Sacred 2:Detrimental magic effects

The Detrimental magic effects primarily include the five Secondary Damage Effects. They also include effects like Root.

• Chance for Burn +X% - Fire Damage over time. Duration is 5 seconds.

• Chance for Freeze +X% - Chance to freeze is a 25% slow down of movement and Attack Speed. Duration is 5 seconds.

• Chance for Poison +X% - Poison Damage over time. Duration is 5 seconds.

• Chance for Weaken +X% - Weaken will reduce Attributes by 20%. Duration is 5 seconds.

• Chance to Inflict Open Wounds +X% - Physical Damage over time. Duration is 5 seconds.

• Root - Root effect causes the victim to be locked in place and unable to move. A root effect differs from a stun effect in that the target is still able to use their Combat Arts or melee/ranged attacks, but cannot move from its location as long as the effect is active. Root duration is not a constant value and depends on CA's level and modifications.

Detrimental Magic Effects have a chance to occur when an enemy is hit by a weapon or Combat Art. They inflict a percent of the damage that caused the effect over a time period of 5 seconds (the actual value for effect duration is about 500 frames, which could have been interpreted as 5 seconds, but the game applies damage once a second; so in practice the effect deals damage over five seconds in five pulses).

If the effect is caused by a Critical Hit, then the damage inflicted by that effect also increases by 20%. If a Detrimental effect was caused by a hit with failed Spell Resistance/Spell Intensity check, this effect's damage is likewise decreased by 30%. Several Detrimental effects stack, so an enemy can suffer from several effects at the same time. However, only one graphical effect is displayed at a time.

The fundamental difference between magic DOT and the periodic damage caused by DME (open wounds, burn, poison) is the latter's dependence on flat damage. The periodic damage of a Detrimental Magic Effect is directly proportional to the inflicted damage that caused the effect.

Calculations

Damage of Detrimental magic effects caused by CloseCombat\Ranged, WeaponDamageBased CAs and SpellDamageBased CAs is calculated by the formula:

Total_damage * (100% - %_absorbed_by_armor) * (100% - %_Damage_mitigation) * Difficulty_multiplier

where Difficulty_multiplier = 0.65 (bronze); 0.85 (silver), 1.0 (gold); 3.3 (platinum); 3.63 (niobium).

As can be seen from the formula, periodic damage caused by DME depends on how much damage has received the character: for example, if character's armor absorbs 75% incoming damage, periodic damage caused by DME will also inflict 75% less damage.

I would like to emphasize: Damage Mitigation protects from DME twice - first DM reduces incoming flat damage (periodic damage depends on how much damage has received the character), secondly DM reduces damage from incoming periodic damage (open wounds, burn, poison). For example, 50% Damage Mitigation reduces damage over time at 50%, and then another 50 %, a total of 75% mitigation.

If the defender's willpower value is too much, the damage dealt by detrimental magic effects would be noticeably reduced. It works only against CAs that deal flat damage and have a chance for detrimental effects. If an attack inflicts such effect (for example, Burn effect from a Dragon's fireball or Poison from Kobold Shaman's projectiles) then the duration of effect on highly resistant character would be reduced. Therefore the detrimental effect deals only some % of its original damage.

Defender's Willpower attribute does not affect:

• Detrimental effects of CAs that do not deal flat damage but only DoT (poison attacks of Undead and Toxic Elementals).
• Root.
• Detrimental effects of Close Combat and Ranged attacks.
• Combat Arts that deal mixed damage - both flat damage and DoT (not to be confused with CAs that deal flat damage with a chance of detrimental effect). Examples of such CAs are High Elf's Frost Flare, Ice Elementals' ice projectiles and Spit CA of the Weaving Spiders.

The Detrimental magic effects -x% modifier reduces the duration of such effects as well as damage dealt by them (damage is reduced proportionally to the time). If several bonuses of this kind are equipped at the same time, their percentage does not sum up, final sum can be calculated using the following formula:

x_final = х_1 + х_2*(100%-х_1)^2 + х_3*(100%-(х_1+х_2*(100%-х_1)^2))^2 + х_4*...

Therefore the character can never achieve 100% reduction of detrimental effects.

Some Detrimental Magic Effects (Burn, Poison and Open Wounds) are classified as DoT and therefore affected by Damage Mitigation +x% and DoT -x% modifiers as well as by Mastery of Spell Resistance skill.

• Many monsters have Combat Arts of this type (they are classified as DoT and Detrimental Effects at the same time). Such CAs do not deal flat damage and therefore are not affected by armor - they only inflict DoT over 5 seconds after attack (Poison attack of Undead and Toxic Elementals for example).

Notes

For one minimal in-game time (1 frame) no more than one hit (of flat damage) on the target can cause a detrimental magic effect, and from this hit a chance to cause DME is calculated.This means that even a million Glacial Thorns simultaneously inflicting damage have the same chance to cause a DME as a single Glacial Thorn.

Reflected damage can not cause Secondary Damage Effects/detrimental magic effects.

There are 2 defenсes against De-buffs: "detrimental Magic Effects -x%" modifier and "Spell Resistance" skill mastery (which also gives the character "Detrimental Magic Effects -x%" modifier, depending on skill level). At first theese defenсes reduce debuff duration, secondly they reduce the power of effect. For example, 75 hard points in SR skill and "Detrimental Magic Effects -33%" modifier in total give the character 65+11* = 76% reduction of debuff power and duration. Defenсes are calculated layerwise (have diminishing returns) , so immunity can not be achieved.

Availability of Detrimental magic effects -X% as Item Modifier

The "-X%" refers to the amount of time rooted as well as the damage/duration of the various elemental Secondary Damage Effects.

This modifier is available on the following unique items as a yellow modifier (that requires no skill):

• Wall of Flames

This modifier is available on the following unique jewelry as a yellow modifier (that requires no skill):

• Wings of Death

This modifier is available on the following Set Items as a yellow modifier (that requires no skill):

• Pyx's Power
• Torik's Oath
• Mavv's Vow
• Helmet of Insanity
• Spaulders of Responsibility
• Torik's Protection
• Mavv's Pad

See Also

• Damage
• Damage Types