Defense is highly neglected yadayadayada. You know the drill. How about some ideas.
Make defense cut a percentage of the damage, not a set amount. That way tanking would really be a viable strategy, with ironmight tanking 70-80% of the damage while chaos only 40%. It would also give some variety to armors, since they would have actual differences in defense, not just 30-50 points. Obviously armors absorb only the damage type they defend from. It would take quite a bit to balance this out, but it would be very effective.
Another solution would be lowering the attack of all monsters and the health of all knights. That way 30-50 points could actually make a difference. Maybe even rebalance status buffs and debuffs so they are more efficient with someone with no status resistance or with status weakness. Looking at you chaos. We all are.
With these changes, defense Uvs need rebalance too. Increase a percentage of the percentage (and not the percentage itself) in the first case, and in the second case, I don’t actually know, they might balance themselves out in the end.
On top of all this, could we please have a health trinket rebalance? Defense seriously needs it. Think about it: ironmight + 60 pips of health possibly equals immortality with these rebalances. I suggest cutting the line to 3* and give 1-2-3 health pips per pendant. Also a giveaway like the old shard bombs giveaway. Take out the alchemy lines first though, nobody likes rigged giveaways but the ones who actually rig them.
This is a change that could be nice. I haven't seen a percentage system suggested before but it might be good.
However, UVs should not be a percentage increase. That would make a shadow UV on a magic hood useless. UVs can be static.
Under your suggestion it makes glass cannons more glass with the same amount of cannon, which is honestly what needs to be done. Honestly health boosts might be another way to modify these sets. Perhaps these sets could give you -1 of the usual star level (chaos gives +3, and +4 at level 5) in terms of health, and give defensive armors +1 of their current health(Grey Owlite gives +5 at level 1, +6 at level 5), and plate armors give +2 of their usual amount. We can add +1 to ancient plate as it is because it's ancient plate. Class armors and specialist gear are unaffected. We can make heart pendants work in a percent system that scales with tiers and strata, like our weapons do. In stratum 1 you get +1 health, and in stratum 6 you get +6 health. But if you are wearing glass cannon gear, you get a maximum of +5 health per penta, or +8 for platemail.
Basically, by making defense worth something AND changing up health values, you're making defensive gears worthwhile. Ancient plate becomes super tanky, like it should, while chaos gets a bit of a nerf to its longevity.
This would also directly affect PvP choices I would think. Players will mix and match offensive with defensive, as their offensive gear is less of a tank, and when matched against a real tank, good luck. Ancient plate guardians can get up to 50 pips with this system (5 base + 18 armor + 18 trinkets, + 9 from guardian shield) while maintaining massive normal defense.