Login | Register


All times are UTC - 5 hours


It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 1:18 pm




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 3 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: About resists, absorbs and other things
PostPosted: Sat Jul 16, 2016 1:55 pm 
User avatar

Joined: Wed Sep 30, 2009 2:11 am
Posts: 30
Location: HU(ngary)
Hey there;

So I've been asking around about the subject ingame, but still can't get my head straight on the matter. Here's what I'm so confused about:

When I had the idea to jump back at HU I was prepared to take on parts of the game solo, so I thought I start a Rabies Druid. I always loved the playstyle it offers, and micromanagement of the creeper can result in relatively safe - but long - bossfights (it also makes the first half of normal difficulity a walk in the park). Apart from that, I remembered how helpful the revamped SoB was before with the added bonus absorbs. I've started other chars since then after finding others to team up with, but I still find him the most fine-tuned of them all (and highest level of course).

But even after I was assured I do nothing exceptionally wrong, something still seems to feel 'off'.

I'm level 81, and stuck momentarily at the end of Act IV. Nightmare. Beating Diablo with a party of intended level range is always a milestone in every game mode, and one of the most fun fights in the game (at least in my opinion), and the new monster res cap brings it to the square, as no character is completely useless anymore (*sigh* looking at you Fire Druid). Yet, my problem is not with Diablo, or the increased (?) difficulity of Nightmare (which is again, a very welcome addition).

As a loner most of the time, I enjoy going back to earlier areas magic finding, or completing optional areas and quests and fine-tuning my gear for the battles ahead (as it is a must). But I found that I'm struggling to survive even in parts of previous Acts to this day. And I'm not talking about bosses - even trahsmobs give me hard time in select few areas. And I figured after awhile, that basically elemental damage is simply overwhelming. And I started to work on it even more.. but to almost no effect.

So, some specifics: I worked up my resist to 250+ in every element, having 20-30% Magic/Phys res, and at least 15 absorb on all time with around 40-50 m/dr. Apart from that, I carry with me all the three absorb rings (max%) and one of each elemental themed armors and even customized shields to swap to at specific bossfights. I also have a 5k+ Hp pool (now putting points in shapechange, mostly for even more +hp) with additional Hp charms and almost all the gear a Rabies Druid can dream of at my level (I like to think that at least), providing a stable ~90k psn dmg in around 5.5secs. And yet, I can die in moments in places like Kurast/Travincal, or even earlier, elemental damage-heavy areas or bosses. One single lightning of a Cantor/Hierophant drains almost 1k Hp from me with the above setup. Thus, navigating in Durance or after River of Flame is almost an assured suicide. And to be honest, I have no idea what else can I try to do or find to be more resilient. Can't even imagine what will await for me in Hell..

Am I imagining things? Am I doing something really wrong? I've been around from time to time for most of the previous patches with some moderate success with my chars, and never had so much frustration keeping myself alive. How do you manage to do it?

Thanks for reading, any tips or advice is more than welcome.

_________________
-- t.


Top
 Offline Profile  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject: Re: About resists, absorbs and other things
PostPosted: Sat Jul 16, 2016 9:11 pm 

Joined: Wed Dec 12, 2012 7:24 pm
Posts: 1031
Some monster spells are super strong once you get to late NM, particularly monster blizzard. The cantors you talk about have an insane blizzard and lightning has a ridiculous min-max range so you could just be unlucky there.

Also keep in mind, flat MDR is very powerful since the monster "pillar nukes" hit very rapidly for individual hits, and each hit will be reduced by MDR. So a nuke that bombs 10 times for 100 will do 1k but with 50 MDR it will hit 10 times for 50 which is literally half the damage at 500.

Furthermore the heal pots are different from most other patches in that they are 30% + str*8 rather than a flat 60% so if you have terrible STR then you will not get a strong return from heal pots. You also need a good base vit pool to make that 30% as useful as possible. This is why people trying to make full dex zons have had a terrible time this patch as they really can't heal themselves without a decent split str-vit-dex build.

Lastly I'd say Druids are not the strongest tank and have never been since Oak Sage got put in the dumpster after 1.4, and they weren't really even strong then, they just had a gigantic HP pool that allowed them to dump rejuvs. All of that was taken away. The new Lycan helps a little with gearing and the ABS is nice from SOB but it's not really enough to make up for the utility that others offer. If you want to be able to really tank, the best options now are an MA sin, Salvation pally, or Frenzy barb.


Top
 Offline Profile  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject: Re: About resists, absorbs and other things
PostPosted: Sun Jul 17, 2016 3:05 pm 
User avatar

Joined: Wed Sep 30, 2009 2:11 am
Posts: 30
Location: HU(ngary)
Thanks for the reply, it turns out my problems are originating from different sources.

I was aware of some facts you mentioned before I started, and as I never was much of a fan of min-maxing characters my stats are spread out between the 4 attributes (around 2:1 vit:str, some in dex for proper block with some early few points in nrg for some basic mana regen). I'm also playing it more like a poison necro than a tank (hit'n run! then repeat). Though I'm wearing some tankier armors and gear, my skill distribution is not sufficient for prolonged melee combat.

Anyway, this morning I finally found a party of adventurers to take on Diablo with and be victorious (thanks guys; gg!). But there was when some sort of a realization came: while alone, I was able to clear out the Sanctuary twice, including all seal bosses, with some added Kurast runs for magic/rune/gemfinding. It wasn't a cakewalk, but it went as intended and without much problems. But when I joined up with the others, my performance drastically fell to the point that I regularly died while leading them through even the previous acts.. So my conclusion:

I'm using a pretty old desktop configuration at home for playing, and I'm having severe fps drops in cases of more graphically intense spells and scenarios. With around 6 players spamming spells, arrows and whatnot around gameplay can become real sluggish for me, even halting for seconds at times. My thought is, that considering the mechanics of Diablo is almost entirely based on frames, these drops may leave me in bad positions or open to free hits momentarily. I'm not sure how differentéy the server-client sides handle this, but I'm getting pretty certain that this is the case or among those lines.

But maybe I can view it as a bit of a general raise on the difficulity, so no complaints from me :]

_________________
-- t.


Top
 Offline Profile  
Reply with quote  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 3 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 5 hours


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 59 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron