Cascading Defense Failure

Definition

Cascading Defense Failure

The phenomenon where a defense power set will defend against defense debuffs less effectively after each successful debuff lands. Night Widow characters and their NPC equivalent are notorious for this behavior. Ordinarily, their very high defense values allow them to avoid most defense debuffs. After one debuff gets through, the Night Widow's defense is reduced and with that her chance of avoiding subsequent defense debuffs. The effect is usually small at first, but as more and more debuffs land it snowballs or "cascades", and the formerly unkillable Night Widow is completely stripped of her defense. This often results in a quick death in a situation that the Night Widow would normally be able to handle with ease.

Since resistance resists its own debuffs, there is no such thing as a Cascading Resistance Failure. Specifically, resistance resists the debuffs with the original value, not with the debuffed value; defense is forced to avoid debuffs using the current value.

Sets that are prone to CDF are: Ice Armor, Shield Defense, Energy Aura, Ninjitsu, and all of the Soldiers of Arachnos. Super Reflexes used to be the poster child for CDF, but it now benefits from large amounts of Defense Debuff Resistance.