Imbalanced Gaurd

Can someone tell me (maybe with some math) why few people take this node?

Even with really large armour amounts, this node really helps against HUGE 1 hit phy hits. And thats what you tend to care about right? 50% armour vs smaller hits is enough...

However getting 50% hit against a large hit is huge.

without it a 90% armour stat might only reduce a HUGE hit by say 40%.

If I were to wager a guess its because most people dont understand the node. They give it a quick glance and think they will run around with the equivalent of 50% ele res or like you said dont understand the value of mitigating a much higher damage hit.

Its an underrated node to be sure.

I thought about that note before, but honestly I think it's only worth if u're trying to tank really big hits, uber shaper slam for example.

Otherwise negating almost every hit during mapping is just more convinient. I think ur life would junk alot more in mapping situations with this one. Also I don't think big physical hits are usually a problem outside of Bosses. (depending on the amount of armour u're running of course)

That said, it can be tested pretty easily tho, maybe I'll try it tonight.

9 times out of ten it's detrimental rather than beneficial. You say 50% armor is enough for small hit's, i'd invite you to try that. Just to give an hypothetical scenario. 10 porcs explode in front of you and you get hit by 10 spikes. Each doing 500 raw damage. Without the keystone you have 90% mitigation and take 10x(500*0,1)=500 damage. With the keystone you take 10x(500*0,5)=2500 damage. That's more than half the lifepool of most characters.

Meanwhile, everyone is freaking out about big hit's but let's be real here, how often do you actually encounter really big hits? The average map boss and even pinnacle bosses top out at 10-15k phys hit's. And you'll always only take one of those. Getting enough armor to not die from that is fairly easy, even without imbalanced guard. The keystone is only useful if you are aiming to face tank the slam from uber shaper as that's the biggest single hit in the game you'll realistically take.

The keystone is probably best used on builds with very little armor who even with it just reach around 50% reduction against most hits. Maybe in combination with phys taken as element stuff. But even then it's questionable whether it's actually worth taking unless you pass right by it anyway.

Great points Baharoth. Your thinking has been very similar to mine. I was thinking of making something around 50% armor and then trying to max evade while using imbalanced guard.

I use Imbalanced guard for my Berserker in combination with a legacy Defiance of Destiny. The idea behind it is that most of the time my armour base is only around 15k. 50% phys damage reduction is enough for small hits with Defiance of Destiny.
But i got not much cover against bigger hits thats where the Keystone comes in for me.

The keystone itself have very niche uses and if i was not pathing right next to it i would probably not take it.

It seems really good, however there is a downside which means you take increased damage in many situations. The thing is its a defensive node, so it's not going to be super popular in softcore but it also has an aspect that is dangerous to use in HC. It requires very specific conditions to be good. You need some armor so it will work, but not so much that it's going to be un-useful or detrimental. Then you need a way deal with getting shot gunned by small hits. It's also in a position that is not very accessible to many many classes except marauder. Duelist can get there but it may not always be convenient.

Still I think it is probably underused as well. It can be good if you know your only going to take big hits, like someone mention shaper slam. I've used it in certain builds like early on trying to survive gauntlet.

Someone made a good graphic of when it is useful, ill try and hunt it down.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/q8jncn/imbalanced_guard_revisualized/

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Belegur85 wrote:

Someone made a good graphic of when it is useful, ill try and hunt it down.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/q8jncn/imbalanced_guard_revisualized/

Thanks, that's a very insightful chart. So it's almost never worth it for mapping, unless u have very litte armour. (around 5-10k)
It might be good on a Staff block char to get something to soften up the spikes, if u can't invest into alot of armour.
Had that problem whenever I tried a Staff Smite Inquisitor a few leagues ago. But then again, it's position is very bad for Templar :/

I think so, as long as you have a way mitigate large number of incoming hits it might be ok, so block might be an option there. This is because they can only be reduced by 50%. Usually armour would be very good at mitigating these hits above 50% cap. For example porcupines, you might get hit with a lot at once. The berserker suggestion above is a good example. I'm using Defiance of destiny currently and in SC so I might give it a try, although I have to path a few nodes to get there. I only have about 10k armour, so it might help. Although I am using 4 endurance charges, as you can see from the chart it becomes less useful when combined with additional phys reduction. My stats are pretty close to the third chart. It would take my phys max hit from about 15k to 17k. As someone else mentioned it can be used in certain situations. Like for shaper fight there not much small rapid hits, only large hits, so it's mainly upside, unless you are already able to tank over 50% on the big hits. Mapping might be a bit more rough. I'm thinking of something like the eater of worlds mobs that fire many projectiles. Don't know if that is physical damage or not, but if it went from being 90% mitigated to 50% might make a big difference.

(I tried it out just now, actually does seem pretty good for my build with the low armour. I think I'm taking more damage overall, but it seems to be a bit more levelled out. Maybe a bit similar to Glancing blows. The mob type I mentioned was no different, maybe that is lightning damage or the hits are small enough that it doesn't matter. The amulet is carrying hard though, I have 24% on that mod and not sure I would be game to try it out in HC. I've also got about 23% recoup life so that is probably helping. Going pretty well on juiced t16 maps, but i'm wondering if it would drop off a bit on harder t17 maps when the damage is higher. I did have one death and had about 4 impales on me, so that's the kind of thing that it is susceptible to.

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I think ur life would junk alot more in mapping situations with this one.

Does feel like that is the case, hits are more noticable, but then it's saving some one shots, so I guess that is how it is supposed to work.

I tried using on simulacrum last night. It seemed pretty decent, I got to 15 but couldn't beat the last level partly because of DPS. Seemed to help a bit with surviving Kosis slam and not bad against the mobs. I was only getting to lvl 12 before, but my other gear has improved a lot so it's not a fair comparison. Seems at least not worse, but it may also not be worth the two points. Might try another one with it un-specced to see any noticeable difference.)