Defiant Challenge is a threat copy - of some sort.

I've always understood it to set my threat to the top entry on every target's threat table, and then add some (moderate) percentage of that threat as an additional buffer. This typical of similar abilities in this game, and others.

For instance, supposing the buffer is 10%, if Player 1 has 100 units of threat when I hit DC, and I have 50 units of threat, it will set my threat to 110 units.

(It will also force the targets to attack me for 5 seconds, regardless of threat).

The above is consistent with the observation that you do not lose threat after the second or third copy, because the buffer is 10% (or whatever) of a larger and larger value, and nobody will be able to catch up with you.

It's also consistent with the best practice of waiting until some threat has been built on the target, since if you hit DC when *nobody* has any threat, the gain is 10% (or whatever) of zero (although waiting can mean that whatever the target is attacking will die).

The thing that is puzzling me is that people tell me that *I* need to build threat on the target before using DC. If I had aggro, then any threat I've generated would indeed increase the threat buffer after the copy.

But if I'm already at the top of the threat table, I have no need to use Defiant Challenge (for threat purposes - of course it's also a mitigation buff) in the first place...

It will only pad the lead I already have, which is good, but if waiting to fire DC when I already have the lead is good, waiting longer is always even better.

Suppose now that I *don't* have a threat lead, though, and what I'm taunting is attacking one of my fellows. In that case, somebody else has top threat, and increasing mine before using DC should not increase my final threat level. The only way the threat I generate before using DC will increase my final threat level after the copy is if I reach the top of the threat table and pull aggro before taunting. In which case, again, if I can gain aggro without taunting, I don't need to taunt.

So - given the way I think DC works - if somebody else is at the top of the threat table, I don't understand why I should wait until *I* build threat to use DC.