Whats easier to do end game LLama?
Cap all prots.
Go from 1000 base hp to 2000 HP
The order is there cuz one is EASIER than the other, not better. And you can always do both.
Why the fuck are we arguing about this, end of the day, u go for prots and HP for everyone lamao
Yeah, maybe they should tweak things so that capped resists is the wasy way but health is the ābetterā way? Then there would be another alternative.
Edit: Not sure how, obviouslyā¦ Maybe increase the value on the t5 (or t6/7) health (flat & %) affixes.
Itād be nice if there were multiple similarly viable ways that each have end game chase-worthy gear.
I dont think you understand what im talking about, the result build and tankiness would be the same, regardless of order.
1+1+2=4
2+1+1=4
Everyone aims for the 4.
The enitre post is askign for HP buff, so its the better xd
dude this is in the post xd
I do understand what you mean, but Iām suggesting that while capping resists then health is easier, that capping health then getting what resists you can could be the ābetterā option. A, 2+1+2 = 5 option, if you willā¦
So, after playing a fair bith with the new system, i do also have some concern.
Generally i do like the new system, it is indeed more accessable for new player and much more intuitive. Thatās fine.
My main concern with the new system is, that character progression and āend-game goalsā are way to low/easy to reach.
I am ok if the majority of the game is balanced around a progression goal that is easy to reach. As long as we will have enough high level endgame(we hopefully will get more in the future)
But i do want to have more āhard to reach goalsā in term of character progression/itemization.
As OP mentioned, exalted items feel like no real upgrade, even if they are on a decent base with decent stats, they just donāt feel exciting at all.
I really like that LE is so approachable but complex at the same time.
The new resistance system made LE even more approachable, but it really feels like a āto casualā game, with being able to reach all those defense goals so easily.
First of I want to say that this is a great (and well educated - blink 
) post. Well done.
Everytime you give this kind of feedback (also followed some of the podcasts you took part) I struggle a bit to classify your point of view. You have an awesome amount of in depth knowledge and game experience. So almost everything you say makes sense and you make some very good points - from your point if view.
The thing is that I personally wonāt be affected by a lot of your concerns in the near future, due to a massive difference in playtime.
Gearing is a process that can be judged differently by a wide player base. One example is when you say that people could achieve certain goals within āa weekendā. Well, for some itās a weekend, playing 20 hours from friday till sunday. Others have the same amount of playtime distributed over 3 weekends.
The point, where a game becomes boring because you reached the end nay be after 100 hours of playtime. For you this is 8 days, others will be engaged over about 1-2 months.
I donāt have the same āred alertā feeling, like you seem to have. But thereās a lot of concerns on the forum these days that the difficulty and gearing process is too easy.
Since I played the new system on ssf characters on the CT build and now live I have to say that I never enjoyed LE that much like I do today. In the other side you raise some points that are absolutely valid, that I just havenāt realised by now, but that are obvious the moment I read about them.
Here are some thoughts about defensive identities:
Maybe make dodge way less impactful in general but give specific classes or builds a boost. The goal would be to make dodge not the op leveling mechanic for every build that Carrieās on into endgame. Make it that itās a waste to build on a Sentinel but the main defence for a rogue and a mediocre defense for mage and acolyte
How?
Make defensive mechanics compete with each other
In general Iād like to see that classes gear differently. Currently it seems that everybody is just maxing everything because itās possible. Let there be tradeoffs like we have on other aspects, too.
Although I think the current system is a very solid foundation. The transition went very smooth, imho.
Cheers! 
@XLVI_carpo You do like to make things harder! 
Iām hoping at some point they will introduce different starting difficulties other than what we have now. Something similar to other ARPGs so would be like:
Easy mode - Start off with +25%
Normal - Same as what we have now.
Expert - -25%
Hard - we already have that with Masochist
Hell - -75%
Insane - -100% (for those that like a little challenge)
Obviously there would be other stat differences, but this topics about defence!
I agree with this generally.
I very much liked the idea of affix tiers 6+ adding bonus effects. Resist affixās at 6+ adding max res. Maybe Armour 6+ could add some flat DR. Dodge 6+ could add GB.
I like that resists can be capped. The changed from protections to resists did leave some things behind in the move though. Sentinel lost a bit of its identity as the very high protection class.
Maybe at this point, there should be some written defined roles that each class plays that are unique. Each base class should have an overarching role and each mastery should have a specialized role. These should be documented so that they can be easily referenced when changes happen to insure that the classes stay within the roles after major game changes.
