Crystal skin "armor rating"

[ka243 3]

Does crystal skin give a bonus to poison or fire armor or only physical and ice? Does it innately before any modding give any bonus against spells?

 

I noticed this in the description from the wiki:

 

"Improves armor rating and resistance against spells".... but it does not specify if this is all armor.

 

In fact, the next section says innate abilities at level 1 are:

 

* Regeneration Time of all Combat Arts +35.0%

* Resistance Bonus: Physical +40

* Damage Mitigation: Ice 20.2%

* Regeneration Time: Aspect Mystic Stormite -29.5%

 

... nothing about armor rating versus damage types other than physical and ice there and nothing about spell resistance.

 

If it improves poison armor it seems a better choice for the fight against the last guardian, who is the hardest one IMO, than fire skin. What do you think? If it does absolutely nothing to improve your armor versus poison, fire skin may be a better defense versus this guy because of close combat reflect.

 

Trying to imagine an elf that could beat the last boss in niob at the lowest possible level and I wonder if this should include ice skin, fire skin or both.

Edited October 7, 2009 by ka243

[RyanKO14 0]

Well first of im afraid you cant use indascent skin and crystal skin at the same time. CS only gives an armor rating to physical damage which is actually quite handy as physical damage is the most common type of damage. It does however reduce ice damage but will increase damage dealt by fire damage

[Spunky 16]

Were have you read that Crystal Skin have a weakness against fire attacks? I for sure know that Incadescent Skin don't have any ice weakness.

[ka243 3]

Well first of im afraid you cant use indascent skin and crystal skin at the same time. CS only gives an armor rating to physical damage which is actually quite handy as physical damage is the most common type of damage. It does however reduce ice damage but will increase damage dealt by fire damage

 

I think you have crystal skin and cascading shroud confused. Cascading shrould increases vulnerability to fire, crystal skin does not.

 

Of course I know that the skins can't be used at the same time, but you could have both fire and ice focus, have a high level in both skins and use one or the other depending on the type of enemies you are fighting. I have played a high elf to niob but this elf took only fire focus and not ice focus.

 

My question was whether crystal skin increases armor rating across the board (including versus poison and fire damage) for example because that's what the first sentence of the wiki seems to indicate. It says Crystal Skin "Improves armor rating and resistance against spells".... but it does not specify if this is all armor or only physical and ice armor.

 

If Crystal Skin does improve poison armor it seems a better choice for the fight against the last guardian (who does lots of poison damage) and is the hardest one IMO, than fire skin.

 

If Crystal Skin does absolutely nothing to improve your armor versus poison, fire skin may be a better defense versus this guy because of close combat reflect that can be gotten from the silver mod on fire skin.

Edited October 8, 2009 by ka243

[RyanKO14 0]

ah yes sorry about that but still as I previously said crystal skin increases only physical armor rating

[ka243 3]

No problem, if that's the case the wiki should probably be corrected. I'm still up in the air/on the fence about whether fire or ice skin is a better defense versus the last guardian. Say you have an equivalent level Fire skin modded for CC reflect and Ice skin modded for spell reflect (which gives a physical armor boost) - Opinions?

Edited October 8, 2009 by ka243

[Furian67 15]

I'm running a shield maiden ie ice and Delphic. At level 86 I have 30k in armor. What I've done is added xx% element armor for the elements I don't want touching me like poison. Also I have 198% chance to evade. When/if anything hits me it's usually only double digit damage it's been very rare to take 1k in a damage shot. If that happens I have over 1200 htp per sec regen from GI. Poison has never been an issue with both crystal skin and GI going. I actually fell asleep while in the Orc cave and nothing happened. It's an awesome combo. I'll never run a HE without them both again.

[locolagarto 15]

I'm running a shield maiden ie ice and Delphic. At level 86 I have 30k in armor. What I've done is added xx% element armor for the elements I don't want touching me like poison. Also I have 198% chance to evade. When/if anything hits me it's usually only double digit damage it's been very rare to take 1k in a damage shot. If that happens I have over 1200 htp per sec regen from GI. Poison has never been an issue with both crystal skin and GI going. I actually fell asleep while in the Orc cave and nothing happened. It's an awesome combo. I'll never run a HE without them both again.

 

I'll have to put a buzzer on your a:) so when you fall asleep play I can come kick you back into the game!

[Furian67 15]

That's funny cuz I'm taking hardly any damage my controler doesn't vibrate to wake me. We might have to fix something up for that. Honestly this combo is truelly amazing. Even had loco watch me as I sat in the Orc cave and let them beat on me till I got bored with it and wiped the cave floor with Orc guts.

[ka243 3]

What I've done is added xx% element armor for the elements I don't want touching me like poison. Also I have 198% chance to evade.

 

That's awesome. How much extra armor is from crystal skin? What items give xx% element armor and how does that work? Does it just increase the amount of default poison armor you have by a % or does it actually take a % of your physical armor and make it into ice/poison armor? How did you get 198% chance to evade:)

 

What's the build and what level did you finish niob?

Edited October 9, 2009 by ka243

[Furian67 15]

I tested a few things today with a niob smith. I socketed a smith art for defense and a +32% armor:poison. What I got was a +28% armor to all elements and about +54% to poison. It worked on both weapon and armor piece.

 

My armor rating with no buff is about 9k. When I add the CS it goes up to 31k now. I'm now at level 88 and making my way thru the jungle on platnium still. Haven't been pushing thru but not really hanging out trying to level. I usually don't try to get to niob before level 100. But that's just me.

