Ethereal armor in Diablo II: Resurrected gets +50% base defense before other defense bonuses are applied. For example, a normal armor with 500 defense would become 750 defense if it rolls ethereal.

How it works

  • Ethereal armor adds 50% to the item’s base defense.
  • If the armor also has enhanced defense, that bonus is applied after the ethereal bonus.
  • The game truncates decimals rather than rounding up.

Quick example

If an armor has 400 base defense:

  • Ethereal bonus: 400 x 1.5 = 600 defense.
  • Then any enhanced defense from the item or runeword is applied on top of that.

Important note

Some older Diablo II ethereal-bugged armor behavior existed in classic versions, but that bug was fixed in D2R, so you should expect the normal +50% ethereal defense only.

TL;DR: ethereal armor = 50% more base defense in D2R.