Using Flammability and Fire Penetration

I have Fire Penetration thrown in on a 6 link set, together with Molten Strike/Multistrike/WED/Faster Attack/Concentrated Effect. I also have Avatar of Fire on the skill tree to add to the fire damage, and Anger running as well. To date I've been using a maxed Punishment as a curse to throw in, but due to all the fire-based stuff wondered whether Flammablity would be the better option. Seems like a perfect combination, but I was wondering if there's a cap to how much resistance/penetration you can get. FP gives you 35%, Flammability 39%, which on the surface seems a great one-two punch, or do they overlap each other?

They stack fully. If you have 0% Fire Resist, you will be taking 74% extra damage (174%). If you have 75% fire resist, you will be taking about 300% extra damage (396%).

Okay, you lost me there.

By 'you' I assume you mean 'they', right? What I don't get is your point about the numbers. Surely if an opponent has less resistance they would be taking more damage, but the numbers you provided suggest the opposite - or am I missing something? And how do you get 300% extra damage?

monster resist can become negative, and there is no limit afaik

but monsters can also have overcapped resists.. with natural resist, resist mod and resist aura, their total resist can be around 150% (i guess). Actual monster resist is capped at 75% though.

now, curses and elemental equilibrium lowers total resist, while penteration gems lower actual resist. This is what makes penetration gems so strong and mandatory for most elemental builds.

effects from curses and EE are substracted from total resist first (obviously), then resist from penetration gem is substracted from whatever actual resist monster has

hope that it is clear now:)

Okay, that makes a little more sense - thanks.

Well I guess the only thing I'm still after is verification on the merits of replacing the maxed Punishment gem with a maxed Flammability. From what I'm reading it's a thumbs up on Flammability, right?

WM I already use in an automated fashion via Tempest Shield. Punishment I've triggered manually, which is how I intend using Flammability.

i would also consider quality ele wdakness for up to -49 resist, unless you really want that ignite chance

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timbo1959 wrote:

Okay, you lost me there.

By 'you' I assume you mean 'they', right? What I don't get is your point about the numbers. Surely if an opponent has less resistance they would be taking more damage, but the numbers you provided suggest the opposite - or am I missing something? And how do you get 300% extra damage?

Let's assume a monster has 75% fire resist. He is currently taking 25% of your damage.
Lowering it to 1% fire resist will cause him to take 99% of your damage.

This is an effective increase of about 300% damage.

Let's assume a monster has 0% fire resist. He is currently taking 100% of your damage.
Lowering it to -74% will cause him to take 174% of your damage.

This is an effective incrase of about 74% damage.

Let's assume a monster has 600% fire resist, with an effective cap of 75% fire resist. You will lower his fire resist to 561% with Flammability. You then penetrate the remaining effective resist, which is still 75%, to 40% with your fire penetration. Before penetration, 25% damage. After penetration, 60% damage.

This is an effective increase of about 140% damage, or 240% of original damage without penetration.