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Anti-Magic Shell

Anti-Magic Shell

Instant	45 sec cooldown

Requires Death Knight
Requires level 68

Surrounds the Death Knight in an Anti-Magic Shell for 5 sec, absorbing 75% of all magical damage and preventing application of harmful magical effects. Damage absorbed generates Runic Power.

Buff

Anti-Magic Shell

Absorbing up to 75 magic damage.
Immune to magic debuffs.
5 seconds remaining

Spell Details

Duration

5 seconds

School

Shadow

Mechanic

n/a

Dispel type

n/a

GCD category

n/a

Cost

None

Range

0 yards (Self)

Cast time

Instant

Cooldown

45 seconds

GCD

0 seconds

Effect #1

Apply Aura: Absorb Damage (All)
Value: 75
Mechanic: Interrupted

Effect #2

Apply Aura: Cancel Aura if Damage Absorbed Reaches X% of Caster Health (All)
Value: 40%

Flags

Guides

Blood Death Knight Guide

Death Knight DPS Guide
(Frost/Unholy)

Overview of
Tanking and
All Tank Specs

Raid and Class
cooldown list.

Warlords of Draenor Death
Knight Changes

Comments

Comment by Stryper7

Well I guess this is a key component of what the Blizzard Dev's say makes the Death Knight a much more effective tank when it comes to magical damage, than your other classes.

Comment by d3nyd

This gets a bonus from a talent that improves the amount absorbed by 25%. Meaning (unless it's multiplicative, which it probably isn't) that you'll absorb the entire spell. But it's very good either talented or untalented.

Comment by Boboid

First thing that came to mind when i saw this was, LOL SHATTER COMBO LOL!

Has some other cool situational uses too, like in AV when you finish killing that squishy have no target and you're force targeted to a mage casting pyro at you

And it looks like it could absorb 3 seconds of warlock dots, not that it's likely to be life saveing with a 15 second CD

Comment by Pinga

Think about not having to run away from bosses AE spells (like Murmur's Sonic Boom).
This spell will surely contribute a lot in making Death Knights the best anti magic tanks.

Edit: typo.

Comment by Musluk

It will also make you immune to CC (well, most of it, anyway) for the duration.

It's currently bugged in beta though.

Comment by CinBloodstar

Does anyone know how the " Damage absorbed by Anti-Magic Shell energizes the Death Knight with additional runic power." part of the spell works?

Comment by btwist

Yay cloak of shadow vs lock problems all over again -.-

Comment by d3nyd

This currently is amazing against casters in PvP. Read the description: No harmful magical effects.

That means:

No entangling roots
No frost nova
No DoTs
No earthbind
No... anything, really.

With a 15 second cooldown and a paltry 20 RP cost, you can expect DKs to be winning against casters a LOT.

Comment by DrPancake

Read: Cloak of Shadows for Deathknights.

Comment by KingAnubis7

Well, Warlocks will be @#$%ED cause they can't pass on curses or is that just Magic spells.

Comment by Revolver

Chaos Bolt WILL pierce this because it is an absorption effect.

Comment by Gilius

if it can't remove movement imparing effects that are magical and already applied this is not that great. 5 seconds and now a 1 minute cooldown. It -should- remove effects if it's going to make sense.

Comment by 2OfDiamonds

Chaos Bolt WILL pierce this because it is an absorption effect.

If chaos bolt is a harmful effect thats applied then it wont pierce through this, its got nothing to do with resisting (this spell that is, not chaos bolt) and/or absorbing. I imagine this being a 5 second sort of bubble.. immunity to applications of magical effects.

I could be wrong, please feel free to correct/downrate me if i am.

Comment by Choitup

Is.... is that an inverted 666 in the skills tooltip?

Comment by Nozuka

and unholy DK's got Bone Shield too ;)

Comment by Sirdude

If chaos bolt is a harmful effect thats applied then it wont pierce through this, its got nothing to do with resisting (this spell that is, not chaos bolt) and/or absorbing.

Incorrect. This spell has 2 effects.
1) Absorbs 75% of damage from harmful magical effects
2) Prevents application of harmful magical effects

Chaosbolt is a harmful magical effect but if you read the tooltip it pierces all absorption effects. Something like Corruption will not be applied however.

Hope this helps.

Comment by wrkingasintended

Should also be noted, this works on totem effects such as improved fire nova totem stun and earthbind, despite these being physical effects, castable while silenced, that ignore cloak of shadows.

