Cold Mastery Class: Sorceress Required Level: 30 Skill Tree: Cold Spells Passive Pierces the cold resistance of your enemies. Damage Type: Cold |
Cold Mastery is a Sorceress Skill in Diablo II. It decreases enemy Cold Resistance.
Lore[]
Once mastery over this powerful elemental force is attained, a Sorceress achieves perfect command over this school of magic. Her freezing spells are now of such potency that those adversaries formerly impervious to their effects soon find themselves the surprised victims of a vicious, chilly assault.
General Information[]
Synergies[]
- Gives synergy to: None
- Receives synergy from: None
Cold Mastery reduces the resistances of hostile monsters and players. Cold Mastery only applies to the Sorceress; that is, when fighting on a team, only Cold Spells cast by the Sorceress with the skill receive its benefits. It works on other Players in PvP, even if their resistances are maxed out.
However, Cold Mastery does not affect monsters that are Cold Immune. Enemies that are not Cold Immune can have their Cold Resistances lowered below zero, making a Sorceress' Cold Spells especially effective, but the only ways to break resistances are the Necromancer's Lower Resist and the Paladin's Conviction aura.
Cold Mastery is a direct subtraction modifier from the enemies' resistance, so if a target has 75% Cold Resistance and the Sorceress has only the first level of Cold Mastery, the target's resistance will be 75% - 20% = 55%. Cold Mastery reduces cold resistances to -100% by level 17. As resistances cannot fall below -100%, extra points after level 17 only reduce resistances for monsters that had resistances to Cold in the first place. Extra points in Cold Mastery become completely pointless past level 37 (to the point where even creatures with near-immunity to cold has -100% cold resistance), although the lack of monsters with such high cold resistances make investing in the skill relatively superfluous after level 27 (where cold resists are at -150%).
Lightning and Fire sorceress who specialize in cold skills only secondarily will often find their cold skills being their most potent upon reaching the highly-resistant creatures in Hell difficulty, due in no small part to Cold Mastery.
Skill Progression[]
- Enemy Cold Resist: -20%...−510% (max effective reduction -175% will give the final resistance -100% for non-immune enemies on Cold Mastery 32) or Breaking Immunities: -4%...-102% (on Cold Mastery 99).
| Level | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enemy Cold Resist or Breaking Immunities | −20% / -4% | −25% / -5% | −30% / -6% | −35% / -7% | −40% / -8% | −45% / -9% | −50% / -10% | −55% / -11% | −60% / -12% | −65% / -13% | −70% / -14% | −75% / -15% | −80% / -16% | −85% / -17% | −90% / -18% | −95% / -19% | −100% / -20% | −105% / -21% | −110% / -22% | −115% / -23% |
| Level | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enemy Cold Resist or Breaking Immunities | −120% / -24% | −125% / -25% | −130% / -26% | −135% / -27% | −140% / -28% | −145% / -29% | −150% / -30% | −155% / -31% | −160% / -32% | −165% / -33% | −170% / -34% | −175% / -35% | −180% / -36% | −185% / -37% | −190% / -38% | −195% / -39% | −200% / -40% | −205% / -41% | −210% / -42% | −215% / -43% |
| Level | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enemy Cold Resist or Breaking Immunities | −220% / -44% | −225% / -45% | −230% / -46% | −235% / -47% | −240% / -48% | −245% / -49% | −250% / -50% | −255% / -51% | −260% / -52% | −265% / -53% | −270% / -54% | −275% / -55% | −280% / -56% | −285% / -57% | −290% / -58% | −295% / -59% | −300% / -60% | −305% / -61% | −310% / -62% | −315% / -63% |
Patch Notes[]
Prior to patch 2.6, Cold Mastery paired very well with the Cold Rupture sundering charm, as it did not suffer from the 1/5th resistance reduction penalty that the other resistance reducing skills, Conviction and Lower Resist, had. A sorceress with a high level Cold Mastery and Cold Rupture could easily bring any monster's resistances into the negatives on Hell difficulty. The 1/5th resistance reduction penalty applies as of the current patch.
Fire Spells — Fire Bolt • Warmth • Inferno • Blaze • Fire Ball • Fire Wall • Enchant • Meteor • Fire Mastery • Hydra
Lightning Spells — Charged Bolt • Telekinesis • Static Field • Lightning • Nova • Chain Lightning • Teleport • Thunder Storm • Energy Shield • Lightning Mastery
Cold Spells — Ice Bolt • Frozen Armor • Frost Nova • Ice Blast • Shiver Armor • Glacial Spike • Blizzard • Chilling Armor • Frozen Orb • Cold Mastery