Mana Shield (Diablo I)

Mana Shield Magic Requirements Spell Level 1 25 Requires 255 at Level 14 Mana Cost Initial Mana Cost 33 Reduction per Spell Level 0 Lowest Mana Cost 33

Mana Shield is an extremely powerful spell that directs all incoming damage to the player's mana pool instead of their life, and reduces the damage dealt by 33%. This skill is pretty useless for most classes, but in the hands of the Sorcerer it becomes very useful as he can simply pour al his points into Magic, which will then give him more mana, more life, and the ability to learn more powerful spells. There's no drawback, and together with Fireball, Chain Lightning and Stone Curse, the Sorcerer becomes virtually unstoppable.

Due to a bug in Hellfire, higher level Mana Shields actually increase the damage taken. It starts at 33% damage reduction like in Diablo I, and ends up at a meager 4% reduction at level 7 and above. Since there's no other benefit of increasing it beyong level 1 in Hellfire, players should keep it at level 1.