EverQuest II Extended Resists Gear Guide

EverQuest II Extended Resists Gear Guide by Didi

Resist gear – what, why, when?

My other post on general equipment and stats for beginners reviewed the basics of what the main stats do for you and what to look for in general. However, you’ll notice I also stated in that guide: “Once you enter the raiding scene the rules become more complex as resists become increasingly important, I won’t be going resists at all as this is intended to be an introduction and general overview.” So, this is the guide where I DO go into resists.
Disclaimer:  this is still just intended as an introductory guide, for those who haven’t ever looked at those funny resist numbers before.  Experienced raiders can feel free to scoff and add more detail!

So!  As you level up through your 60s, it’s time to start looking at another level of equipping yourself. Resists! As we get more and more into raiding you’ll have heard folks talk more and more about the importance of resist gear. What is it, exactly? Who needs it? What does it do? And when is it important?

What’s resist gear?

When folks talk about “resist gear” they just mean any kind of equipment that raises your resists. Those are the big numbers at the bottom of your stats screen – cold, disease, divine, heat, magic, mental, and poison. These numbers determine how much of each type of damage you will be protected from — the higher, the better! Think of them as another type of mitigation. Your main mitigation number could really be called “melee mitigation” – it’s what protects you from crush, slash, and piercing damage. Your resist numbers are what protects you from cold, heat, disease, etc. damage.

When and why do I need resists?

Resists are generally not so important in lower levels, in single groups, or when soloing, unless you happen to know you’re going up against something with a particularly nasty ability where resists will help (example: the Chamberlain in The Nest has a big Divine AE). Resists are mainly important on raids because many mobs in raid zones have Area of Effect (AE) abilities that hit everybody. An example might be a raid on a dragon with a fire breath AE, which may hit everyone in range. In this example, it becomes very important for everyone to have good heat resistance, even at the expense of other stats. A wizard on this hypothetical dragon raid with 1,500 INT might in theory do wonderful spell damage due to his high INT, but a dead wizard who has just been fried to a crisp by dragon breath because his heat resistance was too low does not do ANY damage. Better for that wizard to have exchanged some of his +INT gear for +heat resist gear instead! Likewise, a fighter on this raid who is not the main tank would be far better off losing some melee mitigation if it means he can gain heat resistance.

What resists do I need?

In general, AE’s on raids will be cold, disease, divine, heat, magic, mental, poison … in orther words, all those resist types you see listed on the bottom of your stat window, and to protect yourself from these you need your resist numbers to be HIGH. (If you hover your mouse over the number on your stat window it’ll tell you the exact % you’ll absorb.) Which one you need will depend on what you are going to fight – each mob is different.

(As a side note, there ARE some monsters who have melee-type AE’s – slashing, crushing, piercing, though this is less common. For the melee types of AE, your main “melee mitigation” number is what protects you here, and the platemail-wearing types will have an obvious advantage here with their heavy armour. In most cases these melee AE types are frontal only, so staying behind the mob should be sufficient to protect you. Assuming the tank pulls and turns the mob away from the rest of the raid properly, nobody else should get hit by these and so the normal cold/disease/divine/heat/magic/mental/poison AEs should be all that most of the raid need to worry about.)

How do I get resists?

The best type of equipment has everything, of course – good mitigation, great stats, great resists. However this kind of gear is not cheap or easy to obtain, and it’s something we all continually work towards improving! Until we can afford or earn that kind of stuff, equipping yourself becomes a trade-off where you have to choose between normal stats or resistance. Normally, folks who raid will have their “normal” set of gear for everyday use in groups and stuff, and then a bag full of spare stuff that has higher than usual resists, which they can switch out as needed. Resist gear is often jewellery, but doesn’t necessarily have to be; it can be any gear you’ve come across that has some outstanding resist number on it.

How do I start?

The easiest way to start, and the cheapest, is to look up one of our guild jewellers and ask them to make you a full set of resist jewellery. Crafted resist gear is divided into three types: arcane (magic + mental resists), noxious (poison + disease resists), and elemental (cold + heat resists). There are neck, ear, and ring slots available. The stats are identical regardless of the slot.

Common crafted tier 7 neck items:

Two examples of common crafted tier 7 ring and ear items:

Rare items crafted items are also available, if you happen to have some rares to spare:

Note that there are no crafted wrist items available with resists, and also note that divine resists aren’t covered by most of the tier 7 crafted stuff for some strange reason (the tier 6 stuff includes it with ‘arcane’.

As you can see, even the common stuff is a significant boost to your resists. A full common crafted set of 2 earrings, 2 rings and a neck = 650 x 5 = 3250 added to your resistance from those 5 slots alone. These are generally available on the broker for fairly cheap, or order directly from any of our guild jewellers (at the time this was written, currently Javiere, Kallamere, and Ikre can make the tier 7 stuff). The fuel cost will be about 3g50 per common item which shouldn’t break the bank (double that for the rare fuel cost).

What next?

There are a number of other fairly cheap or fairly easy to obtain resist items you can look for also. Do you run groups through The Nest a lot? Did you know that the Counsellor’s Head can be made into a nice general resist ring?

One of the most popular resist rings is the Light Chitin Ring which drops in Den of the Devourer. This is popular for everyday use for tanks also.

Many of the collection quests found in higher level EoF zones also have very nice resist jewelry as a reward, and if you like gathering collectibles, you’ll find these well worth picking up.

As more content is added with EoF and future expansions, the best and most affordable gear is always changing. If you’re looking to improve a particular resist, the easiest thing to do is to use the broker’s advanced search feature. In here you can specify a level range, what slot you’re interested in, select jewellry or armor or anything else, and specify what resist you want. Just having a browse through now and then when you happen to be at the broker is always good for getting ideas. Also, inspect your fellow raid members and random people of your class and level that you happen to meet for more ideas!

Anything else?

Yes – you can also top up your resists using potions. Alchemists make these, the fuel cost is about 15s each. (There’s a rare version too, which requires scintillating dust, which is a byproduct you get when tier 7 Adept III spells are made.) It’s a good idea to keep a stack of each in your bags if you’re expecting to be raiding regularly.

Finally, the most important thing is … read up on the raid information! A good raid post should remind people of what resists will be required, but don’t assume others will always remember. Resist gear won’t do you any good if it’s sitting in your bag when you need it, so it’s your job to know what and when you will need to equip! There is also lots of information out there if you search the SOE forums, and other fan sites. If you can’t find the information, then ask around. But before every raid, you should be aware of what resists you will need and when you will need them – don’t expect to be led around by the hand, as the raid leaders will be busy with 50 other things at the same time and may not remember to say anything.

In the very worst case if you can’t find any information and nobody knows at all, the raid will just have to do its best. Target the mob and check the buffs it has on – this might give away its class, and sometimes you can make an educated guess based on that (e.g. if it’s a necromancer, chances are you’ll want disease/poison resists). Make sure your parser is running when you attack it, and then you can use the parser to see what type of damage it is doing. And by the way – the parser can also show you how good you were at resisting AE attacks, so after a raid, you can look through and see how well your resists held up and whether you need to get them higher for next time.