Post 1.0.3 Rune Switch From Force to Prismatic Armor?

[galzohar]

So anyone figured out how much raw damage (before mitigation) the toughest un-avoidable attack in the game hits for? IIRC someone posted you need 170k EHP to survive with force armor before the patch. I wonder what the number would be now, as well as what kind of EHP we need to survive at lest 1-2 hits of whatever is hitting the hardest (and can't be avoided - I don't care so much for avoidable damage that 1-shots you, mostly since mitigating it would cost too much).

[magicrectangle]

Well that's simple enough, if you need 170k EHP with force armor you need 340k EHP without force armor.

I'm pretty sure the highest damage single attack in the game is rakanoth's teleport slam, by the way.

[XenoXb]

I'm currently farming Act 3 at the moment with 34k hp, 750 ar unbuffed, 2.8k armor unbuffed. Prismatic armor lets me take at least 4-5 shots from the big teleporting elites (forgot their name) and usually 6+ from weaker mobs/elites, however the nerf to IAS has made it a tad more difficult to kite so I'm doing about the same as I was pre-patch. I definitely think force armor isn't as efficient now though if you have high enough health + all resist, I think if your resists are less than 500-600 with less than 30k hp you might be better off with force armor.

[melianor]

Hm, i have been keeping to Prismatic Armor since a long time. Works at least equally to Force Armor, though to use Force Armor and have it effective i would possibly need to gain another 10k HP. I guess whether to use Prismatic Armor or Force Armor is by calculating your EHP (Effective HP)!

[magicrectangle]

Hm, i have been keeping to Prismatic Armor since a long time. Works at least equally to Force Armor, though to use Force Armor and have it effective i would possibly need to gain another 10k HP. I guess whether to use Prismatic Armor or Force Armor is by calculating your EHP (Effective HP)!

I think you've got this backward. Force armor is better for mitigating a few large hits, whereas prismatic is better for mitigating many small hits. The more EHP you have - in particular the more resists you have - the better prismatic becomes compared to force, as force does nothing for you on hits that aren't substantial in size compared to your EHP.

With 28k hp, 5k armor, and ~500 res all, I feel like I'm on the borderline as to which is better. If I had less hp/armor/resists force would definitely be better, and if I had more resists, prismatic would definitely be better. As it is in act 3/4 there are a fair amount of hits that don't trigger force armor, but there are also a few hits that are a bit too large with prismatic. I haven't decided yet whether to drop down to ~22k hitpoints, pick up more damage, and use force, or buff up to ~700 resist all and use prismatic. Probably the former just because I like damage.

[melianor]

I think you've got this backward. Force armor is better for mitigating a few large hits, whereas prismatic is better for mitigating many small hits. The more EHP you have - in particular the more resists you have - the better prismatic becomes compared to force, as force does nothing for you on hits that aren't substantial in size compared to your EHP.

With 28k hp, 5k armor, and ~500 res all, I feel like I'm on the borderline as to which is better. If I had less hp/armor/resists force would definitely be better, and if I had more resists, prismatic would definitely be better. As it is in act 3/4 there are a fair amount of hits that don't trigger force armor, but there are also a few hits that are a bit too large with prismatic. I haven't decided yet whether to drop down to ~22k hitpoints, pick up more damage, and use force, or buff up to ~700 resist all and use prismatic. Probably the former just because I like damage.

^^ Yes, like you wrote. Currently i feel more safe with Prismatic Armor, probably since i am in a range where i get a lot of smaller hits. I noticed, that when i really get a large hit, than i can just take like 1-2 of them and then i am dead. So i should possibly start experimenting a bit.

[RazeBarb]

I definitely should visit the Wizard forums more often.
Very interesting thread and after reading all of it, I'm going to test PA when I get home!

[galzohar]

The 170k was before patch, that's why I was asking if anyone figured out the new number for 1.0.3.

Pre-patch info:
https://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5836335034

Basically just need the same info for after 1.0.3 so we can make intelligent decisions.

Edit:
http://www.diablofans.com/topic/5485...r/page__st__20
claims 159k hits so need 117k ehp for maximum force armor absorption.

[konfeta]

Ugh, so..

With 20k HP you need 65%/65% DR to survive the hardest hitting attacks in Inferno without energy armor.
With 30k HP you need 60%/60% DR to survive the hardest hitting attacks in Inferno without energy armor.
With 40k HP you need 50%/50% DR to survive the hardest hitting attacks in Inferno without energy armor.

Looks like the oppression of 5 skill slot gameplay is here to stay for a while. God damn I hate energy armor.

I think Galvanizing Ward and Energy Armor effects need to swap. Energy Armor should give innate life regen boost, Galvanizing Ward should give all armors the % DR boost. At least there would be some entertaining variety to armor choice.

[viech]

Prismatic Armor was even prepatch way better than Force Armor, it just didn't give instant reward like Force Armor did, you needed good defensive gear to support the skill - and apparently most people just couldn't bear to have less than 20k dps or even 30k dps to actually survive stuff decently. The wizard never was any glass-cannony at all (provided the right gear and specc), it is somewhat ironic one of his passives is named like that.
Now it is ridiculously easy to tank as a wizard, I could tank most mobs prepatch and now I barely even move when I get attacked and just now I facetanked Izual until he died without any problems - using Prismatic Armor of course.

@konfeta: I like your idea but it would probably be wiser to split the defensive boni of Enery Armor between itself and Galvanizing Ward and make them stack; otherwise Galwanizing Ward would just be a new must-have.

EDIT: Just noticed this interesting part of your post, haven't read it carefully enough the first time apparently

Ugh, so..

With 20k HP you need 65%/65% DR to survive the hardest hitting attacks in Inferno without energy armor.
With 30k HP you need 60%/60% DR to survive the hardest hitting attacks in Inferno without energy armor.
With 40k HP you need 50%/50% DR to survive the hardest hitting attacks in Inferno without energy armor.

Looks like the oppression of 5 skill slot gameplay is here to stay for a while. God damn I hate energy armor.

40k HP and 50%/50% DR is actually pretty easy to get, I will try how far I can get without Energy Armor the next days to test that out.