Vara's Defensio Guide

[vara]

DEFENSIO

So you’re interested in Defensio?
Defensio is the support/tank based Machina. Specializing in Defense, she protects her friends from enemies then shuts them down with powerful pinpoint attacks.

Unlike other tanks (Paladin/Destroyer), she needs you to constantly spam [Taunting Blow] to maintain aggro. By making use of [Gear Step] and [Overboost] you can constantly be able to provoke your enemies.

Using [Fly-by] will be the basis of tanking bosses that move often. You can cancel out of [Fly-by] early by using [Air-Shoving], [Beat Down], [Repair], [Man to Man], and [Beyond the Wall].

In order to get Steam as a Defensio, you’re going to have to either use [Overclocking], the manual steam gain, or spam [Air Shoving] and [Beyond the Wall]. Defensio no longer gains steam from [Gear Step]s.

➤ agi-based class
➤ medium-high learning curve
➤ close-combat heavy
➤ relies on gear step & steam

➤ machina skills ★ will only be noting important/useful base tree skills!

• [Body Check]
Machina’s right-click attack that can be later utilized for [Ducking] as a Ruina.
• [Fly-by]
Your super traveling skill! It can be activated by your spacebar during a tumble. It can also be activated by charging up after using [Bounding Reaction]. When you hit something while passing by with [Fly-by], it will trigger [Rolling Attack]..
• Dash
This is actually a whole lot more useful than Fly-by. Get them both!
• [Charging Gear]
This is super important for Ruina as this is actually part of your 45 skill, [Overcharging]. Not that important for Defensio.
• [Lariat]
This can be used in [Fly-by] by pressing your right mouse button and gets a 50% damage boost by doing so. There is also a boosted effected at lv 6.
• [Overhaul]
Machina’s main party buff that gives a 10% FD buff.

[indent]➤ machina mechanics[indent]

The most unique thing about Machina is the mechanic called [Gear Step]. There are 3 different [Gear Step] trees: [Foot Stomping], [Step Up], and [Rockaway]. They are restricted to utilizing [Ducking], but have the ability to switch between different [Gear Steps].

• [Ducking]
Machina’s infamous boxer-style pose and most important for [Gear Step]. After initiating any of the 3 [Gear Steps], immediately initiate by using your spacebar to enter [Ducking]. This decreases the cooldown of your [Gear Steps] to continuously use over and over again when you have maxed it. You can also initiate after using [Body Check].
• [Foot Stomping]
Initiate by pressing your left mouse button in [Ducking]. You can use your skill commands to connect with [Flow Up] by pressing your left mouse button or [Flow Through] by pressing your right mouse button. A 5-second 15% action speed buff is applied.
• [Step Up]
Initiate by pressing spacebar in [Ducking]. You can use your skill commands to connect with [Beatdown] by pressing your left mouse button or [Leaping Over] by pressing your right mouse button. A 5-second 15% action speed buff is applied.
• [Rockaway]
Initiate by pressing your right mouse button in [Ducking]. You can use your skill commands to connect with [Flying Knee Kick] by pressing your left mouse button or [Kidney Blow] by pressing your right mouse button. A 5-second 15% action speed buff is applied.

[vara]

Like most of class-based bubble systems, Machina’s is uniquely called [Steam]. [Steam] can be stacked up to 20. The most important use of [Steam] is for Pressure Release, Machina’s self-buff.

[Pressure Release(Defense)] for Defensio
• FD +10%
• Action Speed +15%
• Magic Defense 22%

1. Steam is only gained through Gear Steps
   • Defensio also gains steam through Beyond the Wall and Aerial Parry
   • 2 Steam per Gear Step.
     • Ruina gets 3 steam IF you land your gear step and it does damage.
2. Steam now caps at 20.
   • The only requirement to use Pressure Release is 1 steam.
     • Therefore you can cast steam after using ONE gear step.
     • Pressure Release's CD can only be reduced through CD reduction buffs (Such as sorceress) or Auto-repair.
       • To counter this, there is a new mechanic I will name Pressure Release Instant. (NOT OFFICIAL IN ANY WAY)
3. Steam's stat gains have been moved over to Class Mastery.
4. Ruina STILL gets reduced CD on EX skills when buff is active and gear step is landed.

