Wow, half-way though this thread I gave up. Too long posts, too much hating.
Not everything must be perfectly equal. If you think physical damage is superior, then think of it as easy mode.
Also, are there enemies with physical weakness? I sure think that a lot of mobs have one or two magical weaknesses.
I'll stick here what I wrote somewhere else about elemental damage. Keep in mind, heavy spoilers in this post so skip it if you don't want fight spoilers.
The Doctor's Stats:
HP: 17017
Phys Armour: 26754
Magic Armour: 32328
Fire Resist: 60%
Cold Resist: 60%
Air Resist: 20%
Poison Resist: 20%
Earth Resist: 0%
A phys char needs to do 43771 damage to him to kill him. An elemental build that is not doing earth damage needs to do much more.
Next scenario, Lucian, the Divine:
HP: 16531
Phys Armour: 9476
Magic Armour: 11148
Fire Resist: 55%
Cold Resist: 75%
Air Resist: 35%
Poison Resist: 55%
Earth Resist: 75%
A phys char needs to do 26007 damage to him and elemental builds need to do far more damage.
Dallis the Hammer? Has more magic armour than phys armour, not even worth comparing. White Magister Elementalist? Same. White Magister Marksman? More phys armour than magic armour but has elemental resists through the roof, with 85% air resist as the most glaring example. Gheist? 3344 phys armour vs 2787 magic armour but high elemental resists. Braccus Rex? 10032 phys armour vs 9476 magic armour but high elemental resists.
Braccus Rex post kraken summon has 12540 phys armour, 11148 magic armour and high elemental resists. Isbeil and the Sallow Man have more magic then phys armour, we can ignore both of them.
TL;DR you need to do much less phys damage than elemental damage to kill stuff. In theory, if you focus specific mobs elemental damage should have a place (at least that is the argument that pro elemental damage players use) but in practise it is not true for any major fights if you loremaster inspect mob stats.
Phys resistance should definitely be a thing and its pretty easy to show phys damage is superior to magic damage due to the lack of it. And just in case mrs know it all asks me who I am to comment on this thread, yes I have beat the game in honour mode, once in a party of 4, once in a party of 1 and failed it 6 times due to a bug during ships defense where malady does not spawn below deck. I have also completed it 3 times in tactician mode. I have played elemental spellcasters, rogues, melee phys toons and necromancers but have not played rangers because I don't like playing chars with bows.
