So, I really like how Defiance gives energy when you get hit, but everything I read says to take Invulnerability + Defensive Combo instead.

Since Defensive Combo gives you the Defiant buff... you're not getting much from Defiance asside from having the buff auto-stack on its own.

I haven't gotten very far yet (due to making too many characters :( ) so I was currious if there is a way to make Defiance work or if it's just plain inferior.

I dont thin the Defiant buff from Def Combo gives you the energy return, but it does give you PARTIAL resistance. I say partial because I don' tthink you can build up as many stack with Def Combo alone.

That said however, Invuln ranked up will give you a higher damage resistance than an ewual amount of con will give you from Defiance. Ranking Defiance only gets you to full resist quicker. Of course, Invuln is high resist and doesn't need to build up.

IMHO the two are horribly imbalanced. The ONLY advantage to Defiance is the energy return, and frankly its not worth it. Its such a small amount of return that it makes no practicle difference.

It's true that defensive combo will give you Defiant! buffs. The true joy of defiance is sitting there gaining energy while continually throwing damage out.

Combo also means you're using combo instead of just damaging things with powers better suited to that purpose. If your aim is teamed tanking it makes more sense to take combo + another passive for extra damage resistance. If you're just fighting things in general defiance can fuel a more aggressive tactical style.

Also, Defiant stacks built with Defensive Combo will decay. So to keep up defiance you will have to constantly use Defensive Combo. Defiance renews your stack when it is maxed out as long as you are attacked at least once every 20 seconds.

If you have Invul and have to constantly attack with Defensive Combo, you won't be able to other useful stuff...such as....for instance...block. I hear blocking is pretty important.

Now, will Invul + Defensive Combo allow you to spike your defense pretty high? Yes.

But to answer the OP's question: Yes.

Doesn't the passive scale the stacks of Defiance with your CON? So your stacks will be more effective (more resistance) with Defiance and good CON as opposed to just Defensive Combo giving you base numbered stacks on its own?

Otherwise....what the hell is CON actually scaling in the Defiance passive?

No. The stacks given from Defensive combo work just as well as the passive power does. They'll stack upto 6 or 8, not sure, and then linger for about 20 seconds. So usually around 5 seconds you want to hit defensive combo 3 times to refresh all the stacks on you.

The advantage of using Defiance is. Not having to use defensive combo so frequently, and getting faster END returns from rank 2 or 3 Defiance.

They are most likely going to to make the buffs from D. Combo/Breakaway, and the martial arts focus buffs from the end builders, not stack higher than 1 without the passive power.

Where have you gotten this information. I brought up the game and looked at the in-game information for Defiance. The part I am talking about is, exactly:

"The amount of defense granted by Defiant scales with your Constitution."

So what, exactly, is Constitution scaling, because the game is telling me in very explicit terms that the Defiance passive will make that Defiant buff better in conjunction with my CON. Defensive Combo gives no indication that it will use my CON to make the Defiant buff more effective, meaning that Defensive Combo will, on it's own, provide less protection.

I think the energy gained per hit you take from the buff energized which is the energy return part of defiance scales up with constitution.

I distinctly remember not seeing a difference in how much energy was gained between rank 1 and 3 of defiance. Only that it came every 5 or 3 seconds.

Now when I respec'd I remember trying it with and without con as super stat at level 17 and noticed that it went from 23 energy no SS con to 28 with SS con.

I wouldn't be surprised if defiance with someone with strength/con SS and heavy strength/con talents and gear at 40 will pull 50+ energy each time energized proc's and see enrage boosting damage significantly more than people are seeing now.

This is one reason I am staying strength/con on my might character. Enrage won't get stronger if you stop at the melee damage 20% bonus cap, but a guy with SS strength and heavy strength gear might see +10-20% more buff from enrage for all I know.

I just don't think it balances out.

Again, a ranked invuln will have a higher resist than Defiance assuming the same CON, yet the Invuln doesn't need to slowly build up first. Before the respec that was given, my Dual Blades used Defiance. The energygained was just nominal. After respecing to invuln I don't miss the energy at all, and I have better defense.