Defense Rating

Defense Rating (DR) isn't a concern: a bowazon relies mostly on distance, minions, and Dodge, Evade, and Avoid. And with good reason: no matter how high, DR can't provide your bowazon with 100% protection, and a monster always has some chance to hit, ranging from 5-95%. By the time she gets to Hell difficulty, if valkyries and decoys don't work, no amount of armor is going to help (as anything that can wax your valkyrie will splatter your bowazon); even with +1,000DR, monsters in Hell difficulty have more than a 50% chance of hitting your bowazon, assuming she's fighting monsters her own level...except that the character screen doesn't take D/A/E into account.

Defense Rating is useless for any class that doesn't have a skill that raises DR by around 200-300% and even then, the worst threats in the game ignore or bypass DR. Also, when your bowazon is running (which she will be doing often), monsters will have 100% chance of hitting her (barring Evade) because DR is set to 0 when running.

In short, the playing style of a bowazon requires a lot of running, retreating, and repositioning. Hypothetically speaking, if you know when and where to retreat and when and where to attack, she won't need DR at all. If you really need defense (or play HC), invest in D/A/E.