Pressure Release Instant

Upon reaching 20 Steam, all three Gear Steps will turn yellow. By activating a Gear Step (whether by hotkey or through comboing), Pressure Release is automatically cast, with a 10 second cooldown.

• For example, you use Step Up, you now have 2 steam.
• You cast Pressure Release, you now have the buff activated. Pressure Release is now on CD. (45sec or 60sec, depending)
• You spam/combo Gear Steps until you have 20 steam. You activate a gear step.
• The buff refreshes, even if Pressure Release is on CD.

Builds&Skills

SKELETON BUILD

PERSONAL BUILD

The main skills a Defensio gets are:
[Beat Down & EX] [Step Up] into left-click is this skill’s shortcut. Beat Down is your main DPS skill. It sits on a 14 second cooldown and gives you a lot of air time. Think of it like a Dark Avenger’s Fatal Impact. Learning the EX grants you more air time, a small suction effect, and more damage. It can be used to dodge stomps and other ground hits. You can click out of the EX charging to land it early.

[Leaping Over & EX] [Step Up] into right-click is this skill’s short cut. This is some sort of Rising Storm dolphin kick. Learning the EX grants a suction effect and additional damage to the suction, but in return you’re stuck charging the skill longer. However, you can now click out of this early. You get damage reduction while charging the EX. You can change direction with your camera and the turn key at certain points of the cast. By hitting spacebar, you can cancel out of the leap early and chain it into Air-Shoving or Beyond the Wall or any other aerial move.

[Aerial Parry & EX] When you cast this skill and are hit, you shoot out a number of circles that grant anyone that steps in them an HP-regen buff and the EX adds an additional circle as well as 20% damage reduction for 8 seconds. The downside to this is that you have to actually get hit to proc the circles. Walking back into a circle refreshes your buff.

[Beyond the Wall & EX] The Machina version of Guardian Force and Empowering Howl, however this skill only hits a small area around you. The upside is that it’s only on a 10 second cooldown. The downside is that it only lasts 10 seconds. You can only use this in the air, and you must left-click to activate it after cast. This will then send you backward some distance but can be counteracted by clicking or casting Beat Down, Repair, or Air Shoving.
In addition to granting you a bubble (20% of the caster's HP, max&unteched), BtW also increases your physical defense by 40% of your physical attack power for the same duration. Learning the EX adds 20% damage reduction. It can be CD plated to become an 8 second cooldown.
TSuper Armor mechanic of this skill has been removed.

[Man to Man] Your ultimate! Provides damage reduction to your party (not yourself) as long as they’re in the giant-ass circle. Reduces incoming damage by 30% at level 2, and increases your defenses by 20%.

[Repair] Repair is a 22 second cooldown miracle drug. It cures yourself of 10 debuffs, has a 0.5second iframe, and reduces the CD of all your skills by 7 seconds, including Repair itself. Plate it and it’s only a 17.6 second cooldown. (reduced to 10.6 when you actually cast it)

[Taunting Blow & EX] The Defensio’s 50. Use this skill to punch an enemy and mark it, then right-click to explode it off. It will provoke the target for 10 seconds, but you only have a short period of time to activate the explosion. The EX increases the duration to 15 seconds. You can stack the mark multiple times and explode them all at once, as long as it’s within the 10-15 seconds of duration.

[Class Mastery II] aka Beat Down EX Instant. Using Beyond the Wall can activate Beat Down EXi, which does not share cooldown with the regular cast. When you press the yellow-framed Beat Down hotkey, you must left-click to activate the hit.
You can see how this works, here.

