From my perspective, -enemy resistance is better in most cases.
This summary is created with ai:
In the endgame, stacking -% Enemy Resistance is almost always superior to raw +% damage. Here’s the breakdown:
- The Sunder Mechanic: When a Sunder Charm breaks an immunity, it sets the enemy's resistance to 95%. At this point, they still take barely any damage.
- The 1/5 Penalty: Skills like Conviction and Cold Mastery only operate at 20% effectiveness against sundered enemies. For example, a -100% Cold Mastery only reduces a sundered enemy's resistance by 20% (bringing them down to 75%).
- The Gear Advantage: Unlike skills, -% resistance from gear - such as Rainbow Facets, Infinity (if self-wielded), or Flickering Flame - works at 100% effectiveness. This includes the new Protector’s Stones and Renewed Sunder rolls.
- Scaling: Since sundered enemies start at 95% res, reducing that number is a massive total damage multiplier. Adding more +% elemental damage is just additive, but dropping an enemy from 95% to 50% resistance actually increases your damage dealt by 10x.
Examples for Proof:
Blizzard Sorceress (Cold Mastery Level 30 Base)
Target: Sundered Cold Immune (95% Res).
Setup A (Pure Skills): Level 30 Cold Mastery (-165% res). Effective reduction: 165% x 0.2 = 33%. Enemy remains at 62% Res (You deal 38% damage).
Setup B (With New Items): Level 30 Cold Mastery + -10% Protector’s Stone + -10% Renewed Sunder. Skill reduction: 33%. Gear reduction (100% effective): 10% (Stone) + 10% (Sunder) = 20%. Enemy drops to 42% Res (You deal 58% damage).
Result: Setup B increases your actual damage output by over 50% compared to Setup A.
Whirlwind Barbarian (The Physical Multiplier)
Target: Sundered Physical Immune (95% Res). You deal only 5% of your damage.
With -10% Protector’s Stone & -10% Renewed Sunder: Enemy Res: 95% - 10% - 10% = 75%.
The Impact: By dropping the enemy from 95% to 75% res, your actual damage taken by the monster goes from 5% to 25%.
Verdict: You have QUINTUPLED (5x) your kill speed against physical immunes.
TL;DR: If you want to melt "broken" immunes and bosses, prioritize -10% Protector’s Stones and high-roll Renewed Sunders over raw sheet damage.
This post was edited by krassakollege on Mar 23 2026 02:31pm