Simple defense mechanics explanation

[Karth]

One thing that has been on my mind that I haven't searched for, but would apply itself to this topic, is how the monsters level would affect the effectiveness of our defensive stats. Monsters in Inferno are clearly a higher level than us so what we see on our character sheets are not in fact true numbers for monsters over level 60. Has anyone been able to determine the negative impact our stats take on monsters who are of higher level than us?

I think this gets out of the 'simple' arena, but it goes like this:
DR% = Armor/(Armor+mlvl*50)*100
Res% = Res/(Res+mlvl*5)*100

For example, 9000 armor is 75% dr vs level 60 monsters, but only 74.07% dr vs level 63 monsters.

[Hwaygo]

I think this gets out of the 'simple' arena, but it goes like this:
DR% = Armor/(Armor+mlvl*50)*100
Res% = Res/(Res+mlvl*5)*100

For example, 9000 armor is 75% dr vs level 60 monsters, but only 74.07% dr vs level 63 monsters.

haha yea, not so simple.

Also, i believe monster levels are 61 in act1 inferno, 62 in act 2 and 63 in acts 3 and 4.

[tarilen]

That answers the question and another which I had in the back of my mind. The reduced effects are really not all that game breaking for me.

[VHD]

http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/com...iki-net-part-1

The wiki got updated - can anyone confirm the reported damage types of desacrator, fire chains, and molten?

[aaronbrooks]

Just posted here to clarify something I noticed about this thread.

Armor does NOT mitigate all damage sources. For one, it has no effect on poison damage. This is easily tested out--fight Ghom, and have Leap: Iron Impact. You will find that damage ticking from poison will be exactly the same even after you land from Leap.

The only mitigator that reduces ALL damage is ALL RESIST.

Armor is the next most useful, as it covers most damage types (but not all). You can easily test with leap and damage ticks, you will find with certain ground effects, the 3x armor from Iron Impact does zilch.

Dodge mitigates generally the same stuff armor does, but damage taken will be spikier (dodge is either yes/no, classic Boolean). Block covers the least amount of damage types; for example, you can dodge arcane sentries, but you can't block them).

[Karth]

Just posted here to clarify something I noticed about this thread.

Armor does NOT mitigate all damage sources. For one, it has no effect on poison damage. This is easily tested out--fight Ghom, and have Leap: Iron Impact. You will find that damage ticking from poison will be exactly the same even after you land from Leap.

The only mitigator that reduces ALL damage is ALL RESIST.

Armor is the next most useful, as it covers most damage types (but not all). You can easily test with leap and damage ticks, you will find with certain ground effects, the 3x armor from Iron Impact does zilch.

Dodge mitigates generally the same stuff armor does, but damage taken will be spikier (dodge is either yes/no, classic Boolean). Block covers the least amount of damage types; for example, you can dodge arcane sentries, but you can't block them).

While Leap (Iron Impact) doesn't decrease Ghom's damage, war cry and armor passive do decrease Ghom's damage. It is possible that Iron Impact is bugged in some way. Perhaps armor isn't checked but once for the purpose of reducing the damage of Ghom's poison cloud.

Testing procedure: Make one game, buff with Warcry (Impunity) as soon as the cutscene ends, then use Threatening Shout, Overpower (Crushing Advance), and Ignore Paid (Iron Hide) to allow clouds and cloud damage to build up. Once Ignore Pain expires do not reuse Overpower but do renew Threatning Shout; then observe and record damage numbers. Do not kill Ghom; die to repeat the test in the same game. Testing in different games seemed to alter the numbers each time, while as you can see, testing in the same game was quite reliable. All tests were made in the listed order:

Damage: Conditions
2718: War Cry (Impunity) Nerves of Steel, Tough as Nails, Enchantress, Threatening Shout
2718: War Cry (Impunity) Nerves of Steel, Tough as Nails, Enchantress, Threatening Shout
3997: War Cry (Impunity), Threatening Shout
3812: War Cry (Impunity), Threatening Shout
2718: War Cry (Impunity) Nerves of Steel, Tough as Nails, Enchantress, Threatening Shout
2718: War Cry (Impunity) Nerves of Steel, Tough as Nails, Enchantress, Threatening Shout
3812: War Cry (Impunity), Threatening Shout
3812: War Cry (Impunity), Threatening Shout

This is admittedly not rigorous as I tested multiple armor-increasing abilities, but none the less it demonstrates that increasing armor does reduce damage vs Ghom's poison cloud attack. I hypothesize that the situation may be more complex than "some attacks ignore armor."

Perhaps some attacks only check armor/resist once instead of each time they deal damage for the sake of server load or something similar.

[VHD]

Just posted here to clarify something I noticed about this thread.

Armor does NOT mitigate all damage sources. For one, it has no effect on poison damage. This is easily tested out--fight Ghom, and have Leap: Iron Impact. You will find that damage ticking from poison will be exactly the same even after you land from Leap.

The only mitigator that reduces ALL damage is ALL RESIST.

Armor is the next most useful, as it covers most damage types (but not all). You can easily test with leap and damage ticks, you will find with certain ground effects, the 3x armor from Iron Impact does zilch.

Dodge mitigates generally the same stuff armor does, but damage taken will be spikier (dodge is either yes/no, classic Boolean). Block covers the least amount of damage types; for example, you can dodge arcane sentries, but you can't block them).

Interesting. I'm surprised there are some dodge-able skills that cannot be blocked. Also surprised to find out that Leap: Iron Impact appears to be bugged regarding Ghom. I thought for sure I've used it on the little poison traps that the trees in A1 create and noticed significantly reduced dmg.

Maybe just Ghom is bugged? I wonder if anyone has brought this up with Blizzard...

I also wonder if Ignore Pain fails to reduce Ghom poison just like Leap...

[Karth]

I also wonder if Ignore Pain fails to reduce Ghom poison just like Leap...

Ignore Pain reduces Ghom's damage as stated in the description. Easy to test and very obvious effect. In fact, without it it would have been difficult to perform the tests without the armor buffs; I would have trouble staying alive long enough for the poison cloud damage to stabilize. My barbarian doesn't have a large hp pool or particularly high resistances.