What is the purpose of Bismuth flasks?

Ascendancy introduced some pretty powerful utility flasks, among them are Basalt and Silver flasks which grant a large flat % PDR and Onslaught, respectively. Stibnite, Sulphur and even Aquamarine flasks have their niche uses and can complement specific builds/situations very well.
All of those provide a clear, immediate defensive and/or offensive buff that can be capitalized on.

And then we have... Bismuth flask, which leaves me quite perplexed at its intended use.

+35% to all elemental resistances is only relevant during early leveling phase, but the flask suffix "of Resistance" already exists to help characters struggling in that aspect, as one is likely to discover when they throw a transmute at their first Quicksilver.

As flask slots become increasingly valuable the further you progress, I see no reason to ever use a Bismuth over a single-resistance flask that also grants increased maximum resistance to the respective element, and thus mitigation.

Am I missing something here? Is it just meant to be temporary, leveling flask to be discarded once you've capped your resistances?

I believe giving it a small increase to all maximum resistances (for example, +2%) might help bringing it in-line with other resistance flasks. Thoughts?

It's basically just the same role as 'Purity of elements' compared to the other elemental auras. Easy way to get some resists, not needed if you have enough resists elsewhere.

It can't give bonus to max resists otherwise you'd get people using it alongside the other flasks.

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Rockstopper wrote:

Is it just meant to be temporary, leveling flask to be discarded once you've capped your resistances?

There's absolutely nothing wrong with this, if that is its only use. Most HP/MP flasks, and
pretty much all equipment, fall into the same category.

I think there are other uses for it too, though. It's an easy way to deal with Elemental Equilibrium from Monsters, for eg, without needing 3 resist flasks or massive resistance over-capping.

Also you can apply it to your zombies/spectres with that unique belt.

It also is a 'build enabler' for unique-heavy builds. Obviously those builds aren't usually end-game viable, but it's cool to have flasks that let people try them out anyway.

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the flask suffix "of Resistance" already exists to help characters struggling in that aspect

I think this will stack with Bismuth flask.

The only issue I have with the flask is that it's drop-only as far as I can see. By the time I found my first bismuth, I was already on my second end-game character.

I could see it being useful for characters who have builds that leave them low resistances, and then them using these to compensate for them. Like, maybe they put all their skill points into evasion, or something, and concentrate on life for their armor mods or something, so they don't need the granite flasks or life flasks as much, but they need these to compensate for their resistances. But I wouldn't know; I suck at using flasks.

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Allerdyne wrote:

I could see it being useful for characters who have builds that leave them low resistances, and then them using these to compensate for them. Like, maybe they put all their skill points into evasion, or something, and concentrate on life for their armor mods or something, so they don't need the granite flasks or life flasks as much, but they need these to compensate for their resistances. But I wouldn't know; I suck at using flasks.

I can see a scenario similar to this - I currently have a pathfinder with tons of +charges gained, and I could see using a bismuth to fix my resistances, or to help on ele weakness maps. However, I only really see 1 free flask slot in that build (2 HP pots, 1 granite, 1 stibnite). I'd have a hard time taking a bismuth over my Zerphi's in that last free slot :P

You can use this flask for Volcano boss (that puts -50% resists on you), for example.

The trouble with bismuth flask is not having it up is too punishing, having max resists is way too important to patch up with a flask. It's a good failsafe versus elemental curses in the wrong place at the wrong time if you can't afford to overcap your reses but nothing more than that.