D&D 4e Elemental Resistance question...

[wolfstone]

So of the various elemental attacks a player can inflict on monsters, I was sondering which are the most resisted and the leasdt resisted. Does anyone have a chart or anything to list them by persentage of monsters resistand to (X) damage?

I ask because I want to use a Dragonborn sorcer and prefer Acid Breath for the Dragon's Breath power because he also uses the Acid Orb At-Will power, but want to know if acid is a good element to go with. (The back-story is that his sister was murdered in front of him and his sorcerous power awoke at that moment, allowing him to kill her murderer before he could get away.)

And yes, before anyone asks, I'm using the Ancient Soul + Nusemnee's Atonement feats combo to reuse Dragon's Breath (even though it's not the best attack, I'm planning ahead for Empowered Dragon's Breath to increase the damage output. I know it's not the best build, but it's certainly fun to use it again and again.)

[VeliciaL]

As far as I know, fire is pretty much the most resisted damage type - to the point fire-based builds are gimped unless they can deal with fire resistance - followed by necrotic (i.e. undead). That's just off the top of my head though, might wait for a second opinion on that.

Acid should be fine. There are a lot of shenanigans you can pull off with frost too, although I'm not sure if they apply to Dragon's Breath.

[masteraleph]

Acid seems to be fairly frequently resisted, but only by certain types of creatures- you'll run into it fairly often if you're running into aberrant creatures, for example. Fire and necrotic are probably the most resisted. Lightning is probably your best bet, and is relatively optimizable (the other big problem with Acid is that there's essentially no optimization possible).

Edit: Also, you probably want to be using a damage conversion implement anyways- stop thinking of it as Acid Orb and think of it as Lightning Orb. Lightning Weapons are 5+, which is annoying, but at 13+ you get Thunderbolt Weapon on a dagger, which is nice.

[Surrealistik]

Fire resisted more than necrotic or poison? That seems pretty suspicious to me.

Also the most gimp damage type of all is almost certainly poison; not only is resistance to it common, but so is outright immunity.

[masteraleph]

Actually, the big issue with Poison is that it's both an effect type and a damage type, and immunity to poison knocks out both. There are a few builds that might like poison, but definitely avoid otherwise. It's not one of the easy types of Dragonbreath to get though- if you want poison, and are really building for it, play a Kapak Draconian with Toxic Saliva instead.

[obryn]

Poison and necrotic, by far.

Fire is kind of in a middle tier, with Cold.

The least-resisted is thunder, IIRC. Radiant, too, if you don't plan to fight any Angels - though many Angels are Unaligned, so fighting them might happen.

[Kurald Galain]

I'd say that poison-based builds are problematic because many creatures are categorically immune to that; whereas fire builds are problematic unless they are a pyromancer (who ignores fire resistance). I don't think the other resistances come up often enough to counter your build, although it is good to have one at-will of a completely different element as a fallback option.

Conversely, for any PC the most useful resistances to pick up are fire, poison, and necrotic; and at high levels psychic. The other elements don't come up consistently enough to bother spending a feat or item on.

[e42randy]

This hasn't been updated since 2008, but it's a good baseline: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?229092-Lots-of-statistics-from-the-Monster-Manual

In a nutshell, poison always seems to be the most resisted. The rest of the list depends on tier (overall fire is #2). In your specific example, acid doesn't really see much resistance until epic. Your mileage may vary, of course, as your DM or campaign setting will determine what you actually fight.

In your specific example, acid seems decent enough, and at higher levels you can Arcane Admixture a second damage type to your breath (Ancient Soul has already added the arcane keyword). Of course, you'll have to have some way to resist part of the new damage as well, but by the point you really need this you can afford a Wyrmtouched Amulet. That and Arkhosian Scepter will be the first upgrades you'll take every time.

If you wanted to focus on your Breath and be really mean, do lightning initially, then add thunder from either Admixture or Thundering Breath. Oncoming Storm adds accuracy, Echoes of Thunder adds damage, and Lightning Soul adds damage plus lets you plink something for 10 damage everytime you use Nusemnee's Atonement.