Comment by superrcoach

Damn death knights stole our warlock spellstone shield, if anyone remembers back that far.

and yea i know its not the same thing, just referring to the animation.

Comment by alexbard

This will be tested on PTR soon:

Anti-Magic Shell -- cooldown lowered to 45 sec from 60 sec.
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/26/13393389856-upcoming-death-knight-changes.html

Comment by ninkosen

I have tested this spell countless times, and I can tell you it is bugged... it doesnt absorb 75% magical damage
When you receive a 2200ish spell with 1500 taken and 750 absorbed, I'm curious to know how Blizzard think 750 is the 75% of 2200...
I don't verify everytime, but sometime I'm like WTF i'm into antimagic shell and it's like I wasn't...

Am I the only one seeing this?
I have the glyph so since it's 10 sec duration for me it's easy to be sure I'm under the effect or not, because at 5sec it goes very fast...

This spell is broken, why I don't see any other complain about that?

Comment by barthem

this is realy the nightmare of every affiction warlock...

Comment by Tazini

Out of curiousity, do elemental based special attacks, such as a dragon's breath weapon or a fire elemental's melee swing, which deals pure fire damage, count against this spell?

Comment by Carlotta

Correct me if I wrong but does this Prevent the application of Poisons.

Comment by Pumaloco

Having 23k hp i don't realy notice the absorbtion limit.
I usualy use it in pvp or to avoid AoE damage what is usualy around the 10k damage.

Just love it to silence a lock and then do anti magic shell when te silence has finished.

Comment by nileppez

This spell is awesome on some boss encounters, like Malygos' Vortex, or Hodir's Flash Freeze.

Comment by Fellshock

Is this spellstealable by a mage?

Comment by xoanovawolf

No... anything, really.
Chaos Bolt.

Anti-Magic shell is a 45sec CD as of 3.08 (down from 60 sec).

NOT anymore...as of the latest patch Chaos bolt doesn't pierce through absorption

Comment by xoanovawolf

Chaos Bolt WILL pierce this because it is an absorption effect.

Doesn't pierce absorption anymore, plz try again. =D

Comment by xoanovawolf

Answered above, but clarification here:

Poisons, technically, aren't diseases, nor magic. They are chemicals put into the body. Just like Warriors have "abilities", not "spells". Diseases are bacteria or viruses that have similar symptoms to poisons in the same way a Hummer and a Beetle are both vehicles.

Poisons go through this. Diseases go through this. Abilities go through this. This isn't a suped up Divine Protection. :quoted Jaylen

Actually from what I have experienced diseases definetly do not affect people with AMS I understand that it isn't "magic" ability but me (being a DK myself) have fought against countless other DKs and my frost fever and blood plague, both of which are diseases DO NOT effect them nor has it effected me when cast on me.

Also I have been shot at with a hunters serpent sting and that hasn't landed on me either, like i stated before I understand the elements of the attacks and abilities but there is non denying the fact that the only thing that pierces this shield are PHYSICAL abilities not even curses go through this as I have also been cast on by curse of agony. I have also tested poisons crippling poison.

Comment by razakaz

YES IT DOES!
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Ghostcrawler said:
Cheat Death is an absorption. So Chaos Bolt can still pierce it.

Cloak of Shadows is a resist. So Chaos Bolt can still pierce it.

There are four basic categories of spell resistance here:

Immunities -- things like Divine Shield. Chaos Bolt will not affect these.
Damage reductions -- things like Barkskin. Chaos Bolt affects these currently, but not in 3.1.3.
Absorptions -- things like Power Word: Shield. Chaos Bolt will continue to affect these.
Resistances -- things like Cloak of Shadows. Chaos Bolt will continue to affect these.

I know it's all a little confusing, but PvP is a system of checks and balances so we often end up in situations where X works against Y but is trumped by Z.
______________________________________________________________________________________________

This is an absorption effect. no change in the patch did that, and 3.2 isn't going to either. So like Power Word: Shield, Chaos Bolt will pierce through it with no reduction in damage.

A little extra proof:
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Ghostcrawler said:
I can't promise anything because if we made a change in 3.3 to lock dps, I am certain I would be bombarded with "You promised never to change us!" :)

But... as I said we are happy with the Chaos Bolt (and Incinerate and Conflag) damage now. We don't want it to ignore damage reduction effects, because the spell never claimed to do that. We do want it to ignore absorption and resistance. If it was bypassing resilience, that is now fixed. If it's not bypassing resilience, then you likely won't see any change in 3.1.3 anyway.

