Is Elemental Resistance Broken?

[Hoshikogi]

Many players mention that elemental resistance utility/capacity is lacking in FFXIV and that one of the Paladin's, Monk's, and Dragoon's major utilizational flaws is due to the lack of magic resistance capacity. I decided to test this theory by wearing as much fire magic resistance gear possible for me at the moment.

For this experiement, I wore a Rubilite earring (+10 fire resist), a Rubilite Necklass (+17 Fire resist), a melded Cobalt belt (+12 fire resist), and a melded Kite Shield (+11 Fire Resist). I attained a total of +50 fire resistance; my base fire resistance amounted to 341 and maximum fire resistance was 391 points. I chose Lv. 57 Grass Raptors in Corenthas as my testing creature. The Monster ability being gauged was Foul breath. I made sure to avoid data gathering durring rain (I am unsure if weather alters monster damage output). I performed a test with full fire resistance gear and then a test without any fire resistance. Total sample size of hits while at 391 fire resistance is N=29 while total sample size of hits while unprotected (341 fire resistance) is N=44. The experement was performed on a Lv. 50 Paladin without the use of Sentinel or Stoneskin (since both can reduce damage of magic based hits as well as physical damage). WHM specific protect (which enhances magic damage reduction) is not utilized. I do not think that any other stat currently affects general magic damage reduction besides piety (but the log will state when magic damage is reduced due to evasion), but I will include VIT = 288; MND = 269; Peity = 199.

The red number at the end is the average amount of damage over time. Hopefully the sample size is large enough for some accuracy on average damage taken.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lv. 57 Grass Raptor (Fire Res. 391): 487 650 304 637 605 633 639 640 647 596 601 442 651 599 483 636 643 632 623 636 642 594 651 612 594 595.08
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lv. 57 Grass Raptor (Fire Res. 391) (Shell status from ironwill Ungulent): 604 581 612 617 614 599 483 636 643 632 643 623 596 601 442 595.0666667
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lv. 57 Grass Raptor (Fire Res. 341): 632 660 487 628 688 641 632 650 647 623 625 632 660 487 628 688 627 656 643 662 684 654 646 626 673 669 632 628 648 654 633 682 640 683 654 646 629 673 636 642 640.7
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After some calculations, +50 fire resistance reduced average damage taken by 7.2% against a Lv. 57 monster. Since I am currently away from my only PC which can handle FFXIV at the moment, I am unable to perform more testing. I plan to perform more detailed, extensive experiements when I'm able to do so.

I'm curious as to what players think of this degree of fire magic damage reduction for 50 fire magic resistance in a total of 5 gear slots.

[KoujiGeki]

you should try vs mobs your lvl or just slightly lower with regular gear on then you fire gear. cause of the Dlvl in the game higher lvl mobs pretty much override the gear our wearing. which is why You can fight ifrit naked hes so much higher than you that he completely ignore defense from gear.

[Hoshikogi]

I plan on testing the difference between a Lv. 50 and 59 raptor to see if the damage reduction is still 7.2% or if it scales vs. enemy level. If the system scales and the reduction against a lv 57 mob with 391 fire resistance is ~7%, then the magic defense gain while a lv 60+ mob like ifrit will be abysmal to the point of uselessness (which is why everyone wears HP gear?)

[Estellios]

I think this was already tested by Kaeko and it works just like other stats. Level difference is a huge influence but against similar level targets it works just like defense and the effects are gradual instead of a gigantic jump. Against stuff like Ifrit the level difference makes defensive stat stacking pretty futile whereas HP is a concrete, static thing.

Still, even something like a 7% decrease in damage can be useful in specific situations and can add up over time. If, for example, you can reduce damage enough that it allows your healer to Cure less and Regen is able to keep you up consistently, it's a lot less enmity for the healer in a long battle.

[Hoshikogi]

I'll have to check out Kaeko's information. Although, gearing up for hard content should be a more rewarding, espically when wasting 5 slots to gain a defensive advantage (meaning you lose out on DPS or emity or whatever else that could be useful)

[Hoshikogi]

Does anyone know the Thread name to Kaeko's data on defense etc?

[Cthulhu]

http://kanican.livejournal.com/

Scroll down to part III