The most powerful players in the game are rich. if I had the money to back it I’d go balanced, but considering I’ll be at most a mediocre scrub it’s best to choose 3, and I’ll back def over dex because simple maths init
epi vs sero = they get a 1.5x advantage and mela vs tyroflash is like a 5x disadvantage if they work in gents club. Sure, you need to roll a needle, and you need delta so they can't roll mela and then tear, but dex is for the rich guys :D Weaken is extremely strong if they have more def than your str, better than powerful. Cripple is ass because how do you expect to hit and then get a 25% chance.
Why am I not surprised that Vulpes' own leaders with all their wealth of information cant answer this question correctly and you have to go to the forums for answers?
a lot of people ask questions outside of their factions. Its not like you only allowed to talk to your faction... hearing opinions from entire torn is good
Imo it mostly comes down to personal preference. Dex has definitely become more viable due to RW weapons, and even though def may reach the 0 damage threshold faster, dex is functionally stronger up until the 14x point since you're receiving 0 damage every time they miss you. Additionally, you're unlikely to ever get to the point where your base def is 14x someone's strength unless you're a high end se user, which means you're still at risk of having rw bonuses activate on you.
However there are still disadvantages to dex, including mela being pretty cheap compared to the rest of the needles, tear gas grenades, sureshot, and just being plain unlucky.
Like others have said, I wouldn't recommend going super hard on whoring a stat right now. I would choose to focus a stat (either strength, dex, or def), so you can buy the special gym after you've gotten George's gym unlocked, but remain relatively balanced until you're comfortable with making a choice about what you want to whore. Even if you've focused one stat, you can still change your focus stat with a bit of time. I used to be def focused, but I didn't really like it, so I changed to being dex focused. Of course, the longer you wait to change your focus stat, the more time you have to spend changing it, so I wouldn't wait too long.
Its a long term game. Get access to 3 special gyms and train that shit. I prefer defense. Doubt it matters because eventually you will probably balance that all stats out somewhat and lose access to the def/dex gym eventually. Or you will whore a state and lose access to a gym. But in the mean time you have more gains.
People saying you are weak in wars are only right if you are planning to be the lead in the war. If you are supporting player it hardly matters as you will be ganging up in which case your defensive stats don't matter, or some player with a trillion stats will be hitting you, so also won't matter.
Only downside is missions, which become a pain in the ass for a period of time until you can access needles. That said with a 40 percent defense build with zero percent dex I have very little issue with missions even without needles, after I got to 1.5b, as mission targets are almost always easy to hit on low health.
If you're using def yes its easier to mitigate the damage, but now with RW weapons you will still get the weapon effect hit you. If you're using Dex then the more they miss the less likely you are to get any negative effects from weapons.
Also people saying Dex is more expensive... how? parachutes cost considerably less than boxing gloves.
Defense comes with the side effects of RW weapons hitting you for crazy status effects, dex comes with the side effects of being able to tank it with temporary weapons. However, with dex you can get delta armor or a hazmat (at an extremely high cost) that would stop you from being effected by temporary weapons. Honestly balanced trains seem to be the route these days z
Go Def as your high stat and keep the other 3 balanced as you can while maintaining special gyms. Dex can be mitigated easily with cheap temps. If you want to whore a stat wait until you're about 1b per stat. That way you don't have to spend months bringing up that last stat.
True, though it makes smokes way less effective too which is why it was so hard to fight against you xD I definitely think the rest of the set is well worth it too but after rw weapons first.