How important are resists actually in this game? I’ve begunn recently grinding empowered monolith and if something is going to one shot you, it just does. When I look at people’s high dps builds posted on here, more often than not their resists are really under cap or non existant. Are resists just overrated? Am I just wasting afflix slots having all at 75 or above?
Resists are very important but it also depends on the mechanics of the build your playing
Above level 75 not having any resist means you’ll take 75% more damage which is huge, but if your playing say a low life build that will lose more than 75% of its ward generation if you go for resist then it might not be worth it.
@Tunk labs has a great ehp calculator where you can mess around with the numbers and see if its worth it or not for your build
So generally compared to similar games, resistances in LE are definitely way less important.
This doesn’t mean defenses in general are not important. Quiet the contrary.
Defenses in LE are very important, it is just, that resistances are not the only viable option.
What makes resistances in LE so different compared to similar games, enemies gain 1% resistance penetration per area lvl, up to 75% (on area lvl 75), which effectively means you have 0% resistances, when you have 75% resistances.
But this makes capping resistances way less important, but getting some resistances is really imapctfull, you just don’t need to cap them
I don’t want to crunch numbers here, but just to throw in an example.
Having 1100HP with 75% resistances is worse than having 1400HP with 55% resistances in area level 75 or above. Just to throw in an example where the player focused more on health than resistances.
In reality, this is of course a bit more complicated, since health protects against all damage types , while we have 7 different resistances.
But you can do the same with block, dodge, armour etc.
I personally try to get 30-45% resistances on most builds (this is the equivalent of one average T5 resistance roll or for elemental resistance 2x T5 elemental resistance), but i don’t try to cap the last 30%, but instead focus on another primariy defense, like armour, dodge or block.
But this is of course not the only solutions, you can of course cap resistances and there is nothing wrong with it, but depending on the exact details of the build, capping resistances is not always the best solution.
Why would you even want 55% resistance as per your example? It seems then in a level 75 area it doesn’t make any difference whether your resistance is 75, 55 or 5 - they all get converted to 0, right?
No, they don’t get “converted to zero”. In a lvl 75 area, the mobs have 75% resist penetration, so a player with 75 resist (the cap) would effectively have 0. But a player with 55% resist would have 55-75 = -20 resist & take 20% more damage compared to a player with 75% resist. So as long as they can get more than 20% EHP (either through HP stacking, ward, dodge, block, etc) then they’re quids in.
I see, so then resistances help but aren’t something we should necessarily prioritise when gearing. Cool, thanks 
It depends what the cost is to get the capped resist. If you’re giving up, say, 30% EHP to get 20% EHP from resists, then the resists are probably the less efficient option.
I’m not sure it’s a good habit, but I use to cap at least cold and lightning resistances during the campaign, to prepare for the fights against Lagon and Liath. And as I’m caped at that moment, I stay caped than I enter monoliths. On the opposite, when I re-gear a hero, I don’t formally aim 75%. I try to go around 50 and get either block or dodge. But it’s true that I’ll usually raise resistances as high as I can if it does not weaken other aspects of the gear.
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Also some defenses just plain out weigh dropping some resist. For example, I wouldn’t mind dropping one resist to 50% if I can cap out my critical avoidance to 100%. All defenses are important but there is definitely a priority system too.
Very Animal Farm (all defences are important, but some are more important than others).
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It is compeltely reasonable o aim for certain resistances, while going through the campaign.
Especially when you already know some of the areas/bosses and you know that you usually struggle with specific mobs/bosses.
But iwould never aim to cap resistances during the campaign. 40-50% of certain resistances at the end is fine, but more seems a bit overkill.
Once you go into the Monolith you can cap some resistances, but as you already said, having the resistances sittign around 50% and going some other defense is usually the better way.
But it’s just a rule of thumb, there are always exceptions.
To be honest I’m a relatively poorly skilled player, and facing Liath and Lagon with cap resistances helps me feel more confident and less stressed. I’m pretty sure less than 75% could be enough, even for me, but it’s a kind of comfort. 
That is fine.
If you really feel uncomfortable with certain bosses, having more resistance “than needed” always helps.
But you will still have to play certain mechanics, like the Lagon sweeping beam, because even 75% resistance will not save your from that thing^^
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Sure, and that’s part of what I love in the game. You can fight most mobs, but you have to learn bosses. You most see understand how they fight and learn to cope with that. At first, I tried to tanks Lagon’s beam and I died. Then I avoided it completely. Now I still avoid it, but I know that it’s a DoT and I can tank a few ticks. At first I was hit all times by his claws, now it happens less often. I watched and learned. Helped and comforted by my resistances. 
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Also something to consider is if your playing hardcore verse softcore. If you have only one life it’s always in your benefit to overpad even if you “don’t need it” because there will be times where you are in a zone requiring resists (like Lagon’s temple) and get double critted by a large attack. If you want to ensure your survival in all situations going resists and maintaining a high value as well as a decent life pool will always be in your benefit; it’s a solid mitigation option. Later on you can min/max and layer as much as you can of other defenses while trying to keep resists as high as you can.
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