Elemental Damage is a collective term for the nine major types of damage used in the Diablo series. Sometimes, the term is meant to exclude Physical and/or Magic Damage, and each game has defined the elements slightly differently. Resistances and Immunity can protect both monsters and heroes from specific elements. In some games Elemental Damage Bonuses can be obtained to increase damage done with a specific element.
Diablo I | Diablo II | Diablo III | Diablo Immortal | Diablo IV | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Physical | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Fire | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Lightning | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Magic Damage | ✓ | ✓ | |||
Cold | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Poison | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Holy | ✓ | ✓ | |||
Arcane | ✓ | ✓ | |||
Shadow | ✓ | ✓ |
Arcane and Holy count as one damage type for the purpose of Resistances, presumably due to the extreme rarity of monsters dealing Holy damage. In Diablo I and Diablo II, they are collectively labeled Magic Damage, a catch-all category for magical (non-Physical) damage that isn't one of the classic element types or Poison.
Diablo III[]
In Diablo III, each skill deals damage of a specific type, which may change based on the Skill Rune selected. Each class's skills use only four or five of the different types, for instance, only Fire, Cold, Lightning and Arcane for Wizards. Many items can roll increased damage for all skills of a specific damage type, normally Bracers and Amulets. The total bonus is listed under Offense on the Character Screen's details tab (as of Patch 2.0.6). A Smart Loot drop for a class will only roll the damage types that class can use. The Convention of the Elements rotates through each damage type fit for the current class, augmenting one for 4 seconds before switching to the next. The Stone of Jordan extends a character's best elemental skill bonus to all skills.
Physical | Fire | Lightning | Cold | Poison | Holy | Arcane | Total | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Barbarian | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 4 | |||
Crusader | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | * | ✓ | 4 | ||
Demon Hunter | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | * | 4 | ||
Monk | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 5 | ||
Necromancer | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 3 | ||||
Witch Doctor | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 4 | |||
Wizard | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 4 |
- Demon Hunter Poison runes were removed in Patch 2.1.2. Crusader Cold runes were removed in Patch 2.4.0. Removing their few "fifth-type" runes allowed players to better focus on their main damage types.
Weapons always roll +(A-B)-(X-Y) Elemental Damage (any one of the seven types, with Physical indicated by not stating a type explicitly) as a Primary Magic Property, meaning that each attack will add that amount of damage to the base weapon damage. Generally, bonuses to the damage of an attack are based only on the skill and rune used, but numerous effects also look at added weapon damage, such as Elemental Exposure, Tal Rasha's Elements, Wyrdward, the Essence of Anguish, and Critical Hit death animations. As in the previous game, added Cold damage also grants a chance to chill on hit, and at lower levels added Cold damage may be slightly less to balance the extra effect.
Many skills and effects require a specific damage type to be used or grant bonuses to one type. It is a popular tactic to stack bonus damage of one type and choose skills and runes of the same type to boost all damage done, leading to builds with that type's name, e.g. "Arcane build" or "Fire build". Even these builds may use some "off-type" runes, when secondary effects like Crowd Control or stat buffs are more important than raw damage.
Defenses[]
- Main articles: Resistances#Diablo III and Immunity#Diablo III
While there is no inherent distinction between Physical and non-Physical damage, several defensive skills and effects do draw a distinction between those categories, and most monster melee attacks are Physical. Resistances work the same between all types, including Physical, except that Holy damage uses Arcane resistance, presumably due to there being very few monsters that deal Holy damage. Characters can achieve immunity to a non-Physical type with one of five Legendary amulets (with Holy/Arcane on the same amulet).
Only a couple of Unique Monsters state they have complete immunity to a single damage type, although it is actually about 85% resistance, and applies if either skill or added weapon damage types match the "immunity". There are no other permanent elemental resistances or immunities among monsters.