u/080087

There is a foe or system so powerful that it cannot be beaten in the present. So instead, the heroes chip at it, and pass down knowledge/power to those that follow, over and over until finally they break through.

The best example of what I mean is Dungeon Crawler Carl with the Cookbook. But there are others such as the structure of the Expeditions in Expedition 33 and One for All in My Hero Academia.

What other examples of this are there?

The Defence guide part 1 was aimed at getting builds to a point they could comfortably do T16s/most content with minimal deaths

This part attempts to identify what is required to go from pretty tanky to facetank (almost) everything territory.

Caveat - this is for general content. If you're doing specialised content, like deep delve or juiced expedition, you will need to apply your own knowledge

Also, ignoring all of this and killing everything from offscreen is a perfectly viable way to play. I just hate dying.

Multi-hit Defence

Getting shotgunned by a giant pack is an extremely common form of death, especially in juiced maps when there are 100s of mobs at any one time. Having protection against this will very noticeably cut down death frequency. Sadly, not that many good options for this. But luckily, once this problem is solved it generally remains solved no matter how juiced the content gets

• Block/spell block are the gold standard, especially paired with a recover on block mechanic.
• Defiance of Destiny is also extremely powerful for the builds that can run it.
• Evasion and spell dodge both work but are generally worse than block/spell block
• There are also niche build-specific mechanics, like perma ward that can fill this role.

Scaling Recovery/Ultra Recovery

Tied in with the above, having extremely high recovery (100% of your hit pool per second and up) helps mitigate a lot of death to attrition. The easiest way to achieve this for most builds is to have recovery that scales in-combat.

• As above, recover on block or defiance of destiny are extremely good at covering this

• Life gain on hit/es gain on hit/instant leech paired with a fast hitting skill is probably one of the easiest to obtain for most builds

• Recoup is the next best generic option

• Divine Shield and the ar/es mastery for 5% recovery over 1 second is great for the builds that can use it

• Pathfinder life flasks, Juggernaut Untiring, Tainted Pact, perma ward are also alternatives

Max Hit

Once the above two are solved, the only real way to die to hits anymore is by getting one shot. Everyone will have their own max hit benchmarks. Here are mine (written phys/ele/chaos)

• 12/25/15 - this is out of pure glass cannon territory, but the build will still need to do easier content and be careful rolling maps/clicking altars to avoid too many dps mods

• 25/35/20 - these builds can generally do a 2-3 dps mods/altars fine. Past that risks one shots

• 35/50/25 - hard content (e.g. titanic blight) is possible but sketchy, with risk of random one shots

• 50/100/35 - hard content with a few dps mods is not sketchy. But once it gets to 5+ dps mods it is once again once shot territory

• 75/250/50 - this can safely do the hardest content and click all the dps mods

Generally, phys hits is most dangerous for super squishy characters. Ele hits are most dangerous for everyone else. Chaos is not super threatening unless you are not capped or are playing a super vulnerable build (and due to CI existing, GGG can't balance chaos to be super threatening).

Damage over Time

Lastly, DoT kills a lot of otherwise tanky builds that rely on block/spell block, or gain on hit for their recovery, particularly out-of-combat while looting. There's only really one great way to avoid that, and that is with high out-of-combat recovery. In my experience, 1k is good enough to ignore most common ground DoTs.

• Overleech (Slayer, Petrified Blood)

• Regeneration

• Recoup loops

• Pathfinder life flasks

Getting enough DoT mitigation/recovery to tank DoT attacks is much harder, and for most builds not worth. Easier to rely on in-combat recovery and just move out of the attack.

The Defence guide part 1 was aimed at getting builds to a point they could comfortably do T16s/most content with minimal deaths

This part attempts to identify what is required to go from pretty tanky to facetank (almost) everything territory.

Caveat - this is for general content. If you're doing specialised content, like deep delve or juiced expedition, you will need to apply your own knowledge

Also, ignoring all of this and killing everything from offscreen is a perfectly viable way to play. I just hate dying.

Multi-hit Defence

Getting shotgunned by a giant pack is an extremely common form of death, especially in juiced maps when there are 100s of mobs at any one time. Having protection against this will very noticeably cut down death frequency. Sadly, not that many good options for this. But luckily, once this problem is solved it generally remains solved no matter how juiced the content gets

• Block/spell block are the gold standard, especially paired with a recover on block mechanic.
• Defiance of Destiny is also extremely powerful for the builds that can run it.
• Evasion and spell dodge both work but are generally worse than block/spell block
• There are also niche build-specific mechanics, like perma ward that can fill this role.

Scaling Recovery/Ultra Recovery

Tied in with the above, having extremely high recovery (100% of your hit pool per second and up) helps mitigate a lot of death to attrition. The easiest way to achieve this for most builds is to have recovery that scales in-combat.

• As above, recover on block or defiance of destiny are extremely good at covering this

• Life gain on hit/es gain on hit/instant leech paired with a fast hitting skill is probably one of the easiest to obtain for most builds

• Recoup is the next best generic option

• Divine Shield and the ar/es mastery for 5% recovery over 1 second is great for the builds that can use it

• Pathfinder life flasks, Juggernaut Untiring, Tainted Pact, perma ward are also alternatives

Max Hit

Once the above two are solved, the only real way to die to hits anymore is by getting one shot. Everyone will have their own max hit benchmarks. Here are mine (written phys/ele/chaos)

• 12/25/15 - this is out of pure glass cannon territory, but the build will still need to do easier content and be careful rolling maps/clicking altars to avoid too many dps mods

• 25/35/20 - these builds can generally do a 2-3 dps mods/altars fine. Past that risks one shots

• 35/50/25 - hard content (e.g. titanic blight) is possible but sketchy, with risk of random one shots

• 50/100/35 - hard content with a few dps mods is not sketchy. But once it gets to 5+ dps mods it is once again once shot territory

• 75/250/50 - this can safely do the hardest content and click all the dps mods

Generally, phys hits is most dangerous for super squishy characters. Ele hits are most dangerous for everyone else. Chaos is not super threatening unless you are not capped or are playing a super vulnerable build (and due to CI existing, GGG can't balance chaos to be super threatening).

Damage over Time

Lastly, DoT kills a lot of otherwise tanky builds that rely on block/spell block, or gain on hit for their recovery, particularly out-of-combat while looting. There's only really one great way to avoid that, and that is with high out-of-combat recovery. In my experience, 1k is good enough to ignore most common ground DoTs.

• Overleech (Slayer, Petrified Blood)

• Regeneration

• Recoup loops

• Pathfinder life flasks

Getting enough DoT mitigation/recovery to tank DoT attacks is much harder, and for most builds not worth. Easier to rely on in-combat recovery and just move out of the attack.

Just thinking - if the double hydrosphere tech works, that can pretty much double damage for any melee + strike build (e.g. flicker), or for attack projectiles like KB.