Ok something is puzzling me.
Soak takes of a point of damage.
Defence adds a black dice that gives 1/3rd of a chance of a failure.
Considering that each success adds a damage why is 1 defense, 1 soak (1.33 damage off) more expensive than 2 soak (2 Damage off)?
Is there something I am missing?
While Soak is a more consistent way of shrugging off damage, Failure from Defense can be the difference between a hit just doing a point less of damage and the attack not being able to hit at all.
Also there's the increased odds of threat. As the game expands we're seeing talents and abilities that say something like "when targeted by an attack expend three threat to..." The force talent Improved Reflect for example uses threat to allow a player to bounce back blaster bolts with his lightsaber by expending threat generated by the opponents attack roll. So having armor or a personal shield that adds defenses will help increase the odds of that talent being able to activate.
Ok something is puzzling me.
Soak takes of a point of damage.
Defence adds a black dice that gives 1/3rd of a chance of a failure.
Considering that each success adds a damage why is 1 defense, 1 soak (1.33 damage off) more expensive than 2 soak (2 Damage off)?
Is there something I am missing?
It can also reduce Damage by cancelling out additional Advantages. At the end of the day Defence is the better deal.
But you do want both.
That can depend on who/what you're fighting.
If your opponent is using a lighsaber, odds are Soak Value isn't going to matter, so you'd rather have Defense since that gives you better odds of the attack either not hitting in the first place, and if you've got Improved Parry those extra setback dice could result in enough Threat for you to sneak in a free hit; I got the chance to see a Knight Level Soresu Defender in action, and the Defensive Circle talent combined with armored clothing meant anyone attacking this guy had to deal with at least three setback dice on every attack roll, if not more; guy did most of his damage through Improved Parry and Improved Reflect without ever making an actual attack of his own (but he did burn through a fair bit of strain from using Parry and Reflect reach round, sometimes even both).
If your opponent is using a blaster at short range, Soak Value is your friend because there's probably not much you're going to be able to do to avoid getting hit at that point. Unless you've got a lightsaber and the Reflect talent, which is pretty much additional soak without being impacted by Pierce or Breach.