A random thought i had earlier today, but Immunity Stripping these days has really boiled down to all or nothing.
Either you
have it, and your build's able to function properly in all content... or you don't.
However, isn't immunity just the equivalent of 100% absorption? And healing the equivalent of 200%?
Converting 'immunity stripping' to a percentage amount of Absorption Bypass would allow degrees of stripping to be provided, enabling smoother progression, while not giving out the equivalent of true immunity bypass for nothing.
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Explaining this theoretical new system:
Non-Racial Player Absorption would be capped at 100% (Using the same multiplicative system we have today). Certain mobs would possibly go higher (I wouldn't be surprised to see 190% absorption mobs running around in legendary with this new system)
Specific Races would add up to a +100% "Racial" bonus to Absorption.
- Undead naturally have a +100% Racial bonus to Negative Absorption, since they heal from negative energy.
- Golems naturally have a +50% Racial bonus to All Energy Type Absorption, since they take 50% less damage from energy sources.
Absorption at or above 200% instead heals the target for the same amount they would've taken. 100-199 are just immunity.
Players in Undead Form would have a 100% + 100% Negative Absorption, so if the devs wanted a boss to have a mechanic that did Negative Energy Damage, they could simply give it a debuff with "Suppress Raical Negative Absorption, then reduce Negative Absorption by 25%" to still grant undead builds
some resistance, but still make them deal with the mechanic.
Clay Golems would have 200% "Base" Acid Absorption, plus 50% "Racial" Absorption. It'd take significant effort to hit them with Acid damage, but it
still can be done.
Absorption cannot go negative. If it hits 0, it stays at 0.
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"Pierce Fire/Cold/Acid/Electric Resistance" from Elemental Savants and Stormsinger, as well as "Hellfire" from Acolyte of the Skin could grant 5/10/15% Absorption Bypass.
Barely enough to deal some damage to otherwise immune targets, but still rendering them less effective. Things that heal from the damage type are still menaces in heroic, but no longer are you completely walled when you use your main element.
Sources of immunity bypass that are available early could cap at around 75-100% Absorption Reduction. Examples: Tiefling, Chaosmancer. More than enough to allow you to participate, but requiring further investment to go all the way.
Scaling amounts could to cores of Caster trees, to incentivize going further into a class, while still keeping progression smooth.
More sources of Absorption reduction could be added, like a 10-20% Absorption Reduction to the Epic Spell Power feats. Add more to the Epic Destiny trees.
For massive investment sources of immunity bypass, I could see the numbers being
high. Sorcerer Elemental Savant needs 20 levels, and Druid needs 17. I see no reason not to set theirs to something like 500% Absorption Bypass, to reward them for their persistence, although I still think they could benefit from piecemeal incremental bonuses.
Obviously, this'd be a lot, but it'd let the devs properly scale player damage as they level, rather than just suddenly granting 100% bypass at level 12. Give it to players piecemeal, so that it's easier to control.
