Right, it’s gonna get pointed out sooner or later anyway, so better cut the cord now:
- Durable prefix on shields
- Skybreach Bulwark still has really high phys res roll.
If you find an item like that, add it here…
Siege Breaker, for example.
In fact, most purple shield with phys res.
Eastern set dynamic duo of chest and pants is back in style, i suppose.
Shields will continue to have high % Physical Resist.
A few vanilla values got missed, like Durable, Enduring, etc. Black Legion boots…those will be in the next build.
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Except MI Shields.
Most MI Shields no longer have “high” % Physical Resist. There are only 5 out of 16 MI shields that have % Physical Resist themselves, but the Physical Resist prefix are nerfed to 7% (max roll).
Unless you think 7% is “high”.
Would it be reasonable to say that part of what is happening is that we’re seeing the phys res values for MI shields being brought more in line with the phys res you’d see from various purple and blue shields? So good phys res on shields broadly speaking will be in the teens and not the 20s?
And if this is happening, have any of the legendary / epic shields with zero percent phys res been looked at for rebalancing (or is the thought that – if anything – lower phys res on shields across the board and reduced monster physical damage might already make some of those shields more interesting)?
Durable prefix is still quite good. My Blood Knight DK’s shield still has 30% on it.
I can understand the need to rebalance physical resist and its role within Grim Dawn going forward.
However I would had thought it could be better giving physical resist a lower hard cap ceiling say somewhere between 40-45% and with physical resist changed on items but much less so to what we currently seen.
This way builds with medium phys res and low armour are not hurt more than builds that comfortably could target 60% and higher physical resist pre this test patch.
Being more of a hard cap threshold design (and with some items-affixes changed but not as extensive) means the old high phys res builds will just adjust gear to align better in other ways while hitting the new cap; it encourages item diversity while providing a way to refocus physical resist while providing a broad consistent balance change.
Other builds with this hard cap will either mostly maintain their phys res somewhere between 15-30% or manage to hit the new capped ceiling (somewhere between 40-45% may make sense) but with less flexibility for gear options.
I raise this as GD 1st and foremost is about build diversity, the current changes address the need to refocus physical resist but feels in a way that is overly complex considering the many builds and items out there and with wide ranging impact.
Separately to this but on same subject, fresh character runs in more basic setups will feel much tougher to grind items for them and to store as stash for new builds.
Farming Lokarr/efficient SR levels/etc as a new player (or fresh build start) is going to be pain unless one plays very specific builds.
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Pants that don’t have Physical Resistance, especially MI Nemesis pants, are going to be at a huge disadvantage moving forward.
The craftable pants - Rimeguard and Stormguard - still have Physical Resistance, which raises the question as to why they get to retain Physical Resistance while everything else gets gutted. In the meantime, most pants get only 3% Physical Resistance, while Hellforged Legplates get a whopping 6%.
The fact that many sets still retain Physical Resistance (even if in lower numbers) pushes builds to make sets even more mandatory than ever before, as MI’s that would previously grant Physical Resistance and needed skill modifiers are no longer there. Forcing the players into acquiring sets to obtain Physical Resistance is horrible design and should be heavily considered among the playerbase as to what sort of balance should be reached between non-set builds and set builds.
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Sets consist of item slots that have % Physical Resist, this is nothing new and nothing has changed there, nor was % Physical Resist removed from non-set items in those slots.
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Eastern Oath better not lose physical resistance, that set already has to deal with low armor.
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Sets also contain great offensive bonuses, skill bonuses that are actually relevant to the build, and modifiers far better than what you can obtain in the head/amulet slots.
I’ll stick to what I know, and speak particularly regarding pet builds. Beastcaller’s Set takes up Chest, Shoulders and Head armor slots, and as it now gives 6% Physical Resistance, it’s an average of 3% for the Chest and Shoulders (the head slot seems to be inconsistent; Namadea’s Horns had their Phys Res modifiers removed, but Spectral Crown and Chosen Visage keep their Phys Res modifiers). For pets, in the shoulder slot, you either have Zantarin’s Mantle for Phys res or you have to beat a God. Chest slot has only Necrolord’s Shroud that gives Phys Res, so if you don’t use those particular skills, you’re pretty screwed.
Pants appear to be unaffected, but all the pet boots got gutted from Phys Res. Basically, the fewer items that grant Phys Res, the more important each slot becomes, and why take items that may have more potential offensive upside, but remove the possibility to get defensive upgrades, when you can have both offense and defense in a set?
Again, I’m only sticking to pets in particular, but I’m sure there are melee and caster builds that are disproportionally affected if they choose a non-set build over a set build. It’ll take time to assess the ripple effects this wave of changes will bring.
One more aside, Fateweaver’s Raiment provides up to 9% Phys Res, alongside a slew of other resistances. I’m sure you have plans to remove it, either from the proc or the chest piece itself.
Yes, well it’s also a pet set, so…and are you arguing for or against sets now based on those individual items? 
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Pets have only 3 marsteries, 1 mastery that fully work in endgame, 2 sets that work in endgame, 1-2 options for non-set pieces. And by “work” I mean not standard 65-66 or 75-76 SR farming.
The core difference beetween pet builds and non-pet builds: pets builds just can’t stack high values of armor/block/ADCtH/regen/flat absorb for pets. The only thing that somehow compensated it after 1.2 was a high phys res. That’s why Beastcaller Conjurer became almost the only option for endgame.
Also pets can’t avoid sunder in 99% of cases. As a result - they die. And then the boss completely switches to the player. Player without defensive buffs from pet, high armor/block/ADCtH/regen/flat absorb. The only thing that somehow compensated it was a high phys res.
And if we talking about working sets, this build in 1.2 is based on CDR regen and CDR phys res and Wendigo torem 5m buff zone. Bc w/o high phys res it can’t neither tank heavy hits from bosses, nor using totem/null/DA-OA shred: spirits just don’t have any taunt/high aggro skill. So, -40% phys res w/o any other options to survive under direct damage = build is dead.
Um…and where do they not…work?
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Supers and SR95+. True endgame is limited. And builders are mainly focused on this part of the game. Me too.
And no, I not complaining about pets death or constant resummoning. I also can press 13 bttn while running around, it’s ok. I’m complaining that pets on the start of PT can’t even survive longer than their CD time. No pets - no defensive buffs, no damage, no options to survive. And it was my maxed endgame builds with 30-60hs playtime in 1.2.
If that is your focus, that’s fine, but that is not what we balance around. Not to mention not only are pets effective at both, they are some of the strongest builds for deep SR progress, so I’m not sure what point you are trying to make.
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Try playing sets where pre this patch you must make up phys res in other ways, example Light’s Defender
Elementalist/Vindicator.
The phys res on mine is now nearly non-existent due to other ways to make up phys res now gone or reduced, and the armour is not enough for them to make up for the loss.
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I knew only a couple of pet builds that can really dive deep in SR. I also knew a couple of non-pet builds.
But I can’t remember a single pet build in 1.2 that can just stand still, use evade and kill Callly in less than a minute. But I know hundreds of such non-pet builds.
A little example from PT. Let’s say, I’ve been playing and working on this build for over 70 hours. And spent more than 1500 h on pet builds summary. And that’s the only reason I survive. The changes I made for PT - Stag + 1 pt in Hound instead of Turquois; maxed Infernal Breath for additional DR. Maybe, I’m doing something really wrong.
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