 

My chance to evade is mostly from rings and amulets that I socketed on with my 103 SW or my brothers 123 seraphim on niob to give everything a boost when socketed.

 

The build is the Shield Maiden and I switch a few things from his original. I took Delphic focus and lore to mastery first then Mystic focus and lore. I dropped ancient magic( which might be a mistake I'll find out on niob) and I added bargaining cuz I think that I'll be able to surpass my current niob shopper easily.

[ka243 3]

Neat, I guess all the armor added is physical armor by crystal skin. Still, neat. Did you take fire focus like chattius did and are you using magic coup to do most of the killing or are you using lots of ice skills.

[Furian67 15]

I didn't chose to take fire at all. I switch some things up and went with bargaining and a sword skill Delphic and mystic lore and focus get to 75, I did Delphic first I like the melée and GI buff. Then I did Mystic awesome combo is the frost flare and cobalt strike. Modded like Chatt did. Wonderful in big groups as the frost flare nails anything close to the original target.

 

I usually lead off with FF/Cobalt Strike usually kills all. Sometimes just glacial thorns just depends on the mob and how much htp they have. And the big thing is their resistances. I watch my damage rolls and try differant attacks. This is very important for minibosses and big boss fights. I'm looking at killing as fast as I can, this usually nets me good drops.

[Schot 407]

Just hopping in here to let you guys know that I made some adjustments to the Crystal Skin wiki page. As you guys suggested the initial description about armor rating was somewhat vague so I changed that. I also corrected the Focalize description. Thanx guys.

[Furian67 15]

Thank you Schot. I wouldn't be as far ahead as I am without the knowledge you guys have posted about and the wiki. Thanks again.

[BlackJAC 3]

I'm running a shield maiden ie ice and Delphic. At level 86 I have 30k in armor. What I've done is added xx% element armor for the elements I don't want touching me like poison. Also I have 198% chance to evade. When/if anything hits me it's usually only double digit damage it's been very rare to take 1k in a damage shot. If that happens I have over 1200 htp per sec regen from GI. Poison has never been an issue with both crystal skin and GI going. I actually fell asleep while in the Orc cave and nothing happened. It's an awesome combo. I'll never run a HE without them both again.

 

 

aye, it's pretty amazing that you can spend hours in the Orc cave, with all 4 whacking you and return a few hours later to see you've taken little or no damage.

 

ka243, I'm not sure if you're on console or not, but I'm pretty sure spell reflect doesn't work on consoles. if it does, I haven't seen any evidence of this this.

[ka243 3]

Yes, Console exclusively... Really glacial mirror doesn't work? That would stink big time. Are you sure about it? It would definately make the glacial mirror mod worthless and mean taking the other is better on console. Its supposed to reflect/block things like poison/burn/weaken/freeze I think. I don't know if its supposed to reflect direct damage cas butthe wiki description doesn't seem to indicate that: "Glacial Mirror - Increases the chance to reflect incoming detrimental magical effects. (8% + 0.4% per CA level chance to reflect spell)"

 

If that's the case you also might want to update your ice elf console guide with that.

 

I'd want to be pretty sure about that before choosing freeze though because detreminetal effects reflect or even just detrimental effects block is way better than movement speed slow. If this mod works, it would enable us to choose run speed on grand invigoration without much regret at all since detrimental effects block would be covered by crystal skin.

Edited October 11, 2009 by ka243

[BlackJAC 3]

Yes, Console exclusively... Really glacial mirror doesn't work? That would stink big time. Are you sure about it? It would definately make the glacial mirror mod worthless and mean taking the other is better on console. Its supposed to reflect/block things like poison/burn/weaken/freeze I think. I don't know if its supposed to reflect direct damage cas butthe wiki description doesn't seem to indicate that: "Glacial Mirror - Increases the chance to reflect incoming detrimental magical effects. (8% + 0.4% per CA level chance to reflect spell)"

 

If that's the case you also might want to update your ice elf console guide with that.

 

I'd want to be pretty sure about that before choosing freeze though because detreminetal effects reflect or even just detrimental effects block is way better than movement speed slow. If this mod works, it would enable us to choose run speed on grand invigoration without much regret at all since detrimental effects block would be covered by crystal skin.

 

My bad, I was actually thinking of spell resistance (the skill). Spell reflection does work.

[ka243 3]

Oh yes, agreed absolutely. SPell resistance is completely worthless for elves with expulse magic

[Furian67 15]

I modded my crystal skin with GM, focalize and frosty breeze. I seem to get a reflect of magic effects, although it doesn't seem to be a hugh amount of damage the mobs that cast at me have taken damage without me doing anything to them. With the frosty breeze mod I do an additional +175% ice damage. Then I socketed on an additional +229% ice damage on top of that for amazining ice damage. And the expulse modded for strength banish dead (awesome) and protection works great. But if the t-energy damage mod is anything like banish undead I might have done that instead. I combo frost flare and expulse so undead can't run and the explode in less than a pulse. Would be great for the t-energy mobs also. Great experience on mobs that you run through ponds of t-energy.

 

Glacial Mirror - Increases the chance to reflect incoming detrimental magical effects. (8% + 0.4% per CA level chance to reflect spell)". Remember that it's a chance not that it will. We get a chance for a chance to reflect, if that makes sence.

 

 

For the love..... Just died first time at level 94. Loco and I jumped into the jungle on niob to unlock a portal so we could start the Something wonderful quest while running the campaign on niob. I got owned but a midget, got hit once for 16000 damage and died. 32k in armor 198% chance to evade and 1300 htp regen a second isn't always good enough.

Edited October 12, 2009 by Furian67