Pupose of Offhand -50HP items

i was wondering why people would even want these? i'm thinking i want to make a mesmer so if u could... sorta integrate that into ur answers?? hehe thx in advance!

Solo-monks like to use them and put all Superior runes into thier armor to get their hit points to 55. This makes Protective Spirit reduce all damage to very small levels (like 3-5 damage per hit)

-50HP offhands are mainly used for Monks who wish to solo the underworld. You could use it if you made a Mo/Me i guess.


Sent

oh that makes sense... haha thx... didnt know it was only for monks

Short answer: it's a critical part for an invincimonk build

Long answer: a 55 hp monk build works as follows:

A level 20 character has a natural hp of 480. A superior rune (except vigor or absorb) subtracts 75 hp from the character's max. A character can have up to 5 runes in their armor (helm, chest, legs, hands, and feet). If that person puts 5 superior monk runes (1 duplicate) they will lose 75 * 5 hp which is 375 hp from their 480 leaving them with 105 max hp.


This is the critical step in an invincimonk: Protective Spirit

Protective Spirit will reduce ALL incoming damage to 10% of that character's maximum HP (for example: a person with 500 max hp will take no more than 50 dmg from a single attack, while a monk with 105 max hp takes only 10 hp from a single attack).

Now, here's where the -50 hp item comes in... 105 - 50 = 55 (the "magic" number). At 55 hp while under the protection of Protective Spirit, the monk only takes 5 hp a hit (even in the underworld) That means that if a monk maintains high regen (mending, breeze, etc...) it would take 11 monsters hitting them at the EXACT same time to kill them, or enough monsters to negate 10 pip regen (20 hp a second) doing only 5 dmg a hit.

So, long story short, it allows monks to become invincible save for massive degen or enchantment removal.

But since he said he wasnt playing a monk, he wanted a mesmer:

I suppose it depends on what the mods on it are. I dont do pve really, so i havent seen the mods on it, but you can probably form a build around some of them, or just use them to enchance.

There's possibly a build out there for a mesmer which works similar to the 55hp monk, like a 55hp mesmer with Protective Spirit and Health regen enchantments, then using whatever damaging mesmer skills you have, or Smiting Prayers, or something like that.

I don't know much about mesmer-ing, so I'm not too sure... it'd probably work though, with some effort. Thus, there is a use for the -50hp icon as a mesmer... a 55hp mesmer.

::EDIT:: In hindsight, if you're a masochistic bugger, like me, you could always wand stuff to death.