Last Epoch Beginner's Guide to Defenses - More than Just Res!

[@Jim-o4t]

Yes to the advanced guide, please.

[@BUnicutZza]

Agree +

[@poipoi9816]

my favorite defensive stat in last epoch is being a lich, and thus having two life bars

[@spuryaas]

Does endurance work on secondary health bar? I bought game recently and played some lich, but I'm not sure about it

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

You could hover over it but idk ​@@spuryaas

[@finbarshields]

@@spuryaas I think so!

[@KyrosQuickfist]

I originally had health, ward and resistances when I started out as a mage with only 10-20% armor. Once I swapped out the health affixes with armor affixes it completely changed things making each point of ward way better. Big diff at 50% and then 70% armor was a huge difference. You say diminishing returns but I argue it just gets better when you stack it. Going from 10% armor to 70% armor added 66% damage reduction from physical damage (taking 300 from a 1k phys hit instead of 900) and 45% damage reduction from non-physical damage (taking 510 from a 1k non-phys hit instead of 930). 75% resistances only turn out to be 43% damage reduction in this game. Stacked together is roughly 83% phy / 71% non-phy. I also get that experimental affix that puts 15% of your armor reduction towards damage over time which is important since armor only stops "hits". Since Endurance doesn't affect damage done to Ward, I ignore it completely.

[@Azeliniana]

The diminishing returns mean you need more armor the higher % you have. Say 100 armor can be 10% but to reach 20% youd need 1000 armor. Of course if you can reach that 70% armor it is gonna be a lot better than 50%

[@KyrosQuickfist]

Going from 50% damage reduction to 70% damage reduction isn't 20% reduced damage, its 40% reduced damage. This is because you are taking 300 damage instead of 500. Similar to how going from 70% to 85% damage reduction isn't 15% damage reduction, its 50% damage reduction. @@Azeliniana

[@tripleraze321]

The armor formula, if graphed out to show effectiveness, climbs exponentially at first then plateaus. At low armor, armor upgrades are not diminishing, they are exponential. However once you have a decent amount of armor, the returns have become quite diminished.

[@Davivd2]

Stun avoidance is NOT useless. When you get a monolith with rogues that blink on top of you and chain stun you, while running a build that's generating ward or health with damage....you're going to get deleted. Also, Lagon exists. Good luck in his last phase without stun resist.

[@Hatenashi_Raza]

i either have stun avoidance OR lagon won't have any phase past the first one there's no in-between

[@Davivd2]

@@Hatenashi_Raza Lagon is just a bad encounter. I flat out ignore him in empowered monoliths.

[@blech71]

Hell yes man. I’ve totally noticed this time around playing. I ignored defenses much more like easy casual play in D4 instead of defenses being a huge part of the build like In our beloved POE…. While not being too in depth but still being important.

[@gritcrit4385]

Thank you. Now I know I need some endurance as a low life crit harvest lich.

[@jussikankaansydan5645]

Not complete guide, but very well put together over all.. I'm using dmg mitigation and lesser crit dmg affixes too, but what I was missing mostly was the importance of Blind and Frailty ailments too.

[@Voxiim]

Loved the video! A more in-depth guide would be great too. I'm impressed by how well-structured this presentation was too. Keep up the good work!

[@BUnicutZza]

A more in-depth guide would be great too

[@TigerNinjaDragon]

Have they done something to the empowered monolith damage since 1.0? I am over 300 hours in and haven't had an issue with 100 corruption but now with 1.0, doing lvl90 mono I was just walking around destroying everything and the second I went to empowered the complete opposite is happening. Nothing is making sense. I lose health when I have ward up, crit avoid just over 100%, res capped, armour at 30% as I'm spell blade, life leech on melee hit and I get 2-3 shot by trash mobs. Makes no sense. Never had this problem. What changed?

[@sedication]

My favorite defense mechanism is whatever I can find on the spot at level 70 once I realize I took no defensive passives and only focused on prefixes and start getting one shotted in Monos.

[@toukoenriaze9870]

My favorite defense mechanic is not standing in the purple puddles xD ... My second favorite is hiding inside a profane bloom for 100% dodge lel

[@ScorpionBowler]

Very useful video. I would welcome the more advanced topic.

