Damage
There are many factors which effect how much damage is dealt by the various attacks available to players and this page will explain as much as possible.
Warning this page contains formulas! Also know your order of operations.
Damage Range
Most attacks in the game do not deal simple fixed values but can deal damage over a range of values that comes from the base damage range. The formulas on this page can be applied to the average damage of the range to find an average result or it can be applied individually to both the minimum and maximum damage values to find the true range of the damage. The average damage is more meaningful when looking at your average DPS (damage per second) but having a high maximum damage can be desirable in PvP situations where high spike damage is difficult to defend against.
Actual damage will be a value randomly picked between the minimum value and the maximum value of the damage range. This applies to the physical damage range for physical attacks or the magical damage range for magical attacks. The only equipment that contributes a range of damage is the weapon which has a base range and equipment with the stats "+Maximum Physical Attack" or "+Maximum Magical Attack" which only add to the maximum of their respective ranges.
Base Damage
Base damage is the attack shown in your character sheet. For physical attacks, the base damage is equal to the damage you deal with a normal attack of your weapon.
- base damage = attack multiplier * weapon attack
Weapon Attack
Weapon attack in general is how much your weapon contributes to your damage.
- weapon attack = attack from weapon + attack from gem in weapon + attack from rings and other equipment + character level
Don't forget about the +attack or +max attack adds on the weapon
Weapon attack can also be gained from attack charms. Ammo contributes to the weapon attack for ranged weapons.
Other than character level all other factors of weapon attack are found from equipment. Weapon attack can be increased by upgrading equipment.
Attack Multiplier
The attack multiplier comes from how your stats, masteries, and buffs contribute to your base damage.
Daggers and Ranged Weapons:
- attack multiplier = 1 + Dex/150 + weapon mastery + physical attack buffs
Melee Weapons
- attack multiplier = 1 + Str/150 + weapon mastery + physical attack buffs
Magic Weapons
- attack multiplier = 1 + Mag/100 + magical attack buffs
Example:
For an archer with 450 Dex and level 10 bow mastery
attack multiplier = 1 + 450/150 + 0.6 = 4.6
This means his base damage is 4.6 times his weapon attack.
Comparison of sources of physical attack multiplier:
- Level 10 bow mastery adds 60% weapon attack
- Level 10 Strength of Titans attack buff adds 30% weapon attack
- Level 10 take aim adds 300% weapon attack
- Level 3 True Form removes 50% weapon attack
- 150 Dex adds 100% weapon attack
- Spark Eruption adds 150% weapon attack
- Advanced Spark Eruption adds 300% - 400% attack
- Demon / Sage Spark Eruption adds 500% attack
- Gloom weapon proc adds 100% attack as does Unrelenting
Skill Damage
Most skills are of the form
- skill damage = base damage + skill weapon attack multiplier * weapon attack + constant damage
You can simplify this to
- skill damage = (base weapon attack multiplier + skill weapon attack multiplier) * weapon attack + constant damage
Amplifying Damage
There are several skills that can amplify the damage you do as well as magical mastery. Sources of damage amplification are multiplied together. For example a 30% amplification from Sage Amplify Damage when combined with 20% amplification from extreme poison will give 56% more total amplification since (1.3) * (1.2) = 1.56
- skill damage dealt = skill damage * product( 1 + amplification from each debuff )
Comparison of sources of amplify damage
- 20% more damage from Extreme Poison
- 100% more damage from Heaven's Flame
- 20% more damage from level 10 veno Amplify Damage
- 20% from level 10 magic masteries
Critical Hit
A crit is an attack that does more damage than a normal attack. This damage is given as the rage damage multiplier in your char sheet and is 200% for all classes but Assassins who have a skill to get 230% rage damage. Your chance to crit is given in your character sheet and come from equipment, crit buffs, the Rainbow Blessing (cleric-only genie skill) buff, and Dex.
- chance to crit = 1 + (Dex / 20) [rounded down] + crit from equipment + crit from buffs
- crit damage = rage damage * damage inflicted
Damage Reductions
There are several sources of damage reductions.
PvP Damage Reduction
In PvP all damage is reduced by 75% (corresponding to a damage multiplier of 25%). This does not apply to some attacks from venomancer pets.
Terrain-Based Damage Reduction
In PWI combat can occur on land, in water, and in the air. If both the attacker and target are in the same terrain then the target will take full damage. If they are on different terrain then there may be a 50% damage reduction. This damage reduction applies to both melee and ranged attacks but does not apply to mobs, venomancer/mystic pets, or Damage over Time effects.
| Target | Air | Land | Water | |
| Attacker | Air | 100% | 50% | 50% |
| Land | 50% | 100% | 50% | |
| Water | 50% | 50% | 100% | |
Level Difference Damage Reduction
If the target is a higher level than the attacker then a level difference damage reduction may apply. This damage reduction is ignored by venomancer / mystic pets which makes those particularly effective fighting against ?-level mobs (which count as level 150).
| Target Level minus Attacker Level |
Damage Multiplier |
| < 3 | 100% |
| 3 - 5 | 90% |
| 6 - 8 | 80% |
| 9 - 11 | 70% |
| 12 - 15 | 60% |
| 16 - 20 | 50% |
| > 20 | 25% |
Skill-Based Damage reduction
A number of skills provide the Bless buff and similar buffs which reduce damage. These skills do not apply to damage done from damage over time effects.
