How Is Damage Calculated

All calculations have to be done twice, once for the minimum damage, and once for the maximum damage. When specified, the calculation only applies for either the minimum or maximum damage. When not specified, it applies for both.

Let's follow an example of a Berserker Axe. The base damage of a Berserker Axe is 24-71.

Some damage bonuses only apply to weapon damage and not to kick or smite damage.

1. Base Damage

Your base damage is the weapon's damage without any modifiers. When kicking or smiting, this is the kick or smite damage from your boots or shield. When the weapon is ethereal, the minimum and maximum damage is increased by 50% (rounded down). This damage bonus is visible on the weapon itself. The ethereal damage bonus does not apply for boots or shields.

When ethereal the BA will have an increased base damage of (24 * 1.5) - (71 * 1.5) = 36-106.

2. Enhanced Damage (Weapon)

The base weapon damage is further increased by enhanced damage (ED) on your current main weapon (+X% Enhanced Damage). This damage bonus is visible on the weapon itself. When dual wielding, the main weapon constantly switches, only the current main weapon bonuses are applied. 

Enhanced damage does not apply to kick and smite damage, instead the enhanced damage is counted as offhand enhanced damage (see below). does not include offhand weapon, shield and boots counted as offhand, enhanced maximum damage.

A weapon can also have enhanced maximum damage, this modifier is only applied to the maximum damage.

As an example, let's say our BA is superior and has +15% ED, it will have an increased base damage of (36 * 1.15) - (106 * 1.5) = 41-121.

3. Flat Damage

Now we can apply minimum and maximum damage bonuses from a variety of sources. Note that this will only apply to weapons, not boots and shields.

After this we apply flat damage bonuses (+x Damage). These bonuses are applied to both the minimum and maximum damage. This does apply to all physical damage, even kick and smite damage. The most notable item with this bonus is Grief, boasting up to +400 damage. This damage boost is so powerful because it is added before all offhand damage multipliersare calculated, so taking benefit of all those bonuses.

If Grief is made in our BA, the damage is increased by 400, (41 + 400) - (121 + 400) = 441-521. This bonus is invisible on both the weapon and the character screen.

4. Enhanced Damage (Offhand)

Next, the game will apply all offhand damage multipliers. These multipliers are first added together before applied. This includes, Strength (melee) and Dexterity (ranged), Skill bonus, Enhanced Damage not on weapons, and Auras.

The damage increase provided by Strength and Dexterity depends on the weapon used, and generally each point will provide 1% damage increase.

There are also bonuses that only apply to a certain type of mob, Damage to Demons, and Damage to Undead. Since there are only three mob types, demons, undead, and animals, this bonus is applied quite often. On top of that, all act bosses are demons too. One of the most prominent sources of Damage to Demons is Laying of Hands. Damage to Demons/Undead is always calculated as offhand enhanced damage, even when it is provided by a weapon. Damage to Demons/Undead is not applied to kick and smite damage, making LoH useless for smiters. All blunt weapons come with an inherent +50% Damage to Undead.

If we take the following bonuses as an example when fighting a Demon.

• Zeal(20) +96%
• Fanaticism(20) +373%
• Fortitude +300%
• Laying of Hands +350%
• Strength(138) +138%

This will result in +1257% damage increase. When we apply this to our BA example, the resulting damage is (441 * 13.57) - (521 * 13.57) = 5984 - 7069

5. Critical Hit

After al calculations happened, there is still the chance to land a critical hit. When you land a critical hit, all physical damage is doubled. There are multiple sources that increase your chance to land a critical hit. However, having multiple sources will only increase the odds of landing a critical hit, not the damage multiplier.

You can stack Deadly Strike on equipment. Besides equipment, the following skills also provide a critical hit chance, Critical Strike, Claw Mastery, Barbarian Mastery. Each source of critical hit chance will roll individually to see if the hit is critical. This means that if you have 50% Deadly Strike and 50% Critical Strike, the game will flip 2 coins, if either of those are positive, you will get a critical hit.

6. non-Physical Damage

Elemental damage from skills or items is added after all modifiers are applied, so it's much less potent than physical damage modifiers. This damage is only increased by increased elemental skill damage (f.e. +25% to Fire Skill Damage).

Elemental skill damage is much easier to calculate, as it is only affected by two factors. Skill damage and increased elemental skill damage.

1. Skill Damage

The base damage used for calculating total skill damage is the damage provided by the skill itself. This damage is potentially amplified by synergies of other skills.

There are also skills that convert physical damage to elemental or magic damage, like Vengeance, Berserk, and Magic Arrow. Unlike Berserk, Vengeance only takes into account the ED on the weapon and min/max damage for calculating the converted physical damage. This means that Grief or critical hits don't affect the elemental damage of Vengeance.

2. Enhanced Elemental Skill Damage

The only way to increase elemental skill damage is to use items that provide

• +x% To Fire Skills
• +x% To Lightning Skills
• +x% To Cold Skills
• +x% To Poison Skills

The applicable damage bonuses are first added together and then applied to the skill base damage. This boost is immediately visible in the skill toolbar and character screen.