[@osiykm]

currenly most of the time I was saved by sentinel's rebuke. it's quite busted and helped to tank a lot of hits for me

[@nicholashedberg3133]

Same here, I was running an autobomber with void sigils for more dps but kept dying, switched to rebuke and it’s busted

[@L1St3n3R]

You are the man! ❤ Thx for vid

[@Amrehlu]

It's absolutely withering to my soul to hear what you would aim for, defensively, cause it feels like an insane struggle to manage to get all of the resistances at cap alone. But you're intended to also somehow get armor over 1k and have endurance? There just aren't enough suffix slots available it feels like. I imagine I need to just throw even more damage out the window to get what is recommended.

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

It partly depends on your flavour of build. I'm sure you can manage without some of it.

[@Saiperia]

well the choice of defence is often dictated by the class you choose. scaling dodge on a mage has no synergies with its passives. or scaling ward on a rouge sure you get some on consuming slvercharges but nothing else. you can invest into block or armor a little but unless you stack str you wont reach high stats in it. Probably better gear would help^^.

[@Snoozems]

Would love an advanced guide~

[@twitchtherocket6192]

I was hoping to hear more about parrying chance as it seems to be the most Op defensive stat in game. So far i only have found it on weapons...is there a class that has more access to it?

[@Tenkiei]

Parry didn't exist when this video was made. But it isn't particularly accessible, no class has access to it via passives. As a result it's not particularly powerful as a defensive layer currently.

[@malufet333]

I have endurance question: Let's say you have 1k life, 50% endurance, and 500 endurance threshold. If you're in full life and receive 1k damage, will you receive -750 life or -1k life (because your life is not below 50%)?

[@Tenkiei]

You will receive -750 life. Endurance applies to damage dealt to life below the Endurance Threshold.

[@malufet333]

@@Tenkiei I see. I thought Endurance is only activated when your life reach the endurance %. Thanks. =)

[@johnhobbes2268]

How does "take less damage" and damage taken as... work? For example prism wrasp( 30% less elemental damage taken) combined with a similar effect (f.e. 10% less fire damage taken) and combined with Ashen Crown (80% physical damage taken as fire damage)?

[@Tenkiei]

They'll multiply. IE: 1 * 0.9 * 0.7. The less ele/fire will apply to the fire damage taken even if it was formerly physical.

[@JimBrewskie]

How did he bring up that health window at 6:48?

[@Tenkiei]

Mouse over the health globe.

[@Arunnn241]

Hmm maybe I'm missing something but I have maybe 20% resistance, 140 ward, ward generation on kill and smoke bomb, and I've never died... I'm level 72 and been doing monoliths but I just kill everything as a blade dancer and dash out when I see my ward get eaten through. Maybe it's because I've been playing offline and not online?

[@josephmattleman7284]

Thank you for making this! I’m switching over from D4. I love the fast pace of rogue gameplay but got burned out on getting randomly one-shot in high NM and abattoir. Your comments at the end worry me about playing rogue or relying on dodge. Does rogue end up getting one shot late game and do I need to look at something tankier? Thanks!

[@Tenkiei]

Bladedancer and Falconer can get quite tanky, integrating mechanics like Glancing Blows or Block. Marksman does end up being a bit squishier.

[@Partimehero36]

Why do you have 143?

[@Experternas]

my character is about lvl40. i have 75%(86) fire res plus 10% damage reduction yet i die instantly from a fire bomb of some sort. i was trying to build a total tank but seems elemental resistance is mostely useless

[@Fade2GrayOG]

Thanks for the guide. Will you do something similar for damage output?

[@Tenkiei]

Stay tuned over the next couple days :)

[@pyaehtetaung]

I died one after boss fight due to dot. Btw boss drop 2 unique rings. Unable to pick up. 😢

[@carril54]

Ward enjoyer since day 1, yes i am derranged.

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

Ward is great

[@unscuffed2444]

what's the build played around 12:29-13:47? looks very interesting

[@Tenkiei]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/d4PHhaywjppoq9k

[@MastersOfTheWinds]

Can someone tell me what the Spellblade build with the Meteors at 12:53 is? And if it is "league start viable" if there even is such a thing!

[@Tenkiei]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/d4PHhaywjppoq9k it is very much not a league start viable build.

[@billdecou242]

Question about Ward. Is 100% the cap and does it not decay if you get that high?

