Resistance nodes or just gear?

A 8% life node will never give more total hp than the 40 base hp from Oak, unless you have Kaoms (0 socket, 1000 base hp armor).

I'm lvl66 with 80/80/80/-16 resists and I used to have all the 15% nodes near the marauder tree and have been able to drop them as my resists on gear increases.

I have 7100 armor, 3265 life and I feel pretty safe so far aside from the occasional dmg spike when you get swamped.

The max resists really helped me a lot all the way to where I'm now at lvl66.

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Zealflare wrote:

A 8% life node will never give more total hp than the 40 base hp from Oak, unless you have Kaoms (0 socket, 1000 base hp armor).

Well, perhaps I calculated incorrectly there, because I was comparing the increase from Oak's bonus *after* all the other nodes had affected everything else.

However, in that case, it was only about 4%. Less the more HP one has to begin with.

So sure, an 8% node wouldn't add 8% ON TOP of that. Let me try to math a few things... trying to find BASE HP in the previous examples...

Let's just go with the 2800 example. Okay, so then, assuming +178% for life nodes (it probably isn't this much, but let's just say), then 2800=(base)*2.78. 1007 base HP. Now, if it's just 150% from the nodes: 1120 base HP.

So then ... let's compare.

1007 * 2.78 = 2800 (well, 2799, but whatever, hehe)
1047 * 2.78 = 2911.

1120 * 2.5 = 2800
1160 * 2.5 = 2900.

In these examples, using just the proposed base HP values, and adding the bonus, the 40 life amounts to ... well, look at that, STILL just 4%. Actually a little less.

1047/1007 = 1.0397
1160/1120 = 1.0357


I fail to see how an 8% node isn't better than this. Looking at base HP values, and looking at HP with all the passive nodes in play, we still get a 4% boost from Oak. Now sure, 40 life plus whatever early-game bonuses is going to be more than 8%, but in the long run? It seems not. Looks like more evidence for taking the skill point.

Remember that 8% is only additive with other +% life. Going from +150% to +158% (by grabbing an additional 8%) is equivalent to (258/250) = 1.032% (or around 3%) increase in total life, thus quite worse than the ~4% you are gaining from oak.

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Kjara wrote:

Remember that 8% is only additive with other +% life. Going from +150% to +158% (by grabbing an additional 8%) is equivalent to (258/250) = 1.032% (or around 3%) increase in total life, thus quite worse than the ~4% you are gaining from oak.

Yeah, this is true. I kinda herped a fairly large derp with that post, and was working outside so could not come back and fix it, hehe.


The only way to properly consider the effect of the Oak boost is to consider base HP without the boost, and then base HP plus the boost *AND THE PASSIVES*. That's the only way to quantify the full effect of that 40 HP.

So ... trying this again...


2800 has likely base HP values of somewhere between 1007 and 1120.

Okay, so instead of comparing 1007 and 1047, and then 1120 and 1160, I need to remember that the 40 life will be magnified by the other passives. In these cases, I used 2.5 and 2.78 (1+1.5 and 1+1.78).

So then, the comparison should be between these numbers:

1007 and (1007+(40*2.78)) = 1118. 1118/1007 = 1.11 for an 11% boost. Much better than 4%, I'd say.

1120 and (1120+(40*2.5)) = 1220. 1220/1120 = 1.089, so basically a 9% boost.


Okay, so then...

Assuming 2800 HP after passive boosts, and assuming passive boosts between 150% and 178%, we can say that the Oak boost provides a 9-11% boost overall. And if we save some points in other places, and head toward shadow for more, we can get more scaling than that, even.


So yeah, it is better than 8%.

But I'm not sure if it's better enough to make it worth grabbing. :\

Maybe it is, if all I give up is an 8% node or something along that line, relatively unimportant. However, if that passive point just happens to be the one I need at the time to reach an important keystone, then it changes the scenario a bit.


This stumbles into another possible rabbit hole of nerdism: If HP stacking is really a strong way to go, how does 40% more hp compare against 70% more evasion for IR? Would there be a way to figure out if it's better to stack as many HP as possible, versus spending the same number of points going for evasion?

This guy:

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/197634

Is level 67, 4586 life (!!)

His tree has 209% boosts.

So then the base is 1484.


In this case, Oak boost would grant (40*(3.09) 124.

1608/1484 = 1.083.

It basically *is* an 8% node in this case.