Attack or Defense?

[Yvl]

In any applicable video game genre, which do you prefer - high attack values, or high defense values? Assuming of course you can only have one or the other.
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[Luceit]

Always, I go for high attack values. One way or another, either one is going to be useless for at least one situation, but good offense is more likely to win many battles, especially non-story ones.
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[Ikano]

OW....can't...believe...I'm being...forced....to pick....

Well okay....since I'm more of a defensive person overall....I'd think I'd pick high defense
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[Ryusei]

I'd go for offense. I've never been a fan of defensive tactics anyway, since I find them really boring. Offense, for me, is what makes me enjoy something as I find it more exciting and challenging. But that's just me, I guess.

[ard]

Defensive wins here. I'm a defensive type of person and conquering isn't usually my style. That's for strategy games. For RPG's with a limited cast i go offensive. This is too case-specific for me to just go with one option and stick with it. That would make things terribly one sided too doesn't it?

[eXistence of Fly]

Defensive for me also in general.

In RTS' an army can be annihilated in a blink of an eye if you have adequate defenses and information as opposed to a simple attacking force or mass weaponry with the same information. Timing is everything and thus a sustained offensive rarely overcomes a sustained defensive.

In RPG's there are too many variables to play defensively since you are either using dice rolls or random factors to determine outcomes you cannot plan for either scenario, so brute force will more often than not win out over defenses. Unless of course they're actual values like in tactical rpgs in which case the numbers are more closer to the approximation so you can defend adequately (like generals or falcon knights in FE: Path of Radiance for instance) though even then theres still ways to go around it so either way defnse is lessened.

In fighters, defensive i find to be far more easier than offensive since you can then pick your spots and frustrate your opponent into a making a mistake as opposed to simply attempting to break the defense without exposing yourself, though this is relative to gameplay style.

FPS' on solo, offensive is a must since AI is utterly retarded. In a team, defensive shuts down everything since you have the advantage of location and generally not being a giant target in an open area designed for shooting practice.
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[Lord Vader]

I am a huge Command and Conquer player. In those games you always want a high attack value. The only time you can really focus on a high defense value is when you are playing it on easy. If you play on medium or hard you have to rely on your offense.
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General of the Godwin Army
United States Navy ATF-HT

[Felipe]

RTS- I always go with a High Defense... I like to counter attack, so I wait the enemy to attack with all of his power, then after I defend myself I lounch a counter attack with the rest of my army.

RPG - High Defense too, I like tank characters.

Well, I like high defense in everything, but always ready for a counter attack.
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[Cedric]

It would have to depend on the structure of the situation. Sometimes, stuff favors one over the other and there isn't much choice you can make in the matter.

For example, Rogue Galaxy; In that game, it's all about offense. You can combine your weapons in order to create something a lot stronger than what you started out with. In doing so, you have a weapon that kills your enemies a lot faster, so they don't have a chance to hurt you. In this case, the best defense is a great offense. No need to worry about low defensive values if your enemies die in one hit. And since armor is rare in this game (it literally adds at most 9 defensive points to your value) this makes a lot of the defense buff spells useless. It's much more convenient to use the strength multiplying spells because they take advantage of your weapons' always increasing power value.

Now Suikoden's 2 's war system favored defensive types. You could lose the game if Riou is inadequately defended and you let him get surrounded by enemies (what are you doing sending him out in front anyway! Heh). Furthermore, many of the battles required you to stall or reach a turn limit in order to win. Obviously, the best way to go about this is to center on Kiba Windamier. He had a cavalry bonus and Heavy Armor skill to boot. So you can add more people to boost his defensive score or add Huan in there to make him your personal healer of the battle. Most people though, would rather stack him defensively and possibly add someone with a critical skill and send him out to battle.

(On a random note, It sure would have been fun to hack into the game with a device and enable the player to use multiple Shus, Klaus, Pesmergas, etc. That would have been a blast!)

So yeah, it would depend on the situation.
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[SwissStopwatch]

In most games, I'd rather put more work into defense than attack. The purpose of this for me is that with high Defense, Magic Defense, Evade, HP, etc... you can usually withstand quite a bit of punishment, allowing more time to see whether or not whatever strategy you picked for a fight will work, and giving you an opportunity to change it if it really just isn't working. On the other hand, if you're playing offensively, you might not get a chance to switch plans before taking heavy damage or getting wiped out. The disadvantage is that things take longer to do this way, of course. I don't get through games at too fast a rate, and this is part of the reason. Of course, the advantage is that a single stupid mistake wouldn't cause me to get killed at the end of a tough dungeon and have to start over...

Of course, if I figure out that the game mechanics are biased towards a certain way of playing things, then I switch accordingly. It's not like I'm totally dedicated to this way of doing things...

[Yvl]

I typically prefer Offense in all situations. There's just a feeling of satisfaction I get when I see a huge number pop up on the screen indicating how much damage I've done. Plus, I also favor speed, and defensive units/characters are often slow due to their heavy armor. Even policy-wise for games like ROTK, I prefer to capture as much land as possible... not so much because I want it, but rather bacause I don't want my enemy to have it.
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[Thor McOdin]

I tend to prefer offense. Case in point, Shining Force Neo.

ATT and DEF in this game are bizarre. Max has around 1600 DEF points and his ATT power varies between 400-900 (usually). Still, even though his DEF is high, he can still get his ass kicked within three hits if he isn't careful. It's even worse against the current boss I am facing because I have been killed by ONE hit. At least with high ATT power I know that I can deal more damage before throwing my controller at the TV.
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Not all ninja codes are brewed equally. Here at Shinobi, we use the choicest Bavarian hops that are ripened to perfection. One sip and we will have you saying...nothing.

[Elzamine]

This is hard, but I think I like defense more. While big numbers are nice, I really like seeing a boss attack or something and watching the damage come up as 1. Ehehhee ^^ Just as much as I like high speed to see when enemies attack and Miss! Miss! Miss! Whahahaa!
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-My DeviantArt-

[Masaya]

Pfft. Defense just drags battles out longer than I should be. You don't need defenese if you take down the monster fast enough.

I've always been a blind strength person. You always find me with the strongest damage dealers in my partys.

Not only because they whip through the random enemys like butter( without expending magic points if applicable), but also when it comes to bosses they generally can make the battles go much MUCH shorter.

I will admit it has to depend on the game, but most games I'm heavy on offensive, with a slight and suddle defense. I hardly ever use magic users either, I'm usually picking the barbarians that dont' need magic to deal ridiculous damage...
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[Demon Eyes Kyo]

I'm never too big on defense in any of the games I play. It's all about offense, I like winning by overwhelming the enemy.
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