just stack as much -% light res as u can on ur nova sorc since its already just assumed the most deadly stuff u fighting are gonna be default 95% light res because of our sunder...

-17% from conviction so u already did the math as u sitting at 78% now.

-55% from infinity's runeword affix itself... that drops them to 23%.
-25% from a perfect griffon thats been guardian thundered. So now they are sitting at -2%.
perfect sunder will have -10% lightning res. So now they are sitting at -12% light res now.
U can decide if u want to do another -5% from a facet'd viper magi (or forgo viper and wear enigma for big MF stack setup since nova sorcs suffer from kinda low MF% on their cookie cutter gear spec)

Decide if BIG mf vs another -5% extra light res is what u want. Id rather take the big MF cause the whole point of wasting our time PVMing is to be able to find items off those Heralds once the PTR patch finalizes (we will be just farming T-2 Heralds then new gaming with how the heralds now spawn super fast each game). 99 MF (lvl 99 char) vs -17% res on a sundered mob . You can decide what u want as a player.

This post was edited by and1balla_7 on Apr 17 2026 01:31am

Okay, so there is a minor issue with your logic behind Diminishing Returns on -res from the start. -Res sounds like Diminishing Returns for Damage on paper, but you aren't raising -Res for just more damage, but primarily for consistency across all content and all enemy resist bases.

With Terrorzones, any creature can become a Herald and you don't always get to choose which areas you go to. What content you are doing is SO important in the -res debate.

Let's say you have -65 enemy light resist and you fight a mob with 0 starting light resist, then another that is Lightning Immune.
Sure, you might bring one mob down to -65 light res and slightly more %damage would have been *maybe* better, but then you have the Lightning Immune that you break to +95% with Sunder, leaving them with +30%LR overall. In that moment, more -res would be better than more %damage.
There isn't some arbitrary number to look for because every monster and every affix on each unique monster is going to change how the -res calculation works out for you.

-Res is so good because it reduces variance between locations and monsters. -Res will almost always be better than %damage (especially for Nova sorc) for this reason, just as long as you keep it under -195res (which is next to if not outright impossible)

This post was edited by TheEmotionalSupport on Apr 17 2026 01:41am

How are you gonna get to 105fcr with enigma in place of viper?

But the calculation is correct, you actually can get to negative res on a light immune monster (with viper), I didn't realize that.

So what difference does this make, in the end?

That you'd prefer more lightning skill dmg on your Guardian's Thunder Jewel rather than more negative res? Something else I am missing?

This post was edited by kayko on Apr 17 2026 01:41am

Self wield infinity nova is better off with +10% guardian's thunder and +15% renewed crack of the heavens. You need more damage.

I mean... you *can* hit 105bp with enigma and self-wield infinity, but it isn't easy or cheap and it means no SoJs.

20 Arach + 20 Mages + 2/20 Amulet + 25 Griffs + 2x(10 Ring) = 105fcr

Yeah to simplify that, you feel that killing slowness when monster is above 0% or have billion hp.

From gear get -78% and then whatever you can get more of.

On my cheap nova I got -88% from gear
-27 - griffon and ancient jwl
-47 - infi
-5 - facet in viper
-9 - renewed crack

It does not have big or significant gear ELR deficit, that's where we wanted to get. Of course bigger better, but we wanted to understand the "nominal" target.

someone else replied this earlier but you missed it or didnt understand it so I'll bold it for you

+ to lightning % dmg only adds to your lightning mastery %. it results in a miniscule damage boost

Actually this.

I am unable to get to the same conclusion as you, here. Please let me know if I am doing something wrong.

https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/h3u9f0s8

monster is set to Sparkfist

swapping between %lightning dmg vs -res results in -res being much more significant than the +15% from Renewed Sunder because %damage is additive.

This post was edited by TheEmotionalSupport on Apr 17 2026 02:08am

Hm ye, first to hit -78% from gear which everyone does and then still better -ELR as it's final modifier, instead of +% diluted in lightning mastery. Even when monster is already 0%.