100% Absorption Warding Energy... A Bad Thing?

[r00ster 1]

Hey guys,

 

Okay, so before you lynch me for the title allow me to explain;

 

I had this thought, that is it really beneficial to have 100% absorption on my shields? I am not so certain, perhaps we can find a true answer!

 

Okay, lets give a test toon (base it off my current trader I'm building);

 

level 82 seraphim,

 

13000 hp mounted (10k off)

13000 shields

 

Absorption is 50% on the buff, have 17.5% from gear giving 67.5% total.

 

So that means if a hit is 100 damage, then 32.5 goes to my health, and the rest to the shields.

This is where the grey area starts...

 

Shields do not regenerate in combat.

Therefore, I want to create a way that shields last as long as possible.

 

I have LL% for my health, so it is constantly being replenished, pretty much always full.

Now, here is my train of thought;

 

With my sheilds, they act as bonus hp somewhat, and also damage protection via the flat damage blocks.

With my health constantly being filled via LL% is 100% absorption a good thing? I don't know...

 

You see, having less that 100%, my shields will last longer in combat, as they don't take the full 'brunt' of damage. Only 67.5%.

They reduce incoming damage, and my LL% fills any amount done to actual hp almost instantly.

 

If I had 100%, the shields would take the 'full' attacks, but they would deplete faster.

100% is obviously glorious for divine protection, but it has it already 100% default.

 

Does this make sense? What do you guys think? I am having a hard time seeing an advantage for the normal shielding to be at 100% with LL%. I think it better to have it as a damage soak, and around 70-75% so that it will last longer in combat as it doesn't take ALL the damage, and what does get through the LL% remedies almost instantly.

 

What are your thoughts?

 

Cheers,

[locolagarto 15]

I think it makes perfect sense. And add Constitution mastery after level 75 and you won't even need the LL. (for a Caster Build).

[essjayehm 58]

I always thought 100% was a bad thing. Mostly because I do not pay attention very well, and run myself into mob after mob and then all of a sudden my shields go down because I didn't let them recharge enough. If I am used to having the "normal" 50 or 60% absorption, this isn't too bad, since I am used to seeing my health go down, and I am "ready" to pop a potion if needed. The times I ran high absorbtion (say 90%-ish) when the shields went down, so did my toon. The damage chunks were HUGE, and I wasn't used to that because of the high absorption (and, thus, wasn't ready to quaff the potions).

 

Of course, on console there is absolutely no display of the shield energy, so the simple solution of watching the shield energy levels cannot apply. Maybe on PC I would be able to do better 'cause I could see that I only have a small shield energy remaining, and take a breather while it recharges after a battle.

 

So, IMO, I would keep the absorption as low as you can, as long as the amounts of damage you're taking is off-set from the LL%. Maybe the best way to consider it is if you don't mind or want to stop from time to time to let the shields recharge, then you want the abs. as high as possible. If you don't want to stop, then keep absorbtion lower, and off-set damage taken with lifeleech or other defensive measures (evasion, blocking, mitigation) IIRC, mitigation happens before it is applied to the shields.

[locolagarto 15]

You know another way you can look at it is?

 

50% absorption is like 50% damage mitigation. Building your Character with 50% mitigation that may last all the way to the end of long fight, versus a 100% mitigation buff that only last for 30 seconds. I take the 50% mitigation.

 

Add another 50% mitigation from gear and toughness and your basically invincible for quite a long run.

[Dragon Brother 619]

What you say makes plenty of sense r00. And I guess it means few extra sockets you can use too...more experience or mf

[colif 36]

Slightly offtopic: Why does the helm from this set Pandamonium's Pride have Absorption Warding Energy when as far as I know, the Shadow Warrior has no shields?

[dreeft 9]

You're definitely right r00, relying on the shield is not a good plan.

 

I'd almost prefer if the shield would activate as you hit 75-50% health, and stay active until your health is back to full (or the shield runs out). Reactive, rather than proactive.

[locolagarto 15]

Slightly offtopic: Why does the helm from this set Pandamonium's Pride have Absorption Warding Energy when as far as I know, the Shadow Warrior has no shields?

 

That is a CM-Patch only set. And I believe the CM team is aware and has already fixed it, or will be soon. If you have one and can get us a new pic we can update the wiki.

 

O.K. back on topic...

[Barristan 14]

Heya,

 

well.... at high levels, even Guardians fail to damage the shield enough.

 

My seraphim has ~385K shield energy, 100% absorb. With only 20% damage mitigation.

 

Guardians hit for about 24K max, but the amount of energy lost seems roughly 1/50 of total.

 

Only when a few TG's enter the mix, the energy loss is noticable. But replenished before reaching the next Guardian.

 

So... not a bad thing I'd say, but both ways are viable.

 

Greetz

[claudius 104]

Another factor is you can socket amulets that raise your shield pool by a % whereas HP amulets are flat. The return on investment for a flat HP amulet is tiny compared to how many HP you have at niob levels. But as we know in ARPG usually mods that give % start to take over in the highest difficulty and the +% to shields is no exception. I think it may even be multiplicative rather than additive with WEL.

 

Still I don't think 100 is optimal.

 

Maybe 95 without constitution 90 with *assuming huge shields total*

[Barristan 14]

Heya,

 

I use 100% when farming bosses, in Cursed Forest or Wastelands. In CF a healthy dose of -DoT will help your shield too. And... I have a seraphim bossformer too with about 90/95... with Kals, or just the Revelation set, that is more than ok too.

 

In my opninion, 100% is optimal, it just might not be 100% agreeable to playstyle. It is optimal, because (at least at 200) I cannot find a situation where the shield would deplete..... For lower level toons that is a bit different. Just that optimal isn't always the most fun..... This way Guardian runs are as much exciting as Kobold runs, tho goblins dont drop Legendaries

 

Greetz

Edited October 22, 2010 by Barristan