Physical defense or health gems?

Lieve - Dreamweaver · May 2009

Hi, I'm looking for some advice.
I'm wondering what's best to socket my gear with - Physical defense gems or health ones?
Which one is better / gives me more survivability?

Samalia - Sanctuary · May 2009

health gems are better to use in my opinion. defence shards give you higher survivability against physical attacks, while having hp gives you higher survivability against both physical and magical attacks

God_ares - Dreamweaver · May 2009

I would go with the Health Gems than a Physical Gem, you get what you want but i would get the Health Gem b:laugh

Bashusilly - Heavens Tear · May 2009

exactly, as SAM said. HP shards give you more HP, and that is effective for both magic and Physical attacks. If you are a robe and hate to look at your abysmal Pdef, use accessories that will raise that, your necklace and waist can both be Pdef, Its not a lot but it helps, and a lot of times the Pdef accessories will have Vit or HP bonuses.

Yuggy - Heavens Tear · May 2009

I wanted to do mostly hp gems, unfortuneatly most of the good 3 slot armor/ornaments in AH already have pdef gems in them. I could replace them with hp I guess but it seems wastefull. So, I would guess most people think pdef is better since that is what they are mostly putting on armor. On a pve server hp would be better I think.

Mikel_oru - Sanctuary · May 2009

Yuggy - Heavens Tear wrote: »

...........I could replace them with hp I guess but it seems wastefull....

You can replace gems?

...and I would go for hp shards all the way, hp > phy def, also hp gems > phy def gems. Average shards: 26phy-def can't be compared to 25hp, hp is much more sensible/noticable than physical defence.

Let's say you have 10 sockets; 10 average phy def shards = 260 phy def, 10average hp shards = 250 hp
Now let's say you have 500 phy def with armor and 1500 hp, wich one would you prefer? 760 phy def or 1750 hp?

RedsRose - Lost City · May 2009

Bashusilly - Heavens Tear wrote: »

exactly, as SAM said. HP shards give you more HP, and that is effective for both magic and Physical attacks. If you are a robe and hate to look at your abysmal Pdef, use accessories that will raise that, your necklace and waist can both be Pdef, Its not a lot but it helps, and a lot of times the Pdef accessories will have Vit or HP bonuses.

QFT!!!

Mikel_oru - Sanctuary wrote: »

You can replace gems?

Yes....you can "Purify" the equipment of the added shards and then place new ones. However, keep in mind that you do not get the shards in your inventory, they simply vanish.

Bashusilly - Heavens Tear · May 2009

edit: nevermind....

Deceptistar - Sanctuary · May 2009

Try mix them up if you can? If your leaning toward only HP then your still just as squishy and your HP will still go down fast because there is no DEF to back it up. (maybe vs wizzy you might last better) If your only DEF and dont have the HP to back if up, that doesnt help too. Since most slots have 3-4 spaces available try mixing them on a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio of your preference in shards.

Inna - Heavens Tear · May 2009

physical defense shards might be more useful than you think. sure it might add only like 100 physical defense but don't forget you have vanguard's spirit buff that adds 60% more pdef. so you actually just gained another 160 physical def.

I was leaning towards hp gems all the way but a mixture is good. you can have 1k more life but if your physical defense still sucks, that 1k more life equates to surviving another 2 hits maybe. however, a player pointed out that +hp is more than just +hp with a charm. for example: having +100 more hp. your charm will tick at 50 hp higher than the original. so thats an additional +150 hp.

the reason why its more beneficial for wizards to shard all physical defense is because of their earth barrier skill that gives them more physical defense % than our vanguard's spirit.

some also say that you should shard all physical defense gems and just + your gear to make up for the lack of hp.

i'm undecided myself but seem to be leaning towards the 2:1 ratio though.

_WillFire_ - Sanctuary · May 2009

Lieve - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Hi, I'm looking for some advice.
I'm wondering what's best to socket my gear with - Physical defense gems or health ones?
Which one is better / gives me more survivability?

It really depends on which type of Cleric you are playing. If you are low Vit then you should be using more hp shards. Still it's a balance.

