I think something changed with how knockback interacts with burn stacks (probably with one of the latest patches). Just posting to check if things are the way they ought to be (otherwise it's a bug!
). In short: burn stacks seem to double-detonate when the monster is knocked back with PISORF. I saw this with a WIZARD, I'm not sure if it replicates with other classes, or whether it is somehow tied to some Wizard-specific feature.
Exhibit A: I'm targeting a monster with PISORF. The monster has 4 burn stacks. My base damage is 25 (so knocking the monster into the wall should do 25*60%=15 damage). All's well with the predictor, it shows I'll do 19 damage (15 knockback, plus the 4 burn stacks popping).
Exhibit B: However, after actually casting the spell, the monster seems to have taken 23 damage instead (15 knockback, plus *twice* of the 4 burn stacks that got popped).
(I also tested with knocking one monster into another. It does the same. However, even weirder, is that the second monster also seems to take one dose of burn-stack pop damage on top of the regular knock-back damage. How?
)
I guess further testing is due to see if this is wizard-specific (or not). BRB.
EDIT: Tested with a Tinker. So no, it's not Wizard specific. PISORF base damage seems to be increased by the amount of Burn Stacks (this damage is applied to both monsters); and then the burn stacks pop, which damage is only applied to the monster hit.
EDIT2: So I experimented a bit with monsters with resistances. The burn stacks damage suffers a reduction based on the monster's magic resistance. So monsters take damage as follows (casting PISORF on Monster1, slamming it against Monster2):
KD (Knockback Damage) = damage of PISORF, reduced by the physical resist of Monster 1
BD (Burning Damage) = number of burn stack on Monster1, reduced by the magic resist of Monster 1
So Monster1 takes KD+2*BD damage; Monster2 takes KD+BD damage.
"Thinker", just without the "ache".