The various damage reductions available in Diablo 2 Resurrected may be the only thing keeping you alive when all other defenses have failed you. Whether it's through your Resistances, Absorb, or Damage Reduced by, Characters trying to survive all the way to face Baal need to understand how these Stats work together to keep you alive. This guide introduces you to each core Damage Reduction type, explain how they interact, and how they layer on top of one another.
Fire / Cold / Lightning / Poison
Resistances
Character Resistances decreases the calculated damage from each respective damage source. i.e. Fire Resistance decreases Fire Damage, Cold Resistance decreases Cold Damage etc. Each 1% increase in Resistance reduces the calculated damage from incoming attacks by 1%. While there are actually six Resistances that characters have access to (Fire, Cold, Lightning, Poison, Physical, and Magic) this section only covers the four Character Screen Resistances. Physical and Magic have specific caveats and rules. See their sections below for more information on them.
Characters have minimum Resistance values based on which Difficulty they're playing in.
| Normal | Nightmare | Hell |
|---|---|---|
| 0% | -40% | -100% |
Note: Every -1% of Resistance increases the calculated damage from that damage source by 1%. In Hell Difficulty without any additional Resistances, Characters take twice the calculated damage, which often is enough to kill anyone.
A Character's Maximum Resistance is normally 75%. This can be increased by Gear as well as specific Skills.
Guardian Angel increases the four Character Screen Resistance's Maximums by 15%, meaning a character could benefit from 90% of their Resistance if they exceed the 75% cap.
The skills resistfire, resistcold, resistlightning all grant hidden +1% Maximum Resistance for every two Skill Points allocated to the Skill. The Maximum Resistance cap is 95%, so any effects which would exceed a Maximum cap >95% is redundant.
Note: Summoned Pets can exceed this Maximum Resistance cap and become Immune to a Damage type.
Skills like conviction and lowerresist lower your Resistances and work at 100% effectiveness against characters who can never be considered Immune to a Damage type. Because of this, having more Resistance than your cap is not redundant, since you can be reduced to your cap's value with enough -xx% Resistance. This is why many Hardcore guides recommend being over capped on your Resistances to accommodate for any situation you may encounter.
Cold Resistance also reduces Cold/Freeze lengths. Having 50% Cold Resistance reduces the length of the applied Cold or Freeze effect by 1/2 of the total time. Having -xx% Resistance increases Cold/Freeze lengths by an equal percent.
Example Items that can grant +xx% Resistances:
| Item | +xx% Resistance Granted | ||||
| ScrollofResistance | Grants +10% to the four Character Screen Resistances permanently.1 You receive one of these per difficulty equaling +30% altogether. | ||||
| Mara's Kaleidoscope | Grants +20-30% to the four Resistances. | ||||
| Ruby Grand Charm | Grants +30% to Fire Resistance while in your inventory. | ||||
| Antidote Potion + Thawing Potion | Grant +50% to Poison and Cold Resistance and +10% Maximum Resistance respectively for 30 seconds per potion consumed. | ||||
- Due to a bug, if a Character dies the Resistances gained from this Quest reward no longer apply even though the Character Screen does not reflect this. This resets if the Character Saves and Exits or joins a new game on Battlenet.
Resistance Damage Reduction is calculated AFTER Magic/Physical Damage Reduced by x, and BEFORE Absorb.
For breaking Monster Immunities see our guide here.
Negative Resistances
There are a handful of items in the game that actually reduce your Resistances when equipped:
- andariel'svisage: -30 Fire Resistances
- flamerift: -70 to -90 Fire Resistance
- coldrupture: -70 to -90 Cold Resistance
- crackoftheheavens: -70 to -90 Lightning Resistance
- rottingfissure: -70 to -90 Poison Resistance
- bonebreak: -10 to -30 Physical Resistance
- blackcleft: -45 to -65 Magic Resistance
Absorb
There are two types of Absorb in the Game: % Absorb and +x Absorb.
- Except for Physical Damage, there is at least one type of Absorb available for all other Damage Types.
- Magic Damage only has +x Absorb. There are no sources of % Magic Absorb.
- Both types of Absorb reduces incoming damage of its respective Damage type and also heal the Character for the amount reduced.
- % Absorb is calculated before +x Absorb. There are scenarios when +x Absorb is greater than the remaining damage after % Absorb. In this case, the Character is only healed for the total % Absorb and the remaining damage mitigated by the +x Absorb.
- % Absorb is capped at 40% and there are no in-game effects to increase this, making >40% Absorb redundant. There is no cap on +x Absorb.
- Both types of Absorb are applied AFTER Resistance for damage calculations. Let's take an example where the Lightning Damage dealt is 1,000, the Character has 50% Lightning Resistance, 50% Lightning Absorb and +20 Lightning Absorb.
Note: The Character is healed for the amount Absorbed before the damage is applied, so Life Loss in this equation assumes you benefit from the total amount healed. (In situations where you would be healed past your maximum Life, any redundant healing is lost, and then the damage applies.)
We include the total equation, but breaks it down to the Damage Reduction equation first, calculate the Absorb, and then show the final Life Loss calculation.
