Armor or stamina?

[metamag]

I only play hardcore now because it's the most enjoyable so I was wondering if stamina is always better than armor?

 

You should really add a statistic that shows in percentage format how much damage does armor absorb and what types of damage.

[Sasha_Je]

o.O i don't even want to start talking about the necessity of % info for those statics...as for your question i believe Stamina is much more important then Armor because the Healing Spell heals you 50% in 30 sec, in other words that healing restores an amount of HP/sec. Bottom line is that the more HP you have the bigger that HP/sec will be, and in my opinion that is better. If you play as Lucas and enchant the Healing Spell for Life Leach, you will even get 25%/swing and that is bad ass...when you release an Empowered Dash in a crowed of enemies you will have 80% HP most of the time. Well this is what happened to me at the final boss...but because i got a nice Game Over after i defeated the Elder God i could not try other builds and stuff like so.

 

Cheers !

[toastification]

Armor kinda sucks. Even if you stack it the most damage reduction you can wriggle out of it feels like around 30%.

[metamag]

Hopefully they will unnerf armor in future patches.

[XxX Post XxX]

You need a combination of both. If you want to survive and not have to dodge all the time. Armor and block. If you just want to be able to hack and not block... Stamina all the way....

[toastification]

Have you actually managed to stack enough HP/Armor to survive getting a string of hits from heavies/assassins on hardcore? I haven't shopfarmed for armor items, but I have generally put highest +armor/stamina items I found on me. It didn't do squat for surviving the big hits (it reduced them from what was on 600 to 1200 Reinhart to 450 - 900 on Lucas)... which helped to not get flat out murdered by 2-3 lunge attacks, but it didn't really affect my gameplay all that much because 2-3 lunge attacks put me into near death state anyway.

 

I don't see how you can make a build that can keep attacking while getting hit by the heavy hitters. The result seems to be that you block/dodge the exact same attacks you would as a glass cannon even if you build tanky.

[metamag]

Yes, pretty much there is no tank build possible in this game, even if you bought the best and highest armor items.

[LadyCrimson]

If you just want to be able to hack and not block... Stamina all the way....

That would be my opinion too. It's been working quite well for my non-blocking, uber-healing, high Will/Stamina Anjali, at least. Except, as toastification noted, against the super-hitting enemies. I have the feeling those enemies will always be difficult no matter what, at least on Hardcore.

 

With AI-Lucas a more balanced set up between armor & stamina & a few Mastered skills seems to work well. He hasn't died at all since a few mistakes in the beginning. Oh sure he whines that he's "not doing well here" but then casts his heal spell or I make him stand in fire and then he's all fine again. AI-Lucas is such a baby.

[toastification]

AI companions are cheaters. I had Anjali in starting gear up until Stonebridge and I swear she tanks three times as much damage as I do. It feels like the only thing that helps them is damage/chaos effects.

Edited June 23, 2011 by toastification

[Tigranes]

I think they're just very good at blocking and defensive stances. They're incredibly durable when you're helping them, but when you die and they stop blocking to try and run to you, you can see they die very well.

[toastification]

Blocking still needs to be scaled to be good towards later on. Plus, given how bad they are at dodging, I refuse to believe they are any good at blocking anyway.

[Alpha]

I think they're just very good at blocking and defensive stances. They're incredibly durable when you're helping them, but when you die and they stop blocking to try and run to you, you can see they die very well.

this. I think my lucas is well balanced . His blocks and attacks work amazing, I maxed the regain health abilities and the one where you retribution your damage .

[metamag]

Does rejuvenation talent affect the life stealing of live by the sword?

[Rockman]

Does rejuvenation talent affect the life stealing of live by the sword?

 

I Think so as it does say +x% when gains life.

[LadyCrimson]

I think they're just very good at blocking and defensive stances. They're incredibly durable when you're helping them, but when you die and they stop blocking to try and run to you, you can see they die very well.

I rarely saw AI-Lucas block at all. I even checked videos frame by frame - it's rare. Occasionally I saw him do the dodge-roll, but not terribly often. My theory (at least in my game) is that the monsters rarely attack him directly...they almost always focused on me. Thus he rarely took any serious damage unless I fell. Did happen sometimes, but most of the time seemed like they were all aiming at/chasing me while Lucas was pummeling their backsides.

Edited June 25, 2011 by LadyCrimson

[Pidesco]

Yes, the monsters seem to like attacking me more than my companion. Right now I'm trying to get through the big ass spider, and my companion only keels over if I die or if actively run away.

[metamag]

I think I know now what the "problem" is with armor, if you have low armor you will receive huge damage from common enemies, but if you have high armor and low stamina you will be extremely vulnerable to many attacks from bosses because their attacks won't be mitigated by armor to make any difference.