Damage reduction effects include things like Shield Wall, Barkskin, Icebound Fortitude and Frost Presence. Absorption effects include things like Power Word: Shield and Anti Magic Shell. So Chaos Bolt will still poke through AMS. We try to name things that are absorptions with "shelly" names. If there is a specific ability that you aren't sure about, feel free to ask.
______________________________________________________________________________________________

Comment by artomon

can you resist fear/polymorph/hex/sap/ with this?

Comment by EvilElpay

I have not seen anyone talk about the runic power regeneration effect from this ability. While the primary effect is to absorb magic and provide immunites to magic debuffs, the runic regeneration is insane and usually overlooked. I do not know how it works, I can only post what results I got last night from General Vezax with…

Scent of Blood - 85 Procs - 850 Rune Power
Replenish - 28 Procs - 448 Rune Power
Rapture - 25 Procs - 800 Rune Power
Anti-Magic Shell - Cast 9 Times - 1,454 Rune Power

Now, I only casted this when I felt I needed additional mitigation. I didn't spam it for runic power regeneration. You are not always taking magical damage, but with a 4 set bonus from the tier 8 tank set, you absorb 10% physical damage. This will proc the regeneration effect on fights where you are not taking magical damage. So yeah, tremendously overlooked, and regenerates more runic power than a 3 point passive talent that procced almost 10 times more often.

Comment by Thrakin

Just going to list a technique referred to as the "AMS Soak" - On fights like Razorscale (NOT KT's void zones), pop AMS and deliberately stand in the fire / acid / void to take damage. AMS will absorb most of the damage and generate immense runic power, while protecting you from severe damage.

Comment by cuteflower

NOTE HERE:
Spell damage reduced by 75%.
Spell damage here means non-physical sources of damage.
Immune to magic debuffs.
Magic debuffs mean debuffs that are NOT physical. Classified into other type: magic,curse, poison, disease.

Comment by ryknow69

Blood Plague can be applied, but the damage per tick is reduced since it is Magic damage.

Comment by Valdrana

This may have been said before, and it's a bit late, but this spell is amazing for DK tanks on Assembly of Iron (and even more so on hardmode Steelbreaker). It takes the Fusion Punch damage, generating a full stock of RP, and then has one of the following effects, though I'm not sure which.

It either:
a. Prevents the application of the FP dot.
or
b. Allows it to afflict the DK, but since the DoT is more Nat damage, continues absorbing damage and generating RP for the remaining duration of AMS.

I personally think it's b., although it would seem to go against the normal effect of AMS, but I remember taking no damage from the DoT when our healers/dps decided to be lazy and didn't dispel it. That, or I was being spam healed so much I didn't notice it. Either way, would appreciate confirmation on that.

Additionally, as has been said before, AMS is great for standing in fire/avoiding damage for both tanks and dps, and being energised with the resulting RP for extra burst with FS/DC. It also has a few funny/cool situational effects, including absorbing Taladrim's Vampyre attack completely in OK, and surviving Devourer of Soul's circular beam attack in FoS if you get unlucky. Overall - a pretty good short cooldown.

Comment by Arkhirion

As an active Death Knight player I will list my favorite uses for this skill in raids and heroics that are fairly challenging. Note that this is helpful information therefor you have no reason to rate me down.
They can either be for Migitational reasons, DPS increases or for Utility in it's entirety.

Heroics/normals:

Trial of the Champion,
If your opposing faction champions are casters and you are the tank. otherwise you can also use it when the mage polymorphs you.

Aedric the Pure,
Radiating light. yes this will stop you from being disoriented and it will give you runic power if you keep watching him. this is extremely useful to help keep up the DPS on him.

Argent Confessor Paletress,
Since she randomly targets people you can pop it whenever she tries to smite you.
You can also become immune to the shadows of the past fear if you pop it before it goes off.

