If we want to be technical (ignore me if you don’t haha), not a single person in that thread was correct, they all forgot that not all dmg is increased by negative DR, and not all dmg is reduced by positive DR.
And I’m not talking only about elemental/psn/magic dmg.
OW is not affected in any way.
CB is only reduced by positive DR, but not increased by negative DR.
The ratio of increased dmg they couldn’t agree upon is also different if the target has DR% stacked over the cap (like we’ve discussed in this thread) and if it has any flat PDR (reducing dmg before DR%, slightly changing the final ratio of effectiveness).
If the target has ES, the ratio is then modified by the % of dmg going through, while the dmg applied to mana is unchanged.
And finally, if the target has bone armor, for as long as it holds the dmg is unmodified, except CB, which ignores bone armor but would still be modified by positive DR%.
Just some nerdy facts :p
I took these facts in a simple terminology:
Open Wounds = Bleeding, like opening a vein and the monster (player) is losing blood and can not stop the bleeding, thus Regeneration only helps a little bit.
Crushing Blow... simple way to say this, if you have 1 hit point and CB is activated... you don't kill that person... so you need actual damage to kill them off, not Crushing Blow.
So, as you stated, DR% is crap, As for ES ... not sure on that one, but Poison fucks that shit up, and again DR doesn't do jack... If I remember correctly.
Oh Bone armor is just a physical barrier to stop or impede physical attacks, DR doesn't help.
D2:R