[Inferno] Key items

[Youngtimer]

We all know that "+ resistance to all" is the most important stat to master inferno difficulty. But are there single items that really matter?
I think so, and here are some initial ideas:

1. The expensive one:
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/item/string-of-ears
The flat melee-dmg migration will really change your game. I was able to buy a -14% belt, and it was worth every piece of gold.

2. The cheap one:
Shield with high %-Blockchance and high amount of Block. Ignore the rest of the stats!

b3chhfy6.jpg

This item may look inferior at first sight, but if you compare the "white" numbers against other shields you will easily understand. The 28% chance to block and the high amount of damage blocked result into an absolutely great dmg-migration ingame. Plus, these items are cheep to buy in the auction house.

Greetings,
Youngtimer

PS: IŽd like to see what items you have found that helped you through inferno.

[betazoid]

I tested string of ears and for some fights it might be ok, but I had to sacrify too much and died more to magic damage. Swapped back to 170str, 70dex, 90vit, 57res belt..

Regading shield I agree. Search lev 60 shield with block % and then pick shield with 2700 - 3700 or above 3700 - 4700 one. Base block can be max 20% so 28% with additional block chance is max.

[edistotiger]

I snagged a 20% String with 84str and some dex for a pretty decent price after the servers came back up last night and I've been a bit underwhelmed. My old belt was ~120str, ~120vit 44 phys res, 49 res all. I lost quite a bit of health, damage, and resists with the string, and i didn't notice a big difference in my survivability.

[zapotek]

I snagged a 20% String with 84str and some dex for a pretty decent price after the servers came back up last night and I've been a bit underwhelmed. My old belt was ~120str, ~120vit 44 phys res, 49 res all. I lost quite a bit of health, damage, and resists with the string, and i didn't notice a big difference in my survivability.

Should be easy to resell it though so perhaps you even can make a buck or two from it. String should be the number one choice I feel. Have done some research today and seems like every geared barb out there is pretty much using it. Could be a case of having to reach a treshhold on the resistance side first though.

[Superstate]

You can find belts providing similar protection for around 300k-400k gold (versus physical, provided you're using Impunity and ToN etc), SoE really is an overvalued belt. If the damage mitigation on it stacks additively it could potentially become powerful for a fully stacked gear setup. You'd still die instantly versus molten and so on though!

It isn't as powerful as 2 mil + rare belts.

[galzohar]

20% damage reduction for me is equivalent to about 800 vitality or about 200 resist all when it comes to EHP... Sure it's only physical but it is quite a lot of damage reduction. But I suppose if it goes for 3mil+ you might be able to get some better rare.

I was looking into helm of command, but couldn't even find one with good enough stats, not to mention at a sane price (the only <2mil ones are not really an upgrade, and even the very expensive ones aren't obvious upgrades over what I have).

[Grayson Carlyle]

You can find belts providing similar protection for around 300k-400k gold (versus physical, provided you're using Impunity and ToN etc), SoE really is an overvalued belt.

You're doing something wrong in your math.

Let's give base stats of 6000 armor, 600 resists, 1000 vit and 0% melee reduction before your belt, which gives you 10150 armor and 900 resists with TaN, NoS and Impunity. A little on the high side for armor and low for melee reduction, but that's fine because this will favour belts that aren't SoE.

- 75% resist reduction
- 0% melee reduction
- 78.15% armor reduction
- 94.3% overall reduction from melee attacks

Let's put in a middle-of-the-road SoE with 15 resist all, 15% melee reduction and 270 armor for 10541.5 armor, 922.5 resists:

- 75.46% resist reduction
- 15% melee reduction
- 77.85% armor reduction
- 95.38% overall reduction from melee attacks

To get the equivalent melee reduction from a belt using only armor and resists you would need 550 armor and 131 resist, which frankly, doesn't exist. Closest belt to that up right now is 468 armor, 79 resist all and 54 physical resist, which gets you to 95.33%. An average SoE for 1.5M gets you 1% more EHP than a 5M gold belt.

How about a good SoE? 290/19/19:

- 95.63% overall reduction from melee attacks, or 6.8% more EHP than the 5M gold belt. A good SoE is better than best possible belts that could exist. Saying it offers no more melee protection than a 400k belt is blatantly false.

You need to find a balance though: a 285/17/17 SoE is 11.2% more EHP vs physical, but 7.7% less EHP vs ranged and elemental than a 500 armor, 65 resist all belt. In general, we take far more melee damage, but aside from a couple exceptions like Abaddons and Lacuni Warriors, the elemental situations usually are the more deadly.

[Youngtimer]

Thanks for the feedback an math behind the items!

Since i made very good experience with the 28% Block Shield (remember: block triggers revenge, dodge does not) I stumbled across this ring: http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/item/justice-lantern +11% Blockchance is a fix value, but the ring is very expensive at the european AH. Worth it?

Greetings,
Youngtimer

[edistotiger]

I think i just need to get my HP pool back up. I bought the String and then, miraculously, found a Stormshield about 20 min later. Between those two items i gained a lot of mitigation but lost around 7k hp. I went from 46-47k to a tad under 40k, which is pretty much unacceptable for me.

[galzohar]

You have to keep in mind magical damage as well. Not sure about the distribution, but as DPS spec I got 2-shooted by some elemental attackers act 2 already. 20% melee damage reduction is great, but if you spend a similar amount of gold on a rare belt, while you'll end up with less total EHP against melee attacks, you'll end up with a lot more EHP against magical/ranged attacks. Whether it's worth it or not depends on the kind of belt you find, and the actual distribution of damage taken between melee damage and ranged/magic damage.

Block ring price seems to only go up... Was 1.2mil, then 1.5, then 1.7, and before servers kicked me out was 2mil... And that's for rings with low armor roll and no other useful stats.

The high block (both chance and value) are very very hard to find. You need to look for shields with at least 5% block amount with your maximum buyout price, sort by armor, and just go over all of them (luckily, all high block shields have the same icon). Remember or write down the ones you think might be a good deal (price and stats, so you can compare them later as well as actually finding the chosen shield), and then go back and buy the best one you found. I got a 25% block 10% life shield for like 50k, and couldn't find anything significantly better for less than 2 million.


There is no such thing as "unacceptable HP". Only your EHP matters when it comes to how long it takes you to die and how much revenge heals. Of course blocking and damage reduction factor in to your EHP as well, they're just not as easy to calculate. But you can easily tank act 2 with even 30k HP if everything else is high enough.