Damage

Damage refers to a negative modification to a player's health, stamina, or mana. Damage to health is represented in real time, following the event of taking damage by overhead floating red digits for personal damage, orange digits for damage to a group member, and yellow digits for damage to any other party. Damage to stamina and mana will only be indicated via system channels.

Damage Types

Physical Damage

Nearly all weapons cause physical damage, and nearly all armor offers at least some resistance to it. Physical damage can be further mitigated by common spells such as Shielding or Damage Absorbers. These resistances can be reduced with common damage exposure weapon powers or by Armor Penetration.

There are three physical damage types:

• Crushing, caused by hammers, staffs, or unarmed weapons as well as the Druid spell 'Earthquake' and the Fury spell 'Fury of Wind'. Crushing does 40% damage to buildings.
• Piercing, caused by spears, bows, crossbows, daggers, and some types of axe weapons as well as the Druid spells 'Grasp of Thorns' and 'Hedge of Thorns' and the Ranger spell 'Grasp of Thorns'
• Slashing, caused by swords, pole arms, or most axes as well as the Berserker spell 'Fury of the Northmen', the Blademaster spell 'Whirlwind Attack', and the Blade Weaver spell 'Blade Dance'. Slashing does 15% of normal damage to buildings.

Magic Damage

Power damage is caused mostly by spells cast by the player. With the widest range of varying types, aside from the Mage's Defensive stance, players will have a difficult time being resistant to all of them at once. Like physical damage types, the cap for resistance to spells is 75%, but there is no limit to how far in the negative a player may become exposed. The following are the power damage types.

• Bleeding is a low-damage DoT caused by weapon powers. This resistance is not displayed in the resistances window. The third tier bleeding proc is "of Cuts".
• Cold damage may be caused by Shadow Bolt, Hoarfrost, Ice Bolt, Blizzard, Fury of Ice, or the Chill of the Grave. The third tier cold damage proc is "of the Frykka".
• Fire damage is caused by Blood Boil, Ignite, Incendiary Blast, Fire Bolt, Uvoriel's Judgment, Brand the Wicked, Saint Malorn's Wrath, and Cleansing Flame. The third tier fire proc is "of Fire".
• Disease is a rare type of damage that cannot be resisted. The Healer's Contagion causes this type of damage.
• Drain is technically not a damage type, but the damage caused by drain spells is unique because it cannot be resisted by any means, and transfers a percentage of damage dealt as a heal to the caster. An example is the Doomsayer's Unleash Blight.
• Healing resistance determines the amount you are healed. This resistance is not displayed in the resistances window.
• Holy damage is caused by Censure, Darius' Fist, Fling Holy Water, Put to the Torch, Smite the Dead, Saint Lorne's Ire, Divine Word of Binding, and Righteous Word of Binding. The third tier holy proc is "of Truth".
• Lightning damage is caused by Electrocute, Lightning Bolt, Call Lightning (Channeler), Call Lightning (Druid), Call the Sky's Fury, and Call Storm. The third tier lightning proc is "of Thunderbolts".
• Magic damage is caused by Mage Bolt, Lesser Mage Bolt, Dread Dissonance, Pallando's Pernicious Puns, Mystic Bolt, and Sign of Sorthoth. The third tier proc for magic damage is "of the Fey".
• Mental damage is caused by Mind Strike and Psychic Shout. The third tier mental proc is "of the Mentalist".
• Poison damage is caused by Steal Breath, Purgation, Blight, and Inflict Poison. The third tier poison proc is "of the Fang".
• Unholy damage is caused by Unholy Blast and Unholy Storm. The third tier unholy proc is "of Oblivion".

Siege Damage

Siege damage is a type of damage that may only effect buildings and other structures. The Battle Magus power Demolishing Spell is the only player spell that uses siege damage, however, players may also inflict siege damage by the use of a siege engine such as a trebuchet or in the medium of weapons using a siege hammer, bow, or staff. All pets automatically inflict siege damage when attacking bane stones, but may not damage other structures.

Damage Resistance and Vulnerability

Most types of damage can be resisted or debuffed. These values are represented as a flat percentage. To see your character's current resistances, press Esc, Chartacter Info, then Resistances.

How to Interpret

Resistances found on gear and spells often exclude percent symbol (%). For instance, a spell that offers "+50 Fire Resist" will increase your resistance to fire by 50%. A fire spell that would have done 100 damage before, will do 50 fire damage after applying the resistance.

All armor (except cloth armor) offers innate resistance to physical damage. Spell damage resistances are found in racial perks, starting traits, gear (especially jewelry), and spells.

Resistance Cap

All resistances cap at 75%. However, keeping gear and buffs that offer more than 75% can still be useful. If another player attempts to debuff your resistance, the debuff will subtract from the total amount of resistance regardless of the cap.

Example: Player 1 has a total of 100% fire resistance through their gear and buffs. Only 75% of this resistance is taken into account when calculating damage. Player 2 casts a debuff on Player 1 that reduces fire resistance by 20%. Player 1's new resistance total is still 75% because the 20% debuff took their 100% down to 80%, and Player 1 is still 5% above the cap.

Another Example: Player 1 has a total of 100% fire resistance through their gear and buffs. Only 75% of this resistance is taken into account when calculating damage. Player 2 casts a debuff on Player 1 that reduces fire resistance by 50%. Player 1's new resistance total is 50% because the 50% debuff took their 100% down to 50%, which is below the cap.