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For the item affix and skill rune, see Absorption (magic suffix) and Energy Armor.

Absorption and Absorption Shields are effects where a portion of damage that would've been taken by a character is not deducted from the character's Life total, but is instead turned into healing or deducted from a shield. Absorption can be considered a special form of Damage Reduction, where the negated damage has an additional effect or consequence.

Absorption types[]

There are two main varieties of absorption, which are quite different:

  • The damage absorbed is converted into healing. This is a special modifier on a number of Diablo II items, and appears in a much stronger form on a few Legendary Items in Diablo III.
  • The damage is diverted to an absorption shield, which could be fueled by mana, or could simply have a set capacity. These shields are usually generated by skills and have been available in one form or another since the first game.

Aside from these "true" absorption effects, there is an item suffix as well as a Skill Rune (for Energy Armor) called "Absorption", although neither causes "true" absorption - the former causes straight Damage Reduction, and the latter functions like the "Damage taken Goes to Mana" item prefix. Some Damage Reduction skills use "absorb" informally to describe their effects, but they do not do anything with the "absorbed" damage.

Healing absorption[]

Certain items absorb damage and turn some or all of that damage into healing. These effects usually apply only to one type or element of damage. In Diablo II, only part of the damage is absorbed, creating a net effect of simply reducing the damage even further than other defenses do. In Diablo III, all damage is prevented, but only a portion of it is turned to healing, and the power is only found on one series of Legendary amulets.

Diablo II[]

In Diablo II, damage absorption heals the user by a certain amount of damage before they take damage from the rest of the hit. This effectively makes absorption equivalent to Damage Reduction by an amount twice the absorption amount - once for the damage reduced by absorption, and again for the subsequent damage that is "cancelled out" by the healing of the absorption effect.

Absorption appears as a special modifier on some Unique Items and Rune Words. There are two types of absorption modifiers: one that reduces damage by a specific number of hit points (e.g., "+15 Fire Absorb" on Hellmouth), and one that reduces damage by a specific percentage (e.g., "Cold Absorb 20%", as found on Raven Frost).

The value of absorption modifiers varies greatly due to how damage is inflicted:

Absorbing lightning damage is the most useful since lightning tends to hit in multiple small bolts. Ten points of lightning absorb can completely neutralize a Lightning Enchanted boss, if it's emitting dozens of 6-8 damage charges. In contrast, ten points of fire absorb, even after healing, would make hardly any difference against a 500 damage Meteor.

Absorb Magic Damage modifiers work against all types of non-physical damage.

Absorb Damage modifiers are very useful against elemental attacks, especially multiple small damage hits, such as those from Council Members' Hydras or Scarab Demons.

Absorb X% Damage modifiers are most useful against fierce elemental damage monsters.

Calculating Absorption[]

Absorption is calculated as follows:

  1. For elemental damage, calculate resistance first.
  2. Remove percentage absorption, if any.
  3. Remove hit point absorption, if any.
  4. Add healing, up to maximum hit points.

Example: A player with Raven Frost and 75% Cold Resistance takes 400 hit points of cold damage. The 75% resistance takes the damage down to 100 HP. The Cold Absorb takes 20% of that figure off, leaving 80 HP, and then those 20 HP are converted to healing, leaving a final damage of just 60 HP.

As a result of the formula, the effective damage reduction from Absorb is twice the listed amount: Raven Frost, for example, reduces cold damage by 40 percent.

The maximum effective percentage absorb that has any effect is 40%.

Diablo III[]

Diablo III combines Immunity with Absorption in the form of five Legendary amulets which each absorb all damage of an Elemental Damage type, and convert a low-medium percentage of that to healing. The amulets are: Mara's Kaleidoscope (Poison), The Star of Azkaranth (Fire), Xephirian Amulet (Lightning), Countess Julia's Cameo (Arcane/Holy) and Talisman of Aranoch (Cold).

Absorption shields[]

The shielding form of absorption was introduced with the Mana Shield skill in the original Diablo, which consumes Mana to absorb all damage that would be taken until the Mana runs out, at a 3 damage : 2 mana ratio. The Diablo II Sorceress has the successor skill, Energy Shield, which absorbs a medium percentage of incoming damage (increasing by skill level) by consuming mana, at a 1 damage : 2 mana ratio which can be improved by synergy with Telekinesis. Energy Shield does not apply Resistances or other Damage Reduction to the damage absorbed by mana, only to the remaining damage.

Diablo II also introduced Bone Armor for the Necromancer, which does not drain resources per damage taken but instead absorbs physical damage up to a set limit, scaling with skill level, and refreshable by re-casting the spell. After the shield is exhausted, further damage applies to Life normally. This model of shields with a set capacity was expanded heavily by Diablo III with several new skills and items. In that game, other defenses are applied to the damage before it hits the shield, allowing shield effects to scale well. Ironically, the new Bone Armor skill does not provide absorption shields anymore.

Note that absorption, unlike complete immunity, does not protect from secondary effects of an attack; that is, all effects other than damage will apply as normal. Moreover, for all effects that trigger on a damaging hit, even a fully absorbed attack still counts as taking or inflicting damage.

Diablo III[]

The third game offers absorb shields from many sources. However, their capacity is limited, so much like Life itself, they are best combined with increased Armor, Resistances, and other Damage Reduction effects. Some skills calculate the amount of damage absorbed based on the character's maximum Life, while others use a fixed amount, often increased by the character's secondary healing stats. They usually apply to all damage, not just one type.

Sources of absorption shields (including Skill Runes):

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