Resists vs. "Magic Damaged Reduced by..."

[BlizzBallerSorc]

I just picked up a Dwarf Star unique ring. It has boosts to life and stamina, which I don't particularly need, and +15 Fire Absorb, which would be nice, but the "Magic Damage Reduced by 12" interests me. If I switch it out with one of my other rings, I'll take a big hit on resists (20-30 on fire/poison), so it doesn't exactly seem worth it. From the research I've done, it seems that this refers to elemental damage, and that in previous versions of the game, the magic damage reduction used to function differently from resists in that it calculated frame by frame, thus making it reduce an Inferno-type attach very significantly. Now, however, I read that this is no longer the case. So, would this "Magic Damage Reduced by 12" be roughly equivalent to a +12 Resist All?

I can see it would be different in that it would stack on top of maxed resists, but otherwise, is there any significant difference between resists and magic damage reduction?

(I'm playing in 1.13, if that matters.)

 

[pharphis]

The order of calculation for damage mitigation depends on version, and in 1.13 "magic damage reduced by" (MDR) reduces the damage you take BEFORE resists are taken into account. This has some very specific uses like against inferno attacks and hydras (weak individual hits but many many hits total) but usually more res > mdr. physical damage reduced by (iDR - integer damage reduction) works the same way and again has some specific uses.
It's not fair to compare it to [email protected] unless the attack you're being hit by does exactly 100 dmg AND you have 0 with that particular res.

Now, sorb + mdr is even better for things like hydras and if you plan to run council, for example, dwarf star is a great choice

 

[BlizzBallerSorc]

I see; that makes sense. So the "reduced by 12" is not reducing by 12%, but subtracting 12 from the numerical damage done?

If so, I'll certainly hang on to the ring, but I'll probably use the +resists rings in most circumstances.

 

[pharphis]

I see; that makes sense. So the "reduced by 12" is not reducing by 12%, but subtracting 12 from the numerical damage done?

If so, I'll certainly hang on to the ring, but I'll probably use the +resists rings in most circumstances.

yup! I don't know the entire damage calculation but it's easy enough to find on the amazon basin or any D2 wiki. I DO know that energy shield takes place FIRST and so mDR and iDR are super good for ES sorcs
Dwarf star can have up to 15 mdr, btw, so if you decide to use it and have several, take a close look at them

 

[BlizzBallerSorc]

Terrific--thanks again for the info.

 

[NoisemakerArrow]

Dwarf Star has 15% Fire Absorb, not 15.

 

[Loot Skywalker]

Always take care of your resists first. MDR should be thought of as a supplement to resists, and not a replacement. 12-15 MDR doesn't sound like a lot, but it's noticeable, as monsters really don't hit as hard as most players think. 30+ MDR and you'll be nearly immune to some monsters, which is kinda fun. But the real reason that Dwarfstar is sexy because it combines both MDR and FIRE absorb. Why is fire absorb important? Because fire kills more characters than anything else in the game. So much so that in hardcore MP, it is common for players to type 'FE' as a warning to others. whenever they encounter a fire-enchanted monster. Hotspur, dwarfstar, 1.07 LOH etc... Get fire absorb from some source, and your character will die less often.

 

[helvete]

Probably referring to the FE bug, which was fixed for hell, but not for NM. Old habits die hard.

 

[pharphis]

Probably referring to the FE bug, which was fixed for hell, but not for NM. Old habits die hard.

wait, NM can pose a challenge?
Anyone have a nice link describing how OP the FE bug is? I've read that it would one-shot any chat under the right circumstances (ancient's) but I don't know if I ever saw any numbers...

 

[BlizzBallerSorc]

Wait a second—that FE bug may explain something that happened to me when playing against the NM Ancients. I was ready to fight them, so I held my breath, let them begin their little spiel, and the clicked off it. I was INSTANTLY dead—one hit killed before I could do anything.


I thought, “Wow… this is going to be terrible; I’m never going to kill these guys.” But then I went back and killed them easily the second time, and I always wondered what had insta-killed me that initial time.

It sounds like perhaps this is what killed me based on the link here: http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/threads/whats-the-fe-bug-and-other-questions.258958/#post-2664276

 

[helvete]

That's a really old thread, so not all of it still applies. However, a lot of people have been playing for even longer, and will still warn about a bug/imbalance which isn't necessarily there anylonger.

It's been a long time since I played NM, but I still remember getting owned by FE Lister, so it wasn't only the Ancients. Reports of Radament and various Council Members one-shotting high HP characters are also recent and believeable.

