So Have I got this right? Attempting to understand damage in POE 2
I think I have this right, but given the complexity and variance in source information, some areas may be wrong. Looking for feedback
So we have 5 basic damage types:
- Physical
- Fire
- Cold
- Lightning
- Chaos
And two basic damage delivery methods
- Direct
- DoT
And two types of damage skill types
- Attack
- Spell
And two source of skills
- Gem
- Weapon or other gear (less common)
Every combination of the above is possible, if not implemented in the game, so you can have a physical DoT spell cast from a gem, or a physical direct attack from a weapon, or any other combination (in theory, if not in practice, i.e. there are no rules preventing this)
Skills May have DoT (Damge over time) and/or an ailment/
Physical
Physical DoT is bleed, but so also is corrupted blood, corrupted blood is not considered to be bleeding. Bleeding is not considered to be corrupted blood.
Physical attacks are mitigated by armour, or Phys damage reduction
Elemental (Fire, Cold, Lightning)
'Elemental' refers only to fire, cold, lightning.
All/specific resistance only effects elemental damage.
Fire
Fire DoT is Burning. Ignite is a type of Fire DoT. Ignite damage does not stack, only the highest source of ignite damage is applied. Burning is also a fire DoT, and while ignite is a type of burning, burning might not be an ignite. e.g. Increasing ignite damage will not affect burning damage. Burning can also be applied to an area i.e. burning ground, that applies fire DoT to any target within the area.
Inflicting any fire DoT has no other effect than additional damage.
Cold
Cold ailments are chill and freeze
Chill slows targets action speed.
Freeze builds with damage, once frozen the target cannot move or attack. A frozen enemy can be shattered, inflicting cold damage to nearby enemies. A player cannot be shattered. This destroys the corpse, removing it from any corpse interaction.
(Apparently, these two ailments are separate, and don't contribute to each other.)
Lightning
Lightning ailments are:
- Shock, which increases all damage taken by a target by 20%- 100%. Any lightning skill can shock
- Electrocute, which stuns effected targets. Only specific modifiers add electrocute, must be built up, but is a separate scaling ailment not associated with shock.
Chaos
Chaos damage inflicts double damage on energy shield. Chaos resistance works against all forms of chaos damage; be they direct or DoT.
Chaos DoT is:
- Poison. Poison damage bypasses energy shield. Poison is considered an ailment.
- Contagion. Contagion is a spell, that applies a debuff chaos DoT but is not considered poison.
- Decaying Hex applied by a support gem adds yet another type of chaos DoT. It is not considered poison.
Increases to chaos damage will increase poison damage, but the poison damage DoT is based of base, not boosted damage, so you don't "double dip"
Modifiers
In addition to the above, there are many additional effects that can be utilised. These all have direct effects on either the target, the source, or both. They have many interactions with support gems, other skills, affixes and passives. The description below all assume that no other modifier is being applied.
Armour Break
Armour break reduces armour of a target. It must be specifically selected for, via support gem, specific skill, or affix.
The amount of armour broken (before modifiers) is based off the damage dealt.
If armour break reduces the target's armour to zero, the target's armour is "fully broken" and they rake 20% additional damage.
Pinning
Pin is an immobilising debuff. Pin builds up, and once a threshold is achieved, the target is pinned. Pinned targets are immobile and have no evasion.
Pin builds (before modifiers) based on damage dealt.
Rage
Rage is a buff that builds to improve the attack damage (not spell damage) capped at 30%
Rage decays over time if the user is not attacking.
Charges (Endurance, Frenzy, Power)
- Endurance Charges: Associated with Strength. Used by Warrior skills (e.g., Infernal Cry, Seismic Cry) to empower slams or restore life.
- Frenzy Charges: Associated with Dexterity. Consumed by skills like Split Shot or Wind Serpent to add projectiles or chain effects.
- Power Charges: Associated with Intelligence. Used to empower spells or specific elemental infusions.
Scaling Damage
Damage Conversion
Conversion changes one damage type into another (e.g., Physical to Fire) and acts early in the calculation chain.
Converted damage does not "remember" its origin type. If you convert 100% Physical to Fire, modifiers to "Increased Physical Damage" will not increase your damage; only "Increased Fire Damage" will.
Conversion from multiple sources works in a specifci order:
- Skill-type Conversion: Conversion listed on skill gems (e.g., inherent on Perfect Strike) happens first.
- Secondary Conversion: Gear or passive tree conversions (e.g., Avatar of Fire) happen second
- Damage cannot exceed 100%
Gain Damage as Extra
Adds additional extra damage to another. This does not change the original damage type.
Scaling one type of damage only effects that specific component.
Critical Damage
Critical damage multiples damage by 200%, increased by both crit chance, and crit damage.
DoT damage cannot crit, but the initial hit can.
Base critical hit chance is determined by either the weapon base critical hit chance, or the spell's critical hit chance.
Attack/Cast Speed
Attack speed increases only attacks
Cast speed only increases spells
Summary of Scaling Order
- Base Damage (from weapon or gem level) + Flat Added Damage.
- Conversion and Gained as Extra modifiers.
- Sum of all applicable Increased Damage modifiers.
- Product of all More Damage multipliers (typically from Support Gems).
- Critical Strikes, Double/Triple Damage, and enemy mitigation (Resistances).
