List of Physical Resist in Maelstrom and best DPS set

Samwell Slayer · January 2017

I went through and calculated the physical resists of nearly all mobs in vma. I couldn't find this list anywhere (there is a list of the first few rounds magic resists which can be found at http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/veteran-maelstrom-arena-spawn-points/ which is an insanely useful and under used page written by fellow math nerd @Asayre , but nothing for physical) This answers a question I get a lot from fellow players. Why should you care? For one, since no mob has considerably less than 9260 resist (pen from sharp weps and Sprig) it tells us that with out a shred of doubt the best set for pure damage in VMA for a stam toon is Spriggans.

For starters, there are only 3 different physical resists that enemy NPC's have in there:

1) Light: 9100. These tend to be casters and others you'd associate with light armor. Here are a list of some enemies that fit here:

Last boss of rd 1, the queen's advisor in rd 3, Last boss of rd 6, last boss of rd 9. (Yes last boss and first boss have the same!).

2) Medium 12100. This is the most common resist. Here are a list of some enemies that fit here:

Crem guards, last boss of 2 (but not it's smaller mini boss versions for some reason), last boss of 3, 5, many things in 7 including the swamp trolls (the mini bosses) and the venom callers (those archers). The bone color and daedroth mini bosses in round 1.

3) Heavy 18200. The only non boss I've found to have this resist are the crystals up top in round 9. Other than that there are quite a few mini bosses and bosses with this resist: round 4 (big ass dwemer spider), 7, 8 (see needgasm below). As noted the mini bosses in round 2 have this resist as well as wamasau in 7 and all lurcher mini bosses in 8.

I can't find the resist in my notes for the dk *** (can I say ***?). This could be cuz I'm scared shitless of her and always proc corrosive, but we'll pretend I just lost it.

These numbers were calculated with both my stam sorc and stam dk. PLEASE please tell me if you found different numbers than I have or if you see other errors.

In summary, using 5 piece spriggan (no cp in pen and no other source of pen outside of sharpened weps) means that you will do

1) Light: 8.32% (you do over pen a bit here)

2) Med 9.225%

3) Heavy 10.72%

more damage. Using values of 35k stam, 3900 buffed wd (a bit high, but close), 70% crit chance and crit damage a set bonus of wep dmg bonus gives 2.6% more dps, of stam gives 1.8%, and of crit chance gives 1.475%. This means that, for example we get

Hundings: 1.8+6[increase from the 5 piece]+2*1.475=10.77% more damage from hounding, which is just barely above what sprig does with the 5th trait alone on heavy enemies. Meanwhile, you can calculate that TBS gives a total of 10.25% more damage and ON light enemies sprigg gives 8.32[light bonus]+2*1.8[2 stam bonus]+2.6=14.52% more damage, and this is exaggerated further against medium and heavy enemies, where it's a whopping 16.93% more damage. A full 50% better than what you get from Hundings. Night mothers gaze compares slightly closer with 11.33 vs light, 11.628 vs medium, and 12.418 vs heavy.

NOTE!! I am simply saying that Spriggans does more damage in VMA when compared directly, I am not arrogant however to say it is the best set for vma! For instance, on a Stam sorc, while crit chance doesn't give you more damage than other bonuses, it gives you more healing both in the form of more power surge heals and, assuming you need vigor on a stam sorc, more heals from vigor (which pen does not increase). At the same time the VO set gives less than 10% dps (it's very hard to nail down exactly how much minor slayer gives since the 5% is additive and changes wildly based on the situation), but the bonus to speed and sustain are tough to live without! Also, if you are a stam dk you have corrosive armor (which negates and pen bonus) and burning breath to negate the spriggans bonus if you chose to use them.

I saved the details of most of these calculations, but if you want to know more details I will be more than happy (you have no idea how happy math questions make me) to give you the details which will no doubt bore others!