Life Loss =
((Damage Dealt * (1 - %Resistance) * (1 - (Minimum Between %Absorb and 40%)) - x integer Absorb - (%Absorb Heal Amount + x integer Absorb Heal Amount))
%Absorb Heal Amount =
(Damage Dealt * (1 - %Resistance)) - (Damage Dealt * (1 - %Resistance) * (1 - (Minimum Between %Absorb and 40%)))
%Absorb Heal Amount = 500 - 300
%Absorb Heal Amount = 200
x integer Absorb Heal Amount = x integer Absorb
x integer Absorb Heal Amount = 20
Life Loss = ((1,000 * (1 - .5) * (1 - .4) - 20)) - (200 + 20)
Life Loss = 60
Physical
Damage Reduced by % (Physical Resistance)
Damage Reduced By % or Physical Resistance works just like the four Character Screen Resistances except for these key caveats:
- Damage Reduced By% (DRB) always has a minimum starting value of 0%. This means that a Character's DRB is not affected by the Difficulty they're playing in.
- DRB has a maximum cap of 50% which cannot be increased by any effects. Since amplifydamage and decrepify reduce a Character's DRB, having >50% DRB is not redundant.
- DRB can reduce below 0% (to a bottom cap of -100%) which would increase Physical Damage taken. This does not increase the damage dealt by Crushing Blow effects.
- Since Damage Reduced by x applies before DRB, there are times when the Physical Damage dealt to a Character is 0 before the DRB is calculated, at which point the DRB is redundant.
- There is no Physical Damage Absorb in the game.
Damage Reduced by (Flat Reduction)
Damage Reduced by (DR) reduces any incoming Physical Damage before Resistance calculation.
- It does not apply to Crushing Blow effects or sacrifice damage.
- If DR completely negates the incoming damage, it does not matter what the Character's Resistance are, since it calculates prior to the Resistance calculation.
- If DR exceeded an incoming attack's Physical Damage, any excess would apply to any Magic Damage the attack carried, after Magic Resistance and Absorb.
- Example: Character has 100 DR, 10% Magic Resistance and the incoming attack carries 50 Magic Damage and 50 Physical Damage. The 100 DR would reduce the 50 Physical Damage to 0 and have an excess of 50 Damage. The 50 Magic Damage is reduced to 45 by the 10% Magic Resistance. The remained 45 Magic Damage is reduced by the excess DR to 0.
- The same is true for Fire, Cold, Lightning, and Poison attacks that carry a Physical Damage component.
- For Poison Damage, this only applies to the first Tick of damage.
- DR is less effective against Physical Damage Skills with a Damage Per Second component. See the table below for specifics.
| Damage Rate per Attack Type | |||
| 1/25 Effective | Diablo Firestorm | ||
| 2/25 Effective | Diablo Lightning Hose | ||
Magic
Magic Resistance
Magic Resistance works just like the four Character Screen Resistances except for these key caveats:
- Magic Resistance (MR) always has a minimum value of 0%. This means that a Character's MR is not affected by the Difficulty they're playing in.
- MR can only be increased by a single Item group in the game: Safety Kite Shields which grant 5-10% MR.
- There is no way to reduce a Character's MR.
- Since Magic Damage Reduced applies before MR, there are times when the Magic Damage dealt to a Character is 0 before the MR is calculated, at which point the MR is redundant.
- There is no +% Magic Absorb in the game, only +x integer Absorb.
Magic Damage Reduced by (Flat Reduction)
Magic Damage Reduced by (MDR) reduces any incoming damage from Magic, Fire, Cold and Lightning before Resistance calculation.
- It applies to each Damage type separately during damage calculations.
- If MDR completely negates a damage type, it does not matter what the character's Resistance is, since it calculates prior to the Resistance calculation.
- If MDR exceeded an incoming attack's Magic Damage, any excess would apply to any Physical Damage the attack carried, after Damage Reduced by %.
- Example: Character has 100 MDR, 50% Damage Reduced By and the incoming attack carries 50 Magic Damage and 50 Physical Damage. The 100 MDR would reduce the 50 Magic Damage to 0 and have an excess of 50 Damage. The 50 Physical Damage is reduced to 25 by the 50% Damage Reduced By. The remained 25 Physical Damage is reduced by the excess MDR to 0.
- The same is true for Fire, Cold, and Lightning attacks that carry a Physical Damage component.
- MDR is less effective against Magic, Fire, Cold, and Lightning Skills with a Damage Per Second component. See the table below for specifics.
| Damage Rate per Attack Type | |||
| 1/25 Effective | arcticblast, armageddon, firewall, firestorm, immolationarrow, meteor, moltenboulder Countess Fire Wall Diablo Armageddon Diablo Firestorm | ||
| 2/25 Effective | inferno Diablo Lightning Hose | ||
| 1/5 Effective | wakeoffire | ||
-xx% Enemy Resistance
- -xx% Enemy Resistance is often misrepresented as being equivalent to +xx% Skill Damage. Reducing a target's Resistance to an incoming damage source often increases the total damage on that attack by multiple steps.
- If an attack carried 1,000 Fire Damage and the target has 90% Fire Resistance, then the attack only deals 100 Fire Damage.
- If you reduce their Fire Resistance with -10% Enemy Fire Resistance, they are left with 80% Fire Resistance. Our incoming attack would deal 200 Fire Damage, which is DOUBLE the damage. -10% Enemy Fire Resistance in this example is a 100% increase to Fire Damage.
- If we take the same example and add +10% Fire Skill Damage, with the target having 90 Fire Resistance, then our incoming attack has 1,100 Fire Damage which is reduced to 110 Fire Damage. This is only a 10% increase to Fire Damage.
Video
Credits
Written by MacroBioBoi
Reviewed by Teo1904