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Damage Calculation

Last Updated: March 6th 2024

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In Diablo 2 Resurrected your Character has many ways to deal Damage. To maximize your build's potential, you need to know how the game calculates all of these different sources. Whether you're swinging a weapon, or casting a spell, you have everything you need in this article to confidently determine your damage output.

Weapon Attack Damage

To determine the final Damage applied by a Weapon Attack you need to first layer the different bonuses to your Weapon's Damage in the correct order. The following table shows the correct order that Weapon Damage bonuses are applied, and what attack types benefit from these bonuses. Each row links to a description and additional information needed to understand it.

ModifierMeleeRangedAssassin Kicks2
smite
Base Weapon Damage Weapon Weapon Boot1 Shield1
Ethereal Weapon Damage --
+xx% Enhanced Damage
(On Weapon)
--
+xx% Enhanced Maximum Damage
(On Weapon)
--
+xx Minimum and Maximum Damage
(Adds xx to xx Damage)
--
Damage +xx --
+xx% Damage
(Off Weapon)
+xx% Damage to Demons / Undead --
Deadly Strike,

criticalstrike
,

clawmastery
,
Barbarian Combat Masteries
--
Mercenary / Summon
Critical Chance
--
Magic, Fire, Lightning,
Cold, Poison Damage
-
+xx% Skill Damage - -
% Conversion of Physical
Attack Damage


fistsoffire


berserk


magicarrow


firearrow


coldarrow


lightningbolt


fistsoffire
-
Source Penalties- --
Unit Modifier
  1. For Assassin Kick Skills and smite, Boots and Shields have Damage values that are used in place of the equipped Weapon's Damage.
  2. Assassin Kick Skills are: dragontalon, dragontail, and dragonflight.

Base Weapon Damage

Ethereal Weapon Damage

+xx% Enhanced Damage (On Weapon)

+xx% Enhanced Maximum Damage (On Weapon)

+xx Minimum and Maximum Damage (Adds xx to xx Damage)

Damage +xx

+xx% Damage (Off Weapon)

+xx% Damage to Demons / Undead

Critical Hit Chance

Mercenary / Summon Critical Hit Chance

+xx Non-Physical Damage

+xx% Skill Damage

% Conversion of Physical Attack Damage

Source Penalties

Unit Modifier

Skill Damage

For Skills that don't cause a melee or ranged attack, the Damage calculation is much more straight forward. The Skill's base Damage is then modified by any Synergy bonuses, and further modified by any +xx% Skill Damage, and then any Auras. We use moltenboulder as our example in this section.

Skill Level Damage

Synergies

+xx% Skill Damage

Calculating DPS

Unit Modifier

Damage Reductions

For Attacks and Skills, after their Damage values are calculated, the defending target's Damage Reductions then further modify the Damage before it's dealt.

We cover the exact mechanisms of each reduction type in our in-depth Damage Reduction post, but here you have a quick table that shows each source of Damage Reduction a target might have. These lower the total Damage they receive from an attack or Skill. Each modifier has either a or a - to indicate if it would reduce a source of that Damage type.

ModifierPhysicalMagicFireLightningColdPoison
bonearmor
cyclonearmor

-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
energyshield -
Damage Reduced
Magic Damage Reduced

-
-
-
-
-
-
-
xx% Resistance
-xx% Enemy Resistance1 --
xx% Absorb-- -
xx Absorb -
Excess Damage Reduced
Excess Magic Dmg Reduced
-

-

-

-

-

-
  1. -xx% Enemy Resistance is often misrepresented as being equivalent to +xx% Skill Damage. Reducing a target's Resistance to an incoming damage source often increases the total damage on that attack by multiple steps.
    • If an attack carried 1,000 Fire Damage and the target has 90% Fire Resistance, then the attack only deals 100 Fire Damage.
    • If you reduce their Fire Resistance with -10% Enemy Fire Resistance, they are left with 80% Fire Resistance. Our incoming attack would deal 200 Fire Damage, which is DOUBLE the damage. -10% Enemy Fire Resistance in this example is a 100% increase to Fire Damage.
      • If we take the same example and add +10% Fire Skill Damage, with the target having 90 Fire Resistance, then our incoming attack has 1,100 Fire Damage which is reduced to 110 Fire Damage. This is only a 10% increase to Fire Damage.

Summary

  • Damage calculations can be very complex, but understanding every component of an attack or Skill shows you your true Damage output, despite what the Character Screen says.
  • Attack Damage is layered in a very specific way. +xx to Min and Max Damage as well as Enhanced Damage on-Weapon are the most important stats to try and maximize.
  • Skill Damage is more straight forward, but calculating DPS requires you to assume a few variables. Damage output won't normally match the calculated potential.
  • Unit Modifiers and Damage Reduction affects all sources of Damage. Use this to your advantage when researching a target, or farming spot.

With this knowledge in hand, you're ready to min-max to the fullest. When making itemization choices, and Skill point allocations, make sure to look into each aspect of your Skills, to squeeze out every bit of Damage you can!

Credits

Written by MacroBioBoi
Reviewed by Teo1904

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