*Nerdgasm The hardest time I had calculating enemy resistance was the last boss of 8 (fire round). So, the last boss of 8 can never be hit unless you have it knocked down by breaking the pillars. And since you never hit it without taking down the pillars, you can't know directly how much bonus damage you are doing, so I had to be creative when calculating this guys resist. First I needed to figure out how much bonus damage I was doing to her based on the fact she was stunned (I assume the other mini bosses have the same, but I haven't been able to get a good read on this directly). I did this by noting that all damage bonuses (ok, most) are additive. I was on a stam sorc using VO so the first 4 hits of my flurry were doing (1+0.5[stam sorc]+0.5[minor slayer]+x) times more damage to the boss where x is the unknown bonus damage. But the last hit of rapid strikes does (1+0.5[stam sorc]+0.5[minor slayer]+3[last hit of rapid strikes] +x) times more damage. I could take the ratio of the actual numbers I got then solve the equation for x. I was pleased to see that x turned out to be exactly 0.25 (round numbers feel good!) leading to my result. I guess technically of that 0.25, 0.15 comes from the duel wield passive, but whatevs.

I was later able to verify this when, for some reason, the last hit of one of my attacks went through just as he was recovering from his stun.

cpuScientist · January 2017

Alanar · January 2017

Samwell Slayer wrote: »

I went through and calculated the physical resists of nearly all mobs in vma. I couldn't find this list anywhere (there is a list of the first few rounds magic resists which can be found at http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/veteran-maelstrom-arena-spawn-points/ which is an insanely useful and under used page written by fellow math nerd @Asayre , but nothing for physical) This answers a question I get a lot from fellow players. Why should you care? For one, since no mob has considerably less than 9260 resist (pen from sharp weps and Sprig) it tells us that with out a shred of doubt the best set for pure damage in VMA for a stam toon is Spriggans.

For starters, there are only 3 different physical resists that enemy NPC's have in there:

1) Light: 9100. These tend to be casters and others you'd associate with light armor. Here are a list of some enemies that fit here:

Last boss of rd 1, the queen's advisor in rd 3, Last boss of rd 6, last boss of rd 9. (Yes last boss and first boss have the same!).

2) Medium 12100. This is the most common resist. Here are a list of some enemies that fit here:

Crem guards, last boss of 2 (but not it's smaller mini boss versions for some reason), last boss of 3, 5, many things in 7 including the swamp trolls (the mini bosses) and the venom callers (those archers). The bone color and daedroth mini bosses in round 1.

3) Heavy 18200. The only non boss I've found to have this resist are the crystals up top in round 9. Other than that there are quite a few mini bosses and bosses with this resist: round 4 (big ass dwemer spider), 7, 8 (see needgasm below). As noted the mini bosses in round 2 have this resist as well as wamasau in 7 and all lurcher mini bosses in 8.

I can't find the resist in my notes for the dk *** (can I say ***?). This could be cuz I'm scared shitless of her and always proc corrosive, but we'll pretend I just lost it.

These numbers were calculated with both my stam sorc and stam dk. PLEASE please tell me if you found different numbers than I have or if you see other errors.

In summary, using 5 piece spriggan (no cp in pen and no other source of pen outside of sharpened weps) means that you will do

1) Light: 8.32% (you do over pen a bit here)

2) Med 9.225%

3) Heavy 10.72%

more damage. Using values of 35k stam, 3900 buffed wd (a bit high, but close), 70% crit chance and crit damage a set bonus of wep dmg bonus gives 2.6% more dps, of stam gives 1.8%, and of crit chance gives 1.475%. This means that, for example we get

Hundings: 1.8+6[increase from the 5 piece]+2*1.475=10.77% more damage from hounding, which is just barely above what sprig does with the 5th trait alone on heavy enemies. Meanwhile, you can calculate that TBS gives a total of 10.25% more damage and ON light enemies sprigg gives 8.32[light bonus]+2*1.8[2 stam bonus]+2.6=14.52% more damage, and this is exaggerated further against medium and heavy enemies, where it's a whopping 16.93% more damage. A full 50% better than what you get from Hundings. Night mothers gaze compares slightly closer with 11.33 vs light, 11.628 vs medium, and 12.418 vs heavy.

NOTE!! I am simply saying that Spriggans does more damage in VMA when compared directly, I am not arrogant however to say it is the best set for vma! For instance, on a Stam sorc, while crit chance doesn't give you more damage than other bonuses, it gives you more healing both in the form of more power surge heals and, assuming you need vigor on a stam sorc, more heals from vigor (which pen does not increase). At the same time the VO set gives less than 10% dps (it's very hard to nail down exactly how much minor slayer gives since the 5% is additive and changes wildly based on the situation), but the bonus to speed and sustain are tough to live without! Also, if you are a stam dk you have corrosive armor (which negates and pen bonus) and burning breath to negate the spriggans bonus if you chose to use them.