Gearing
Stack Vitality and HP to maximize your bubble buff and survivability.
Attack comes from Agility.

Skill Crests
• Beat Down + Damage
• Leaping Over + Damage
• Repair - CD
• Taunting Blow - CD

Optional crests to consider:
• Rockaway - DMG you too can be a ducking spammer for dps!
• Man to Man - CD Ulti/Damage reduction, reduces the CD by 25 seconds!
• Beyond the Wall - CD Makes it a 10 sec duration on an 8 sec cooldown, it might help. And since your instant is now proc’ed off of this, wouldn’t hurt!

Gameplay
For Tanking;
As stated earlier, Defensio gameplay relies heavily on a constant barrage of [Taunting Blow], the provoke, if you want to play as a tank. The provoke and the bubble, [Beyond the Wall], both have a duration of 10 seconds, and a cooldown of 10 seconds. To alleviate this, there is [Repair] that reduces all CDs. You’ll want to rotate [Repair] between [Taunting Blow]s and [Beyond the Wall]s.
If a target runs out of your reach, you should then utilize [Fly-by] or Dash to reach the target. You can use [Repair], [Air-Shoving], [Man to Man], and [Beyond the Wall] to cancel out early.

For DPS, Machina generally relies on the [Gear Step] system, which is pretty much the same as Ruina without the steam gain.

For both, you can gain damage by comboing any skill into Charging Gear, for a large amount of damage. Taunting Blow is probably the easiest one to do, but you'll want to do it off Beat Down and Leaping Over if you can.

A basic combo that can be used in both situations is as follows:
Stomp Shuffle -> leftclick Follow Up -> Taunting Blow (into leftclicks) -> Autorepair -> Taunting Blow (into leftclicks again) ->
Step Up -> leftclick Beat Down -> Charging Gear -> Spacebar x2 (back to stepup) -> rightclick Twister Kick -> spacebar cancel into Beyond the Wall/Beat Down EXi (into leftclicks) ->
Refresh Follow Up -> Taunting Blow -> right click -> repair -> taunting blow -> right click.

[vara]

December 2016 Steam Revamp

Upon reaching 20 Steam, all three Gear Steps will turn yellow. By activating a Gear Step (whether by hotkey or through comboing), Pressure Release is automatically cast, with a 10 second cooldown.

• For example, you use Step Up, you now have 2 steam.
• You cast Pressure Release, you now have the buff activated. Pressure Release is now on CD. (45sec or 60sec, depending)
• You spam/combo Gear Steps until you have 20 steam. You activate a gear step.
• The buff refreshes, even if Pressure Release is on CD.
  • previously you could do this infinitely, but a recent bugfix tacked on a 10 second cooldown.

Defensio also got some small buffs.
Taunting Blow now automatically detonates after the 15second duration if you do not right click it manually.
It works as it normally does, with this added feature tacked onto the end.

Leave any questions and if you want me to record anything specific, I will try my best to get it done.

[vara]

resrsfsdereved just in case

[MisterLuck]

Sorry if I'm posting but I have a question! Does strike of martyr actually have to be level three? I noticed that from 1-2 the defense and damage reduction increases but by level 3 it only increases in damage by 200%, is there something I'm missing?
Also if you use taunting blow, is it possible to detonate a few seconds after or right after you give a mark? I guess it doesn't matter because you can explode then repair and leave that mark there right?
P.S. I remember this guide! So lovey C:

[vara]

martyr does not have to be 3, correct. free point to use wherever. i have corrected this in the skeleton build.
taunting blow has a very small frame of detonation, i'm not sure exactly the number of seconds. if you're using it as a tank, it's best to chain it into leftclicks for the damage transfer and ignore the detonate. i've noticed it's buggy sometimes.

[Elscud]

Why ignore the Stomping line completely?

