in a 600 build, what does SoA actually do?

i've read that it allows you to tank a lot more enemies, but -5 per hit per enemy doesn't seem like that much..

What it does is decrease the damage by 5 per attack. So after 4 hits, it would reduce all damage taken by 20. So the faster the attacks, the more effective this would be with the time constraints.

After you've reduced the damage to 10% of you health (by [protective spirit]), the damage would be ~60-75. [shield of absorption] would take another 5 off of that. But admittedly, that isn't all that much. Many times while I'm 600/smiting the SoA will be interrupted or I will simply neglect to use it and it doesn't make a whole lot of difference. It does increase your survivability when being attack by many foes at once though.

Soa does:

-sometimes you cast it, to make mobs waste them interupt skill
-sometime, sb spam on recharge is not enough, and you will get killed. soa will help you survive, in order to cast anotha sb

cast PS then spiritbond then soa then spiritbond
if spirit bond ends soa will keep you alive even when SB has ended
if soa starts flashing cast SB rinse and repeat.

OK just to add my .02 cent, Foes is right and quaker is wrong. read the skill it's whats makes ppl use it xD : -5 damage EACH time you get it. During the , let's say, 9 second it's alive, the -5 adds up, when you recast it , the damage reduce restarts so be careful when fighting like 25 mobs like i like to do , the thing is, just before you re-cast SoA, cast spiritbond to neglect the damage you'll receive while SoA is regaining protective strenght

What does SoA do? it saves your ass (sometimes)

Yeah. If you have 600 health, SoA will need only 12 hits to reduce damage <0. It's easy if you are overaggroing

What does SoA do? Gives you 7-8 seconds to breathe (always, unless striped, interrupted, pspirit goes down, life leeched, degened, /resigned, alt+f4, and many other circumstances)

it is not just -5 of every attack. its -5 of every attack added to the -5 from the time before, so -5 on the first -10 on the second - 15 on the third ect. So in HM when you can get hit like 30+ times in one SoA. That's -150 damage a hit at that point. its a very good skill.

Originally, there was no need for SoA in the 600 build. Spirit bond lasted for a certain duration, and had no hit limitations. Eventually, sb got nerfed to include the hit limitation that it still has now. This almost eliminated 600 tanking for a time. When SoA came out, it allowed 600 to be viable again because essentially with prot spirit and SoA up, a 600 tank cannot die. While that's not completely true (degen and such), it's a good rule of thumb.

Spirit Bond can be thought of as your self healing while 600.
SoA should be thought of as your main protection and energy management. Next time you 600, watch the amount of damage you take after you cast SoA. It becomes less and less until you are taking no damage at all. SoA is how you stay alive in large mobs. Spirit bond is there to help you keep up health/chain SoA.

This sounds like something which would be said by someone who doesn't understand the usage of SoA.

If you are 600/smiting in HM (and lets face it... there's no reason to do it in NM really) then SoA is an invaluable skill. Creratures have a naturally increased attack speed in HM, making you get hit at an alarmingly high rate, especially when soloing. With maxed out protection prayers and various enchantment lengthening spells/equipment, its possible to keep up SoA virtually all the time. Due to the high rate of damage, SoA will generally reduce the damage taken per hit to 0 quite quickly as long as prot spirit is up. So saying that it isn't all that much is way off.

Put it another way, trying 600/smiting Oola's lab, Ooze pit or Kathandrax without SoA will really emphasize its usefulness. Also, consider using SoA with a 55 monk... then all it takes is one hit to reduce all damage taken to 0. You can tank a whole lot that way!

wow, thanks for the replies. i didn't know that the reduction was cumulative.. it all makes sense now. and it happens after HW and retribution. didn't know that either. i haven't 600ed before, so i'm getting into it now. thanks for the info.

The wording doesn't state the effect clearly... the way it's written sounds like it works like [[Shielding Hands], only increasing the duration rather than the reduction dependent on your rank in Protection Prayers, while in actuality, it's a cumulative -5 dmg reduction per hit received while SoA is active. My Monk <3's [[Shield of Absorption], especially when lengthened by [[Blessed Aura] and an Enchanting mod. It's FTW.

in a 600 build or in any build for that matter soa reduces the dmg u take by 5 points after each hit,like u said it doesnt seem much but if u have agored a big mob -5 after each hit on u will charge up soa quite fast and u will be taking 0 dmg ,also in a 600 build there is spirit bond which heals u and gives time for soa to charge up.In the old 600 build before nightfall people only used prot spirit and spirit bond (well the post nerf spirit bond)u could virtually tank any amount of mobs provided they did above 60 dmg to triger spirit bond cause it wouldn't end after 10 hits

Well, land-o-Goshun, as my granny would say. I didn't know the effect was cumulative. My bad. Ignore my previous post.

That does explain why it didn't seem to do much on small mobs.

To sum everything up, it makes 600ing a piece of cake, as you get healed for 140ish, the monsters take 60~80 dmg, and you take 0 dmg.

another 600 question, where is a good "beginner" place to try it out? i have both smiter and 600 builds, so i'll throw the smiter on talkora and see where it goes from there.

slight bump and another question. is vital blessing necessary on the smiter? if the 600 already has 600 hp, doesn't it become counter productive to have more hp, so you can take more damage. 600 is the threshold where spirit bond is by far the most effective, so having 800hp and taking 80 per hit actually is detrimental.

hmm, i just had a thought that since SB heals more than you take, you dish more damage back. thats probably why you want more hp right?

That's the point. With more HP, you recieve more damage, so Retribution and Holy Wrath can do their max damage.