It depends on the ninja.

If your ninja stands in the front row, then defense is more important. If they stand at the back behind other ninja, resistance is best.

If you are playing a root of warrior team, defense is more important for your sword ninja since they have resistance boost from root.

If it is a ninja that gives shield, resistance is more important.

Never increase defense / resistance.

For a tank, increase HP. For a DD, atk / nin.

According to Shryke I should just sit on my stacked up defense/resistence magatamas and just leave them lol

Don't listen to this.

Ninjas that give shields need +Resistance as they would have bigger shields.

Iruka for example benefits more with Resistance than with +Attack.

Also Earth Main likes +Resistance for his shields.

Really depends on the ninja.

To branch of this.
Tank: +HP (e.g. Roshi, Han)

Attackers: +Atk/Nin

Ninjas with support skills that use defense/resistance stats: +Def/Res


So just check your ninjas' skill and see what benefits them. When in doubt, mood base on their stat growth. You will get tons of dango so rerolling mood isn't a problem.

You should, since mood improves the base stat; magatamas do not matter.

But since the only way we could met is as adversaries... the more stats you waste, the better for me.

This really depends on situation and what ninja u wanna have in Lineup on which position.

But if you want, check my topic where iam testing Defense vs Resistance : https://forum-narutoen.oasgames.com/page/show-post-29740-1.html

I just wanted to mention.

Roshi doesn't have to be + HP he can be + Nin to make his 30 chase hit harder.

That is true if you can burst them down quicker, I go with HP to safer and since he gain nin + def from his passive.

mooding to +res is worth it only on ninjas like mabui (due to the shields) in all the other cases +hp is better for tanking, unless you are sure that your enemy, like may happen in space time fights, will use mostly nin based ninjas, like edo hiruzen or angel konan, in that case too could be worth +res, but the difference is so slight that generally is not worth the effort.

if roshi is not mooded +hp flat out dies like in arena, except if you use him as move 1 and you have him so much stacked that it survives, but in all the other cases +hp is mandatory.