How Offence & Defence Works for Gear – Hogwarts Legacy

In Hogwarts Legacy, just like in any other RPG, your Gear will offer you stats that can be used to enhance your character’s power — in this guide, we will go over Offence & Defence, their differences, and how they impact your build!

Gear Stat Types

In Hogwarts Legacy, your Gear can have three different types of stats, with Offence and Defence as the two main stats that can be found on almost any gear piece and Trait Slots. Traits will be available on Superb, Extraordinary, and Legendary Gear pieces. (We have a dedicated guide where we discuss the process for Upgrading Gear and Equipping Traits.)

Depending on the Gear Slot type of the item you pick up (e.g., Handwear, Headwear, Neckwear…), they will either come with Offence or Defence as their primary stat. Then, depending on the Gear Rarity, the item will have a Trait Slot with its max Trait Level based on rarity level, with Legendary Gear allowing for the highest Traits. Sometimes the piece you pick up will already have a Trait equipped in the slot.

How Does Offence Work

The Offence Stat will increase the overall damage of your Basic Attacks, Spells, Ancient Magic Throws, and Ancient Magic in general. While the stat number will buff your damage across the board, it’s important to keep in mind that the damage of your Basic Attacks and Spells will vary depending on your current level, and that of your target.

For example, with a high Offence you will be able to hit with Basic Attacks that deal 20-30 damage against a target close to your own level, but you will deal only 5-10 damage per Basic Attack against an enemy 5 levels higher than you.

Still, if you master your Blocking and Dodging, focusing on getting more Offence for your build early on can be very satisfying and effective.

How Does Defence Work

The Defence Stat works a bit differently than the Offence Stat. While the Offence stat is simply a sum of your level plus your total Offence, your Defence Stat will take the Enemy’s Level, Attack Type, and their Offence stat into consideration as well. So, your total Defence rating will be tested pretty much against all of the stats of the enemy that hits you.

Note that the Attack Type like a Dark Wizard’s Reducto Spell or a Troll’s Charge will deal more damage than a simple Confringo or Rock Slam, so learn to Dodge and Block strategically and make up for the difference by getting more Defence on your Gear.

Do I Pick Offence Or Defence? Which is Better?

Typically, you will want to have a build that maximizes both Defence and Offence, especially since your Gear Slots are naturally divided into 2 categories: 3 out of the 6 will come with Offence as a base stat, while the other three will come with Defence. So, the stats on your gear will more or less tend towards equal or at least similar proportions of both.

We will see this balance in the later parts of the game when you will be upgrading your gear at the Enchanted Loom. Upgrades will add a secondary set of stats to your gear that is the opposite of what they start with: Handwear, which comes with Offence, will receive an upgrade of Defence as a secondary stat. By upgrading your gear you will be equalizing your overall stats further into the game.

However, at the beginning of the game your stat allocation will tend to be more chaotic, focused on either Offence or Defence. This could have some noticeable implications, and will impact the Build you are using for your character.

It might be a good idea to focus on Offence early on as a means of killing your enemies fast while depending on Protego and precise Dodging. However, and you should really keep this in mind, it does heavily depend on the Difficulty you have the game set to, as higher difficulties will require a more balanced stat distribution, even if you play an overpowered build.

If you play on lower difficulties, Defence will be suboptimal at the beginning of the game, as Wiggenweld Potions and well-timed Protego casts will be enough to keep you alive, even when outnumbered. The game tends to be a lot more forgiving on lower difficulties, with a significant large gap between the top two difficulties.

Since Defence is calculated a bit differently than Offence, you will require much more of it depending on whether you plan on fighting a lot of enemies that have a higher level than you. Later on, and especially if you are playing on Hard Difficulty with a build that does not make a lot of use of Protego, you will want to acquire much more Defence than Offence, as you will often find yourself outnumbered.

In the end, it really just depends on your kind of a playstyle — a Dark Arts Build is probably going to be a lot more powerful with Offence, while an Herbology Build will be much stronger with Defence.

How to Combine Traits with Offence & Defence

In addition to the Offence and Defence as the Base and Upgraded Stats, the Traits you have equipped into your Gear will also boost your Offence and Defence capabilities. (We have a dedicated guide where we discuss the process for Upgrading Gear and Equipping Traits.)

Your Offensive Traits will stack with your Offence Stats — they will typically buff a specific Spell or a category of Spells. While your Defensive Traits will also stack with your Defence stat, they will generally focus on a specific enemy type. So, you might find it easier to use the Offensive Traits to buff your build. Your Defensive Trait picks may be more situational and strategic, tailored to the main enemy type you plan on engaging.

Now that you know how Offence and Defence work and how you can get the most out of them, we hope that you create some powerful builds for your character. Let us know in the comment section below which of the two stats you are finding more useful!