Determination

EDIT : Skill isn't bugged, I'm just ignorant to the games mechanics it seems. Thank you

"

CNKalmah wrote:

I feel it needs a different animation, and a slight buff, maybe 2% armor per level or starting at 30% instead of 20%.

Also this skill is bugged

Currently giving me 27% Increased Armour

Base Armour = 971

Buffed Armour = 1206

235 Armour increase which is only 24%..
Where's the other 3% going?

Read my post at the bottom of the previous page about how "increased" works. I'd venture to say that you have some other increased armor passive on your skill tree, or on a ring/belt/amulet.

This should be "More" IMO. It doesn't really give enough for what it takes.

I would either do :

A.
Increase starting amount from 20% to 35%.
40% Reserve.

OR

B.
Make it 20% MORE armor as opposed to INCREASE.
40% Reserve.

Because at the moment, anyone sitting at around 2000~ armor only receives roughly 2-5% damage reduction... Which is a shame considering it's high mana cost...

I like the idea though!

I currently have 226% extra armour from talents (iron reflexes and full frenzy charges). The addition of this gem to it would bump it to 261% (at lvl 16), which isn't a very big bonus considering how much mana it reserves. It would only give me a bit over 10% more armour.

I'd like to suggest to either reduce the cost to 30% mana reserved or to make it give 10% more armour and 10% increased armour with a .25% increased in both per level.

needs a solid buff, definitely.

To my understanding this is a skill aimed at tanks.

I'm a tank, but I don't find it cost effective. Especially that I'm using bloodmagic, but still don't think I would find it useful without it. Although I've sacrificed a lot of level up nodes to pull it off, I prefer using grace and iron reflexes.

I terms of the "more" "increased" etc. terminology.

It would be much nicer if besides the total amount of armour/damage/resistance etc. we could see the base amount as well (e.g. in brackets next to the total).

The skill is not useless but seems a bit weak. On my tank templar I used clarity and 1 more aura depending on situation: vitality or determination (also had purity ready but never really used it). I used it when I was facing dangerous physical enemies like flicker strikers where I was afraid to get bursted, but the effect is incredibly small.

In dangerous situation I could use granite flask and with enduring cry have maximum damage reduction. In other situations vitality was better anyway.

I can imagine that in party of 2-3 tanky characters you can have vitality, determination and purity all always present so we have to be careful to not make this skill too strong. However, less mana cost would be suitable for determination. It really doesn't give much, mana cost should be more like 20%, not 40%.

Another option I would see for this skill is adding flat % damage reduction for physical damage. Useful for all characters. With up to 5% (?) on high levels it would be much better than current 1-2% for characters with already high armor bonuses. It would also be useful for characters with evasion and ES characters with low or no armor. Could be a good choice to use for some small defense against physical threats like oversoul or flicker strikers.

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/52650

Does it mean it will no longer use 40% and change to fixed values?

The thing I don't like about that skill is that's barely worth some passive points for high costs.

%IAR is really strong, the reason it doesn't FEEL strong is gear scaling. Nobody has good gear right now, at least in hardcore league. Well, there are a few exceptions, but nobody in an armour build has good gear right now in hc league.

The rules change a bit for iron reflexes. Keep that in mind if you care to read what I'm putting out here.

This is a really peculiar thing, that not many have realized yet. You can express base armour rating to cap as a ratio h:

h = B / U
B: Base armour required for 90% reduction
U: Unmitigated damage

h is a constant in any shieldless build, no matter whether you're facing a boss or a rank and file skeleton [note: A to cap changes, but h stays constant]. It depends on your %IAR and number of endurance charges.

If you stack life, ignoring armour, and have 4 endurance charges, your h value is probably close to 15. That means to cap reduction against a 3k physi hit, you need 45k base armour. Good luck with that.

If you stack armour and carry a high number of endurance charges around, your h value can be as low as 3. Same 3k hit? 9000 base armour. Now we're being wasteful with defense points. In fact, in this build you could cap reduction from a 4300 damage hit off a granite alone. With armour from gear that can feasibly go as high as 5700 damage. Under enfeeble 8100 damage, with capped DR. Getting a bit crazy there, right?

What do you think about trivializing greatly-enhanced-damage mobpacks? Or vulnerability maps? Or a greatly enhanced mobpack inside a vulnerability map? A level 68 brutus with 25% faster/harder inside a vulnerability map?

Anyway, my point: 48% IAR isn't nearly as bad as some people believe [lv 17 det under IF is 48%]. I'd say it's almost always worth 30% mana reserved in any balanced armour/life build [40% under level 17 RM is 30%] and a must in any armour-focused build. Also a good counter benefit for not taking Blood Magic.

But hey, if it earns a buff? You won't see me complaining. GGG will probably nerf granites (or the iron skin affix on flasks) to compensate.

If anyone is interested in seeing the math behind this h ratio, I'll be happy to send details by PM.

"

But hey, if it earns a buff? You won't see me complaining. GGG will probably nerf granites (or the iron skin affix on flasks) to compensate.

That's reasonable. Right now however (with the mentioned iron skin and granite flasks as addition to some %IAR from passives) determination is rarely useful and other auras are simply better choice if you can't have them all.