Resistance nodes or just gear?

Okay, so I see some pretty good resistance passives right next to me in the tree, and about 4 spaces away, a 15% to all elemental resistances.

Kraityn also gives an 8% resistance boost.

But the consensus opinion seems to be to depend on gear for resistances.

Well, would going that route really provide enough resistances to account for the -60% that we have to absorb in Merciless? I hear players say that they CAN max their resistances, but that doesn't mean that it's very easy to do.


I keep meaning to ask some of the more advanced players' opinions on this issue, but I always put it off. Please, those of you who can run through maps with little fear, how do you handle resistances? Is it *really* better to take the passive node rather than Kraityn's boost? I know why the life and mana are suspect (fat values), but 8% seems like something which would be a valuable enough node in the tree.

And if it's really not worth it for the 8%, what about the other nodes? The 6% that leads to 15% for two of the specifics? I was planning to get that, but I see a lot of players don't, and say that they do okay. Same with the 15% node four spaces from IR. But then I hear from many others who post about how they keep dying and, well, besides not speccing into other defense enough, I notice they tend to ignore resistances.


What do you guys do to get and keep your resistances high?

I took 3 of the +6% resistance nodes and 3 of the +18% resistance nodes (for each element) giving me a total of +36% to all resistances on my tree. That being said, I am not maxed on all my resistances. I was close with 75/75/68/-48 but then changed my amulet out and dropped to 75/75/29/-48. I suspect I could get by losing SOME of those nodes as my fire and cold are likely pegged way high, but obviously I am having difficulty with lightning. I am trying to replace my quiver with one that gives lightning resist instead of cold and fire (current one) to fix that problem. Now, if I am going to run a map that has lightning as a major portion of it, I can just put my old amulet back on and get back to 68% lightning for that one map. In the end, it doesn't hurt to get those nodes as you can always drop them again once your gear gives you enough. The +15% diamond skin node seems like a waste to me since it takes 4 points to get to unless you are going that direction anyway and only have to invest 1 extra point.

My resist gear is found here. These plus my +36% to all resists from the passive tree is what gives me my resists where they are:

You definitely can cap resistances from gear, but having some coming from the passive tree can open up a lot of options on the gear you use.

The 8% resists from kraityn aren't per say bad, but 40 hp is always useful(CI aside)and doesn't have a cap. One of the nice things you can do with resist nodes is grab the ones along your path to get a nice bonus and once you don't need them anymore respec out of them.

Thanks for your answers so far, guys. :)

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Aemon1902 wrote:

One of the nice things you can do with resist nodes is grab the ones along your path to get a nice bonus and once you don't need them anymore respec out of them.

That might be a good idea.

As for the +15 to all not being worth it ... well, maybe it's not, because sure, that's 4 points.

Mathematically, one point for 6 would be like 3 points for 18. Okay, that's a better deal, but there's only one of those nodes on my path. Were I to extend past that one node and get the 2 adjacent to it, that's 2 points for 15% in 2 of the 3 elements. Yeah, maybe still a better tradeoff than the 4 points, so I'll probably end up doing that.

But what about the bandits?

Why would 40 hp be worth it? I mean, it seems like a lot when you're level 30, but later on won't 40hp be pretty small? Unless that's calculated before all the other hp% passives (or *IS* it, actually?) it would seem like a waste of a skill point.

And okay, so there's no hp cap, but there's also not a 100% immunity from having too many hp.

I get the impression that Inkarnit went the witch route for those passives (so a total of what, 36% for all?), and there's still an issue with lightning because getting just the right gear can be a pain.

I'm not sure if the +15 node is worth 4 points, but if we assume that it's not, and I get the other 3 nodes, then that's 3 points for 21/21/6%. Much less than 36 all. Kraityn's would make that 29/29/14. At least that's closer.

But everyone says not to take Kraityn's passives. If it's worth a 6% node, why not an 8%? I mean sure, you couldn't respec it, but people warn that we'd be kicking ourselves in Merciless if we did anything but take the skill point.

And there's the 8% chaos. It's only one point, and the only chaos res passive around here, but it's also just 8% to only one resistance.

So complicated, LOL.

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VideoGeemer wrote:

Why would 40 hp be worth it? I mean, it seems like a lot when you're level 30, but later on won't 40hp be pretty small? Unless that's calculated before all the other hp% passives (or *IS* it, actually?) it would seem like a waste of a skill point.

The 40 hp does benefit from all of the % life nodes you get, so it ends up being a fair amount even in the endgame.

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Aemon1902 wrote:

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VideoGeemer wrote:

Why would 40 hp be worth it? I mean, it seems like a lot when you're level 30, but later on won't 40hp be pretty small? Unless that's calculated before all the other hp% passives (or *IS* it, actually?) it would seem like a waste of a skill point.

The 40 hp does benefit from all of the % life nodes you get, so it ends up being a fair amount even in the endgame.

Then, given where I could go with this direction, if I got all possible HP nodes (+178%), that 40 would become 111. There are 5 more nodes 3 dex away, but I'll probably never level high enough to get them, as the online tree says 10 points remaining.

Is that still worth the loss of a skill point and the 8% resistances? Isn't end-game HP a few thousand? I just mean, considering the amount of damage reduced, mathematically, between 135 possible out of 160 resistance, and getting 8 of those 135 filled, and 111 more life (out of however many thousand) and what sort of percentage that would be.

I see in old threads that the HP is recommended for a tank, mathematically, but they dont give numbers for rangers.

Bumpy?

Anyone have any idea what base HP should be for level 60s ranger?

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VideoGeemer wrote:

Bumpy?

Anyone have any idea what base HP should be for level 60s ranger?

I don't know about base HP buy with all my gear I have 2.4k HP, all res 75% and Chaos Resist -7%.

Edit : lvl 71

The 15% to all is worth it. Otherwise, use gear. I have 2800 hp at 60 for the second question.

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Exiled_Clown wrote:

The 15% to all is worth it. Otherwise, use gear. I have 2800 hp at 60 for the second question.

Hmmm. 2800 compared to 2911 (111 for Oak boost plus life passives) really doesn't seem like that huge an increase. 4%, basically. Even linkstatic's 2400 would become 2511, for a 4.6% gain. Still significantly less than the yield of a single life node.

So then we return to the skill points probably being the better way to go. I'm thinking that you are probably right, that the 15% node may be worth it, because I could always respec that later if I get enough resistances. Even though it takes 4 nodes, people are going through witch and spending 6 nodes to get the same boosts. However, I'll probably prioritize some other things first, and grab it when it seems like I'm taking too much elemental damage.

Thanks for the insight, guys. :)