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Resistance
Maximum Resistance is capped at 75% by default and cannot be higher than 90%.
Resistance is a form of damage reduction that reduces damage of a particular type by a percentage. Players and enemies all have a resistance stat to each of Fire, Cold, Lightning and Chaos damage, and these are raised or lowered independently. Increases to "Elemental Resistance" are applied to fire, cold and lightning but not chaos.
Resistance has a default value of 0, where it does not affect the damage taken. Maximum resistances are soft capped at 75% by default but can be increased to a hard cap of 90%. Resistance can go into the negatives, which increases damage taken.
Characters receive a -10% penalty to elemental resistance at certain area level thresholds, approximately around the end of each act. By endgame, the cumulative penalty is -60% to all elemental resistances.
Honour Resistance is a stat used exclusively in Trial of the Sekhemas, and is calculated the same way.
Mechanics
Calculation
![\color [rgb]{0.6392156862745098,0.5529411764705883,0.42745098039215684}FinalDamage=D*(100-R)/100](https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/126a3babed92a7395d2995f6f8448cdab7a0503c)
Example: being hit by 1000 fire damage, with a fire resistance of 30%, means you would take:
- damage.
![\color [rgb]{0.6392156862745098,0.5529411764705883,0.42745098039215684}1000*(100-30)/100=1000*0.7=700](https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/3a629ce07a92645e50bcb0a8d4138c638684a296)
The higher your resistance gets, the more effective an increase in resistance feels in reducing damage taken. This makes increases to maximum resistance a particularly valuable stat. Going into the other direction however it means that loosing 10% resistance at a high resistance level will mean a more dramatic increase in damage taken than loosing 10% resistance at low resistance levels.
Example:
- After increasing your resistance from 0% to 10 %, a hit with a 1000 base damage will deal damage, which is equal to a 10% damage reduction being felt.
![\color [rgb]{0.6392156862745098,0.5529411764705883,0.42745098039215684}1000*(100-10)/100=1000*0.9=900](https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/f3faa2494a6859cad32b1cfdfe1abc3137b3cc3b)
- In contrary, an increase from 60% elemental resistance ( damage) to 70% resistance ( damage), while still just subtracting another 100 damage from the initial hit, reduces the effective damage taken from 400 Damage at 60% to 300 Damage at 70%, meaning the felt reduction of damage is not 10%, but 25%.
![\color [rgb]{0.6392156862745098,0.5529411764705883,0.42745098039215684}1000*(100-60)/100=1000*0.4=400](https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/4887f7f52429a81154fc207c65e33a77c1b7ae5a)
![\color [rgb]{0.6392156862745098,0.5529411764705883,0.42745098039215684}1000*(100-70)/100=1000*0.3=300](https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/10a2d76ffca2bd53705a3c2a1f5b970084de5ab7)
Elemental Exposure
Exposure is a debuff applied to the player or an enemy that reduces their resistance to one of the three elements (fire, cold, or lightning) (by default -20% for 4 seconds), which can result in negative resistance values.
Curses
There are a variety of Curses that can reduce the resistance a character or enemy has to a specific type of damage:
- Flammability for fire
- Hypothermia for cold
- Conductivity for lightning
- Despair for chaos
Curses count as debuffs and stack with exposure. Note that debuffs from both exposure and curses affect uncapped resistance, regardless of maximum resistance.
Example: A player with 150% uncapped fire resistance and a maximum resistance of 75% would have their effective resistance unchanged after being hit with with -40% from the flammability curse, since the remaining 110% is still enough to reach maximum resistance.
Resistance Penetration
Having Penetration in a damage type reduces the effective resistance of enemies you damage with that type, thus increasing the damage they take. It stacks with exposure and curse debuffs, but is applied last and is only effective against positive resistances; it has no effect once the effective resistance 0 or negative. In exchange, it affects both maximum resistance and uncapped resistance.
Ignore resistance
Effects which cause damage to ignore enemy resistances will calculate damage as if the enemy had 0% of the ignored resistance, and ignores any further modifications to resistances. It does not affect the actual resistance, and does not interact with stats that care about the specific resistance value.
Unique Items
Maximum Resistance
The following unique items are associated with maximum resistances:
| Item | Stats |
|---|---|
Infernoclasp | +(100-140) to Armour Charm Slots: 1+(100-150) to Armour +(10–20) to Strength +(3-5)% to Maximum Fire Resistance +(30-50)% to Fire Resistance |
Forbidden Gaze | (60-100)% increased Energy Shield +(3-5)% to Maximum Cold Resistance +(30-50)% to Cold Resistance 25% reduced Light Radius |
The Eternal Spark | (50-70)% increased Energy Shield +5% to Maximum Lightning Resistance +(20-30)% to Lightning Resistance 40% increased Mana Regeneration Rate 40% increased Mana Regeneration Rate while stationary |
Thunderstep | (10-20)% increased Movement Speed (40-60)% increased Evasion Rating +(3-5)% to Maximum Lightning Resistance +(30-50)% to increased Lightning Resistance |
Rise of the Phoenix | Grants Skill:  Raise Shield+5% to Maximum Fire Resistance+(20-25)% to Fire Resistance +25% to Fire Resistance while on Low Life Regenerate 3% of Life per second Regenerate 3% of Life per second while on Low Life |
The Brass Dome | (400-500)% increased Armour (-5–-1)% to all Maximum Elemental Resistances +(200-300) to Stun Threshold Take no Extra Damage from Critical Hits |
