Natural Bond or Barkskin?

[Fright]

Which one is better to reduce chip damage?

[Alistair MacBain]

Depends on the source of damage.
If you take only single stray hits then natural bond is better. If your main source of damage comes from multiple small hits in hordes then barskin is better.

But both are only worth taking if the damage you take is little. If you take alot of damage boon or noconsume are the better options.

[Palumtra]

Natural bond.
As of level 20 every character gets a way to build up temporary health, which will slowly becomes permamnent health with Natural bond. The drawback is that potions and medkits will only give temporary health which can still be a lifesaver in a pinch.

Yes it's slow but if you don't get hit that often (which is hardly recommended especially at higher diffs), than it can mitigate chip damage pretty well.

Honestly all neckackle traits are superior to Barkskin in a way. You have to take damage for it to be active. If it would reduce the damage of an incoming damage source every x seconds it would be much better.

[NVRLCKY suicide]

Also Barkskin helps you incredibly good against DoT sources like Globadier or the Stormfiend and even reduces the damage you gain when you are downed. So I would highly recommend you Barkskin. But if you are playing a deed on Legend difficulty with a double damage trait for elites and you play something HP weak like Ranger Veteran or Shade then Natural Bond would come in handy since you can't get one-hit IF you are full HP. (Natural Bond will immediately regenerate 1 HP when you took damage)

[NVRLCKY suicide]

There is also the fact for Barskin that you can heal yourself with Draughts and be almost fully green healed rather than have 1 green and the rest temp HP with Natural Bond.

[Cylixx]

We would make a point of playing VT1 without Regrowth or BL....

Yet here, "is nat bond any gd?"

The answer is no. It isn't. Use anything else.

[syrpose]

Barkskin

[The Walrus]

Natural Bond is better for chip damage I think. Barkskin is better for mitigating burst damage (like the difference between being downed or not from berserker combos) damage over time, or keeping you alive longer while downed or disabled. I think Natural Bond is pretty good up to Legend, when you start getting higher like in Onslaught, Deathwish, or even Fortuness of War Barkskin becomes better in my opinion.

[TheSilverRaven]

Barkskin is just bad period. NB works, but only if you're confident you aren't going to go down. If you do go down while running it, it becomes a liability rather than an asset.

[Amber Baal]

Originally posted by TheSilverRaven:

Barkskin is just bad period. NB works, but only if you're confident you aren't going to go down. If you do go down while running it, it becomes a liability rather than an asset.

I lol'd. Learn the game m8. Why are you trying to give advice on things you dont fully understand? Barkskin is amazing for sudden death and perma death deeds but you wouldnt know anything about that eh? You've never touched a deed in your life, you're just some lowbie QP player.

[Aethelweard]

Too much salt.

[TheSilverRaven]

Originally posted by Amber Baal:

Originally posted by TheSilverRaven:

Barkskin is just bad period. NB works, but only if you're confident you aren't going to go down. If you do go down while running it, it becomes a liability rather than an asset.

I lol'd. Learn the game m8. Why are you trying to give advice on things you dont fully understand? Barkskin is amazing for sudden death and perma death deeds but you wouldnt know anything about that eh? You've never touched a deed in your life, you're just some lowbie QP player.

100+ deeds done at the moment, almost all of them on legend, plenty of them the vanguard, harder better stronger faster, sudden death combo. I've also completed Fortunes on legend. I think I've got a decent enough understanding of things.

If barkskin is relevant for you, then you're getting hit too much.

[NVRLCKY suicide]

Well if you really tell somebody that the number 1 trait atm is pure trash then somebody will be triggered. Especially if said one tells that somebody who wants to get advice in that sort of thing.

[TheSilverRaven]

Or... you could do a bit of blocking, dodging, and staggering and not need the trait that requires taking damage twice in a short period to have any effect. Stray hits happen, but if you play well, they don't happen that often.

OP asked about NB and Barkskin. I gave my opinion. If he wants advice on necklace traits in general, I'd recommend both +30% healing and heal dupe over either of those. The former is amazing on classes that are good at quickly generating temp health (Merc and Zealot stand out), and the latter is a good standard pick.

[Amber Baal]

Originally posted by TheSilverRaven:

Originally posted by Amber Baal:

I lol'd. Learn the game m8. Why are you trying to give advice on things you dont fully understand? Barkskin is amazing for sudden death and perma death deeds but you wouldnt know anything about that eh? You've never touched a deed in your life, you're just some lowbie QP player.

100+ deeds done at the moment, almost all of them on legend, plenty of them the vanguard, harder better stronger faster, sudden death combo. I've also completed Fortunes on legend. I think I've got a decent enough understanding of things.

If barkskin is relevant for you, then you're getting hit too much.

What a horrible attempt at humble bragging. My turn? 1853 deeds done and over 3k total level between my 5 chars. Yawn. Its not about "getting hit too much" barkskin is for burst damage moments, lmao. You have no idea what you're talking about. Try hypertwitch 10/10 or higher on legend deeds then we'll talk again. (I guess we wont ever be talking again since you dont have the skill for it)

Its hilarious how you think you're skilled at the game because you do non-hypertwitch legend deeds. I love how you are trying to humble brag about something the entire community can do with ease. Lol'd again.

[Bones]

Originally posted by Cylixx:

We would make a point of playing VT1 without Regrowth or BL....

Yet here, "is nat bond any gd?"

The answer is no. It isn't. Use anything else.

NB is honestly too easy to play with currently. It's not bad unless you eat a ton of damage constantly.