As a basic example, Sentinel is the shield class. Overall, they should be about blocking and effects based on blocking. From there, Forge Guard could be about retaliation. VK obviously about Void conversion, although donāt ask me how to relate that to blocking/equipped shield. Paladin could take the heal on block and stay on the holy side, buffs and magical shields.
Once classes and masteries are well defined, it should be easy for them to keep their āpersonalityā after major changes.
Maybe there should be a real look at defining what each class of items really should be doing as well. Uniques should change something about the game to create a new way to play (changing a skill to be ranged instead of melee). Sets should augment heavily existing builds (like werebear), Rares (and blues by extention) should be general gear that fills out basic stats (defensive, offensive, and attributes).
For 7.10, this is lost.
Now, every class has the same goals:
- Reach 75% all resistances (just like old glancing blow, but more taxing). Some classes have it easier than others do, but their goal is the same.
Capping 75% all resistances is extremely easy to do.- Get dodge and armour. If you can get from skills/passive, better.
Both stats have caps and really heavy diminishing returns, so you aim for the optimal value and call it a day.- Cap Critical Avoidance.
- Drop everything else into gearing HP.
I kind of want to jump in on this one. Hereās my understanding of all the affixes mentioned above:
āNow every class has the same goalsā: isnāt this just a matter of lost opportunity costs + set bonuses? Set bonuses for non-elemental is more efficient than single non-elemental resistances. Elemental protection in the suffix slot is also efficient as it covers 3 resistances. On top of being able to build other defenses away from the prefix slot that the set resistances take up.
Prefix: Set void/physical resistance, set necrotic/poison resistance, % dodge, % armor
Suffix: Non-set elemental resistance, +dodge, +armor, crit avoidance, +health, %health, hybrid health
Spend 10 prefix slots on set resistances (non-elemental) and spend 5-6 suffixes on elemental resistance. Thatās assuming no passives increasing resistances, which would lower your investment into gearing for resistances. That leaves you with 4-5 prefix slots to play with % dodge and % armor or other offensive stats (non-weapon prefix slots including shield). I think most class passives have some form of resistances you can build into so that number may be higher.
Then you get to invest in whatever dodge, armor, crit avoidance, and hp into the suffix slots. This creates a scenario where you can mix and match resistances with other defenses. Armor and dodge donāt scale and have diminishing returns so the investment there will be up to a point where itās the most efficient. Crit avoidance is hardcapped at 100%. That goes to your point of investing everything else into HP once you reach the hard/soft caps on other defenses.
Maybe explore having all the defensive affixes compete with each other for either the prefix slots or the suffix slots? Youāre forced to choose to focus on a set number of defenses (resistance + HP? Dodge + HP?) This eliminates the current scenario where non-elemental resistances donāt compete with other defensive affixes (for the most part). You have 9-10 items (minus weapon, possibly include shield) so 18-20 prefix slots to work your defensive stats. If you invest heavily in one area then you lack in another. This forces you to pick and choose depending on how it may synergize with defensive options your class passives and skills provide.
I also personally think crit avoidance isnāt very satisfactory. It sort of feels like the old GB where you go for 100% and youāre done. Almost mandatory, although not at the level GB was at.
The above presents clear playstyle differences that can be carried by classes, masteries, and builds. For example under the system proposed above, Forge Guards in general would do well mitigating against spikes in incoming damage (but not so hot against DOTs) whereas Shamans would do well against consistent damage (but not so hot against damage spikes). Beastmasters would do well with a dodge build, Death Seal Lich would do well with stacking HP and Spellblades would do well with ward. Build identity can incorporate defensive tools instead of focusing too much on the offensive tools available.
75% is not the cap for resistances. Enemies at end game will have 75% penetration starting at area level 75. So to be truly capped on resists you would need 150% to each one, which is NOT easy to do at all.
This is wrong. Going 150% will do nothing. 115% is true cap if you count 20 shreds on you. You cannot bypass the monster penetration no matter how much you overcap.
Like @FoE mentioned on his reply, this is not how it works.
Having 75% or more portections in any area level superior to level 75 equals 0% true resistance. If you have 0% resistances in a level 75+ area you will take 75% more damage.
Overcap only protects vs the really rare protection shred of some enemies and does nothing vs their base penetration.
Only some end game rare enemies have protection shred, and those currently one shot you no matter what (as shown in the clips, those enemies dont even have shred)
There is not a universe where u can take 20 stacks of shred in end game and not die.
