Crystal Skin and Rustic Sash are Noob Traps

Everyone goes for capped resist to stop elemental damage which in turn block a majority of elemental statuses from cropping up in the first place

Heavy Belt not only gives 2% more damage than a rustic sash. It also provides hp which can then scale from life nodes.

why are nodes like crystal skin in then game, and why hasn't rustic sash been dumped yet? All they do is waste peoples time and resources

First point: you will do maps where you resists are lowered. Also, you could take it while leveling up and undergeared, then spec out of it if you so wished.
Second point: heavy belt does nothing for archers unless they take iron grip.

1st Point: why would anyone waste points, let alone respec points, to get status alignment resist when elemental resist does the ob + lowers damage. Also the need for resist is an ever looming threat as it is constantly lowered each difficulty. People running maps obviously gear for these lowered resist issues

2nd point: why would an archer pass up on the iron grip bonus

"

Exiledtyrant wrote:

1st Point: why would anyone waste points, let alone respec points, to get status alignment resist when elemental resist does the ob + lowers damage. Also the need for resist is an ever looming threat as it is constantly lowered each difficulty. People running maps obviously gear for these lowered resist issues

2nd point: why would an archer pass up on the iron grip bonus

Crystal skin is an incredible lvling node. It's not easy to craft/buy your way to max res when lvling, especially during a race/new ladder. Then people who plan out their builds well and don't need the respec points can just drop them later on when they have gear that allows them to.

Although I do think rustic sashes suck. A physical archer is gonna try and get iron grip. The only argument I could see is a shadow/witch/temp archer having issues reaching iron grip but then again, why the hell would they be doing physical bow builds when they have all those elemental nodes and no physical bow damage nodes.

Respecing out of early useful passives isn't a bad idea for some builds. If you're confident it'll all work out with your final built, why not use a resource available to you? Respec points are only as vaulable as your need to respec, after all. And not every archer goes for Iron Grip because eh, it's all the way over there...

But I feel both Rustic Sashes and status avoid-passives could use a buff. Calling them noob traps is going a bit far though, IMO.

crystal skin isn't a useful passive though it requires a large point sink to have any chance of coming into effect at all (because you aren't going to just stop at the 15% chance)

Every build should be able to make it to the end of act 3 normal with 2 sets of each elemental ring. by then your points should e at least 2 solid resist clusters so you are capped for normal with armor mods and half way there for cruel. there is no reason to spend time in status alignment nodes

after getting carnage heart to drop and 15% all resist gloves thats a 18%/ 15%/ 33% work around that I don't even need available.

Keep in mind that rustic sash is a low level item. Heavy belt does not appear until, to my knowledge, late act 1 and early act 2. Asking to remove a low level item because it is outclassed by a higher level one is a bit silly.

As for crystal skin, I will agree I rarely look at that entire 'reduced chance to suffer status ailments' cluster but that's because I play evasion. I rarely get hit with crits, thus I rarely suffer the status ailments. Were I to play armour or ES, I'd probably at least think about it.

There are many, many options for how to build your character on the Skilldrasil and some of those options are harder to justify than others. But I am glad these options exist. The entire Skilldrasil is a 'noob trap' as you put it; go in without doing your research and you will fuck up.

Singling a few nodes out for that designation is vastly underestimating how many paths on the Skilldrasil can end in flames.

How many people get Carnage Heart or 15% all res gloves that early?

...Supposing Crystal Skin and the other status avoision passives got upped by 5% each. You'd go from being able to get 75% shock avoision and 55% burning/chilling/freeze avoision to 95% for shock and 70% for the other three (not including any unique items that may influence this). I'd be sorely tempted to take 95% shock avoision at the expense of maxing out my lightning resistance if I was a ranger or duelist, because suddenly getting shocked (especially by strong shock attacks like Vaal's laser) can be a real downer. 70% chilling/freezing avoision is good too. Kind of don't care about the burning though.

those unique resist items I mention again are work arounds you don't even need.

properly built you can avoid spending any point into resist or even health nodes until act 3 normal.

all you need are 2 resist rings from the vendor of each type and maybe an hp belt. normal is very easy to get by on doing this by the end of act 3 if your build is suitable you should be set up to cap on cruel and make your way to capping merciless when the time is right. chill removal is easily found on flask. I can't say i have ever worried about being shocked or ignited let alone if I am packing the right resist rings especially on Normal mode. By cruel crystal skin should be obsolete.

As for rustic sash shouldn't be taken out because a high level item is better. honestly how many people are rushing for a 5% damage belt between level 1-9? I can tell you the damage it would give would be terrible. By level 9+ you have heavy belt which not only afford damage but scalable Hp.

yes there are plenty of ways to mess up builds on the passive tree. crystal skill seems rather blatant however and rustic sash seems even more pointless. We shouldn't keep waste just becuase

"

Exiledtyrant wrote:

crystal skin isn't a useful passive though it requires a large point sink to have any chance of coming into effect at all (because you aren't going to just stop at the 15% chance)

Yes you are, that's the only valuable point. Why would you ever buy farther into that circle?

1 point investment. Capped resist won't keep you from taking shocks in endgame maps.