Apocalypse

Create a pentagram that engulfs all enemies in hellfire; reduces enemy fire resistance for Apocalypse's damage.

Apocalypse is the Warlock's top fire skill (Chaos Skills, level 30, requires Flame Wave and Sigil: Death). It casts the apocalypse missile, a pentagram of a set radius, and everything inside takes the row's fire damage and gets the apocalypse state, which lowers its fire resistance. The numbers that decide it are the hit, 885–975 fire damage at level 20, and the resistance cut, −24% at the same level.

The numbers

• Mana is 32 at level 1 and rises 1 a level (mana 32, lvlmana 1, manashift 8) to 51 at level 20.
• Fire damage comes from EMin 80 / EMax 100 and their brackets: the minimum grows +23 a level to level 8, +46 to 16, +69 to 22, +75 to 28, +95 past that; the maximum +25, +50, +75, +95, +115 over the same brackets. Level 1 is 80–100, level 10 is 333–375, level 20 is 885–975, level 30 is 1,663–1,925.
• Radius is aurarangecalc, (lvl >= 20) ? 17 : (lvl >= 10) ? 15 : 13: 13 yards at levels 1 to 9, 15 from level 10 and 17 from level 20.
• Enemy fire resist is aurastatcalc1 on fireresist: −min(ln12, 40), Param1 (5, "baseline fire pierce") plus Param2 (1, "fire immunity pierce per level") a level, so −5% at level 1, −14% at level 10, −24% at level 20, −34% at level 30 and the −40% cap from level 36.
• Casting delay is localdelay 45, 45 frames: 1.8 seconds at every level, so it is stated here rather than in the table.

The damage, the radius and the resistance cut read lvl, so +skills from items count; the synergy terms read blvl.

How it works

The pentagram is a missile, and its hit is fire damage (EType fire) that goes through the target's fire resistance and nothing else, see Dealing Elemental Damage. The row has no ToHit, no SrcDam and no attack rating: it always hits what is inside and carries none of your weapon's damage. The apocalypse target state carries a negative fireresist, the same stat as Enemy Fire Resistance Reduction on items; the table's comments call Param1 and Param2 a "fire pierce" and "fire immunity pierce", and the game's description says the reduction is for Apocalypse's own damage. How a resistance cut applies to a target over 99% is the rule on Resistances and Immunities. Each cast is held back by the 1.8-second casting delay, see Casting Speed; the row names no periodic column or summon.

The resistance cut is −24% at level 20 and capped at −40%, which only level 36 reaches; it is the row's "pierce" and nothing on the row says it stacks with another source.

Synergies and +skills

Two damage synergies, each +10% fire damage per hard point (Param8, EDmgSymPerCalc): Ring of Fire and Flame Wave. Both read blvl. Apocalypse in turn gives +10% fire damage per hard point to Ring of Fire, and +15% fire damage and +10% average fire damage per second per hard point to Flame Wave. There is no mastery line on the row.

Against players

A player's hit on another player is cut to 17% of its value (difficultylevels.txt PlayerDamagePercentVSPlayer) before anything else, see Player versus Player; the pentagram's fire damage is cut the same way. The table has no separate player value for the fire resistance cut.

Build notes

• The hit grows 69 to 75 a level at level 20; each hard point in Ring of Fire or Flame Wave is +10%.
• The resistance cut grows 1% a level with no cap until −40% at level 36, so +skills past 20 keep buying it.
• Mana is 51 at level 20 and 1 a level; the 1.8-second casting delay is the same at every level.