NeverDeath

[Caaroid]

I first came upon the suggestion of using excessive straight damage reduction in a strategy guide in 1.08. At that time, the "Safety" type of crafted items were actually usable, and one could build a character that could withstand most melee attacks throughout the game. I even built a barbarian based on that guide, and found him rather enjoyable - but then I completelly forgot about the build.

My interest was raised again by whyBish in this thread, where he claimed that he mainly equipped his sorcerers with -DAM items instead of blocking or defense back in 1.09. He himself voiced his doubts wether this could be a successful path in 1.10, since monster damage has been beefed up big time.

In this idea-raising thread I try to summarize the advantage of a -DAM build over other defensive characters, and then suggest the most effective -DAM character in my opinion. These are all just speculations, and I am really interested in your opinion.

ADVANTAGES:

• Works against all physical attacks, even the un-defendable ones (stun)
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• Does not work "by chance" (save the critical hits): it provides a constant reduction in damage, all the time
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• Does not cause block-lock, or any other kind of action interruption
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• Helps avoiding getting into hit recovery<>
  [st]These are HUGE advantages, so they must come at a great price.
  
  First, let's take the kind of damage we need to be able to absorb:
  
  MONSTER DAMAGE:
  Moon lord: 74-139
  Thorned Hulk (actV): 81-145 / 68-136
  Minion of destruciton: 83-135 / 83-145
  Venom Lord (Ventar's minions): 108-189 (OUCH)
  
  I have to tell you, that venom lords' extreme damage did not even occur to me up to now (I always died to the Inferno, or kept my distance ;))
  
  Now let's see how much damage reduction can we achieve:
  
  DAMAGE REDUCTION:
  SOL rune: damage reduced by 7
  Circlet of life everlasting: 25 + 2x7 = 39
  Amulet of life everlasting: 25
  Aritsans/Jeweler's Armor of Anima: 15+3x7 = 36
  Artisans/Jeweler's Shield of Anima: 15+3x7 = 36
  TOTAL = 137
  
  Considering a 4 socket armor and a 4 socket shield we have an additional 14, netting 151.
  Safety rings can reach 6 each, safety belt and glove 4 tops, giving us a maximum of 171.
  
  For the sake of this discussion, let's just look at the number 137. What does this give us? With the exception of Ventar's minions, no normal monster is capable of harming us (ok, Lister pack can do 10 damage tops on a lucky roll). This means, that only critical hits, extra strong monsters and might/fana enchanted packs stand a chance of actually doing any damage. While it has been suggested, that AMP could be the bane of a build like this, I beg to differ. Since MDR and DR come BEFORE resistances, this means, that AMP is irrelevant, unless the boss is also extra strong.
  
  
  CHARACTER BUILD:
  
  So why 3 socket armor and shield? Here comes the sick part. Getting those (admittedly ideal) mods on a quilted armor and a kite shield, one can get away with having nearly base strenght. In case of caster types, base dexterity is also achievable (ignoring the lure of Wizardspike, that is).
  
  Where does this put us? We have a character, who needs no strenght and dexterity for physical protection, and is less likely to be harmed by attacks than an ironman barb or a defiance paladin. We also tied up this character's shield, armor, helm and amulet slots, although the amulet can get a prefix of +2 skills or +3 three if one's lucky. And also we're as vulnerable to elemental attack as a kitten.
  
  At this point, one either beefs up resistances from some sources (weapon, belt, rings, glove, boots, charms), or play a wind druid. A 60-point build has a 1000 point cyclone armor, that is sufficiently gloam-proof for a few hits (about 5 I guess). Again, this absorbtion comes before resistances, so one can get away with having -100. A 80-point build would have an armor over 1300, and if one can get +skills, this can get even better (+3 amulet, 2 soj already have us at 1705, that is 8-17 gloam hits).
  
  And here comes the best part: you spend your stat points the way you feel like it. Want to go all-vit? With a maxed sage (90+ level or only 60 in the wind tree) this already unhittable character has enough HM buffer to deal with critical hits or the occasional out-of-armor situation. One could also have a lot of mana, but at this day wind druids don't need it (fixed mana cost of tornado).
  
  OVERALL:
  • invulnerability to most physical attacks from items
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  • immunity to elemental attacks from skills
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  • huge life because of stat point freedom
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  • effective killing skills from the wind tree<>
    [st]
    Do dissapoint me, but at the moment it seems like a powerful character.