Talk:Gargoyle Tail Axe/@comment-4511886-20130228102607/@comment-1687225-20130228121712

Here's the thing. Equipping the axe (or the bloodshield, or the poisonbite ring, or any item that increases resistance) grants you extra MAXIMUM resistances. It doesn't increase your current resistance instantaneously, nor does it give you more buildup than you already have. After you put on resistance gear, you quickly gain more resistance until you get to your maximum resistance.

For example: You have 70 bleed resistance. You equip an item that gives you 30 bleed resistance. Now you have 100 maximum bleed resistance, but at that split second also 70 bleed resistance. The result is a bar appearing on your screen that looks like it has 30% buildup.

It is physically impossible to get a negative status effect by equipping a resistance item. What's interesting is that you can exploit this. Say you're crossing a swamp in Blighttown with the full gold-hemmed set, which has high resistance. Your poison bar is almost full. You manage to reach an island where there is no poison buildup. Now, if you take off all your armor set, you drastically shorten your poison resistance bar--but you don't get poisoned. Put on your entire set again, and you naturally get the huge poison resistance maximum you have, but considerably less poison buildup because you artificially shortened it by removing your poison resistance gear.