The 10k+ answers are generally the goal. For untwinked play you might be able to start off a little lower and be fine 6-8k if you can avoid the high defence monsters (like beetles). Eth runes can be useful but any -target def% is reduced vs bosses and superuniques. Skill -def% like battlecry and conviction can help a great deal in alleviating AR needs.

P.s. skill -def% is additive meaning it reduces monsters with no modifiers and is almost never affected by bosses/uniques etc. whereas item -% is multiplicative and is better at reducing bonuses like "stone skin" or player bonuses (but suffers some reduction vs some types).

Yeah 10k is a pretty good spot. 6-8k is workable. What character and skills are you using? Some fare better with AR bonuses than others.

Raven Frost is great for boosting your AR, and is a must for melee toons anyway with its CBF.

Melee charms with AR can also help a lot.

Bear in mind your character level in relation to monster level will factor in to your total chance to hit

This post was edited by Mukhalif on Sep 19 2020 02:17am

Do you have an example which items have -def% and which item have -%? I have 5k AR now, and don't fight bosses much, but I often have problem with champion.

sorry, I was trying to make a distinction between item -def% and skill -def%. The only way to get skill -def% from items is with runewords like "infinity" for conviction aura. But other skills that have -def% are conviction (paladin), cloak of shadows (assassin / but does not work on bosses, also will crash the game used on stationary targets - ancients/mummy sarcophogi) and battle cry (barb). So you could say, about half the classes have access to skill -def%. Inner sight (amazon) is flat reduction. There are also some items that reduce flat defense per hit. The reason BC and Conviction are so good is primarily for their use vs bosses/superuniques and not receiving a penalty. However when fighting stone skin (200% def bonus) you're better with item -def% since its multiplicative. skill -50% def would make stone skin a 150% bonus to the monster (200-50%) whereas item -50% defense would be 100% (200%*50%).

Hope that helps. Check out basin https://www.theamazonbasin.com/wiki/index.php/Diablo_II specifically these pages:
https://www.theamazonbasin.com/wiki/index.php?title=Target_Defense
https://www.theamazonbasin.com/wiki/index.php?title=Ignore_Target
https://www.theamazonbasin.com/wiki/index.php?title=Monster_Defense_per_hit
https://www.theamazonbasin.com/wiki/index.php?title=%25_Defense
Item lists are included with items/skills that have these effects.

You may also be interested in the skills that do lower defense:
https://www.theamazonbasin.com/wiki/index.php?title=Conviction
https://www.theamazonbasin.com/wiki/index.php?title=Battle_Cry
https://www.theamazonbasin.com/wiki/index.php?title=Cloak_of_Shadows
https://www.theamazonbasin.com/wiki/index.php?title=Inner_Sight

You're unlikely to find a better resource than Basin. Learn to use it!



This is also another important point. Character level has a pretty substantial impact on chance to hit as well: https://www.theamazonbasin.com/wiki/index.php?title=Attack_Rating

Clvl = Character Level
Mlvl = Monster Level
AR = Character Attack Rating
Defense = Monster defense



This post was edited by LogicalLynx on Sep 19 2020 09:29am