Realistically you will take only a few.
The only instance I see it getting close to 150% is if you were to factor in mfd. But I donāt gear for it personally @LukkaReborn but other than that is would be useless.
Perhaps another way that endgame chase could be approached (for areas other than arena) would be for monolith and potentially other endgame systems to have resistance reduction modifiers.
My understanding is that monolith for farming in endgame is a bit problematic with having the boss quest continually show up when you donāt want to complete it, but if additional modifiers were added paired with really high magic find values it could provide a reason to further overcap your character.
Edit: This could even be applied to arena in a way. If they moved some of the direct mob scaling (particularly the scalars applied at 100, 200, etc) into resistance reduction based on wave number (that could be counteracted by overcapping) it would allow for further minmaxing of your characters stats to go deep into arena by overcapping resistances.
Great post, @LizardIRL.
The linked videos show how tricky it can get in Arena trying to deal with something that doesnāt feel your fault - Iām in that position myself.
The one-shot from a lot of mobs have been reduced, but when I was reviewing your videos I noticed that it doesnāt appear to be a single shot taking away nearly 1.8k health, but a series of 600+ shots in such rapid succession that the player has no time or chance to react. Itās hard to see the actual damage numbers in your vids, but this is how it looks and feels to me going through the same effects on my char in Arena.
Almost all my deaths in Arena come from ranged mobs all hitting me at once with no time to react. My health gets stripped away regardless of resists and while I still have ward.
For me, this is particularly noticeable at the beginning of a wave when a pack of archers spawn and all fire at exactly the same time as soon as they spawn, before I can even get a hit in sometimes.
[Maybe devs could look into adding a short delay to ranged attackers when the spawn].
This means no chance for the player to regain health from leech or generate more ward in between hits.
And the problem gets worse the further you go in Arena as not only does the damage from a single hit increase, but the quantity of hits also increase as the mob packs grow larger and larger - becoming exponential damage the further you progress.
This means - hypothetically - a player takes 5 hits of 20 at wave 20, but 10 hits of 50 at 100 and 15 hits of 200 at wave 150. It also means that by wave 250, 3 hits of 600 will kill you. These are just rough-guide numbers, but I hope you get my drift.
I have had 9 stacks of cold shred from a rare mob in Arena, but luckily all the mobs around me were doing void damage!
So I donāt think itās the shredding per se or big hits from boss mobs ā¦ itās the quantity of hits all at once getting worse and worse as we progress through Arena that at some point just become unmanageable regardless of the character, item build or player skill.
Melee seem to be suffering a lot more than ranged in 0.7.10.
For me (melee spellblade) getting into range to hit archers/throwers before they all hit me at once is some of the trickiest gameplay now in 0.7.10. Beetles, Golems etc are much more balanced, are easier to take down and you are far less likely to be one-shotted. Itās back to what FoE mentioned in a post from 0.7.9 patch ā¦ most of the damage can be avoided. And also how you pointed out how to juke the ogres.
I can face tank three ogres without juking but still die to 3 trash archers because I canāt get to them quick enough. Feels a bit like Agincourt.
Itās not the bosses or rares that concern me now in Arena - itās the packs of ranged trash.
From what I see in your vids, it looks like this is also happening to you.
Iām not sure that changes to defenses will ever resolve this, and it would be great if the devs also looked into the impact of escalating ranged damage on characters that no defenses can stop right now.
I am aware that prior to these changes, Agony aura on acolyte could be made to do almost no damage to you due to 90% res, but now it takes a ton of health regen to make work without killing you.
TLDR:
Once Sentinel X as Phys combo is gone, bonkers arena scaling is uncovered.
Itās not an I told you moment, but I told you since the previous patch, just the only ones who cared pushing sentinel arena were content with the X as X combo and didnt give a f about monster balance.
It would be nice to have flavour tankings like a more accessible X as X and class overcaps.
But the next solution is there: finally fix the bonkers monster damage and skills that obliterates melee and design that promotes and pushes for hitbox kiting
I have been trying to make a tanky build and not only can I not get enough health regen to even handle bosses in the early game, I also deal almost zero damageā¦ and now I know WHY.
The items discussed here focus entirely on deep endgame. If youāre struggling earlygame you might try watching some youtube guides on crafting and leveling in LE in general. There are several really good youtubers that put out this kind of content (Lonestar Mcfluffin, Boardman, ApprenticeCorner, RimedGaming, etc etc).