There are many, many things that Diablo 4 does not make apparent in the game, and it takes a lot of outside study to fully gauge what’s going on with some of these damage and defense values. I was pointed to an incredibly good video by wudijo, one of the world’s top hardcore players, where survivability is the name of the game. I wanted to share both the video, and the highlights of his insights with you, which should really help you survive the higher levels of the game. And maybe beat Elias, too.
- Elemental Resistances are close to useless – Because of the way scaling works in Diablo 4, you essentially never want dedicated elemental resists in favor of other defensive stats, and they are essentially a wasted slot in your armor or jewelry. Scaling for these drops way, way off compared to armor of damage reduction. While I put on some fire resists for Elias and his irritating flaming skulls specifically, in more general content you do not want this as a priority.
- Damage Resist – More or less the most important defensive stat in the game. Overall damage reduction is hugely important, and if you get something like 20-30% damage reduction from Close enemies, as wudijo says, that’s practically a legendary affix by itself.
- Armor – Also hugely important. Shown off in the video is one of the best defensive perks in the game where dealing damage can increase your armor by up to 50%. I believe this usually (only?) rolls on helmets, and it’s what you’ll want there above most everything else besides uh, Shako.
- + Life – Life % is not as good as just adding life values to your total. At higher levels you can almost double your life total with just a few gear items.
- Topaz Armor Gems – This is reduction against damage while crowd controlled, where the vast majority of death happens. At the highest gem level you can get 50% damage reduction here.
- Sapphire Armor Gems – This is damage reduction while Fortified, only applicable to certain builds, like mine, where now I have 30% damage reduction while Fortified thanks in part to these gems.
- Skull Jewelry Gems – Again, you do not want any of the elemental resists as gems in here outside of extremely select circumstances. Skulls give you armor, and that’s what you want here.
Again, wudijo’s advice here is from the hardcore perspective where surviving is everything, but it really is applicable for anyone who hits Elias and goes to World Tier 4 from there, as enemies are going to start hitting hard. This isn’t to say you can’t still do lots of damage, but you really need to prioritize, or not-prioritize, what’s listed above.
