Only 1 spell to reduce enemy DR?

[corrado33]

I just started playing PoE, after playing all of the BG series to death when I was younger. (Had a maxed character in every class that I used throughout every game.) 

 

However, as I was fighting some "difficult" fights yesterday, I realized something. There is only one spell that I can find that reduces an enemies' damage resistance. Is this right? After browsing the wiki I could only find "Expose vulnerabilities" that does a -5 DR on the enemy. 

 

Sure, there are TONS of spells that increase the damage your character does (I think.) That does something similar, but the lack of Foe DR spells is surprising. 

 

Also, there are many spells that allow you to HIT the enemy easier. Reducing their deflection/reflex/whatever. However, I wasn't having trouble hitting the enemy, as I hit them almost every roll, I was having trouble doing significant damage to them, even though I was using weapons that their armor was weak against. I usually hit for ~20 damage but they had a 24 or 27 DR (i forget). I don't think they had any buffs as I had killed everybody else (and it took FOREVER to kill him, so any buffs would have worn off.)  

 

I mean, sure, I tend to lag behind on upgrading my party's weapons (I'm a hoarder) but still. I find it odd that there aren't many spells to take care of this type of thing. Maybe something for the barbarian like "Crack armor" (I'm thinking of final fantasy's "armor break.") 

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong. What do you do when you're faced with an enemy with a much higher DR than you can overcome? 

[wanderon]

"What do you do when you're faced with an enemy with a much higher DR than you can overcome?"

 

Run baby run!  

 

Seriously I pay almost no attention to the combat log stats while playing but I can tell you that this game is not linear and it's quite easy to end up facing enemies that are too powerful for your current levels - perhaps this is what you have run into. 

[corrado33]

 

"What do you do when you're faced with an enemy with a much higher DR than you can overcome?"

 

Run baby run!

 

Seriously I pay almost no attention to the combat log stats while playing but I can tell you that this game is not linear and it's quite easy to end up facing enemies that are too powerful for your current levels - perhaps this is what you have run into. 

 

Interesting. I did EVENTUALLY kill him, but it took my entire party focusing on him to overcome his natural endurance regen. During the entire fight I had 2 party members attacking him. My rogue went around and killed pretty much everybody else while my priest and wizard were healing the two attacking the hard guy and buffing/debuffing people. The hard guy still had 4 endurance "circles" when my rogue eventually got around to attacking him. The rogue with stilettos attacking him while stacking as many debuffs on him as I could eventually brought him down. This was one of the first bounties you get from the warden's lodge. Forget the guys name... sky something maybe.

[wanderon]

Yeah warden bountys are pretty intense - easy to get battles over your head - but you beat it so all should be good! 

[Rosveen]

Off the top of my head:

cipher's Body Attunement

chanter's 1st level invocation (and another one later?)

Penetrating Shot/Vulnerable Attack

weapons and skills with innate DR bypass

skills dealing raw damage

Edited March 22, 2016 by Rosveen

[corrado33]

Off the top of my head:

cipher's Body Attunement

chanter's 1st level invocation (and another one later?)

Penetrating Shot/Vulnerable Attack

weapons and skills with innate DR bypass

skills dealing raw damage

Ignoring weapons that bypass DR and raw damage, that brings the total up to 3, spread over 3 different types of characters. (Penetrating shot boosts DR bypass for the ranger only, not that useful if none of your characters are doing much damage) Thanks for the list. This playthrough has been more of a traditional BG type playthrough with the typical character classes (FIghter, Rogue, druid, wizard, priest, hunter) so I haven't played with ciphers and chanters that much yet. Maybe that's my problem. 

[Sking]

Hey Corrado33,

 

There are a few other ways to 'bypass' DR, Rosveen mentioned a few. But, the best way to circumvent an enemy with high DR is to figure out which DR and defense are their lowest. For example; Kith with high DR are almost always wearing plate. Plate armor is 50% vs shock damage.

 

I got your back

-Sking

[MaxQuest]

I usually hit for ~20 damage but they had a 24 or 27 DR (i forget). I

Hehe, the most amusing was suddenly realizing that Turisulfus has 51 pierce DR and immunity to corrode damage; while I had two warbow ciphers with corrode lash enchants Min ftw! 

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong. What do you do when you're faced with an enemy with a much higher DR than you can overcome?

