yes koh ur defense makes more of a difference then u think u need major equipment defense in order to battle with the higher lvl players who have massive strength ur base defense does not need to b high in order to b effective u could virtually go through the game with absolutely no base defense if u want as long as ur constantly able to obtain equipment defense but u also would not be able to do the quests which at lower levels dont drop items really worth having but higher level quests drop items that r a must for ur character make sure u just train ur base strength when leveling but get all the equipment defense u can to make sure u can take the hits that big players can deal