Receiving damage

This article needs to be updated.

Reason: This page was adapted from the sister page on poewiki. Mechanics may need to be re-tested to confirm the proper order of operations.

Please update this article to reflect newly available information. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page.

Receiving damage involves several steps to determine whether the damage hits, how much damage is dealt by the attacker, how much of that damage is prevented by the defender's mitigation, and what resources (e.g. life, energy shield) are ultimately lost as a result.

Order of operations

The list below displays the order of operations when an attacker attempts to damage a defender:

1. Avoiding the hit:
   • Manually avoiding hits via movement
   • Damage avoidance frames from dodge roll
   • Avoidance of projectiles
   • Evasion against (vs accuracy of) attacks or monster skills

   These are the only defensive mechanics that prevent a hit from occurring, including preventing all on-hit effects. Other forms of mitigation cannot prevent a hit, even if they reduce damage taken to 0.

2. Before being Hit:
   Effects such as Defiance of DestinyDefiance of Destiny
   Jade AmuletRequires Level 8+(10-15) to Dexterity(6-10)% increased maximum Life
   +(10-20) to Strength
   (25-40)% increased Mana Regeneration Rate
   Recover 10% of Missing Life before being Hit by an EnemyThe respect of Karui warriors is hard to earn,
   but lasts a lifetime... and beyond.'s Gain #% of Missing Life before being Hit by an Enemy occur immediately after the defender fails to prevent the hit. (Regular when-hit or on-hit effects do not apply until after all other steps on this page.)
3. Calculating unmitigated damage:
   
   1. Flat damage
   • Base damage is typically the damage as found on martial weapons for attacks or the skill gem for spells. Unarmed attacks and minions also have independent base damage.
   • Added damage (or flat damage) is damage added to a skill through conditional stats, support gems, equipment (e.g. rings), or certain skill mechanics such as Flame WallFlame WallSpell, AoE, Fire, Duration
     Tier: 1
     Level: (1-40)
     Cost: (12-1513) ManaCreate a wall of Fire in front of the character, which Ignites everything within its area. Any Projectiles fired through the wall by you and Allies deal added Fire damage and inflict the Ignite on hit.Wall duration is (4.5–6.4) seconds
     Projectiles which pass through the wall deal (2–64) to (3–91) Added Fire Damage
     Ignites as though dealing (13–364) to (20–545) Fire damage
     
     Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality:
     (0–20)% more Magnitude of Ignite inflictedPlace into a Skill Gem socket to gain this skill.
     Skills can be managed in the Skills Panel. with projectiles. Added damage is added to base damage before other modifiers.

   • Modifiers to minimum or maximum damage range (e.g. HeftHeftPhysical
     Tier: 3
     Level: 1
     Cost & Reservation Multiplier: 120%Supports Skills which deal Damage, increasing the maximum Physical Damage of their Hits.Supported Skills have 30% more Maximum Physical DamagePlace into a Skill's Support Gem socket in the Skills Panel to apply its effects to that Skill. You cannot have multiple copies of the same Support Gem socketed at the same time.) apply here prior to conversion.

