Yeah I didn’t realize this at first, and found it super interesting when I looked into the math of resistances in LE vs PoE. I’ll use an incoming hit of 1000 and contrast 50% vs 65% vs 75% resistances in both games to attempt to demonstrate.
- If we look at PoE math first:
1000 * (1 - 0.5) = 500
1000 * (1 - 0.65) = 350
1000 * (1 - 0.75) = 250
The interesting thing with this kind of math is that although each % point mitigates the same amount of damage, the % difference of each additional resistance point to the final damage taken increases as you get closer to 75%.
350 / 500 = 0.7 = 30% less damage by adding 15% resist = 2% less per resist
250 / 350 = 0.714 = 28.6% less damage by adding 10% resist = 2.86% less per resist
With LE, each resistance point added has a much more linear effect on damage taken, because of the resist shred done by enemies.
At enemy level 50: 50% = 0%, 65% = 15%, and 75% = 25%
At enemy level 75: 50% = - 25%, 65% = - 10%, and 75% = 0%
- Level 50 enemy doing 1000 damage
1000 * (1 - 0) = 1000
1000 * (1 - 0.15) = 850
1000 * (1 - 0.25) = 750
850 / 1000 = 0.15 = 15% less damage by adding 15% = 1% per resist
750 / 850 = 0.882 = 11.8% less damage by adding 10% = 1.18% per resist
- Level 75 enemy doing 1000 damage
1000 * (1 + 0.25) = 1250
1000 * (1 + 0.10) = 1100
1000 * (1 + 0) = 1000
1100 / 1250 = 0.88 = 12% less damage taken by adding 15% = 0.8% per resist
1000 / 1100 = 0.909 = 9.1% less damage taken by adding 10% = 0.91% per resist
I still tend to max resists, perhaps just out of habit, but the math really highlights why it is not as important in LE as some other games.