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I say this because I've noticed that you can run away from an eruption as soon as possible and before it blows up -so long as you had run away before the 'timer' ticked down- you can run right back onto the eruption and NOT take any damge at all when it blows up. On the other hand you can run clear off the eruption, but If you didn't get away from the center before the hidden timer hits 0 even if you are clearly off the eruption at the time it explodes, you will take damage.

Does that make sense?

Good Luck, Have Fun, and Get Loot.[/COLOR]

I think this might be making sense. It follows the 'effect' takes place before 'animation'. For example, I notice that I successfully hit a monster before the animation that I hit the monster is shown (you see the little combo icon with spells appear before your magic lands on the monster). Also I notice drops from monster while it is still standing.

Seems a lot of things are backwards. So maybe you are already determined to be hit before the animation shows you are hit, and the animation is just eye candy that may or may not appear at a later date and is irrelevant to you actually taking damage.

Yes, that would help explain a lot.