   2. Damage conversion
   • Conversion modifiers change a percentage of one damage type's base+flat damage into another, for example #% of Physical Damage Converted to Fire Damage.
   • Gain conversion modifiers add a percentage of one damage type's base+flat damage as another damage type, for example Gain #% of Damage as Cold Damage.
   All conversion effects apply simultaneously and only apply once, preventing recursion. Conversions do not interact with each other, unless regular conversion exceeds 100% of an original damage type, in which case it is scaled down to 100%.
   3. Damage multipliers
   • All increased and reduced modifiers stack additively, then applied as a single multiplier. This also includes conditional stats.
   • All more and less modifiers apply independently, multiplicative against each other, unless the multiplier is from the same source (e.g. 10% more Damage per Stage would deal 50% more damage at 5 stages).
   Damage multipliers may be applied to enemies through effects like File:Sap status icon.pngSap.
   4. Critical hits
   If a hit succeeds in landing a critical hit, the damage is multiplied by its critical damage bonus. By default, this is +100% (200%) of base damage, and can be modified further. The extra damage from critical damage bonus can be reduced by Take #% reduced Extra Damage from Critical Hits or Take no Extra Damage from Critical Hits (e.g. The Brass DomeThe Brass Dome
   Champion CuirassArmour: 335Requires Level 58, 120 Str(400-500)% increased Armour
   (-5–-1)% to all Maximum Elemental Resistances
   +(200-300) to Stun Threshold
   Take no Extra Damage from Critical HitsThe turtle's shell one day becomes its tomb.). For example, Take 60% reduced Extra Damage from Critical Hits will cause a critical hit from a monster with +200% critical damage bonus. If a hit that would deal a critical hit can be evaded, the evasion check applies again at this step. If the evasion check succeeds, the critical hit is downgraded to a non-critical hit. This does not affect evasion's entropy value.
   5. Rolling for damage:
      After the previous multipliers are applied to the hit's minimum and maximum damage range, it now randomly chooses a number within this range. If the attacker's damage is lucky, or damage against the defender is unlucky, damage rolls twice and ignores the lower value. Similarly, if the attacker's damage is unlucky, damage rolls twice and ignores the higher value. This does not affect rolls for other mechanics (e.g. crit, ailments, block, suppression).
   6. Doubling/tripling damage:
      Modifiers that double or triple damage apply after other offensive damage modifiers.
4. Cannot take damage:
   Damage is removed by modifiers that make the defender unable to take damage, such as Cannot take Reflected Physical/Elemental Damage or File:Proximity Shield status icon.pngProximity Shield. This step is not considered 'preventing' damage (e.g. for Wandering ReliquaryWandering Reliquary
   Steel PlateArmour: 177Requires Level 27, 57 Str+(50-100)% increased Armour
   +(40-60) to maximum Mana
   +(10-20) to Strength
   +(60-80) to Stun Threshold
   50% of Physical Damage prevented Recouped as LifeKnowing she could outlast any opponent,
   Wrashmin fought not to win, but to delay.). It should not be confused with damage immunity, which applies later.
5. Damage taken as/damage shift:
   Incoming damage can be taken as (or shifted to) another damage type. It is usually done by utilizing an item which offers the #% of X Damage taken as Y modifier (e.g. Cloak of FlameCloak of Flame
   Silk RobeEnergy Shield: 61Requires Level 22, 47 Int+(30-50)% of Fire Resistance
   (30-50)% reduced Ignite Duration on You
   40% of Physical Damage taken as Fire Damage
   25 to 35 Fire Thorns damageHe who sows an ember shall reap an inferno.). This is not conversion, though it is mechanically similar. Damage types can only be shifted once and all damage shift effects apply simultaneously. Additionally, damage shift is not proportional when exceeding 100% of a base damage type; for example, if a player has 120% physical to fire damage shift, they will take more base fire damage than they would have originally taken as physical. Similar to conversion with damage modifiers, shifted damage is only affected by mitigation for its final damage type. For example, if physical damage is taken as fire, the shifted fire damage will not be affected by physical damage reduction.
6. Damage mitigation:
   1. Cannot take X damage applies again here, preventing damage that wasn't already removed before the damage taken as step. This step does count as preventing damage.
   2. Immunities prevent 100% of damage, such as Chaos Inoculation preventing chaos damage.
   3. Damage avoidance offers a chance to prevent damage entirely, for example with Elusive.
   4. Damage reduction, not to be confused with reduced damage taken, mitigates damage types it exists for. By default, 'damage reduction' is only gained from armour and #% additional Physical Damage Reduction against physical damage, but certain modifiers or stats can allow damage reduction to apply to other damage types (e.g. BlackbraidBlackbraid
      Fur PlateArmour: 60Requires 10 Str+(40-60) to Armour
      +(5-15) to Strength
      +(5-15) to Intelligence
      +10% to all Elemental Resistances
      +(40-60) to Stun Threshold
      Armour applies to Elemental DamageAn Ezomyte endures. or Doryani's PrototypeDoryani's Prototype
      Scale MailArmour: 125
      Evasion: 112Requires Level 37, 43 Str, 43 Dex(50–100)% increased Armour and Evasion
      +(60-100) to maximum Life
      Armour also applies to Lightning damage taken from Hits
      Enemies in your Presence have Lightning Resistance equal to yours
      Lightning Resistance does not affect Lightning damage taken"This was the first step in some grand design,
      lost to the ages, now ours to decipher."
      - Dominus, High Templar), or allow different stats to contribute to damage reduction (e.g. Invoker's ...and Protect me from Harm). Damage reduction occurs before resistances, unlike in POE1. and is calculated independently per damage type.
   5. Resistance mitigates elemental and chaos damage. Effects such as exposure or area penalties apply here. The attacker's penetration applies afterward to the final resistance value, though it cannot penetrate below 0% resistance. If the resistance is at 0% or negative, penetration has no effect.
7. Modifying damage taken:
   After damage mitigation has calculated base damage taken, modifiers to damage taken are applied. Flat modifiers are applied first, then the sum of all increases/reductions, and lastly all more or less multipliers independently:

