question about defense

[vark]

Hi,last time i played this mod was in 2004 , and i recentely started playing again.

Now i noticed that armor ratings are a lot lower than in regular dII/LOD and the old version of this mod. Now i'm playing a barb and got to "Let's rock" ( which is nightmare setting ofcourse) , and i'm getting my ass handed by some little carvers in the first region of ACT I.

I have a 250 DEFENSE armor , and with my skills i boost that to a full of 1900 defense, but they still do like 100-300 damage with ONE hit.

I checked in the item list that comes with the html, and noticed that all of the armors are reduced to less than 300 defense, with maybe some exceptions.

Now my question to you is : "WHAT THE HELL? How am i supposed to survive  'Let's Rock' and 'Come Over' ,when my armor isn't going to up much higher ( i already have 20 points invested in the raise defense war cry, and it doesn't seem like the iron skin skill will add very much to my defense raiting as well).

[Phoenix]

I have a 250 DEFENSE armor , and with my skills i boost that to a full of 1900 defense, but they still do like 100-300 damage with ONE hit.

The Defense only effects the chance to get hit and not the damage.
There are several ways to increase your defense:
- cube oils on your armor (Hardening and Imp)
- hire an act5 merc from norm (defiance aura)
- make your armor etheral
- some runewords have a high defense bonus (e.g. fortitude)
  -> use a rare armor with >150% enhanced def or def/charlevel
- use defenseskills from uniques and runewords (shout,shiver armor,holy shield)

[webwalker]

Another important factor is your character level.  If the monster level is above your character level, they'll have an easy time hitting you regardless of defense.

So:  Kill things until something drops (a cracked sash will do).  Pick it up and check the "item level" on it.  Compare that to your character level.  If your level is lower by 6 or more, you won't get full experience from the kill, and the monsters will have an easy time smacking you.  If you're more than 5 levels above the monsters, their ability to hit you goes way down, and so does your experience from the kill.

War Cry and Battle Cry will reduce their ability to hit you (monsters have a hit-recovery time from War Cry), so cry then close and kill.

Shout is better for Defense than IronSkin, as you noted, but now for the Caveat: if you're walking, you get your defense.  If you're running, your defense is 0, and shield blocking is greatly reduced.

[vark]

alright, you're 100% right. However, i have a new question.

How is a melee character supposed to work when you can't raise your DR accordingly to the fit monster's MONSTROUS 'let's rock' AR.
I mean, i have 2k DR and they hit me every time?

EDIT: thx webwalker, that seems useful enough. SOZ to all for my newb questions.

[Olfmo]

you are talkin about dr, i think you mean your defense

dr is short for damage reduced, which is very very useful

you should at least have 20 or 30 percent damage reduced (aka physical resistance), that should help a lot on higher lvls

[Phoenix]

If you're running, your defense is 0, and shield blocking is greatly reduced.

It is the first time that I hear this. I think the defense will not be influenced by running (only "berserk" sets the defense to zero). But the blockrate is decreased to one third (max 25% when you run).