How much life is too much?

I'm currently level 67. 4,586 life. 80% to all resistances aside from Chaos. With Grace on, I have ~60% damage reduction.

My damage is somewhat low at the moment (partially due to my bow? I don't understand how damage is calculated with Lightning Arrow. If half of the physical damage I'm doing is turned into lightning damage, I should be tearing face.). I keep reading that a higher attack speed bow is recommended. Not bad damage overall though, considering I have next to 0 +dmg nodes.



My question becomes: How much life is too much life? Is there such a thing?

I've taken a large number of life nodes and I could easily push 5,000+ life. I'm debating just going full damage from here on out, though.

I literally never die and use maybe 1 potion on a pack of mobs with killer auras/buffs.

My build


Full Gear

There's another thread where I'm trying to figure out, mathematically, if any of the Normal difficulty bandit rewards are worth taking. I had thought the resistances might be, but I keep seeing people with maximum resistances, even in Merciless, and with no passives there. So Kraityn's boost is definitely not worth it, because it couldn't be respecced, even though some tree options might still be worthwhile.

I hear people saying that Oak's HP boost is, though. And there were examples where it was shown that his boost, were it a passive node, would, in those cases, amount to anywhere from a 9% to a 13% node. In your case, it's an 8% node. You have massive HP passives, but you also have enough base HP *without* those passives, that Oak's boost wouldn't be worth it.

So, then ...


I don't suppose that settles anything on that matter, but it's looking like the skill point might still, overall, be the best option, even though there are certain cases where Oak's boost is more beneficial.


I don't know if this is interesting to you, in your case, or not. But there was another thread that this all kind of connects to.

If I had the link handy I'd post it here for you.

Basically, there are a lot of people convinced (and perhaps they are right) that HP stacking is **all you need** for defense in this game, as far as passive nodes go, and that everything else can be provided with gear. They make the case that HP nodes are more valuable than anything else, even armor or evasion nodes.


I'm not sure about that, because no math has been presented (as far as I know), but if it's true, then that really throws a monkey into the idea that Iron Reflexes and evasion stacking are the best way to go for "normal" phys build rangers. Your build goes all over the map and into marauder/templar, and hardly any nodes at all are taken for evasion.


I'm really curious at this point if it really is better to stack HP and not even worry about heading up for the evasion nodes. So far all I've read is opinion on the matter, claiming that all other defense sucks. Well, maybe it does, but is there any way of trying to place values from actual circumstances which could demonstrate if HP stacking is better than evasion or any other defense?


Specifically, close to ranger, toward shadow, are an evasion cluster and a life cluster. 70% evasion or 40% HP. Supposing one doesn't have the points to go to both, which is better?

Know what I'm getting at? Probably about the same as your question. I'd really like to know as well.

But aside from that, as for damage output, why not get elemental/lightning damage boosts?

how can u have 60 damage reduction with that armor?

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tempallo wrote:

how can u have 60 damage reduction with that armor?

Iron Reflexes.

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VideoGeemer wrote:

Your build goes all over the map and into marauder/templar, and hardly any nodes at all are taken for evasion.

I took Iron Reflexes to go all-out armor as opposed to evasion. I've read that it is essentially better to stack armor and HP vs. evasion due to the nature of evasion. Lots of smaller hits seem to outweigh one big hit getting through and killing you with evasion.

Your gear is already good enough for a big portion of the end-game content. Just invest in a good Elemental damage Thicket and you should be good to go. Eventually upgrade the rings, amulet and quiver with something that adds damage but it should be OK as it is.

you need some dmg nodes (weapon elemental damage//catalyse) just regret your armor nodes(not needed) and some health nodes to get it +80% wpn ele damage (5 nodes + catalyse) should buff your dps substantially
also you should get static blows, but thats little way up there. + you should take the starting point from ranger +6% attack speed and even go to +15% projectile damage (and 2x +8 on the way)
3k health is more than enough for up to lvl 70 maps (im facerolling them atm with 8k dps single 2k la + chain + lmp)
also you REALLY should get soem faster bow. since its a priority with life gain on hit +la to heal fast and tank with unvaering stance

also about how much life is much... when u run with a party you don't need much hp at all (other ppl are tanking) and all you need is static + dps so you help them kill mobs (and make them shocked)
while u run solo 3-3.5k pool is enough + using skeletons on totem for tanking.
sometimes there are nasty bossess (like piety in temple map) (not endgame boss, just in the maps) then lots of hp is needed, but its usually better to avoid that map and get huge dps setup to do most of the maps faster

i m lvl75 with 2050 hp...... if i equip broadstoke i run arround with 1860 :D

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WWoody wrote:

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tempallo wrote:

how can u have 60 damage reduction with that armor?

Iron Reflexes.

oh really? rotfl
its obvious that u took iron reflexes, but u got:
89 armor (gloves)
115 + 115 (boots)
288 (head)
1130 (chest)
total : 1737
+ grace lets say 1300 = around 3000 def. + other various moltiplicator.

with 15k armor u got around 50% damage reduction. how u can arrive to 60 dr with a base of 3k armor? pls man ahahahah

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I took Iron Reflexes to go all-out armor as opposed to evasion. I've read that it is essentially better to stack armor and HP vs. evasion due to the nature of evasion. Lots of smaller hits seem to outweigh one big hit getting through and killing you with evasion.

Well yes, I think Iron Reflexes is pretty much necessary, precisely for that reason. With it, you can stack armor *or* evasion nodes (and if you're going dex, which you aren't, but for general reference, it's usually easier to get more armor by using evasion gear, since the conversion is not 1:1, but a little more). So perhaps I wrote that poorly.

Aside from a Steel Skin area, I didn't see a lot of armor nodes either. And since you started from Ranger, evasion nodes are really easy to come by. I suppose they aren't as easily on your path, however, if you had taken the path northwest of ranger and gone for that evasion cluster, and then toward Iron Grip and a couple life nodes there, that would have allowed you to stack more HP and defense, and to cut out the path from Iron Grip toward the lower left corner. But that's a separate point, I suppose.

I was just noticing that the great majority of your defense was HP stacking, and that it seemed to work well enough for you. :)


As for the lightning damage, half of your physical damage is *converted* to lightning damage. So 50% remains physical, 50% is now lightning. Up in the Templar area are nodes which could increase that 50% by a lot.


How well is Blood Magic working for you? I've always kinda been afraid to go that route, but if your mana pool really sucks without a bunch of passives, then sure, maybe it's really a lot easier just to cut mana out entirely.