Defense

You can protect yourself from any attack of the enemy in close-quarter combat by using this Defense skill. Remember that, while Defense is a way to protect your body, it also lets you retaliate. Successfully defending yourself disrupts the enemy's flow of attacks, opening themselves up to your attack. If you determine that you are on the defensive during a battle due to the one-sided attack of the enemy, you can instantly turn the tide of the battle by using this skill. Don't be discouraged even if your enemy does not lose his flow of attack, but persistently lead him on to spend his energy. After tiring out the enemy, administer a quiet and calm strike. Defense is the most effective preparation for your attacks.

Details

 * When active, it boosts the Defense and Protection of the user, and allows the user to block one enemy attack.
 * Defense can only block one hit, so be wary of Multi Aggro.
 * While defending, the user will be slowed to a walk.
 * Being hit with Defense loaded will negate stun and cancel a single opponents' attack streak, allowing for immediate retaliation.
 * The animation of being hit with Defense loaded is dependent on the weapon, race, and if a shield is being wielded or not.
 * Note that the user will be have to wait a small fraction of a second while the defense animation finishes before they can retaliate.
 * It is possible to bypass this using a Bolt followed quickly with another attack, such as melee, second Icebolt, or Arrow Revolver.
 * Defense cannot reduce Intelligence bonus damage.
 * Smash, Assault Slash, Firebolt, Magnum Shot, Advanced Magic, and many Alchemy spells will cancel this skill.
 * Firebolt will still knock down a Shield-wielding target, but the damage is reduced with a shield.
 * A target equipped with a shield and with Defense loaded will not be knocked down by Magnum Shot.
 * Smash and Assault Slash completely ignores Defense.
 * The user is able to recover stamina while defending.
 * Starting at Rank 5, surrounding party members gain a defense bonus while Defense is active.
 * The range is very short; party members must be almost on top of the player to obtain the bonus.
 * "Defense" (stat) itself subtracts damage from the base damage received.
 * "Protection" (stat) reduces damage received by the specified % after Defense is calculated. It also reduces the chance of an opponent successfully landing injury and critical hit upon the user.
 * Every point of protection reduces an opponents' before-max critical hit chance by 2%.
 * Damage received is as follows: (Damage - Defense) * (100 - Protection) / 100 or just (Damage - Defense) * (100% - Protection%)
 * Ex. If you had Def:20/Pro:10 and received 200 damage, then it'd be (200-20)*(100-10)/100 = 162 damage received from a hit.
 * The Additional Defense and Protection from Activation is applied after the first series of Defense/Protection calculations.
 * Ex. If you had Def:20/Pro:10, activated Human Defense Rank 5, and received 200 damage, then it'd be ((1.00-0.10)*(200-20)-46)*(1.00-0.17)=96 damage received.
 * Since shield rebalancing, an equipped shield provides additional melee only Defense points regardless of Defense activation or not.
 * Extra melee defense from shields is calculated in after the normal calculation if the user is not defending.
 * In G13, the defense stat will also contribute to Magic Defense.
 * Every 20 Intelligence increase Magic Defense by 1%.
 * Decreases 0.25 durability of the Brionac when it is used to add skill exp.
 * See Standard Battle Tactics, 1+Defense, Def+WM, Ranged+Def+N, Ranged+Def+WM, Mag+Def+N, for strategies to use in battle.

Human
Or, alternatively: Or, alternatively:
 * Talk to Ranald about skills. You will receive the skill along with the "Defense Guidebook".
 * Complete the quest "Go to School".
 * Complete the quest "Save My Sheep".

Elf

 * Complete the Deliver the Holy Water of Lymilark beginner quest to receive the skill and Defense Guidebook.

Giant

 * Learned during the Defense training beginner quest.

Training Method

 * Defense is easily trained by getting a monster (such as a Gray Town Rat) that hits you for minimal damage and using Defense after every attack.
 * It can also be trained by basically smash spamming enemies that use defense often, such as foxes.