[Kumo]

Wondering this as well, the main use of stomp is on using it and then cancelling it with taunting blow, it just takes 1 frame and you get the action speed buff it shouldn't be ignored imo.

[vara]

It does nothing for me. I can get the buff through step up. If you want it, get it.

Step up -> taunting cancel -> charging gear combo into repair -> stepup into twister -> spacebar into btw into beatdown exi

[Patrache]

Hey Vara,

Im sure you must of noticed by now but Strike of the Martyr seems to Buff yourself as well now. Im not sure what this means tbh. Does this mean we get the damage reduction as well?

[Aisuru]

Strike of the Martyr self buffs which means that we take reduced damage but also share the damage that other people take... at a reduced rate I assume.

[vara]

Hey Vara,

Im sure you must of noticed by now but Strike of the Martyr seems to Buff yourself as well now. Im not sure what this means tbh. Does this mean we get the damage reduction as well?

I haven't noticed this cause I haven't really used it yet, but if so I'd hope it means what Aisuru said :thinking:

[Insyni]

Do you know if there is any point in charging "Charging Gear" if you're already in point blank range? (aka does the damage scale if you charge it longer?)

[vara]

charging it longer all you do is *POTENTIALLY* get more hits. the hit box is worse at full charge imo, but if you're lucky you can get more hits. i usually just release it immediately unless i have the time for a full charge... also if repair is off cooldown you might as well just charge lul

[bahrulveru]

If I use Taunting Blow then Right Click, will the enemy still provoked ?

[Hanakarasu]

I don't believe so.

[Patrache]

Depending on when you explode taunting blow, you could still have aggro for a few seconds because you obtain it when you land the skill, but the moment explode you lose the provoke debuff so it would be very easy for another teammate to get aggro instead.

[vara]

yeah i wouldnt explode it. you'll get more damage off if you link it into charging gear anyway

[MoonPunch]

Should I use any tech accessories ?

[vara]

unless you're using something like legendary rings, techs are nice for DPS. i would go twister kick and beat down rings.

[ImFlareon]

How do you use the cm3 in the rotation? will it change alot ?

[Aqua.Soo]

not really, just use lariat before every taunting blow

the rotation in this guide is not really optimal though

[Couplord]

Class Mastery 3 Is pretty bad considering the Taunting Blow quadruple explosion... I think the CMIII Is only good for clearing mobs, as the damage isn't as good as stacking explosions.

[Adhelaida]

Nice guide, you just need to update it to cap 95. Now with CM3 Defensio got 2 gameplays depending on the situation where you need to judge if you have enough time to stack marks and explode them (which is around 10s DPS window and if its not a freaking moving boss from hell) or just use the CM3 version to not lose a lot of DPS, a pretty nice CM3 tho

[Aqua.Soo]

Actually, CM3 is really good and makes Defensio brain dead easy. Before, you had to decide when to explode your taunting blow bombs and be careful with losing aggro. Now, you just spam CM3.

Why stack bombs? 1 taunting blow = 1 bomb, always. Damage now is almost always better than damage later.
Stacking bombs gives you 3 explosions per bomb. CM3 gives you 4 explosions per bomb. 4 > 3.
There's no point in stacking bombs now unless you are setting up to burst through some mechanic for whatever reason.

Also, you DON'T lose aggro even after 4x explosions with CM3. (I tested this.)

[Adhelaida]

Hmm i dont see how CM3 could be better than stack bombs, yah CM3 = 4 explosions and Stacking = 3 explosions but each of those explosions does 3 hits while CM only one even if explode one more time i dont get how could be better

[Fabulous]

vara quit a long time ago, so this is all that you're going to get for now.

[Aqua.Soo]

From the CM3 taunting blow discussion, it looks like several people don't understand this class. Understandable since there's no updated guide out there.

I don't want to write a whole new guide, especially since a lot of info here is still good. If there's enough interest, I could write a sequel to this guide.

Not many new Machina players though