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User:Bloonpauper/Damage
Added damage
Added damage, or flat damage, refers to the raw numerical damage rolls that form the basis of a skill's damage. An example of this modifier is Adds 1-4 Physical Damage to Attacks. The primary source of added damage for an attack is the weapon. The primary source of added damage for a spell is stated on the skill itself. Added damage on spells scale with gem levels.
These distinctions inform the conventional weapon choices for attack and spell builds. Attack builds use martial weapons, like bows, crossbows, quarterstaves, and maces. These weapons supply the added damage their skills depend on. Spell builds use caster weapons like wands and staves, which can roll caster modifiers and do not have any inherent martial stats. You could not attack with a wand even if a skill allowed it, because the wand would have no attack stats with which to inform the damage calculations.
Attack weapon
Tip
The text of an item's inherent stats will be blue when modified by a local modifier and grey otherwise.
Below are worked examples for the damage outputs for attack weapons. These examples use maces but they will work for any martial weapon - they all work off of the same core principles.
| Item image | Explanation |
|---|---|
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Highlighted is the weapon's base damage roll - "95-127". By default, every  Advanced Leaden Greathammer will deal this much base physical damage. The damage of any hit with an attack with this weapon will be based upon this number.
First, average the roll ranges of the damage and multiply by the weapon's attacks per second. (94+127)/2 = 110.5 110.5 * 1.1 = 121.55 Because 20% quality means 20% more base damage and quality is relatively easy to get, multiply by 1.2 for 20% quality for a realistic number. Trade will use this number when showing DPS regardless of the weapon's actual quality. 121.55 * 1.2 = 145.86 This weapon's PDPS is 145.86. |
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The weapon's damage range is already displayed as 548-818, but we'll work it out from the stats to learn how it works. Note that the text is in blue to show that's its been modified by a local modifier.
First, take the base physical damage - it's the same base as before, so it's the same 95-127. Add the flat damage from the Adds 40 to 73 Damage prefix modifier. (94-127) + (40-73) = (134-200) Apply the % increases. Note that there is one source for 201% on the prefixes and another for 40% on an enchantment from two (134-200) * 3.41 = (456.94-682) Account for quality to show that our calculations are consistent with the display: (460.35-682) * 1.2 = (548-818) Account for attack speed and average for our PDPS. Note that the attack speed has been modified by a local suffix modifier to 1.3 from 1.1. (548+818)/2 * 1.3 = 887.9 PDPS This demonstrates the importance of a well-rolled weapon - a build using this weapon will deal over six times the DPS than one using the first. |
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An example of a unique weapon,  Hrimnor's Hymn. They often confuse new players, but they work off exactly the same rules as every other weapon does.
Here, the weapon base is Modify by 62% to get 23-42 as the weapon shows, average to 32.5. Multiply by 1.2 for quality and 1.05 for APS to get 40.95 PDPS. As you can see, the PDPS of this unique weapon is kneecapped by its base, Oak Greathammer, which drops at low levels and necessarily has low physical damage. This is common for attack unique weapons. Does that mean the item is useless? Maybe for most, but not if you build it right. Note the aftershocks modifier. Taken practically, this is effectively a 2x DPS modifier as it allows your slams to deal damage twice. To make up for the lacklustre base physical damage, we can use modifiers like Adds 19 to 32 Physical Damage to Attacks on our rings and/or endgame uniques like |
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Here's an example with a  Expert Crackling Quarterstaff. Notably, this base has no base physical damage - only 43-172 lightning damage. That means the 211% increased Physical Damage roll, usually very strong, does absolutely nothing for the item. The only damage comes from that base lightning damage and the .
Note that, while theoretically possible, local #% increased Elemental Damage doesn't exist. This means elemental rolls usually cannot scale as high as physical ones can. Average the lightning roll, average the fire roll, add them together, and account for attack speed. (43 + 172) / 2 = 107.4 (99 + 165) / 2 = 132 (107.4 + 132) * 1.4 = 335.16 |
