Resistance levels to tank in Inferno

Question

Is it possible to stand in molten, let arcane beams hit you etc. if you have extremely high resist? As in, those elemental attacks will damage you no matter what right?

I am running Act 2 Inferno as a monk, and trying to figure out is whether you can get your resistances high enough so that the monk can just stand in fire (without life regen, or hitting enemies) and survive like he could in Hell for any elemental affixes on elites.

I currently have 690 Resist All and find I die extremely quick if I encounter a group of Illusionist elites, who multiply and drop a good 4-5 arcane lasers near my feet. That's pretty much the only way i die atm.

Answer 1

The clause without life regen, or hitting enemies is something you won't be able to overcome regardless of equipment - as there is no way to get 100% immunity, even an extremely well-geared character will take damage and die. Well, except for 3 or 4 seconds of immunity from Serenity for a monk, in which case resists don't matter at all.

As you are already realizing in the question itself; one way of counter acting the hp drain if it is manageable is to have a high regen or LoH (life on hit) so that you gain life faster than losing it.

You specifically mention arcane beams, which are usually a good mechanic that allows dodging - except when combined with Horde or Illusionist (or both!). Some fun facts:

• Many are reporting that the end of June hotfix stealth buffed Inferno damage.
• Enemy illusions also do damage, and their arcane beams do full damage like the original monster.
• Beams are able to pass through created walls (if there is also affix Waller), and afaik most existing walls too.
• Prior to 1.0.3 there was also a bug with invisible arcane beams similar to the sandwasp bug; I think its fixed now.

Instead of hoping to stand in the middle of a laser show of 10+ bright beams, all I can suggest is

• learn how to counter vortex: so you get stopped by environment instead of right at the elite
• make good use of elevation: beams can pass under you instead of slicing you to pieces!
• save Serenity so you can break Jailer, instead of just using a free 3s attack time

Answer 2

It's impossible to get 100% resistance, so yes, you'll always take at least some damage. On top of that, Arcane Sentries are intended to burn you to a crisp. You might be able to stand in the fire with fairly easily obtainable gear, but I really wouldn't bother trying to get a "laser-tanking" set together :)

Answer 3

Your resists are at 690, that gives you 69.697% damage reduction from resists ( =690/(300+690) ), or roughly 30.30% damage taken. Note, here I am assuming level 60 monsters, but as you progress to A2-4, they go up in levels so the "300" in that formula will change to 305,310, or 315...

Increasing your resists from nigh-700 up to a respectable (but achievable) 1200 would increase your reduction to 80%, or 20% damage taken.

That is roughly a 33% reduction in damage taken... it would help, but you will still die.

Let us assume that a Barbarian jumps in the game with you and uses Warcry: Impunity. Ignoring the effect of the bonus armor (because you did not furnish us with your full stats / skill selection)... the +50% resists effectively will reduce all damage you take by another small amount%...

You would have 1800 all resists which is 85.714% damage reduction, or 14.286% damage taken (another roughly 30% decrease in damage taken... notice the returns start to deminish). That is less than half of what you are currently taking, but that requires upping your base Resists to 1200, and then getting the best buff in the game +50% to all resists.

There is a certain point where you need to switch from absolutely tanky resists to additional healing (Life on Hit is currently the most popular). But if you have an amazing 2H weapon, another option to look into is Life Steal %... because you will not attack that fast.

Other healing options: Life on Kill, +Life from Health globes, Breath of Heaven, Serenity with heal, Templar if solo playing.