Psychic Ward vs. Crushing Blow

I'm trying to confirm an odd behavior with the Warlock skill Psychic Ward. Multiple times now, I've had my health points reduced after getting punched by Blunderbores/Maulers/Urdars while my Psychic Ward is intact. If the skill works as I understand, it should absorb incoming physical damage before the shield depletes. If the purple shield isn't depleted, then, I should not receive purely physical damage to my health orb - yet those big bois are eating chunks of my health without breaking through!

I want to know if crushing blow has always ignored physical damage-absorbing shields like Bone Armor, if crushing blow somehow doesn't count as physical damage, and if crushing blow punching over my Psychic Ward is actually working as intended or otherwise!

Lend your brains, folks!

"If the skill works" is a big stretch. Theres a lot of things broken currently and I really doubt theres going to be much fixes if they are not absolutely game breaking.
Ive also noticed that having the Psychic Ward applied seems to block very little to no dmg and it wont always even Stun enemy hitting you in close combat.

At first I thought it was because I got the skill from an item (early game) so I figured perhaps its just glitching out due to that. But then I got 1 point into the skill itself and it still does wonky stuff. Plus the amount of dmg it "prevents" is very miniscule anyway.

I really dont know how these things are working.

Thank you so much for the clarification! I had no idea about this mechanic. D2 is a weird game, huh.

ShadowHeart wrote: 5 months ago

Yes, Crushing Blow by-passes Bone Armor (and Energy Shield too, and Damage Reduced by X), so my assumption is that it would by-pass Psychic Ward too. Crushing Blow is a completely separate effect from the attack itself (CB is applied first, then the attack's own damage & on-hit effects).

From Amazon Basin (https://www.theamazonbasin.com/wiki/ind ... shing_Blow):

• Damage cannot be reduced by Bone Armor, Energy Shield [3] or Damage Reduced.

It's just how Crushing Blow is designed to work.

Just to avoid confusion:
CB isn't reduced by "damage reduced by x".
CB is however reduced by phys res/damage reduced by x% and blocked entirely by >100% (=phys immune). Mind you, that's reduced only. Negative res doesn't increase it.

But yeah, CB bypassing Psychic Ward is to be expected and in line with other similar skills and effects.

Levitation Mastery improves Echoing Strike and Mirrored Blades, yes?

so 1 point in Psychic Ward and max Levitation Mastery gives 380 absorb damage.

this does not seem paltry...

krathkor wrote: 5 months ago

Levitation Mastery improves
Echoing Strike and
Mirrored Blades, yes?

That's why I've been using Psychic Ward as I've invested full 20 hard points into Levitation Mastery in my ES Warlock. With soft points on Psychic Ward itself, I get around ~450 health points on call with just a short cast action.

Compared to my full health pool after BO and whatnot, it's definitely small, but having those extra points on call is pretty convenient. When the shield goes down, I'm reminded that I'm taking heavy physical damage even if life steal keeps my health orb topped up.

hyeonsestoast wrote: 5 months ago

That's why I've been using Psychic Ward as I've invested full 20 hard points into Levitation Mastery in my ES Warlock. With soft points on Psychic Ward itself, I get around ~450 health points on call with just a short cast action.

Compared to my full health pool after BO and whatnot, it's definitely small, but having those extra points on call is pretty convenient. When the shield goes down, I'm reminded that I'm taking heavy physical damage even if life steal keeps my health orb topped up.

Also the Stun effect is handy when you Teleport into a sticky situation.

Bisu wrote: 5 months ago

Also the Stun effect is handy when you Teleport into a sticky situation.

Sticky situations aka Bone Fetish. Psychic Ward seems to be the only skill able to stop them in their reckless assault without blowing them up.

Quick question in regards to Psychic Ward, does it work like Bone Armor in that when it breaks, does it block any amount of physical damage no matter how much?