Bone necro head cover

Hello.
What would be better for bonemancer - double

Um or

Um+

Ber in

Tiara? How to consider 8% dmg red vs. 15% resistance? I'm using eni so physical dmg is not a problem I think, and of course

Bone Armor absorb it. Or maybe sth else would be better?

Resistances, you can get from many items (including charms), and you probably can max them without depending on your

Helm
On the other hand there are no much sources of Physical Resistance (caster in generally will only have 8% from Enigma). But remember that many Physical attacks may be blocked (you could invest in it if Physical attacks are a big problem for you)

But , at first, you should analyse what monsters are killing or almost killing you in your most common farms
Maybe none... and so you may use the sockets for other things (like MF)
And if you have problem with an specific element, maybe using a rune that increase the max Resistance (like

Lo) instead of

Um may help too

When you are well equipped character, in general two monsters shows up was the greatest Players Killers:

Bone Fetish (their explosion does Physical Damage, but may be Blocked) and

Willowisp (deals lightning damage).
(But if you don't farm areas with them, or you don't feel them as threats... no need to get more resistance against them )

Bonemancer is my favorite character and a huge part of that is how much control of the battlefield you have with it. With

Bone Wall,

Bone Prison, and

Decrepify you almost never die, especially if you're wearing an Enigma, with your likely high FCR.

Given that, I find that survivability stats aren't that big a deal. But of the two big threats correctly identified by @fredkid, I'd say Willowisps are much more dangerous because you can't block their attacks with either an actual shield,

Bone Armor, or your Bone constructions (they

Pierce everything), and they're much harder to avoid than physical stuff (I pretty much never get touched by melee, in particular, unless I'm in auto-pilot).

So, with all that said, I think your priority should be to max out lightning resistance, then increase MF (or some other non-survivability stat), and I'd put physical resistance dead last. IMO, MF/other is the better option, since it's easy to max out lightning resistance from other sources and physical resistance will be wasted 90% of the time.

human_being wrote: 4 hours ago

I'd say Willowisps are much more dangerous because you can't block their attacks

True. Would consider 2x

Lo for this reason, as @fredkid mentioned. Combined with

Wisp Projector with decent % absorb, you'll get close to immune to lightning damage. Must add that i havn't tried this setup myself as my last bonemancer was some years ago.