Gearing up in Diablo 4 isn't always about making damage numbers go bigger. In players aren't able to take a hit, then none of their damage will matter in the end. This is where defensive stats come in.
There are multiple sources of damage resistance in Diablo 4, but there's more to them than what stat screens and item tooltips show. Stacking too much of one stat won't always work out the way players anticipate, so here's an overview of how they work and some recommendations on what to wear.
Diablo 4: Armor vs. Resistances
Simply put, Armor protects against Physical Damage while Resistances defend against Elemental Damage. The confusing part here is how the stats stack on top of each other and how it affects build crafting.
According to the in-game tooltip, Armor also reduces incoming Elemental damage by half of its Physical Damage reduction value. A total Physical protection value of 50% will defend against incoming Elemental attacks by 25%. Increasing the game's difficulty will reduce the effectiveness of all resistances.
Diablo 4 uses a harsh diminishing returns formula to keep players from becoming unkillable in the late game. Resistances are not additive—equipping two rings with 20% Fire Resistance, each will not give players a total resist value of 40%. Depending on how much protection they already have, they'll likely only see an actual increase of 2-3% or maybe even less. The stat values shown in the character sheet include the Elemental Resistance value added by Armor, which means the actual amount of Elemental Resistance items give is actually far lower than what they imply.
This puts the Elemental Resistance stats in a weird spot. Ideally, players should actually avoid getting these as substats on their items unless their protection values are extremely low, especially on Torment difficulty, where most players will have trouble getting their resistances up to the 50% mark.
In short, bonus Elemental Resistance stats on items are only valuable for players who have low resist values against a specific Elemental damage type. Stacking Elemental Resistances yields very little when resist values reach the 40% mark—in cases like these; it is better to stack Life or Armor instead.
Damage Reduction
On top of Armor and Resistances are Damage Reduction effects that, as their implies, reduce incoming damage when conditions are met.
Damage Reduction stacks multiplicatively with other protection modifiers, and it doesn't care what type of damage players take. The only time Damage Reduction will stack additively is when players equip multiple sources that activate off the same condition, such as Damage from Bleeding or Damage while Fortified.
Players should ideally be stacking all three of these defensive effects to maximize their survivability. However, as far as gear stat priority goes, Elemental Resistances should be at the bottom of every player's list unless they find themselves dying to a certain type of element often.
Diablo 4 is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.