Some examples of skill-based damage reduction
- Blue bubble (50% reduction)
- Invoke (90% reduction)
- Sage spark (25% reduction)
- Wings of grace (30% reduction)
- Guardian light (60% reduction)
- Bramble hood (75% reduction)
Ranged Weapon Damage reduction
This damage reduction in particular affects archers but actually applies to any attacker using a bow. Ranged weapons have a 50% damage reduction if the target is closer than the minimum effective range of the weapon.
| Weapon Type | Minimum Effective Range |
| Crossbow | 5.5m |
| Bow | 5m |
| Slingshot | 4.5m |
Most archer skills suffer from this range reduction. The ones that have no minimum effective range are Winged Pledge, Wingspan, and the metal-dealing skills.
Resistance
Physical resistance is based on your Str, Vit, and equipment defense (the sum of the physical defense found on all of your equipment). Similarly magical resistance is based on your Mag, Vit, and equipment magical resistance. Magical resistance should be calculated separately for each of the 5 magical elements but most equipment has the same resistance across the elements.
- physical defense = Str/4 + Vit/4 + equip.PDef*((Dtr+0.7*Vit)/(750+level) + 1)
- magic resistance = (Mag-1)/4 + (Vit-1)/4 + equip.MDef*((Mag+0.7*Vit)/(750+level) + 1)
The above formulas for defense give the defense found in the character sheet but are only about 96.3% accurate. If anyone knows a more exact formula please add it to the page.
Defense and resistance work by lowering damage according to the following formula.
- physical reduction % = physical defense / (40 * attacker level + physical defense)
- magical reduction % = magic resistance / (40 * attacker level + magical resistance)
- damage delivered = damage dealt * ( 1 - reduction % )
The above reduction percentages are shown in the character sheet when hovering over the stat. If equipment adds a physical damage reduction stat it does not contribute to this reduction %. This is a separate reduction that applies in a different step from the above.
- physical damage delivered = damage dealt * ( 1 - defense reduction% ) * ( 1 - total physical damage reduction from equipment% )
Note, that in game statistics menu reductions are shown as truncated numbers (39.7% reduction will be shown as 39% in menu). To receive exact results, you shouldn't omit fractions.
* This needs to be confirmed
Attack and Defense Levels
Attack and defense levels come from various skills, Jones' Blessing and other bless boxes, grade 12 gems, and powerful equipment. The damage depends on the attacker's attack level and the target's defense level.
if (attack level > defense level) then:
- damage taken = { damage delivered * ( 1 + ({ attack level } - { defense level }) / 100 ) }
if (attack level < defense level) then:
- damage taken = { damage delivered / ( 1 + (1.2 * ({ defense level } - { attack level }) / 100 ) ) }
Where {} means enter part or truncate the number; for example { 367.9 } = 367
Evasion / Accuracy
Most physical attacks can be evaded, in which case they do 0 damage. Magic attacks never miss.
- evasion factor = 1000 * target evasion / attacker accuracy
- chance to evade = evasion factor / (40 * attacker level + evasion factor)
or...
- chance to evade = 25 * target evasion / ( attacker accuracy * attacker level + 25 * target evasion)
* this equation is unconfirmed
Effective Health
The amount of damage you must deliver to kill something or that something needs to kill you, winds up being health divided by the damage delivered percentage. This simplifies to:
- health / (1 - defense / (40 * attacker level + defense))
You should probably be thinking about what this number will be for you in various plausible situations when choosing between defense and health (for example, when comparing between two different shards that cost the same amount, or when choosing between two different belts).
To choose between Vit, citrine, and garnet shards you will have to make two calculations for every stat/shard combination:
- Effective Health against Physical damage = HP / (1 - physical reduction) / (1 - bonus physical reduction from equipment )
- Effective Health against Magical damage = HP / (1 - magical reduction)
'Physical reduction' and 'magical reduction' is physical and magical resistance in decimal form. To calculate Effective Health for enemies with different levels, put 'physical defense / (40 * attacker level + physical defense)' in place of 'physical reduction' and 'magical defense / (40 * attacker level + magical defense )' in place of 'magical reduction' in formula.
To calculate Effective Health with consideration of attack and defense levels use one of the two following equation sets.
If enemy's attack level is higher than your defense level:
- Effective Health against physical damage = HP / (1 - physical reduction) / (1 - bonus physical reduction) / (1 + (attack level - defense level) / 100)
- Effective Health against magical damage = HP / (1 - magical reduction) / (1 + (attack level - defense level) / 100)
If enemy's attack level is lower than your defense level (and for PvE where attack level = 0):
- Effective Health against Physical damage = HP * (1 + (1.2 * (defense level - attack level) / 100)) / (1 - physical reduction) / (1 - bonus physical reduction)
- Effective Health against Magical damage = HP * (1 + (1.2 * (defense level - attack level) / 100)) / (1 - magical reduction)
