If I understand correctly, Armour provides universal dmg mitigation. I am trying to understand how it differs from Resist All, which also mitigates all forms of damage.
This helps when deciding between gear that gives me extra Armour vs gear that gives me extra Resistance.
Example: Assuming the effective %age change for both is +3%, then I assume Armour is more universal and so more useful.
Yiren.
Nope. You want both because they are applied one-by-one.
1 RA = 10 Armour
You want to balance them if possible, but normally you can’t because one is much higher than the other.
Notice that STR and DEX also grant Armour, and INT grants RA.
Therefore STR/DEX classes have very high armour already. So, they want more RA.
On the other hand, INT classes have very high RA already. They want more Armour.
That will maximize overall damage reduction.
Armor is PHYSICAL resistence only. Hence “all resistence” also implies physical.
From all the guides I understodd that the importance of defense is
Also, as secondary resistence you want physical resistence on your gear for Intelligence classes, and “any element” resistance for STR/DEX classes.
Plus, sometimes you also want %life. I.e. for the wizard’s shields which give you protection for % of your life.
No, armor reduces all damage. Vitality is in a way last because after all the incoming damage has been calculated and reduced the vitality is what will save you from getting killed.
No, Armour reduces all kind of damage, not just physical.
did you ever try a goldwrap + boon of the horder in t16 and stood still in a molten exlosion + 10 other affixes?
General rule: go for the opposite of what your character’s main stat is.
Intelligence provides all resistances. Strength / dexterity both provide armor. Both do the exact same job of reducing the damage you receive (not just physical).
You usually see, int classes puting emeralds/rubies in armor sockets and str/dex classes putting diamonds in theirs. That said, if you also want to max your hero’s toughness, you prefer one over the other for some of your pants, boots, torso, etc pieces.
The reason you do that is becuase increasing your main stat, through paragon, augments and gear, will also increase armor or all-res but with deminishing returns. Whereas the exact opposite stat cannot be found (appart from the 3rd tab of paragons, 50 + 50 cap, and some passives here and there).
So let’s take your necro for example. The more you play, the more your paragon increases and therefore your intelligence. You also find better and better gear and at some point you will start augmenting them with additional intelligence. That will net you very high all-res. But as your intelligence increases indefinetly (theoretically), the rate of which your toughness (from all-res) increases will fall dramatically after one point. At the same time, you probably have a very low number of armor cause you are not a strength or a dex class. So you probably want to invest a bit on armor. Put red or green gems in sockets and if you have a good piece that rolled with all resistance , then change it to armor, assuming of course you are not sacrificing a better roll that is more useful. That way you can double or triple the amount of your armor which is going to make a big difference. Necro is also a good example because with the stand alone passive or the blood rush rune you double your existing armor so armor has double value. With the same logic, with your monk you want to do the exact opposite and pick all - resistances. Monk is another good example here cause he has some passives and active buffs that scale really well with resistances.
Thanks, everyone, for all the replies. I’ve also gone and read up some more across the collective wisdom of the inter-web.
This is what I’ve concluded:
Hope this summary helps the next newbie who come along.
Yiren.
Which stat is more valuable to your hero will depend on its class.
1 STR = 1 Armour
1 DEX = 1 Armour
10 INT = 1 All Resist
Strength-based heroes (Barbarians, Crusaders) have STR as their main stat, so they have a naturally high Armour value. This is why they take All Resist on armour pieces and use Diamonds in their Chest / Legs, as the All Resist provides a bigger increase to their overall damage mitigation than adding Armour would.
Dexterity-based heroes (Demon Hunters, Monks) have DEX as their main stat, so they have a naturally high Armour value. This is why they take All Resist on armour pieces and use Diamonds in their Chest / Legs, as the All Resist provides a bigger increase to their overall damage mitigation than adding Armour would.
Intelligence-based heroes (Necromancers, Witch Doctors, Wizards) have INT as their main stat, so they have a naturally high All Resist value. This is why they take Armour on armour pieces and may use Rubies or Emeralds in their Chest / Legs, as the Armour provides a bigger increase to their overall damage mitigation than adding All Resist would.
Another thing that it is really worth mentioning and has to do with the classes.
Barbarian, crusader, monk have a built-in damage reduction. They take 30% less damage than the other classes (demon hunter, necromancer, witch dotcor, wizard).
I don’t know if anyone has addressed this already. But I did some calculating because my crusader is sub optimal.
Assuming 1 all resistance is equal to 10 armor.
Akkhan’s set of items encourages you to use Akarat’s champion skill.
During Akarat’s champion you gain 150% armor.
On the items available for boots, belt, pants, chest, and anything else, there is primary stats and secondary stats. If you have all resistance in the primary stat, you can not have poison, physical, arcane, lightning, cold, or fire resistance in the secondary stat. And vice versa.
The max for all resistance is 130 in the primary, and in the secondary the individual resistance stat is 210.
I bring this up because if you put the individual resistances in the secondary, that leaves open a spot in the primary for max armor, which is 516.
So if you have 5 items with individual resistance, adding up to essentially 210 all res. You can have 2500 extra armor. And with Akarat’s champion that is 3,870 armor.
If you estimate that 3,870 armor is similar to 387 all resist, then add on the 210 all resist from the secondary attributes, you get 597 all resist total estimated on 5 items. This is less than the 650 all resist you would get if you had all resist in the primary instead of the armor selected.
So even with Akarat’s champion active, All resist is still better.
Even if you managed to do this with 10 items, it still would not be better to itemize. The ratio would stay the same.
Did I miss anything? Is the 1:10 ratio a good ratio? or does armor have different diminishing returns than All resist?
I am also guessing that having a paragon of 2k and all that extra strength will pump up your armor quite a bit, meaning all resist would still be better because it would have better diminishing returns.
I envy people who can do this in their head and on the fly while in game.
I can see that maxroll also advocates all resist on secondaries. One thing is what you wish for, another thing is what you get of course.