Conviction

When active, aura reduces the defenses and resistances of nearby enemies.

Conviction is the Paladin's level 30 Offensive Aura; it requires Sanctuary and opens nothing. While it is the active aura, every enemy in its radius loses fire, cold and lightning resistance and defense. Two numbers decide it: the resistance cut, −30% at level 1 and −125% at level 20, and the defense cut, −49% at level 1 and −90% at 20.

The numbers

The resistance cut is Param3 30 as the baseline and Param4 +5 a level, capped at 150 (-min(ln34, 150)): −30% at level 1, −125% at 20, and the cap is reached at level 25, after which more levels add nothing. The defense cut is the table's dm56, a diminishing curve between Param5 40 ("Armor % reduction Min") and Param6 100 ("Armor % reduction Max"): −49% at level 1, −70% at 5, −80% at 10, −90% at 20, −94% at 30. The Basin writes it out:

defense cut % = min(40 + [60 × [110 × lvl ÷ (lvl + 6)] ÷ 100], 100)

The radius does not grow: Param1 20 and Param2 0, times two thirds, is 13 1/3 yards at every level. An aura costs no mana. Both lines read lvl, so +skills from gear and the level of an Aura When Equipped item count.

How it works

Conviction is an aura with the row's conviction state on the caster and the same state on every hostile in range, refreshed on the aura's period (perdelay 50 frames, every two seconds). It has no hit check and no damage. Its stats are the table's skill_armor_percent at -dm56 and fireresist, coldresist and lightresist each at -min(ln34, 150); poison and magic resistance are not on the list, and neither is physical.

The resistance cut lands on the target's resistance as it is after the difficulty penalty, the same place as Enemy Fire Resistance Reduction and its siblings; what that does against an immune is the rule on Resistances and Immunities. The Basin's page gives Conviction's own version: against an immune monster the cut is reduced to one fifth, rounded down, even when Lower Resist or a Sunder has already taken the resistance below 100%, so −125% at level 20 is −25% on an immune. The defense cut is applied to the monster's defense before Chance to Hit is rolled; the Basin warns that the character screen's chance to hit does not show it.

The Basin's page says Conviction is not applied to a hostile that supplies a higher-level Conviction, that an equal level is always applied, and that a higher level only blocks a lower one if the higher was active before the lower was applied, whatever the character screen says. The older game's bug that left a monster's Conviction on you after it switched aura is fixed in the current game.

The Basin lists the other suppliers: an Aura Enchanted unique carries a Conviction of level max(mlvl ÷ 8, 1), and Mephisto supplies level 20 in the Pandemonium Event.

Synergies and +skills

No synergies: Conviction has no dsc3 lines and no …SymPerCalc column, and it feeds no other skill. Both of its lines read lvl, so a +skill from gear is worth exactly a hard point, and an aura-when-equipped item's level is the aura's level.

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; Conviction has no damage to cut, and the cuts to resistance and defense are applied as above. The Basin's page adds that Conviction is fully effective, not one fifth, against a hostile player's immune pets.

Build notes

• Level 20 reads −125% resistance and −90% defense in a fixed 13 1/3-yard radius; the resistance line is still growing at 20, and caps at −150% at level 25, so +skills past 20 buy five more points a level up to there.
• Against immunes only a fifth counts: −25% at level 20 and −30% at the cap, enough to break a 100–125% immunity but nothing beyond it.
• The defense cut is almost flat past level 10 (−80% there, −90% at 20): a low-level Conviction from an item gives most of the hit-chance benefit.
• Poison and magic resistance are untouched; a poison or magic build gains only the defense cut.