[@Tenkiei]

No, 100% is not the cap. I believe 200% causes it to decay at half the normal rate, 400% at one quarter so the more ward retention you have the less effective each % is, and your ward always decays to 0 eventually.

[@billdecou242]

@@Tenkiei OK thank you. So just a diminished return.

[@toukoenriaze9870]

ward is energy shield in reverse xD

[@skullcandy4950]

I find myself being totaly fine in empowerd mono, then just getting oneshot. This is regardless if its trash - elite or boss mobs. Really dissheartening, if i cant fix this im moving on from LE.

[@عبدالرحمنالجهني-ل8ي]

Hard to know what your problem is exactly without knowing your build but check these stuff: 1-you want to have at least 1500 hp and even then at 1800 your character will still be considered squishy, unless you have thousands of ward then you may be able to get away with the lower hp amount. 2-make sure you have critical strike avoidance at 100% or/and reduced bonus damage taken from critical strikes, crit in the end game can be brutal and you are expected to counter them by using these 2 stats. 3-be carful with the monoliths you pick they can sometimes give enemies huge bonuses and if those bonuses for something your character can't counter effectively then that will get you 1 shooted. luckily the 1.0 update releasing in two days are going to nerf these bonuw making difficulty in end game more balanced and don't have these suprising spikes in difficulty because you juiced the enemies too much.

[@jrbulk]

+1 advanced

[@Counterfactual52]

pls make the advanced guide :)

[@Oogtug]

Too many people have covered these wax over basic defense guides. Really lacking for one that really dives deep into some late game defensive setups/low life/ward/dot protection etc

[@Tenkiei]

1.0 is a huge patch, and a lot of more advanced defensive setups get pretty specific. I'm hesitant to showcase a permanent flame ward Runemaster, or immunity builds right before a patch. Those builds are undeniably strong but until we see patch notes it's hard to know if they'll exist for more than a few days. If this video does well I'll definitely be making a more advanced defensive guide showing some of the strongest defensive setups after 1.0 releases.

[@Oogtug]

@@Tenkiei looking forward to it and any other new LE or POE content you really enabled me to catch up and enjoy POE this last seasob

[@Saiperia]

idk i have the feeling defences dont work in this game even when i press my fireshield on mage i get +1k armor and even then i take only 30% less dmg from hits... also ground dmg over time effects are lethal. some of the animals spawn random puddles or do a magma ground around them if they spawn that below your feet ... i just instantly die ( got capped fire res, 16% less dmg taken while leeching 15% less wile holding 2handed weapon 10 % less if i atacked recently).... and i still melt in like 0.5 sec.

[@relaxandpanic8988]

I wonder if its a combination of having 100 percent crit avoidance, capped resist, and endurance high enough

[@Saiperia]

@@relaxandpanic8988 got capped res crit avoidance iam working on it but dots cant crit and they just melt me. no investment into enduracne got 1.5k hp and ca 1.6k ward.

[@jamesmichael9341]

Defenses definitely work….. lol

[@ashleygoggs5679]

As a new player im really struggling with the idea of how the fuck am i meant to get all these defensive stats when im very limited on affixes i can get on an item, aswell as the fact that getting a very well rolled item is so rare that its bottle necking progress. For example getting items that have the prefixes you want only to have the suffixes you dont need like ressistance that are already capped. You do a little tinkering in the forge only to consistantly brick items becuase you always end up getting unlucky and getting high rolls on your potential loss every time you craft and upgrade. it can be a little tedious sometimes. To play all day and not find a single upgrade when you arnt even remotely optimized.

[@brett2323]

The stats are much easier to get as you lvl. By lvl 74 it would be hard not to be capped, unless you are purposely using the wrong items.