Forge of Souls,
Bronjahm: During a soulstorm when you break free from fear.
Devourer of Souls: If you are the tank use it to soak up Phantom Blast if Mind Freeze is on cooldown or some jerk forgot to interrupt. Or use it to soak up damage if you are unable to run from Wailing Souls

Pit of Saron,
Forgemaster Garfrost: Anytime really, the Permafrost stacks will reset because it only lasts 3 seconds, so use it when you missed on a boulder-hide.
Ick & Krick: Poison nova and Explosive Barrage. Poison nova especially will fill up your runic power bar like mad. pop it just before it goes off and you will barely feel a scratch while you can do some serious scratching on him.
Scourgelord Tyrannus: Whenever Rimefang targets you for an attack you can pop it to be stunfree and gain quite the amount of RP as well. It should be noted that while you will not be stunned others around you can be if you are close enough.

Halls of Reflection,
Anytime a Phantom Mage casts Flame Strike on the floor. This has saved me a ton of times and also helped the healer out. not many people walk away from the Flame Strike or interrupt it for that matter while it is still a very heavy damage dealing ability that should be thought about.

Falric,
Use it whenever Hopelessness reaches it's last "stack" (it does not stack but it gets stronger after a few health intervals.) to help keep up the DPS because heals and damage are becoming rather weak close to the end of the fight.

Marwyn,
Whenever you accidentally stand in a well of corruption.

Wrath of the Lich King,
Risen Witch Doctor, Shadowbolt Volley.

Raids:
Trial of the Crusader,
Northrend Beasts:
Snobolds with Bomb

Acidmaw & Dreadscale
Poison clouds, Molten Spew.

Icehowl,
Frost breaths, while extremely hard to time, it will help out.

Jaraxxus.
Fel Fireball, As a tank when Mind Freeze is on cooldown and you don't trust your other interrupters. (though mind freeze is ALWAYS off cooldown whenever he casts it)
Infernal Eruption, when infernals start spawning you can soak up the fire damage it does.

Faction Champions.
Too much to describe, just pop it anytime it is off cooldown, you will without a doubt soak up lots of damage from warlocks, mages, priests anything in there.

Fjola / Eydis.
When there are alot of countercolor orbs around you and there is noone to soak them up.

Anub'Arak.
Penetrating Cold, speaks for itself

Icecrown Citadel,
Mobs:
Glacial Blast,
Aura of Darkness,

Bosses
Marrowgar, Blue Fire!
Lady Deathwhisper, Shadowbolt, Death and Decay.
Gunship battle, I think the incoming rockets but you have no excuse to not walk out of those.
Deathbringer Saurfang, none that I know.

Festergut, anytime all the time unless he has 3 inhales and the gas is gone. Pungeant Blight can also be AMS'd so that if you miss 3 stacks (1 or 2..) you will reduce the incoming damage by a large amount no matter what.

Rotface, when you're in a slime puddle. preferably you pop it before you enter one because it will negate the snare it gives.

Professor Putricide, Choking gas bomb, Gaseous Bloat, Slime pools.

Blood Prince Council, as a Keleseth Tank I must say you can use it all the time to reduce incoming Nuclei ticks and even further reduce the damage done by Empowered Shadow Lance, helps you gain RP for death coils to easily gain attention from the floating nuclei.
Fire Orbs, Shock Vortex'

Blood Queen Lana'Thel, Twilight Blood Bolt, Pact of the Darkfallen

Valithria Dreamwalker, zombies that use Lay Waste, Frostbolt Volleys from Risen archmages.

Sindragosa, Bombs, Chilled to the bone stacks, Blistering cold(best bet cause you can lag or just plainly suck and not get out of her radius in time), Frost Breath

I have not yet killed the Lich King so I have no clue if there are any good moments to pop it.

Vault of Archavon:

Toravon the Ice Watcher,

Whiteout, You can become immune to the stacking if the timing is right. your RP will be maxed after it has been absorbed.
Frozen orbs, sometimes 3 orbs are kicking you in the balls. it is then that AMS is best used if whiteout didn't use up your cooldown before.

Koralon the Flame Watcher,

Fire patch, self-explainatory
Fire Breath, gives small bursts of RP every second or so.
Meteor Fists (as tank), greatly reduces the damage taken from both the mobs and the boss.

Emalon the Storm Watcher,

Chain Lightning, needs alot of luck
Lightning Nova, no luck needed insane RP amount gained.
Overcharged Blast, with some luck you might just survive it. given that you have more than 53750~ish health, but hell who am I kidding, noone else will survive it and you'll be dead when 4 level 82 elites and 1 boss runs after you :p

Comment by Dirolex

Possible to remove this effect?

Comment by jamallachgar

Does this prevent cyclone?