Considering you can refine your armor for +hp you need to take that into consideration. I wrote up a cheat sheet here with what refining does for all equips:

http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=259561

Niraneth - Heavens Tear · May 2009

I was very undecided on this particular topic. I and a friend debated this for 50 lvls lol. She went with hp i went with phys. Now she does have higher hp then me but only by 700 pts i think. survivability is comparable. All in all though with refined armor +1 or two on everything, phys def shards and some purple hp stats you will fair just fine. Vitality statting on armor can be beneficial, and i have thrown some stat points on vit as well. I make it a rule of thumb for my cleric to match vit level with my current level, and i use armor stats for that mostly. I believe the ultimate decision is playstyle.

Hsuzumiya - Sanctuary · May 2009

I'd go with hp shards. Once you hit lvl 70 and get ur legendary sword it gives over 200 phy.def in one stat. Plus your normal def, and buffs you should be able to take a couple hits with no worries

Forp - Heavens Tear · May 2009

Inna - Heavens Tear wrote: »

some also say that you should shard all physical defense gems and just + your gear to make up for the lack of hp.

this.

shard based on how high you plan to refine. +5 or higher, stacks on pdef on mix with hp shards.

Batista - Dreamweaver · May 2009

I'd go with HP shards. I currently shard +20 to +25 hp (the others are a bit expensive to purchase and a huge money sink unless you are 70+ in my opinion). Upgrade armor to +3 also on gear that awards hp.

Enina - Heavens Tear · May 2009

I must admit that I go entirely with physical shards. Being a pure arcane user, even a mere 100 extra pdef increases my physical damage reduction by leaps and bounds. In comparison, an extra 100 mdef gives me 1% extra damage reduction - if I'm lucky. What little health I can squeeze out of a HP shard is little compared to the extra defence I get from physical shards.

To those who might protest: I tried using a pure-HP shard gear, and found that I died a lot faster than with my current physical shard gear. Sure, I could take a hit extra from magical mobs, but physical mobs murdered me even through my Plume Shell.

Mysticlifex - Heavens Tear · May 2009

Go with HP don't be a idiot like I was and use Def,

Plume shell is physical defence

HP shards are your life line.

Inias - Heavens Tear · May 2009

the way i think about it =>

more HP = you can take more hits from mag as well as phys
more phys def=> you will take less dmg from melee atatcks but mag will affect you a bit more

>>keep in mind that it depends on what you want to do

if you're a pve person (so no TW no PK etc) go HP cuz , after lvl 60 r so most mobs start dealing mag attacks

if your more a pvp person (TW PK etc )
i think you should try and get more phys def with shards and refine your gear for the HP bonusses also a few Hp gems , combine them as you wish

cause in PK and TW > how many magic users are gonna deal mag dmg on a cleric? >_< everyone thinks cleric => weak against phys att
so it's almost always archers BM and barbs attacking u

i hope this helps a bit ^^

Tryagain - Harshlands · May 2009

There is a point where phys resistance starts to have diminishing returns. I haven't hit that point yet so I don't know exactly what it is. But currently, with just cleric buffs, I'm not even at 2k defense yet. Level 6x archers are hitting me for over 1k. At this point phys defense is way more important than health. I'd rather be killed in 6 shots for 600k, than 4 shots for 1k. My guess is around 2500 it will probably stabilize and be more worth using HP shards. When one common garnet gives you 4% more damage reduction....you can't pass that up.

Inias - Heavens Tear · May 2009

Tryagain - Harshlands wrote: »

There is a point where phys resistance starts to have diminishing returns. I haven't hit that point yet so I don't know exactly what it is. But currently, with just cleric buffs, I'm not even at 2k defense yet. Level 6x archers are hitting me for over 1k. At this point phys defense is way more important than health. I'd rather be killed in 6 shots for 600k, than 4 shots for 1k. My guess is around 2500 it will probably stabilize and be more worth using HP shards. When one common garnet gives you 4% more damage reduction....you can't pass that up.

yes that you need to keep in mind too

i forgot about that ,

you can put ophys def in your gear etc , but once you hit about 3000 or + don't know exactly could also be 5000 +

after that point , if you add 200 phys def or not it's make no difference or not that much anymore , so after that point go to HP b:victory

Physical defense or health gems?

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