Sandstorm has been funny for ages. I have some where I get all the animations but take no damage whilst others have absolutely no animations but I take damage. I posted up about it a while ago and I got this reply
IgnasisCommunity Support
Hey there,
Our team is aware of several issues affecting the sandstorm mechanic and they’re looking into addressing them in the near future.
Thanks for the feedback and apologies for the frustration.
I’ve come across three types of sandstorm now. One with visuals that don’t damage the player, one with no visuals that damage the player and the normal actual sandstorm with visuals and damages the player.
Hopefully they get around to fixing this.