[@Davivd2]

You're not wrong. But it shouldn't be THAT hard. Either your loot filter needs some adjustment and/or you need to watch some more crafting guides. I brick items all the time. That's just part of the game. Resistance capping shouldn't be that hard. Some gear drops with one or two resistances as part of it's implicit, on top of the rollable suffix's. You can target those pieces specifically with the loot filter. Then you have your idols. You should pick up every idol with a resistance on it, and probably once a week search out each resistance and throw out the low rolled idols if you have multiple idols with a certain resistance. Currently, the meta is to use idols for resistances (there are exceptions) Personally, I have found that with the right rolls on gear it's better to cap through gear and use idols for damage boosts. Idols can' do some unique things and are quite powerful if you get the right combinations. Anyways, GL to you. When you get a good collection of idols and get a better grasp on crafting, along with getting a better grasp on the loot filter, you should have no problem at all resistance and crit capping. I generally find that health is the hard stat to acquire. I see content creators with 20k ward and I'm like: "How?" Because following their build guide and stacking the stats that they say to stack leaves me WAY short of their ridiculous numbers. I've never had a character get over 2.5k health or 4k ward.

[@ashleygoggs5679]

@@Davivd2 ive been watching some guides and it seems to me that many hardcore players are getting resistances from their blessings. The problem im having is just simply trying to find those all encompassing stats like hybrids and all resist. I mean getting resist capped isnt an issue, the problem im having is getting all those resists and also layering my defense, for exmaple, where to squeeze in health as you said aswell as squeezing in endurance for that buffer when low health. I have one good piece of armor with crit avoidance and with the blessing i can get upto 90% but i need to do the empowered version so i can make it 100%. But its very difficult for new timers to meet all these defensive needs while also being able to make your character as offensive as possible too. 9 time out of 10 you find an upgrade and its either compromise you toughness or your offense. Its a pain in the ass.

[@Davivd2]

@@ashleygoggs5679 It is a pain in the ass. I still am having the same problem that you are. Trying to get health, defense, and offense. One thing to consider, and I've seen it before although I have no way to prove it, is that content creators may be bending the rules a bit. Offline characters are stored locally and that means that those characters can be altered. I am following a build right now that calls for very exact types of gear in each slot, with exact types of stats. That character is level 93 and has yet to see a single ring or amulet drop. There is no way that this guy put together a character that is basically at it's absolute peak of performance in a few days. I've encountered this problem a few times. Where a content creator just shows up with a new build that's 4 days old and is pushing 600 corruption. I'm sure that it does great to generate views. But I have some suspicion that this was achieved legitimately through just grinding it out. Especially when you see multiple pieces of gear with 2 to 3 LP and perfect rolls on them. I take everything that these content creators say with a grain of salt.

[@عبدالرحمنالجهني-ل8ي]

Maxing your resistance isn't really that difficult you just need 75% per res type(don't overcap your res unless your class have some specific mechanic to gain from overcapping res) it's just difficult a little bit for beginners but as soon as you understand from where to get res and get used to having them it becomes a very basic and easy thing. So you can get your resistances from 5 sources 1-your class skill trees, always prioritize getting passives that give you res, you can even invest in the first half of the other two masteries if they have a res passive skill, remember you can always respec later when you cap your res by other sources 2-your idols provide a nice amount of res i always use them for res at the beginning of a character 3-loot has a lot of affixes for getting res also some type of items have res as a base stat and you can prioritize those items because they guarantee you res even if you didn't get lucky with the affixes on them 4-vitality, this stat is important for every class because not only does it give you hp which is important for everyone but it also give you 1% necrotic and poison res per vitality so if you get the two coral rings that give you a base of 3-6 vitality + some vitality from your skill trees + one vitality affix you can easily get 15+ vitality this will get 30% res 15 for necrotic and 15 for poison it isn't much but it's another source you will want to have anyway for the hp 5-end game blessings, this isn't meant to be the solution for you not having enough res no the other 4 sources are more than enough by themselves but these blessing are going to allow you to free up some skill points and affixes on your gear that used to be spent on res and now you can spend them on other defensive stats

[@rekslegiune6004]

Diablo 4 vs Last Epoch. Is Epoch worth buying?

[@Tenkiei]

There's always a bit of subjectivity there; but personally I would say yes Last Epoch is worth buying. The gameplay systems are a lot more polished than D4 and you have better build diversity. If you're looking for a themepark blizzard may have more frequent content releases but LE makes for a better sandbox and their content has more depth.

[@JezzyHsu]

I have only dabbled in LE but listening to this video it almost feel like it’s too much, giving me D4 vibes of throwing everything into the pot. POE has a lot of depth with defensive without 12 resist types. Just first impressions

[@flake4615]

first? :3

[@lukasgengy]

Defenses are fot the weak .-) glass cannon masterclass