Sanctuary (Skill)

Sanctuary is a Paladin Skill in Diablo II.

Lore
''This aura causes the Paladin to shine with an inner, holy light. This light is an anathema to the undead, summoned as they are through the machinations of the Prime Evils. The aura carries with it the essence of life and the strength and purity of the Paladin's convictions.''

General Information
Effectively an area of effect Holy Bolt, Sanctuary passively damages all Undead (and only Undead) enemies around the Paladin. It does not affect minions of the player or allies such as Necromancers.

Damage scales based on distance to the caster. Aura deals double damage at melee range and linearly scales to normal damage at maximum range. The displayed maximum Area Damage value incorporates the maximum proximity damage bonus.

This skill also completely removes Physical Resistances and Immunities of any Undead monsters, so they are always guaranteed to suffer full damage from all Physical attacks of the Paladin and his allies. As Undead foes in general tend to have high physical resistance (and some, such as Ghosts, are flat out immune on Hell difficulty), this is an extremely powerful, though situational, tool against Undead.

In addition to damage and vulnerability, it is also knocking Undead back from the caster. This is especially effective on slower undead foes such as s.

Several weapons such as the rune word or the unique sword  automatically causes their wielder to project this aura, and thus can become a good backup weapon for any attackers causing physical damage (this extends to characters who cast spells that cause physical damage too, such as Windy Druids).

This skill works on Super Unique Undead monsters (including Griswold and Radament), but not on bosses.

Steal Life/Steal Mana items work well with Sanctuary against Physical Immune monsters, as long as they have positive drain effectiveness.

Bugs
Depending on game version, damage bonus of this Aura may be bugged (applied mistakenly not to the projector of the aura, but its targets, effectively, it gives all Undead monsters in the vicinity enhanced damage against Undead).

Synergies

 * Receives Synergy from:
 * Cleansing: +7% Magic Damage Per Level to knockback effect only
 * Gives Synergy to:
 * None