Magic resistances question.

Hi all I am looking for some clarification here. I am adventurer level 60 so far and have managed to craft a full suit of copper plate I also use a crafted sword and shield. I am able to take on so many melee targets with no issues allot of the time they can't even hit me, 2 or more mages however and my character will be lucky to survive sometimes.

I noticed allot of the monsters I fight cast fire and death magic. I went ahead and crafted a necklace with 15 fire resists a ring with 15 fire resists, I socketed my chest with 20 fire resists my sword with 20 fire resists and my shield with 20 death resist. I am also casting douse and purify for an extra boost. I feel like I have put in the work for resistances and putting in similar work for physical resistances paid off however I am still getting ROCKED by fire and death magic. With close to and sometimes over 100 fire resistances I would not expect to get hit as hard as I am by mages, but here we are. So my question is, is this stuff just broken? What am I doing wrong? Do the effects not stack? Do the gear bonuses not stack? Is becoming a part time fire mage seriously the only option for proper resist?

Thanks for any feedback.

 

Tips for mage defense:

Use celestial blessing, douse, shield of ice and purify. Get these to 80.

Level fire proof to 80.

If you can stand the healing debuff, use Death Shield.

Level 10 skills in death and 10 in fire trees to at least 40 and then to 80 when you can easily make the xp to do so. This is to improve youe sttunement/defense. Use obsidian potion of guidance when leveling skills that takes reagents to mimize reg costs.

Get sorcery warding (fire resist) or necromancy ward (death resist) gems/jewels on chest, weap, ring and necklace.

You don't have to do all of these things, but the more you do the tougher you will be.

 

Did you read the post though? I am doing the things you mentioned and am seeing pitiful results. I feel like in its current iteration magic resistances are busted to a degree. Expecting every player to grind fire magic (if you are a warrior especially) is also.. kind of bonkers.

I guess the one thing I can clarify is that I am doing everything that anyone can currently do, so thank you for that clarification.

I guess what I would want is to see similar results to what I get out of physical defense upgrades..you can really feel those but with fire for whatever reason you can't.

 

This is weird. I have a heavy armor + shield build, and at least I can stand mages. Yes, they are the reason I die most often, but not automatic death.
The problem might be that they are supposed to deal more damage than warrior-types. The way to deal with them is killing them, otherwise they will eventually kill you. Especially if you try to kill the melee fighters before the ranged ones. Also, your death resistance might not be very high, maybe this is the part killing you. Or maybe you are adventuring in areas too high level for you - no matter what your build is, it will be the mages and archers doing the damage/killing.

 

Yeah the archers don't bother me so much but the methods of magic mitigation are very weak compared to the physical ones.

 

You are correct. Since they nerfed magic resist, mages hit a lot harder. I like it though.

 

800 points in fire and death tree as a pure minimum regardless of whether you want to or not, you HAVE to. BTW some mages seem to shoot Searing Rays as well so you best throw 800 points into sun. And while you are at it you should probably do Earth and Air and Water because there are some PvE things that use all those schools. You will be doing life already I am sure since its the only way to heal yourself.

Sad but true.

 

Mages can be a pain only if you let them cast on you with low resist and attunement. I usually farm Crag foothills which is 5 skull area without any issues. I do not bother with the life tree at all either. Here is what I suggest: invest on the fire/death/water trees first, the water elemental and douse spell are huge. I would drop the shield and use a two handed sword until adv level 80 then raise the offhand skills and dual wield. Raise body slam from heavy armor along with sneak attack and engage opponent from subterfuge tree. The technique is simple: you see the mage. Use engage opponent then body slam, turn so you are behind him and hit sneak attack and thrust. Result is one dead mace before he knows what hit him. Rinse and repeat on any other mob closest to you. Get a set of bronze chain for str and damage bonus along with less fizzle than full plate. To quickly replenish focus use soothing rain and tap soul. I always keep death shield, Elysian illumination and soothing rain on and try to fight 7 to 10 mobs at once. Hit fast, Hit hard and Hit often. R/Boris/El Pirata.

 

There has been talk of the whole resistance thing being changed so that melee types such as myself and others don't have to waste time and effort levelling all the magic trees just to get it.

So far it just seems to have been talk and nothing else which is a real shame and frustration for me.

 

Wish we could get a developer answer on the direction there before I waste a few million exp leveling all schools of magic to 800 points - which is the path I'm currently starting down.

 

Most importantly, fire resistance from gems and jewels of sorcery warding do not actually reduce the fire damage you take, since Release 36. So unless this Bug is ever fixed, those gems are useless, and we are stuck on the magical skills for fire resistance.

 

Wait....why don't they?

 

The best way to not get damage from mages is to kill them first. With high physical protection you should be able to withstand archers and melees long enough.

 

I don't think that this is true. I think that magic and elemental resistances are not as effective as they used to be but they still do something.

[edit] The reason that I think warding gems are working is because the resist from warding gems isn't separate from the resist you get from skills and potions:

 

They are shown there yes. Funny enough, my FireResistance figure does not change at all when I cast IceShield, but IceShield definitely reduces FireDamage.

But I have done the tests in the last two days, both with FireDamage from standing in a camp fire, and from fighting some Skeleton Mages, and I take exactly the same amount of damage with 0 FireResist and with 70 FireResist from two Gems and two Jewels. And the same has been true for other people back in 2016:

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...ect-does-not-reduce-fire-damage-at-all.72062/

 

What about douse? Maybe resistance is just broken in general?

 

The problem is Douse was changed last release and is being changed again next release - who knows if it is working or not.

Since the fire resist gems are not working right now, I am training up the Fire tree anyway to increase resistance and since I am using Ignite weapon.

 

How is Douse changing?

 

Spoiler

Douse: This Water magic spell now removes 2–4 Fire DOT effects (instead of all of them every single time).