Tbh I wasn't bothering with reducing enemy DR. On simple high-DR enemies like Adra Animats usually crits+Penetrating Shots was more than enough. While on Dragons, raw damage works wonders. (e.g. build focus on adds, charm the dragon, kill the adds, and before charm expires and fortitude is still reduced by 25, cast two disintegrates; also there is Envenomed Strike talent)

 

P.S. To add to Rosveen's list there is also fighter's Sundering Blow.

Edited March 22, 2016 by MaxQuest

[manageri]

Ways to beat high DR:

 

- A char specialized in two-handed weapons. Or, for ranged chars, the slower types.

- Debuff deflection or other defenses you wanna target heavily heavily so attacks have a good chance of being hits/crits.

- Use spells/weapons that target the weakest damage type.

- Buff your dudes! Priests can give you amazing things like +10 might and an ass-ton of accuracy.

 

I like the DR system in PoE because it incentivizes all kinds of weapons for different situations. if you have a varied toolset then abilities that directly lower DR are not at all necessary.

[kvaak]

Honestly, the only real way to get around DR is to just hit as hard as possible. Stilettos might have innate DR bypass but their base damage is so low it only matters against low DR enemies - if an enemy has 30 DR you still have 27 to punch through once you account for the bypass.

 

Using two-handed weapons (or the ranged weapons that require reloading) and pumping might is the obvious solution but even lower damage weapons are capable of doing the job if you e.g. pile enough (de)buffs to reliably land crits. DR is the (second) last thing applied so turning a 40-damage hit into a 60-damage crit against an enemy with 30 DR will triple your damage.

 

I never really bothered using vulnerable attack or penetrating shot, using a bigger stick and keeping the attack speed generally felt more efficient although if you can stack enough attack speed to hit 0 recovery vulnerable attack is strictly beneficial.

[corrado33]

Ways to beat high DR:

 

 

I like the DR system in PoE because it incentivizes all kinds of weapons for different situations. if you have a varied toolset then abilities that directly lower DR are not at all necessary.

 Oh I agree with you! I've never had to switch weapons that much in older RPGs (or at least, I never bothered, except in neverwinter nights.) 

 

Anyway, thanks for the advice guys. I'll have to give my rogue a set of maces (or other crush weapons) for armored foes. (IIRC Plate is weak to crush, I'll have to look it up in game, the wiki is outdated.)

[Gromnir]

I just started playing PoE, after playing all of the BG series to death when I was younger. (Had a maxed character in every class that I used throughout every game.) 

 

However, as I was fighting some "difficult" fights yesterday, I realized something. There is only one spell that I can find that reduces an enemies' damage resistance. Is this right? After browsing the wiki I could only find "Expose vulnerabilities" that does a -5 DR on the enemy. 

 

Sure, there are TONS of spells that increase the damage your character does (I think.) That does something similar, but the lack of Foe DR spells is surprising. 

 

Also, there are many spells that allow you to HIT the enemy easier. Reducing their deflection/reflex/whatever. However, I wasn't having trouble hitting the enemy, as I hit them almost every roll, I was having trouble doing significant damage to them, even though I was using weapons that their armor was weak against. I usually hit for ~20 damage but they had a 24 or 27 DR (i forget). I don't think they had any buffs as I had killed everybody else (and it took FOREVER to kill him, so any buffs would have worn off.)  

 

I mean, sure, I tend to lag behind on upgrading my party's weapons (I'm a hoarder) but still. I find it odd that there aren't many spells to take care of this type of thing. Maybe something for the barbarian like "Crack armor" (I'm thinking of final fantasy's "armor break.") 

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong. What do you do when you're faced with an enemy with a much higher DR than you can overcome? 

dr is often rock/paper/scissors.  developers near always leave one or two best or better options for overcoming dr, so even if you can't lower dr, you can use paper to cover rock.  even so, there is multiple dr reducing or bypass options.  is weapons that have dr bypass.  use an estoc bolstered by vulnerable attacks? can have your cipher use body attunement.  can have pallegina simple laugh at foe dr after using wrath of the five suns. etc.

 

and yeah, increasing damage output is another blunt approach to overcoming dr.  petrify an enemy doesn't lower dr, but it significantly increases damage done to the petrified foe. got a high dr opponent that is subject to petrify?  

 

*shrug*

 

in any event, there is options for reducing dr, but mostest obvious approach for overcoming is rock/paper/scissors.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[hilfazer]

Paladin's Behold The Martyr.


Fortunately Obsidian has realized that % damage reduction is horrible and the game features absolute damage reduction (dunno why it's not called Damage Threshold like in Fallouts) that can be overcome with just high DPH. DOTs are good for this job.