Phys Def Shards -vs- HP Shards

Illusion - Heavens Tear

This poll is for a pure/nuke build wizard only. Please only vote if you have experimented with both shards and are level 40+

Thanks

Baalzor - Heavens Tear

haiz was already talking about phys def shards...YOU DONT RECEIVE BONUS FROM THEM WHEN U USE STONE BARRIER!
i love when i see pure int wiz's around the arch with phys res gems in their equip. loooool
hp all the way.

Ty - Heavens Tear

I use HP stones, except for my wrist guards where I use Pdef shards because I like the look. b:chuckle

If/When I ever reach lvl 90 it'll be HP stones all the way.

Krel - Heavens Tear

yes hp all the way.I rather have more hp any day as a wiz with stones.

my avatar lvl is wrong!! im higher than 52!!

Aedril - Sanctuary

Even though you don't (edit: supposedly, although see my post below) get a bonus to Pdef from shards with stone barrier, there are many circumstances where you can get a better benefit from Pdef stones than HP stones.

if the % increase in Pdef% is greater than the % increase in HP, you should use Pdef stones.

For example: (all numbers made up on the spot)

You have 2000 HP
You have 2 sockets to use:
You can choose 2x HP shards for +50 HP
You can choose 2x Pdef shards for +3% Pdef (this +3% is after you already have stone barrier active, ofc - perhaps your old Pdef% was 17% and your new Pdef% was 20%)

the 2 Pdef shards would effectively increase your hp vs. phys attacks by 60, whereas the hp shards would only increase hp by 50.

Just an example as to why some people may intelligently choose Pdef shards over HP ones. One size does not always fit all. If you have gear that has a bunch of + Pdef without resists on it, +pdef gems may not make sense and HP is probably the way to go. But if you have gear with -channel, + MP regen, etc and very low Pdef, Pdef stones may be the way to go for you.

And besides, what male wizard wants to glow pink? ^^

Klath - Sanctuary

Personally, im a cleric, and iv tried all sorts of gems since lv20 and up to lv50+. In the end i stick with pdef gems on all my gear.
I get around 260 extra pdef with average garnets, and would get 500 hp with average citrines.

That extra 260 pdef made my pdef jump from 22-25% to 32-35% (considering my own cleric buff).

It was about 10% more damage reduction, if you consider a FB49/51 monster does 500 damage per hit on me:
HP shards: 390 per hit.
PDEF shards: 325 per hit.

I take 65 less damage per hit and i have 2k hp. Calculating the amount of hits to kill me:
2500 hp = 6.4 hits
2000 hp = 6.1 hits

See, the different isnt too big.
If i get blademaster's buff, i will jump to 1800+ pdef, nearly 2k. And i can reach 2.5k hp with barbarian buff too.

If you also want to tank magic bosses, i say go for hp stones, they are overall better for you for different circunstances. But since i can heal myself, got plume shell (80% dmg goes to mana) and always carry all hp potions i get from grinding (never sell them), pdef benefits me a lot more on survival ability.

Haiz - Lost City

Aedril - Sanctuary wrote: »

Even though you don't get a bonus to Pdef from shards with stone barrier, there are many circumstances where you can get a better benefit from Pdef stones than HP stones.

if the % increase in Pdef% is greater than the % increase in HP, you should use Pdef stones.

For example: (all numbers made up on the spot)

You have 2000 HP
You have 2 sockets to use:
You can choose 2x HP shards for +50 HP
You can choose 2x Pdef shards for +3% Pdef (this +3% is after you already have stone barrier active, ofc - perhaps your old Pdef% was 17% and your new Pdef% was 20%)

the 2 Pdef shards would effectively increase your hp vs. phys attacks by 60, whereas the hp shards would only increase hp by 50.

Just an example as to why some people may intelligently choose Pdef shards over HP ones. One size does not always fit all. If you have gear that has a bunch of + Pdef without resists on it, +pdef gems may not make sense and HP is probably the way to go. But if you have gear with -channel, + MP regen, etc and very low Pdef, Pdef stones may be the way to go for you.

And besides, what male wizard wants to glow pink? ^^

Yeah pdef stones could be better if you had maybe 500 defense.

Unfortunately, I have about 1.3k defense no buffs at all and 28% physical resistance, with stone barrier it shoots up to 2.5k and 42% resistance. Now with the EP buff I can get about 3200 I get about 48% and with the final WR buff puts me up to 4000 and I have 53%.

Now lets go to a bigger scale of 500 HP vs 500 defense. I can get 500 defense which will get me maybe 5~6% physical reduction or 500 HP which can help me in other ways. Personally I don't feel like doing the math but I like the HP.

Aedril - Sanctuary

Oh and FYI, i just socketed my boots with 1 Pdef Gem which should only add +26 to Pdef, but it added +54 with stone barrier on...

I guess that means stone barrier does work on gems, at least on feet... no clue how i got that extra +2 though...My pdef went from 1588 to 1642.

Edit: Just put a second L5 pdef gem in my boots to test and it went up another +54 with SB10 running.

Jrudora - Lost City

I only use pdef atm because I socket my armor with any sort of **** I see.
Until I start getting more solid equipment, I'll just socket my armor with all sorts of ridiculous things.
I suggest hp more.

With pdef, you're raising your pdef for physical attacks to live longer.
With hp, you're raising your survivability AND becoming a better "tank" for magic enemies later on, effectively (although not directly) raising both your "pdef and mdef" even though all you're doing is extending your life.

Haiz - Lost City

Aedril - Sanctuary wrote: »

Oh and FYI, i just socketed my boots with 1 Pdef Gem which should only add +26 to Pdef, but it added +54 with stone barrier on...

I guess that means stone barrier does work on gems, at least on feet... no clue how i got that extra +2 though...My pdef went from 1588 to 1642.

Edit: Just put a second L5 pdef gem in my boots to test and it went up another +54 with SB10 running.

Maybe it does work, it could have been a bug when I did it because I tested it towards the beginning of oracle and a lot of stuff didn't work then. I'll go ahead and try it later today and see if it works.

Usually the way people did it at 9x was to pdef stones in their equipment and then + their gear for the HP. You could even + your physical defense jewelry for more pdef. I usually liked just having a lot of HP. Pdef v HP really comes down to if your defense is already low or high because pdef scales while HP does not.

Ty - Heavens Tear

Aedril - Sanctuary wrote: »

Oh and FYI, i just socketed my boots with 1 Pdef Gem which should only add +26 to Pdef, but it added +54 with stone barrier on...

I guess that means stone barrier does work on gems, at least on feet... no clue how i got that extra +2 though...My pdef went from 1588 to 1642.

Edit: Just put a second L5 pdef gem in my boots to test and it went up another +54 with SB10 running.

Interesting how you got those results.
I tested yesterday with my old genesis sleeves(+49pdef) with +69 pdef and 3 x lvl 5 pdef shards.
thats 49+69+26+26+26=196.
I cant remember exactly how much extra Pdef i got with Stone Barrier but its was only about 380 pdef instead of 392 as would be expected. So i was a little short.

The only thing I can think is that maybe the -1% physical damage reduction from my Imperial Edict belt is somehow calculated into my Phsyical defense although in my case I should have given more Pdef. o.O

I'll double check after work.