and achilles. I bet the three combined could reduce Skelegon touch damage to 1k or even slightly under, assuming the 3.3k I hear sauna robe users take is accurate. Now, I dare anyone here to prove to me, mathematically, that taking 1/3 of the usual damage won't save a lot of money on potions and therefore allowing you to have much higher funding available to get godly weapons and armor. *waits patiently*

Might as well post numbers here...
Lv.38 Fighter against Street Slimes, 191~198 str (White Baseball Cap = +2 str, Fireman's Axe = +7 str)
3 wdef - Versalmas Hat, Black Strap Shoes, Maple Flag:
110-114 damage
64 wdef - White Baseball Cap, Silver Fitted Mail, Black Strap Shoes, Lionheart:
77-81 damage
97 wdef - Brown Bamboo Hat, Silver Fitted Mail, Black Strap Shoes, Lionheart:
59-64 damage
99 wdef - Mithril Full Helm, Sapphire Fitted Mail, Red Snowshoes, Lionheart:
58-62 damage
145 wdef - Brown Bamboo Hat, Sapphire Fitted Mail, Red Snowshoes, Fireman's Axe, Red Cross Shield:
33-37 damage

Thank you for posting these. I'm still unsure if Str really does anything in damage reduction, having not tested, but you still demonstrated something important: who can argue with taking less damage? The typical dexless assassin or Lukless mage, for example, lands around the 70 w.def range, assuming they have a bamboo hat, sauna and showshoes. Also, 145 w/def is actually low for a 35-40 1h warrior (lol bamboo hat, a great helm can add up to the same amount of str or dex if found as a drop, I think, at around 20 def more) and there's no mention of gloves either.

I'll be happy to contribute statistics around the mid-levels range (4x-6x) once I return to GMS from my testing in a private server. I'd contribute numbers from there, but since it isn't hosted by Nexon the numbers may be unreliable, or at least highly scrutinized (I'm nearly certain it's all the same formulas but I have no way of proving it)

No, that actually used to be the case. They changed the formula some time after 3rd job came out, I don't remember precisely when.

I knew about that, but the keywords here are "used to be." 3rd job came out... what, 2 years ago? I joined one year ago and 3rd had apparently already been out for a long time. You'd think that YEARS would be enough for people to realize, "Oh, that's wrong, maybe I should stop telling this guy who likes his armor that he's full of pomegranate, that I should stop KSing him for not wearing a sauna, etc." It gets really annoying....