Cold Immunes and Cold Mastery

[FinalFantasyFreak]

I realize that CM allows my cold spells to reduce the cold resistances of monsters hit by my cold spells by 115%, if maxed to lv 20.

Does this apply to every monster in the game, regardless of type, or are there monsters whose cold immunities cannot be broken even if my CM would otherwise reduce it below 100%?

[melianor]

I realize that CM allows my cold spells to reduce the cold resistances of monsters hit by my cold spells by 115%, if maxed to lv 20.

Does this apply to every monster in the game, regardless of type, or are there monsters whose cold immunities cannot be broken even if my CM would otherwise reduce it below 100%?

Cold immunity cannot be broken by Cold Mastery. Once immunity is broken by either "Conviction Aura" or "Lower Resist" wands, then Cold Mastery has an effect on those monsters as well.

[Rawness]

No, it doesn't break cold immunities, only infinity or Lower resist can do it.

Cold mastery doesn't apply to Cold immunes, which is why only infinity or lower resist works.

It can apply after they're broken though.
damnz... melianor was quicker

[FinalFantasyFreak]

Awwww crab :(

Thanks for the fast reply guys :)

[SpeedySlicer]

could doom break the enemies immunities since it has 40-60 percent lowered?

[melianor]

could doom break the enemies immunities since it has 40-60 percent lowered?

No, it only lower resists, it does not break immunity. Only Conviction Aura for Paladin's or on the Infinity runeword and Lower Resist can break immunities.

[Samohtnnam]

What is the point of -cold resistance from CM anyway? Why not just say its a +% to cold damage like fire and lightning?

[PhatTrumpet]

Maybe because those two mods aren't even close to being the same thing as far as their effects on damage output are concerned.

If you're asking why Blizzard decided to design the game that way, you're asking the wrong people. Personally, I think it makes sense that Lightning and Fire Masteries would increase damage by directly increasing your spell damage whereas Cold Mastery would increase damage by piercing through your enemy's defenses (resistance), but maybe I've just been playing this game for too long...

[Samohtnnam]

Thx Phat. Can you point me to an explaination between -resist like CM and +dam like FM and LM?

[PhatTrumpet]

The closest thing I can think of would be my guide (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=485416&page=3), but basically what you need to keep in mind is:

There's no actual cap on +% damage.
There is a floating cap on -% resistance; an enemy's resistance cannot be lowered beyond -100%.

Large amounts of +% damage are easy to get with fire and lightning skills, so any bit of -% resistance you can get increases your damage output significantly (like Griffon's Eye on a Light Sorc).
Large amounts of -% resistance are easy to get with cold skills, so any bit of +% damage you can get increases your damage output significantly (like Death's Fathom on a Cold Sorc).

[melianor]

I agree that +X% damage and -X% resistance are totally different. Your damage can be as high as you want. With high resistances it will diminish. Fire and Lightning are high on damage, Cold tree works from the other way round with high elemental resistance reductions. Its a game play element, that makes builds interesting and the mechanics.