Resistances - Explanation input/clarification needed

[Elly]

Okay, I'm trying to get my head around a simple and concise explanation of how resistances work. Any input on this would be great.

When attacked with a magical attack there are two sets of parameters which determine if and how much damage you will take.

1st set is:

Based on your character level. If it's:

much higher than caster = you have a significant chance to resist and take no damage from magic attack

much lower than caster = you have minimal chance to resist (minimum can be 1%) and take no damage from magic attack

Here's where I get wooly....

If you are affected the 2nd set of parameters come into play to determine if and how much magical damage you will end up taking and they are:

based on resistance % and level of caster

The higher your resist % in relation to caster's level = higher your average resist % (max 75%) to completely resist the magical attack.

However, with direct damage spells you have a chance to resist a % (0%, 35%, 50%, 75% & 100%) of the magical attack (rather than a % chance to completely resist it) and this is determined by your resist % compared to the caster's level.

So, what do you think? Is that it or have I got it horribly wrong here?

[DaPlaya]

that seems to make sence from what i've seen, though i'm not sure at what value the resistance max out at, most i've seen is around 70 on my felhunter.

i think resistance also takes a part in the first set. more often i see either full resist or (almost) no damage reduction when in either PvP or PvE, using either DD or DoT spells, also curse of elements seems to considerably reduce resist chances.

would probably be worth setting up a whole set of high resistance equipment and doing several trials to see how much is affected with or without

[Batch]

I haven't got any chance to experiment on magic resistance but it sound like it is possible that it works out that way.

If we look at how the magic resistance works out in the Diablo games (also made by Blizzard for those of you who didn't know :p) you would resist a fixed percentage of the damage dealed. Having 90 in fire resist would (in normal mode) resist 90% of the damage dealed by fire magic. The cap for how much you can resist is 95% so you can never be totaly imune to any of the magic schools. If you then advance in the game into "hard" or "nightmare" your base resistance is lowered into -40% respectively -100% which in the later case means you would need items adding 195% to resist 95% of the damage dealed.

If we transfer that system into WoW we could asume that it first of all would have a cap of 75%. Just because that is the max cap for physical resistance.
How the resistance formula then works out is a litle bit trickier.
Here are two examples of how it could look like:

1) 60 in magic resistance gives you 60% resistance to spells casted by someone at equal level. And if your level is lower/higher than the casters then the percent is lowered/raised by a constant percentage per level (like 5% or something).
Example formula: [resistance value]+(5*([your lvl]-[casters lvl])) = [% resisted] (with a cap of 75%)

2) The amount of resistance points needed to resist X% is raised proportional or exponential with the level of the caster. To resist 75% of a caster of level 1 you would need around 50 in resistance. But if his level would have been 60 you would have needed 200 to resist 75%.
Example formula: ([resistance value]*75)/(50+(2.5*[casters lvl])) = [% resisted]

Would be fun to have some data to play with. But it would be very hard to make any conclusions since the damage done by spells aren't constant.

[Xinhuan]

The only information that we have on how resistances work, is from this page:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/basics/characters.html

[Batch]

Ouch...I sure missed that explanation. :bonk:

[Jerkazoid]

it seems like u got it right. im going to clarify with my interpretation to make sure though

step 1 is like a savings throw in DnD terms. based on our level we have a chance to fully negate spells. (minimum 1% chance)


based on resistance % and level of caster

ahhh. but we dont have a res% stat in wow, it just res# ;)

our effective res% is figured based on the casters lvl and the res# we have. if the res# and caster lvl never change we will always expeirence the same amount of resistance%. (capped at 75%)

for direct spells
with direct damage spells you have a chance to resist a % (0%, 35%, 50%, 75% & 100%) of the magical attack (rather than a % chance to completely resist it)
0 25 50 75 and 100 res,
and ONLY those 5 forms of resistance.

the chance for one to activate is based on res# and caster lvl. so even against 250 resistance, a clvl 50 has a 1/100 chance to deal a direct dmg spell, un-resisted



but are direct spells included in the step1 savings throw? i have a feeling blizz doesnt want two chances to fully resist them. but it makes no mention if that step is skiped with direct spells

[triplex]

but are direct spells included in the step1 savings throw? i have a feeling blizz doesnt want two chances to fully resist them. but it makes no mention if that step is skiped with direct spells

They are included in step1 saving throw. Sometimes when you run through low lvl mobs they fire at you, but uou get 0 damage.