Comment by Theorw

A very usefull usage of this is in Baradin Hold raid wwhen the boss casts Meteor Strike.It applies a debuff on the grp that was in front of hiim.Use it when u see th ehealers are having a tough time.I used it today and i got no debuff and a little dmg.If i was on my unholy i wouldnt take at all.Also great while the Felfirestorm lasts.

Comment by Webmant

This spell is evil... Look at the icon... Turn it upside-down... 666!

Comment by Goats

I hate this spell so much. There was a quad boxing dk against my rbg team and this spell single handedly allowed him to insta gib our dps (lock,mage, ele shaman) while we were incapable of doing anything.

Comment by Dudash

This ^&*!s so OP. As an spriest, I can mass dispel an immune to absolutely everything pally bubble, yet this cant be mass dispelled. That makes a lot of sense blizzard. Pally bubbles are immune to magic, melee, CC of any kind, fall damage, etc and this shield that only protects you from magic cant be dispelled. Hmm... something doesnt seem right there...

Comment by Szgan

Use it right before in SFK. He will pick you up, then immediatly drop you again.
The cooldown lines up nicely too, you have about 3-4 seconds before he does the move again :p

Comment by Leorina

I thought I would add that there are some player debuffs that are able to bypass Anti-Magic Shell.
It's worth noting that all these abilities belong in the Physical school, yet have a Magic dispel type.

Marksmanship Hunter's Silencing Shot
Hunter Crab pet's Pin
Hunter Dog pet's Lock Jaw

Comment by 72911e

DK's of any type top the BG charts in 4.3 - though blood should not if handled correctly (but sadly they are not in pug BG's). This spell adds insult to injury.

Comment by Bogdanov89

As a Blood Tank, i find this to be one of the best defensive cooldowns in WoW!

Fear or other magical crowd control incoming? Use the AMS before it hits you for CC immunity!

A magic DoT or a Nuke coming your way? Use the AMS for greatly reduced damage!

Mobs applying a nasty stacking magical debuff? Use the AMS to delay new stacks, potentially causing the old ones to expire!

Screwed something and ended up in a big bad fire? Use the AMS and you may yet live long enough to get a heal!

In short, this spell can easily save your life or even allow you to completely ignore certain boss mechanics.

Comment by kaiserthedragon

Anyone verified if the effects of AM Shell and AM Zone stack?
Absorbtion(AMS), reduction(AMZ) and they both have a cap, anyone verified which of them is applied first? (since if you have AMZ that means you have a talented AMS reducing 100% damage, the problems come with the maximum cap of damage absorbable being 50% of max HP).
So, with a single big damage (Like ultraxion's "Hour of Twilight") using both spells is good, or is a wasted move?
(That to be evauled for the DK perspective, without taking in account AMZ raid-wide effect).

Comment by Voix

Infected Wounds

The feral slow/attackslow debuff does NOT get applied. This is not even a magic debuff, but a disease. Not sure if working as intended or just buggy.

Comment by whiteashes

Took me a while to realize this, but i just saw it does say 666 upside down, i was shocked

Comment by vladwanman

Some spells seem to cause ridiculous runic power generation.

I submitted a screenshot of a lightning trap in heroic Crypt of Forgotten Kings causing me to generate 102,263 RP.

Obviously I was capped at 100, so I'm not sure why this is necessary.

Comment by grim5000

was this changed recently? it seems to no longer even block gastric bloat from festergut, making it impossible to reset the stacks on that, and i cant find anything saying what the hell is going on.

Comment by rodalpho

The Anti-Magic Shell tooltip was unfortunately over-pruned in 6.0.

AMS generates 2 Runic Power for every percent of maximum health absorbed, and will absorb up to 40% of the player's maximum health. Therefore it can generate up to 80 Runic Power per use.

The Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell causes AMS to absorb 100% of incoming damage, rather than 75%. This is not particularly useful in most cases as it's still capped at 40% of the player's maximum health.

The Glyph of Absorb Magic raises the total damage absorbed from 40% to 80% of your maximum health, but it no longer generates Runic Power. This makes AMS a much better defensive cooldown. It's situationally useful.

The Glyph of Regenerative Magic reduces the AMS cooldown proportionally based upon the amount of shielding remaining when its duration ends, capped at 50%. So if AMS only absorbed 20% of your maximum health in damage, the cooldown would be reduced by 50%. This glyph is quite useful for DPS specs.

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