Nigthmare fire damage explosion question

General Discussion
1

I have 85% Fire Resistance, and I am having trouble understanding why the fire blast one-shots me from 860health to instant death. Is this a bug?

2

It’s like corpse explosion, 50% physical and 50% fire damage. Damage dealt is some % of their total base HP, not sure how much exactly.

3

Hm. Well It should’ve at LEAST negated most of the fire damage? I dunno, seems very weird, and probably why i’ll never play Hardcore.

4

Remember that on Nightmare difficulty player’s and pet’s resistances are reduced by 40, and on Hell by an additional 60, for a total of -100.

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5

Ya it’s a 50/50 split between Fire/Phys damage and the damage is 70-120% of the monster corpses HP.

So ur still taking like 60% total damage from that spell even with 85% fire res, which is why ur dying. Corpse explosion is a scary spell and one of the reasons why nihlathak is avoided on HC

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6

Ohh ok. So the only way to tank the “physical part” is more armor, and health, I take it? Seems straightforward. Dang… But getting ‘better armor’… Ugh. Alright, thanks for the help guys!

7

Armor doesn’t reduce damage taken. It reduces the chance of you getting hit by attacks when standing still/walking.

The only way to reduce Corpse explosion damage is “more hp” and something called “physical restistance” which can be find on certain unique items such as Verdungo/String of Ears/Vampire Gaze… … … etc. They’re all Hell-level items and not really meant for corpse explosion in the first place, so don’t concern yourself with this knowledge ^^

Best way to fight corpse explosion is to be very aware of your positioning, the dead bodies of mobs as well as trying to kill nihlathak/the caster ASAP. Also - if you’re “farming” him on NM i’d advise against it. His drop rates are VERY bad (I can vouch with about 200-400 hell kills per day while farming Key of Destruction)

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8

No it was “The Ancients” who harbored the Fire Enchantment/Explosion.

Surprisingly, Corpse explosion didn’t affect me much from bosses like Nihlathak.

It must be because “The Ancients” have very high HP, is all I could think of.

Yeah, I tried but only a couple of times farming Nihilthak, and it was underwhelming. But I only farm his front gates. Thanks for the tips, i’ll keep this damage information in mind.

Yeah I keep forgetting how ‘Armor’ works hah, there are some quirks to learn about this game, for sure. Some of it is admittedly… Non-intuitive?

9

Also frost damage could help as you would destroy frozen bodies and there will be nothing left for that explosion like the shamans can’t revive killed with frost minions. And sorcs also could use energy shield to mitigate any damage, I think you only need your HP enough to handle a single damage attack (not sure about it).