Does it matter which resistance type I stack when using One With Everything?

Question

I'm currently a level 52 Monk (Act 1 Hell) and using One With Everything to boost my resistances. At the time that I decided to start using OWE, my Physical resistance was highest, so I bought other items with that at the Auction House. Now I've got that around 200 total resistance.

That's all pretty straightforward, but I wonder if I should stick to Physical resistance or if there's any benefit to change to something else. Specifically:

1. Is it easier to find items with higher amounts of a certain type of resistance, or all they all distributed evenly?
2. Is there a type of resistance that's less important to other classes, so I might be able to get it cheaper at the auction house?

I'm pretty sure the answer to the first one is "no". I searched the AH for chest armor wearable at my level (52) with each type of resistance, and could find pieces with 30 resistance but not 31.

The second question is more of a meta-game issue; if non-Monks think that (for example) Physical resistance is the most important resistance, that means I'll end up over-paying for items with that.

Thanks!

Answer 1

It doesn't matter in terms of mechanical difference, all resistances will work the same.

It also doesn't matter in terms of most gear, as elemental resistances fall under "Random Magical property" like everything else, so they all have the same chance to roll on an item.

However, with those things said, physical resistance is probably the worst one to stack. Generally you want items that have both "+All Resistances" AND "+Specific Resistance". The problem is that all other classes (and especially barbarians) also want armour with both "+All Resistances" and "+Physical Resistance" so those armour pieces tend to be more expensive.

Another note is that there's one legendary helm (Andariel's Visage) that some monks like to use due to the Attack Speed Increase (which normally can't be on a helm) which always has poison resist. For this reason, you may want to use poison resist in case you ever want to use Andariel's Visage, but at the same time, most all res + poison res gear is slightly more expensive because more people use poison res.

Out of all the other resistances, they're all about equal, but keep in mind that against certain elite affixes, certain resists are better, so people who have trouble with molten/fire chains might buy some fire resist gear, and people who have trouble with Arcane enchanted might buy some arcane resist gear.

I personally use cold resist due to the fact that it's pretty much only helpful against frozen affix champs (which most people can deal with quite easily, and the orbs don't do too much damage anyway, it's the stun that people have a problem with), so it tends to not be used as much as other resistances.