   Order	Modifier	Examples
   1	±# X Damage taken from Y	AshrendAshrend Pathfinder CoatEvasion: 78Requires Level 11, 24 Dex+(40-60) to maximum Life +(10-20) to Strength +(30-40)% to Fire Resistance Cannot be Ignited -10 Physical Damage taken from Attack HitsThe blasted oak stands forever. AstramentisAstramentis Stellar AmuletRequires Level 25+(5-7) to all Attributes+(80-100) to all Attributes -4 Physical Damage taken from Attack HitsMindless rage will shake the world, Cunning lies will bend it. Reckless haste will break the world, And into darkness send it.
   2	#% increased/reduced X Damage taken	Shock Withered Intimidate
   3	#% more/less X Damage taken	Toughness The Dancing MirageThe Dancing Mirage Wayfarer JacketEvasion: 88 Energy Shield: 39Requires Level 28, 33 Dex, 33 Int(150-200)% increased Evasion and Energy Shield +(10-20)% to Lightning Resistance 20% less Damage taken if you have not been Hit Recently 100% increased Evasion Rating if you have been Hit RecentlyBe not where death falls.

8. Stun and ailment thresholds:
   Stun and elemental ailment chance/buildup is rolled based on damage at this point.
9. Blocking the damage:
   Block or spell block rolls to prevent all damage, or a percentage of damage with modifiers like Glancing Blows. Block also prevents most of the attacker's on-hit effects, including triggers. X when you Block effects occur in this step, before damage taken (if any).
10. Final damage taken:
    Effects that count the amount of damage taken by the player use the damage value at this point. The difference between this damage and the damage at the start of the 'damage mitigation' step is considered prevented damage for effects like Wandering ReliquaryWandering Reliquary
    Steel PlateArmour: 177Requires Level 27, 57 Str+(50-100)% increased Armour
    +(40-60) to maximum Mana
    +(10-20) to Strength
    +(60-80) to Stun Threshold
    50% of Physical Damage prevented Recouped as LifeKnowing she could outlast any opponent,
    Wrashmin fought not to win, but to delay., including damage mitigated by block.
11. Applying damage and losing resources:
    Damage (or a portion thereof) is taken from resources in the following order. Any remaining damage will be taken from the next resource. Some effects allow damage to bypass a resource, in which case the bypassing damage will apply directly to the next resource instead.
    
    From other entities or effects:
    1. Effects that cause damage to take resources from other entities "before you", e.g. Loyal Hellhound. Each effect is multiplicative, not additive.
    2. Buffs that intercept damage to consume the buff "before your Life, (Mana) or Energy Shield", such as Aegises, Obsessive Rituals, or Jade Heritage.
    From the defender's resources:
    1. Damage is taken from energy shield before life, unless damage can bypass energy shield.
       • Chaos Damage inherently removes twice as much energy shield as the damage value. This does not affect the actual damage dealt.
       • Bleeding and Poison deal damage over time bypassing energy shield.
       • Energy shield recharge is interrupted when energy shield or the resource it is protecting is lost due to damage, unless recharge explicitly cannot be interrupted (e.g. Energy Barrier).
       • If Eternal Youth is allocated, only directly losing life due to damage will interrupt life recharge. Life loss over time (e.g. from Grasping Wounds) does not interrupt life recharge. Spending or sacrificing life does not interrupt recharge.
    2. #% of the remaining damage is removed from mana, if granted by an effect such as Mind over Matter.
    3. Life loss can be prevented by various effects. Effects that grant #% of life loss prevented are multiplicative rather than additive. Life loss cannot be further mitigated.
       1. #% of life loss from damage is prevented through Grasping Wounds and an equal amount of life loss is applied over time over 4 seconds.
       2. The remaining damage is removed from Life. Life does not protect any other resource. If all Life is removed, you die.
       3. Death from hits can be prevented (e.g. The Barrow DwellerThe Barrow Dweller
          Rogue ArmourArmour: 53
          Evasion: 43Requires Level 11, 14 Str, 14 Dex(60-100)% increased Armour and Evasion
          +(-20--10)% to Fire Resistance
          +50% to Cold Resistance
          Damage of Enemies Hitting you is Unlucky while you are on Low Life
          50% chance to Avoid Death from HitsIn the mists they dwell,
          forever hungry,
          forever cold.). This will leave the player at 1 life instead if the effect occurs. Death from damage over time, life loss over time, or instant death effects (e.g. Drowning) cannot be prevented.

Damage over time

Damage over time generally follows the same principles; however, damage over time does not hit, bypassing many hit-based defensive mechanics such as evasion, armour, block, etc. Damage over time occurs at the start of each server frame, before potential hit damage, though after over-time recovery.

While damaging ailments are applied by hits, their damage is calculated as a percentage of the hit's damage before mitigations. This percentage is modified by ailment magnitude; no other damage multipliers will apply to prevent "double-dipping". Mitigation applies to damage over time after this independently of hit damage. This prevents debuffs like ignite from scaling twice with stats like #% increased Fire damage, but also prevents it from being mitigated twice by Fire Resistance.

Version history

Version	Changes
0.1.0	Introduced to the game.