 

[Loot Skywalker]

Fire enchanted + holy Fire + extra Atrong = run

Unless you have absorb. Big or no, FE cans still be a horrific one-shot, and often is behind the 'what the hell killed me it clicked out and will never know' sort of deaths. LE is a close second, but you don't have to worry about the explosion, unless it is stacking with another aura (such as FE or CE) like it is prone to do.

The worst FE death I've seen was a level 99 barb in durance 2 nightmare -- he was overconfident and did a ww through a doll pack. One of the bosses was stacked with aura uglies .

 

[NoisemakerArrow]

I'm assuming he was HC?

 

[wakiki]

As others have said, it's pretty useful but resists are more important.

Back in the day, the normal summoner dished out a 5-damage-per-frame fire wall. That's 125 per second which was absurd for a character with like 150 life. I think the normal summoner killed more of my characters in 1.09 than any other enemy, including PKs, MSLE, and lag. What was funny was if you just grabbed +4 MDR (you could shop magical breast plates and helms with 2), then he would only do 25 damage per second, and with 5 MDR you could stand in his fire and take 0 damage. They've nerfed the summoner a lot since then which is a bummer imo because I enjoyed having to prepare for him.

I'm pretty sure that the +MDR applies to gloams 6 times since they hit 6 times. Not totally sure, so if anyone can verify/disprove this please do.

 

[Loot Skywalker]

Nah I only played sc on useast. I could handle most PK
attempts in HC but Blizz's refusal to fix the dropbarb really angered me, so I stuck to SC for the most part.

Single Player has been a nice revelation and change of pace. When I burned out on d2 years ago it was largely due to the constant bots spamming, wannabe scammers, people constantly clicking to see my gear (trade games this is understandable but if the game is named something like 'act 5 rescue Anya' those people really should ask before clicking me, or just bugger off) ... Oh! And the wannabe PK'ers who call you a stream of obsenities just because their cheap bm tactic failed.

SP has some negatives, but is rate my overall experience with it higher than online play.

 

[Saluki]

(...) Single Player has been a nice revelation and change of pace. (...) SP has some negatives, but is rate my overall experience with it higher than online play.

This is my feeling as well.

Online was fun in the early years. The society and economy added to the game. I liked the competition of leveling and wealth accumulation, and the general sense of 'being in the jungle' as malicious and vulgar players could come out of nowhere and shake things up. These things I miss.

I stayed online over the years because that was the only way to play. You simply were not legit unless bnet regulated your gameplay. Now, I prefer to play with characters and items that do not expire. I still have all my progress since starting SP in 2011 and it keeps me coming back.

One thing I remember from the year I burned out on bnet was logging in and -- judging from the frequent creation of numbered game names -- noticing that a friend on my list had done well over a thousand Meph runs (I only played Classic). He was still going strong, too, because he wouldn't even stop to answer my messages. Well, I couldn't compete with that. In short, it would seem that no economy, no matter how distantly removed from real life, is safe from the money changers.

 

[Loot Skywalker]

Same here. I thought that, to be considered a legit player, I would have to be online,
Because bnet kept the cheating to a minimum. I never scammed anyone but I was very good at buying low and selling high. And quickly amassed enough highly-valued items to be considered wealthy by most standards. Obscenely wealthy, at one point. I had multiple mules full of nothing but soj's when those were the going currency. I had several bugged tal's, and numerous godly items du jour, such as occy rings and bugged string and just about everything between. But Though the items were valuable I didn't try to kid myself into believing any of it was legit. I never 'cheated' but many items in my possession were a little on the shady side.

so, in most respects, my sp account is more legit than my bnet account ever was. Harder to trade for items, but ultimately more rewarding. I only wish I could get a torch and anni and still be considered legit... Not having those charms is my biggest gripe, but it does force me to put more thought and care into my builds.

 

[NoisemakerArrow]

Your friend was doing thousands of MF runs in quick succession and didn't answer messages?

What's a dropbarb?

 

[Loot Skywalker]

A dropbarb puts a point in every mastery to achieve multiple ' states', stacks them with war cries for more states, and so on.... Once enough 'states' are happening at once bnet sends a really screwed up packet which drops most players, but occasionally causes the player to stay connected and defenseless.... It's worse than a nakedkill. Players came up with a workaround for it, but it was an unapproved client mod which ran a potential for banning

 

[Saluki]

Your friend was doing thousands of MF runs in quick succession and didn't answer messages?

No. He was busy selling the items.