negative resistance stats

Hi, was looking over my resistance stats and they are all negative 13 to 20 what is this about i am sure but not 100 sure that its about making players find and craft new gear etc?
Its taken me ages to get the gear i have and upgraded for spirit for my witch to use minions etc and now it seems i am getting harshly punished because i have no interest in crafting and don't want to swap gear and lose the spirit's i have worked hard to get.

Please tell me this is not the case as this is a game changer for myself as i have sunk in over 300 plus hours so far maybe not a lot for some but for me that's a hefty lot of time.

surly the game can not force players to play to one style which seems to be craft and constantly swap gear to not be paper thin.

i am on atlas and have done a fair few nodes but only just really looked at my stats that are shocking.

As you progress, you periodically recieve resistance debuffs. I don't know the exact breakpoints for each stage (I think it just coincides with act completion), it should end up being the same -60% penalty as in PoE1, albeit more gradual rather than a large chunk at specific points.

And yeah, the primary reason for this is to encourage the constant chase for new gear, as higher-level monsters drop higher-level gear that can roll better ranges for affixes, as well as make sure you pay attention to affixes to keep a balance between defensive stats and offensive.

Your resistances will decrease by 10% for every act you complete IIRC

It shouldn't really matter because your gear is considered temporary anyway until you get to about level 75.

You will constantly be finding better items.

By the time you're in maps you need good rings and a good shield or focus. Resistances on most items.

okay thanks for the reply, just caught me off-guard the negative stats