sanctuary now hits all monsters type with its magic damage
I have a problem with above. The knockback damage on Sanctuary(which is purely Magic) was not the primary purpose of the aura. The primary purpose of Sanctuary was to grant the aura holder the ability to ignore Physical Resistance of affected enemies. That means that instead of dealing half damage from 50% Resistance or not dealing anything from Physical Immunity, you’d deal face value every time your melee weapon connects(and can leech depending on target’s drain effectiveness). People constantly bemoan and whine about Elemental immunities but a skill literally exists on the Paladin to ignore Physical Resistance but only on Undead(which is its niche use).
Since you’re proposing the knockback to affect everyone, then one can conclude you also mean for the aura to affect every monster’s Physical Resistance. Otherwise the knockback shouldn’t affect them if it doesn’t since that’s how the aura behaves right now with Animals/Demons. If you simply want pulse damage + knockback but no change to Physical Resistance, you’d be changing how the skill behaves and I’d be against that(all or nothing basically).
Yet if my assumption is correct, and you’re proposing Sanctuary to affect everyone, that means you’re proposing Sanctuary to not only affect Demons but also Animal/Beast monsters(which lacks a %Damage modifier existing within the game(not that I’m against adding such a modifier)).
Therefore, and the primary reason why I’m totally against this, you’d basically make the game a cakewalk for the already OP Paladin class or any class that wields Azurewrath or Lawbringer that grants Sanctuary aura when equipped. Enemies under the effects of Sanctuary would basically have their Physical Resistance ignored so any monster that is naturally Physical Immune(Wraiths, Swarms) or gains it via Stone Skin can effectively be attacked for full damage. Everything else simply has their existing Resistance set to 0, leaving Attack Rating as you’re only obstacle to steamrolling through all 5 Acts.
The aura does come with limitations in that it doesn’t affect Act Bosses/Ubers but it never did in the first place since they’re all Demon. Should we add Demons to Sanctuary aura, who knows the unintended bugs/issues with excluding Act Bosses from the aura’s effects since %Demon already works on them. Can the game differentiate %Demon from gear and ignore %Demon from the aura if Demons were to be added? Ditto with Physical Resistance?
As for damage… Here’s my breakdown on why Sanctuary is OP: Sanctuary Damage
TLDR: Don’t screw with Sanctuary aura… it doesn’t need it. Sacrifice… fine but seriously don’t mess with Sanctuary aura.