I saved the details of most of these calculations, but if you want to know more details I will be more than happy (you have no idea how happy math questions make me) to give you the details which will no doubt bore others!

*Nerdgasm The hardest time I had calculating enemy resistance was the last boss of 8 (fire round). So, the last boss of 8 can never be hit unless you have it knocked down by breaking the pillars. And since you never hit it without taking down the pillars, you can't know directly how much bonus damage you are doing, so I had to be creative when calculating this guys resist. First I needed to figure out how much bonus damage I was doing to her based on the fact she was stunned (I assume the other mini bosses have the same, but I haven't been able to get a good read on this directly). I did this by noting that all damage bonuses (ok, most) are additive. I was on a stam sorc using VO so the first 4 hits of my flurry were doing (1+0.5[stam sorc]+0.5[minor slayer]+x) times more damage to the boss where x is the unknown bonus damage. But the last hit of rapid strikes does (1+0.5[stam sorc]+0.5[minor slayer]+3[last hit of rapid strikes] +x) times more damage. I could take the ratio of the actual numbers I got then solve the equation for x. I was pleased to see that x turned out to be exactly 0.25 (round numbers feel good!) leading to my result. I guess technically of that 0.25, 0.15 comes from the duel wield passive, but whatevs.

I was later able to verify this when, for some reason, the last hit of one of my attacks went through just as he was recovering from his stun.

For the 0.25 bonus damage, 0.15 comes from the dual wield passive and the other 0.10 comes from the Ruffian champion system perk.

Milvan · January 2017

Concerning the methodology, you know you could just use the 2h ult and check how much resistance you gained from each one of them.

Samwell Slayer · January 2017

Milvan wrote: »

Concerning the methodology, you know you could just use the 2h ult and check how much resistance you gained from each one of them.

I would have to build that ulti up for every mob and stop the fight each time to check, right? Never used that. Found it easier to just do the division after finishing. But I will try that next time.

Samwell Slayer · January 2017

Alanar wrote: »

Samwell Slayer wrote: »

I went through and calculated the physical resists of nearly all mobs in vma. I couldn't find this list anywhere (there is a list of the first few rounds magic resists which can be found at http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/veteran-maelstrom-arena-spawn-points/ which is an insanely useful and under used page written by fellow math nerd @Asayre , but nothing for physical) This answers a question I get a lot from fellow players. Why should you care? For one, since no mob has considerably less than 9260 resist (pen from sharp weps and Sprig) it tells us that with out a shred of doubt the best set for pure damage in VMA for a stam toon is Spriggans.

For starters, there are only 3 different physical resists that enemy NPC's have in there:

1) Light: 9100. These tend to be casters and others you'd associate with light armor. Here are a list of some enemies that fit here:

Last boss of rd 1, the queen's advisor in rd 3, Last boss of rd 6, last boss of rd 9. (Yes last boss and first boss have the same!).

2) Medium 12100. This is the most common resist. Here are a list of some enemies that fit here:

Crem guards, last boss of 2 (but not it's smaller mini boss versions for some reason), last boss of 3, 5, many things in 7 including the swamp trolls (the mini bosses) and the venom callers (those archers). The bone color and daedroth mini bosses in round 1.

3) Heavy 18200. The only non boss I've found to have this resist are the crystals up top in round 9. Other than that there are quite a few mini bosses and bosses with this resist: round 4 (big ass dwemer spider), 7, 8 (see needgasm below). As noted the mini bosses in round 2 have this resist as well as wamasau in 7 and all lurcher mini bosses in 8.

I can't find the resist in my notes for the dk *** (can I say ***?). This could be cuz I'm scared shitless of her and always proc corrosive, but we'll pretend I just lost it.

These numbers were calculated with both my stam sorc and stam dk. PLEASE please tell me if you found different numbers than I have or if you see other errors.

