Divine Blessing as Effective HP Boost?

[temporary]

There's a simple way to calculate the pretend effective HP multiplier from divine blessing. If the divine blessing gives 50% dmg reduction 25% of the time, then the calculation goes like this:
1 / (1 * 0.75 + 0.5 * 0.25) = 8/7.
The problem is that the damage reduction is probabilistic, so this simple calculation says something but what it says isn't so straightforward.

Even if you know the probabilities of being hit by different damage values, and your probabilities of healing various amounts, there still isn't a general sense in which Divine Blessing can be thought of as an increase in effective HP. However, it's possible to play with how effective it might be in some sense.

[Vandals[UK]]

Let's put it this way:

1. Divine Blessing is pretty much useless below Lv5 (as the Proc rate is only 25%). There are a few times that this 25% save people but you are better to rely on skill than rely on luck.

2. If you run Divine Blessing Lv5, you are begging for your friends or randoms to carry you. Friends, sure if they were skilful enough. Random? Forget it.

[Vandals[UK]]

Originally posted by paper:

I played the base game with divine blessing. Slayed every quest on my own, did lots of online hunts on tempered elders and so on. I died noticeably less often than other players did, and in fact held my own quite well. And yes I did lots of damage since I paid a small opportunity cost with those 3 slots. With my optimized damage builds I noticed the difference but it wasn't that big. I handled 15 min tempered quests just fine, solo or online. I used higher damage for solo, but always divine blessing online because I wanted to give the team my very best which was with divine blessing since I just rarely carted with it and still did good damage.

Here's how to understand in theory when a modified build is better than an unmodified one (arbitrary names).
DR = Damage Rate unmodified
CR = Cart Rate unmodified
DR' = Damage Rate modified
CR' = Cart Rate modified
So (DR, CR) is for an unmodified build, and (DR', CR') is for a modified build.

If: DR / CR < DR' / CR'
Then: The modified build has a higher probability of a successful hunt.
Why? Because lower DR exposes you to a risk for longer, so if your damage is halved but your rate of carting is also halved then you simply have the same overall chance at victory for a mission.
Here DR is average damage per unit time, and CR is average number of carts per unit time.

I should also point out that I gave a fictional example where Divine Blessing 5 is worth 70 extra HP added to 200. It's a proof of concept. The naive calculation probably has it right. Divine Blessing 5 is worth somewhere around 31% more HP on average, perhaps somewhat less than that.

1. Base game's divine blessing is actually a lot stronger compared to Iceborne. While I do not have the number, but it felt like it would proc 50% if not 40% of the time.

2. I mean, sure, it is one of the MMO mechanics: You can't deal damage if you are dead.
But the truth is: it is not that easy to be killed ONCE YOU KNOW what you are doing. In fact, 10 mega potion, 7 Max potion and 6 Dust of life (6x4) is pretty sufficient to keep everyone alive. ALTHOUGH it can be useful in difficult fights such as end game contents. But outside of that, it would be a waste of armour skills.

[Cherry Blossom ✿]

Divine blessing and its RNG.
Would've been better if it were like a build-up instead, like you get hit 3 times and the 4th hit triggers Divine blessing or after you don't get hit for a certain amount of time, divine blessing triggers. It makes more sense imo. It still can happen to get one or two-shot with divine blessing 5, even if it's more rare than without.

There was a time i was playing with divine blessing 5, now i'm playing with Guts skill to prevent from mistakes, obtainable with MR Kulve armor (which i also use for fashion purposes lol). IMO Guts is like Infinite Health boost when properly used.

[Grottowalker]

divine blessing might be better when it does proc. at the end of the day its random and HP boost is not random. you can always count on it to act the same.

Knowing you can survive a type of hit is much more important then the chance to survive it.

[Warkrunner]

Because of the nature of it, I would argue Divine Blessing's exponentially better for more defensive setups and in fights where there's a lot of small packets of damage coming in.

This would be for someone running, say, Vaal Super Regen, Stun Resist, Health Boost, and Safe Landing. They would have more effective health overtime to take full advantage of the damage reduction throughout the fight, especially with something like Stun Resist and Safe Landing combined to keep then standing and active.

In addition, monsters like Vaal, Teostra or Safi where you take constant chip damage being around them makes it a good option for reducing lots of damage over time.

[River Victor]

Divine Blessing will never outclass max HP Boost because if you're hit with attack with 150 damage and you have Divine Blessing, you survive 30% of the time.

But if in the same situation, you have even 1 point of Health Boost, which gives you 160 HP, you survive 100% of the time.

[Avalon Cherazer]

since vanilla i always run with health boost 3 ever since high rank and unlocked ingot gloves + 1health deco. it works well and compensates for itself because it is always there and not RNG. and since iceborne unlocking grinding lands content its been staple for my wargear loadouts to have div protect 5 , its better than having more DPS when you can survive a 1hitKO from soft ranged weapons like HBG and LBG , mainly people desdain this because they want more DEEPS but some prioritize things than others, efficiency, durability or just EGO/Bragging rights
well whatever floats your boat.

don't take my word if you don't want to because everyone has their own preferences, tho surviving those 1 faint tempered monster investigations helps in farming more decos for the deco god.

[cua_bien02]

I've always run both HB3 and at least Protection 3, unless it's a skill-expensive weapon like bow. Used to run Protection 5 but I've managed to wean myself off of it now. Some lesser monsters you don't need it, but it's pretty good on endgame T3 like Nergi, Stygian Zino and Rajang. You don't cart + you need to chug less = dps boost. Not everyone can be dps god and evade all monsters' attack.

[Vandals[UK]]

Originally posted by cua_bien02:

I've always run both HB3 and at least Protection 3, unless it's a skill-expensive weapon like bow. Used to run Protection 5 but I've managed to wean myself off of it now. Some lesser monsters you don't need it, but it's pretty good on endgame T3 like Nergi, Stygian Zino and Rajang. You don't cart + you need to chug less = dps boost. Not everyone can be dps god and evade all monsters' attack.

Just do whatever you want.

But Cherry Blossom made a very good point: Divine blessing its RNG

If you want something more reliable, go for Guts instead.

[Warkrunner]

Originally posted by paper:

All that matters is at the end of the day, are you reducing your cart rate enough to justify the opportunity cost? I would be curious to learn what it's actual impact is on offense because my suspicion is that it's not that much.

It would make a huge impact on offense when combined with the Safe Landing skill. A lot less downtime, and just not caring about the monster hitting you.

[JPM岩]

I always have treated Divine Blessing as a bonus, but HP Boost has priority. In my experience, DB has never done me dirty (I took no damage from Furious' charged pin attack), but HB always has priority first.

[FunnySmells]

Originally posted by paper:

All that matters is at the end of the day, are you reducing your cart rate enough to justify the opportunity cost? I would be curious to learn what it's actual impact is on offense because my suspicion is that it's not that much.

I use DB, and i rarely cart. I have a rather aggressive playstyle and it complements it well.