What type of Armor Proofing is the most useful?

[Blades of Vanatar]

Was wondering about if anyone has already researched...

 

A) What type of damage from the armor proofing choices is most common throughout the various enemy types?

 

and....

 

B) What type of armor proofing is required/best vs the big baddies throughout the game like Thaos, the various Dragons, etc....

[AndreaColombo]

There are a few things to keep in mind about this.

 

The first is that proofing is not always a flat +3 bonus vs the chosen damage type. It's percentage based and the UI does a very poor job communicating it (by which I mean it does not communicate it at all.)

 

Hence, you get the most bang for your buck by proofing armor against a damage type the armor is already strong against. Counterintuitive, I know.

 

Slash, Crush, Pierce are more common across enemies than elemental damage types. Thaos's minions, IIRC, deal Slash and Crush respectively. Not sure about dragons as I think they deal different types of damage depending on the attack; should check the in-game bestiary but I'm on my smartphone now.

 

Generally I proof vs the damage type for which I have the lowest DR among Slash, Crush, Pierce regardless of any other consideration (except, obviously, whether some other items are already boosting my DR as proofing doesn't stack with them.)

[Kaylon]

For a melee character I would pick crush for a two reasons:

- common damage type - it helps in many fights (including tough ones)

- there's no better enchantment vs crush - against any other damage type you can find at least one item type giving +5 DR against it

For a ranged character I would pick pierce - common ranged damage type (archers) attacking deflection (low on ranged classes)

[Blades of Vanatar]

Sounds like I want pierce-proofing for my back row and crush proofing for my frontline.

[Boeroer]

^ that's what I always do.