Resistance vs +health

[eknudson]

When adding set bonuses to a tank that is softcapped to defense, how do you decide on when to add more resistance and when to add more HP?

 

I'd rather have resistance to all than an equal amount of health, but that's rarely the question. I'd likely be better off with 1% more health than 1.5% more fire/cold resistance in most circumstances, since the additional HP helps me against all damage types.

 

But is there a place you draw the line? Does it vary depending on the damage type-- S/L damage is more common so resistance there is most often helpful, and most characters have some damage type that they have the least resistance to so would you add +res to a hole in your armor by preference?

 

Just curious what the thoughts were on +res vs. +hp for a tank.

[Six-Six]

The way I look at is: Def prevents you from getting hit, %Res is how good you deal with it when you do get hit, HP lets you get hit more. 

If I had softcapped defences, I would concentrate on beefing up my HP rather than Res. Having said that, the both are usually in the form of set bonuses. So they become gravy on a cake (something like that). Then I would look at the primary benefit of the IO and take whatever secondary benefit (set bonuses) with a smile.

[macskull]

I will usually prioritize S/L/F/C resist over HP but it's pretty easy to add on boatloads of HP with minimal slots to the point it's almost an afterthought (20% from accolades, another 7.5% from a single slot with Unbreakable Guard, and a whole bunch of 3-slot 1.13% and 1.88% HP bonuses that just come naturally through sets I already use).

[eknudson]

Resistance and +HP work similarly--- if you have 100 points of health and 10% resistance, then get it with 20 points of damage you wind up at 82 health, or 82% health.  If you have +10% health that same 20 points takes you to 90, which is... 82% health (technically 81.8). The result is essentially the same.  I'm debating giving up some F/C and E/N resistance for slightly less +HP. 

[Uun]

It depends on how much you depend on +regen (such as WP or Rad). You get more benefit from +regen the more hp you have.

[DSorrow]

Stacking +Res is generally more effective than stacking +HP. In small amounts, there isn't a huge difference between the net result in survivability, but if you're able to stack large numbers, +Res easily overshadows equally large amounts of +HP. In a more theoretical format, Resistance increases your effective HP by a factor of 1/(1-Resistance) while +HP increases your effective HP by a factor of (1+MaxHP). You can easily find pairs of +Res and +MaxHP that result in the same multiplier, but in most cases it's not really worth chasing +MaxHP over +Res because:

1. The Resistance multiplier isn't linear: it gives you better returns the more you have*
2. Resistance bonuses are generally larger than +HP bonuses, although this is offset by the fact that they usually only give you +Res against two types

To give some examples on the first point:

+1% Resistance is roughly equal to +1% maxHP

+10% Resistance is equal to +11% maxHP

+20% Resistance is equal to +25% maxHP

+50% Resistance is equal to +100% maxHP

+75% Resistance is equal to +300% maxHP

+90% Resistance is equal to +900% maxHP

 

In general, you get an easy +30-50% +maxHP just by getting the passive accolades, +7% maxHP unique and incidental bonuses. For the rest, I'd concentrate on +Res (particularly S/L/E damage types).