[rasmasyean]

The only information that we have on how resistances work, is from this page:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/basics/characters.html

:clap:

Looking at the chart for both "Direct Damage lvl 50" and "Most lvl 50 Spells", it basically seems to boil down to:

[avg % dmg reduce] = 15 * [Resistance Score] / 50

Of course:
- with a cap at [Resistance Score] = 250 -or- [avg % dmg reduce] = 75
- and this is for level 50 spells as the site indicates. Maybe there is a "caster-target level difference factor" in there, but without any more data, I can't figure out what it is.

[garies]

How about the resist reducing abilities of a lock

does reducing Fire and Frost resistances by 75
make it possible to drop someones resistances to below 0
thus making it a +dmg spell (like in dII) or does it just make it impossible for the target to resist the spells

[Valas Azuviir]

How about the resist reducing abilities of a lock

does reducing Fire and Frost resistances by 75
make it possible to drop someones resistances to below 0
thus making it a +dmg spell (like in dII) or does it just make it impossible for the target to resist the spells

If the information on the official boards that I've read is correct, then yes the Resistance dropping Curses of the Warlock can end up acting like +dmg spells.

Course you always have to take what you read on those forums with a grain of salt, unless it's said by a Blue and even then...

[rasmasyean]

If the information on the official boards that I've read is correct, then yes the Resistance dropping Curses of the Warlock can end up acting like +dmg spells.

Course you always have to take what you read on those forums with a grain of salt, unless it's said by a Blue and even then...

I've never actually kept an eye out for resist lowering abilities, but I have seen + damage to my spells on impact that is far from the max.
For example, yesterday my fire blast critted for 1200+ damage on impact. Maybe I'll check for debuffs next time I see that happen.

[Elethiomel]

Just to confirm that reducing resistance to less than 0 is possible, and will make the target "vulnerable" to that damage-type, and (possibly) cause increased damage.

From what I've seen, and I haven't really tested this a lot, a form of "inverse resistance" roll is made when a character is vulnerable to specific type of damage, to determine how much extra damage is caused.

- Elethiomel

[Anaram]

This is information I've gathered from various sources and might not be 100% accurate.

Firstly, there is a resistance roll based only on your level against the level of the caster. This rolls behaves differently in PvE and PvP. In PvE level difference causes significantly more complete resists. Minimum chance to resist a spell completely is 1% (even a critter will resist 1% of level 60 spells). Higher level targets resist more while lower level targets resist less.

Secondly, there is a chance based on your resistance score to resist a spell. The maximum resistance is 75% and is acquired at caster_level * 5. That is, in PvP maximum resistance is 300 and will cause 75% resistances to all spells. In PvE most bosses are treated as level 63 and hence maximum helpful resistance is 315. Against direct damage spells this will cause average resistance of 75% of the spells damage.

Certain spells such as frost bolt have a secondary effect. Secondary effects are resisted separately and if the secondary effect is resisted then the entire spells is resisted, including the damage it does . I am not certain if such spells are cabable of partial resists or if resistance is a factor in determining when the secondary effect is resisted. Observe that spells which have a secondary effect granted by talents are not affected (improved scorch). This appears to be a pseudo bug.

[Elly]

Certain spells such as frost bolt have a secondary effect. Secondary effects are resisted separately and if the secondary effect is resisted then the entire spells is resisted, including the damage it does . I am not certain if such spells are cabable of partial resists or if resistance is a factor in determining when the secondary effect is resisted. Observe that spells which have a secondary effect granted by talents are not affected (improved scorch). This appears to be a pseudo bug.mmm, the second bit I didn't know so thanks for posting it. That alters my understanding of resistances then (my understanding still being my original post). Be too much to ask that this is straight forward wouldn't it:)

[garzahd]

When mobs have negative resists (due to either a warlock curse or inherently, like fire elementals starting with negative frost resist) you may get a "+dmg vulnerability bonus" when hitting them.

This vuln bonus works similarly to the resist system; it gives a bonus of +10%, +25%, +50%, or +75%, but not any numbers in between. (The 10 seems like an anomaly in this system, but it happens to me on a regular basis.)

Mobs do still have a chance to resist a spell completely, even if they have negative resistance to that damage type.