Duress vs Gloom

[Lisa]

I have one Um rune and want to make some decent armor for my wearbear. He is level 78 and does OK (Act 4 Hell) but not great. He is wearing Griswold's armor now with fire, cold, and lightening runes for resists. He wears venom grip and Atma's scarab for the poison resists but still his other resists are between 20 and 30 in hell.

So my question is are the stats on Duress better--I know crushing blow is great but I already have some on the IK maul. I wonder if Dim vision on Gloom does any good. The resists are better on Gloom so I may go with it, but maybe Duress is better hands down and I just have to figure out another way to make up the resists.

I also have the runes for Stone but since I have a defiance merc, it probably is not going to help that much.

Thanks for your help.

[~Kazama Fury~]

hello,

are your resists ok? for a cheap alternative for PvM, i would suggest you to use a lionhart armor. Hel Lum Fal.

i wouldnt really recommend gloom for armor, if you have the runes for duress. Though duress isnt really the armor i would choose.

Ik Maul is good choice for the werebear.

I feel stone would be a nice option for your werebear and change the defiance merc to a nm offensive one (which offers might to boost both his and your damage). with some leech, both of you guys would be able to stay alive for quite awhile.

i think thats all i can suggest for now.

dont hesitate to ask more questions.

[MrGoth]

Stone > duress or gloom. Kaz forgot to mention its insane % fhr, which is great on a shifter, mainly one without a sheild.

[Ed_MarloZon]

I would agree that Stone is the way to go I have used it on all my Bears in the past and it does great. But if you have to decide between Duress and Gloom. Go with Duress which is a great armor and Lionheart is also very good I use it on my high lvl Titan spear barb.

[theBlackKnight]

*hates not having any armor other than duress on any melee char because of reasonable resists, only 20% less FHR ( which can be made up with a sheal in a jalals or some scs ) but giving crushing blow, open wounds, ED%, decent defense, and cold damage, which are all really nifty*

[~Kazama Fury~]

Stone > duress or gloom. Kaz forgot to mention its insane % fhr, which is great on a shifter, mainly one without a sheild.
actually i dont think i mentionned anything about the mods on stone, i just assumed Lisa would know the importance of them already.

[riplix]

cheap alternative for lots of res is smoke (Nef + Lum):

+75% Enhanced Defense
+280 Defense Vs. Missile
All Resistances +50
20% Faster Hit Recovery
Level 6 Weaken (18 Charges)
+10 To Energy
-1 To Light Radius

def can easily be somewhere between 900-1000 in an elite armor. imo a good deal for those cheap runes.

[Lisa]

Hey thanks alot guys. I really appreciate the advice. It seems like Stone comes in first followed by Lionheart, and then Duress. I will try Stone and also make a new might merc to see if that helps. My boots are so lame (Cow King) that I can probably trade those in for some with resists.

Thanks again--

Lisa