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"Protection" refers to the shield buff that Protection Potions, Cleric's Protection spell, Warlock's Eldritch Shield, and Wizard's Arcane Shield Skill & Reactive Shield Perk provide. These instances of Protection offer a temporary boost to defensive capabilities, but the way they work is very specific.

Protection "Health" Scaling

All Protection instances have a hidden Attribute Bonus Ratio value that impacts whether or not their health pool will scale. Currently, the values are as follows:

  • Protection Potion: 0%
  • Protection Spell: 0%
  • Reactive Shield: 0%
  • Arcane Shield: 50%
  • Eldritch Shield: 0%

The stat that scales the HP of the shield is Magic Power Bonus. Most shields have an ABR of 0%, meaning no scaling will occur at all. However, Wizard's Arcane Shield has an ABR of 50%, meaning that the shield's HP will be multiplied by 1 + (Magic Power Bonus/2)

Example:

Default Wizard has a Magic Power Bonus of 15%. Arcane Shield's base HP is 20. Final shield health is:

20 * (1 + (0.15/2) = 20 * 1.075 = 21.5


Interactions with Damage Calculation

Protection instances interact strangely with some of the game's damage calculation mechanics. Notably, Protection will not interact with damage reduction or headshot/limb multipliers. Protection instead subtracts from the user's total damage before applying these multipliers. This is best explained with an example.

Example:

Exactly 25 damage is dealt to someone with a 20-HP Protection shield.

If a bodyshot, damage is:

25-20 = 5 * 1 = 5

If a headshot, damage is:

25-20 = 5 * 1.5 = 7.5

If a limbshot, damage is:

25-20 = 5 * 0.5 = 2.5



Things Protection Does Interact With:

  • Combo Multiplier
  • Weapon Impact Zone Multiplier
  • Weapon/Additional Damage

Things Protection Doesn't Interact With:

  • Headshot/Limb Multipliers
  • Physical/Magical Damage Reduction

Unknowns:

  • True Damage

Overflow damage is calculated as normal. The exception seems to be Traps, which even when breaking the Protection shield, will not inflict any overflow damage. This means that a Wizard drinking an 8 HP Protection Potion can walk through a 20 damage trap and be left unscathed.