In summary, using 5 piece spriggan (no cp in pen and no other source of pen outside of sharpened weps) means that you will do

1) Light: 8.32% (you do over pen a bit here)

2) Med 9.225%

3) Heavy 10.72%

more damage. Using values of 35k stam, 3900 buffed wd (a bit high, but close), 70% crit chance and crit damage a set bonus of wep dmg bonus gives 2.6% more dps, of stam gives 1.8%, and of crit chance gives 1.475%. This means that, for example we get

Hundings: 1.8+6[increase from the 5 piece]+2*1.475=10.77% more damage from hounding, which is just barely above what sprig does with the 5th trait alone on heavy enemies. Meanwhile, you can calculate that TBS gives a total of 10.25% more damage and ON light enemies sprigg gives 8.32[light bonus]+2*1.8[2 stam bonus]+2.6=14.52% more damage, and this is exaggerated further against medium and heavy enemies, where it's a whopping 16.93% more damage. A full 50% better than what you get from Hundings. Night mothers gaze compares slightly closer with 11.33 vs light, 11.628 vs medium, and 12.418 vs heavy.

NOTE!! I am simply saying that Spriggans does more damage in VMA when compared directly, I am not arrogant however to say it is the best set for vma! For instance, on a Stam sorc, while crit chance doesn't give you more damage than other bonuses, it gives you more healing both in the form of more power surge heals and, assuming you need vigor on a stam sorc, more heals from vigor (which pen does not increase). At the same time the VO set gives less than 10% dps (it's very hard to nail down exactly how much minor slayer gives since the 5% is additive and changes wildly based on the situation), but the bonus to speed and sustain are tough to live without! Also, if you are a stam dk you have corrosive armor (which negates and pen bonus) and burning breath to negate the spriggans bonus if you chose to use them.

I saved the details of most of these calculations, but if you want to know more details I will be more than happy (you have no idea how happy math questions make me) to give you the details which will no doubt bore others!

*Nerdgasm The hardest time I had calculating enemy resistance was the last boss of 8 (fire round). So, the last boss of 8 can never be hit unless you have it knocked down by breaking the pillars. And since you never hit it without taking down the pillars, you can't know directly how much bonus damage you are doing, so I had to be creative when calculating this guys resist. First I needed to figure out how much bonus damage I was doing to her based on the fact she was stunned (I assume the other mini bosses have the same, but I haven't been able to get a good read on this directly). I did this by noting that all damage bonuses (ok, most) are additive. I was on a stam sorc using VO so the first 4 hits of my flurry were doing (1+0.5[stam sorc]+0.5[minor slayer]+x) times more damage to the boss where x is the unknown bonus damage. But the last hit of rapid strikes does (1+0.5[stam sorc]+0.5[minor slayer]+3[last hit of rapid strikes] +x) times more damage. I could take the ratio of the actual numbers I got then solve the equation for x. I was pleased to see that x turned out to be exactly 0.25 (round numbers feel good!) leading to my result. I guess technically of that 0.25, 0.15 comes from the duel wield passive, but whatevs.

I was later able to verify this when, for some reason, the last hit of one of my attacks went through just as he was recovering from his stun.

For the 0.25 bonus damage, 0.15 comes from the dual wield passive and the other 0.10 comes from the Ruffian champion system perk.

In hindsight, that's probably right. I don't understand the off balance and bosses tbh.

paulsimonps · January 2017

To be honest I just hate that Maelstrom is the only place in the game now that doesn't have a uniform set up for the resistance. In trials and Dungeons EVERYTHING has 18,200 resistance, and in the overworld EVERYTHING has 9,100. Why can't Maelstrom be the same? Thou of course if they did 18,200 for everything it would buff Maelstrom and 9,100 would be a nerf, but I think doing the middle ground of 13650 which is 3/4ths of 18,200 then I think it would work well.

enigmanius · June 2017

cpuScientist wrote: »

A bit rude, but funny. Nevertheless I got big respect for this. It helped me alot.

Samwell Slayer · July 2017

Oh, still haven't gotten the titans. Biggest reason is with my crap cpu I can't see the fire breath, so I grab offensive sigil every time to

enigmanius wrote: »

cpuScientist wrote: »

A bit rude, but funny. Nevertheless I got big respect for this. It helped me alot.

Lol. He's my friend and is trolling me.

Lorajet · August 2017

@Samwell Slayer Directed here from a different post - interesting numbers and thoughts. Thanks for the research!