Elite Buff: Protected

Internal engine status effect. This is the status applied to elite enemies with the Protected modifier. Protected maintains Holy Shield on the enemy, setting it to 1 at the end of each turn if empty, at the cost of -20% max health.

The persistent Holy Shield means you must pop the shield each turn before dealing health damage. Since Holy Shield blocks any amount of damage with a single stack, the first attack each turn is always wasted on breaking the shield. This effectively reduces your damage per turn by one attack's worth, extending the fight duration.

Multi-hit attacks counter Protected elites efficiently by popping the shield with the first hit and dealing damage with subsequent hits. Damage-over-time effects like Burn, Bleed, and Poison bypass Holy Shield entirely, making them reliable damage sources. Use a cheap, low-damage attack to break the shield, then follow with your strongest ability. The boss variant, Elite Buff: Protected (Boss), functions identically.