"Damage reduction" ability on artifacts

[kineahora]

I just found Belegennon which has this unusual flag (+5).

Last time I asked was a few versions ago and I already forgot how it works, but my recollection was it probably wasn't worth ~30 AC.

Was it -5 points damage per monster hit or something like that? Which would be big early in the game especially vs monsters faster than you that do low damage per hit but you have low HP (could cause some monsters to do 0 damage). But for an end game scenario (like vs Morgoth) and you have ~1100 HP and a big AC >200... should be very poorly effective. And I assume it doesn't operate on magic attacks/breath?

[Nick]

It's good against lots of low level enemies, but bad against things that do a lot of damage in one go.

[Estie]

It is a new mechanism which doesnt enter the dressing mini game because the values of reduction are low (unless you find it very early). Midgame and beyond, something like sound resistance is more useful and even that falls short of being relevant.