Correcting Damage Reduction Mechanics in PvP (Reply to an Inaccurate Guide)

I wanted to clarify some points regarding PvP damage reduction, in response to inaccuracies in a previous guide. You can check out the original post here: [https://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=46942660](https://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=46942660).

In that thread, user **SSOG** posted the following calculation method:

**Quote from SSOG:**
The complete chart looks like this:
1) XvX penalty (e.g., Player vs. Player = -5/6)
2) EDR% (anything that reduces enemy damage by a percent—only found on skills like Taunt, Battle Cry, Weaken, and Decrepify)
3) Sorceress Energy Shield
4) Necromancer Bone Armor and/or Druid Cyclone Armor
5) Integer DR/MDR
6) Percentage resists (including DR%)
7) Percentage absorb
8) Integer absorb

**Quote from Master_Zappy:**
And here’s the sample calculation:

1. 24,000 * 0.17 = 4,080
2. 4,080 (na)
3. 4,080 (na)
4. 4,080 (na)
5. 4,080 - 15 MDR (from Dwarf) = 4,065
6. 4,065 - 75% Fire Resist = 1,016
7. 1,016 - 15% Fire Absorb = 863 damage taken, then heal back 15%, which brings it down to 734 damage from 24K Fire.

However, this approach has some issues. The correct formula for calculating **Damage to Life** (DTL) is actually:

**DTL = Initial Damage * (W/100) * (1 - X/100) * (1 - Y/100) * (1 - Z/100)**

Where:
- **W** = PvP Nerf
- **X** = % Resistance (or % Damage Reduction for physical attacks; non-integer, like from Stormshield)
- **Y** = % Chance to Block (applicable to physical, blockable elemental attacks, and claw block)
- **Z** = % Energy Shield

For a clear breakdown, check out Cooley’s "Immortal Sorceress" video on YouTube, where he explains how an 18,000 damage Fireball can end up dealing just 38 damage to life. He also covers the role of integer damage reduction in this calculation and how it further reduces the damage. Importantly, Cooley highlights a bug that merges Magic Damage Reduction and Damage Reduction when both appear on the same item, such as Gladiator's Bane. He doesn't actually say that but this is what the "certain circumstances" are. Here's the video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0fScTLDTwg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0fScTLDTwg).

I’m not promoting Cooley, just sharing the right information for anyone who’s as passionate about the game as I am! Hope this helps everyone get a better understanding of how these mechanics really work.

This post was edited by d2junkie_2008 on Nov 8 2024 11:25pm

Your approach has bigger issues, the way you incorporate block makes 0 sense, you either take 0 damage if you block or full damage if you don't you don't take 25% damage because you have 75% block, unless you are trying to calculate some kind of DPS taken or average damage over time which would give you a number that would never be the answer at the question of "how much damage I would take from this attack"

(Damage * 0,17 * (1-es%)/100 - cyclone/bone armor - mdr/dr) * (1-res/100) * (1-absorb%*2) - absorb - MdrOverflow

For psn you have to include * (1-Plr/100), but there is no absorb there