Damage Multipliers and Thorns Explained

Primary Attribute is Strength for Crusaders and Barbarians, Dexterity for Monks and Demon Hunters and Intelligence for Wizards, Witch Doctors and Necromancers.

This affix is easily found on every piece of gear and one can get plenty from Paragon Points (which is the sole reason to grind Paragon after hitting Paragon 800). A naked level 70 character by default has 217 of its Primary Attribute. The Primary Attribute acts as a damage multiplier to your base weapon damage:

Taking the example above, we can now define our unruned Magic Missile damage as 1986.79 average damage per hit:

There are only a few Primary Attribute Multipliers existing in the game:

Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Damage are affixes that simply say "You have X% chance to deal Y% more damage with every hit" with X being your Critical Hit Chance and Y being your Critical Hit Damage. This means these stats act just like any other damage multiplier in Diablo III:

Using your Critical Hit Chance and Damage as a damage multiplier will only give you your average hit, do not include it if you want to find out your average non-critical hit or set your Critical Hit Chance at 100% if you intend to calculate your average critical hit.

However, this formula becomes part of the normal damage calculation when it comes to DoT damage like Rend or Haunt, in order to avoid critical chance RNG and critical hit snapshots. Yet, crit debuffs (applied on monsters) such as Iceblink, Multishot Wind Chill or Corpse Lance Brittle Touch are not taken into consideration for the damage calculation of these skills.

Some setups like LoD Twister Wizard can be built around Shi Mizu's Haori to get 100% Critical Hit Chance at all times, generally by using shield mechanics such as Galvanizing Ward or Fortress Ballista. It is worth mentioning that some Weapons come with a special 31-35% Critical Hit Damage Affix roll: Exarian, Rabid Strike and Starmetal Kukri. The Witching Hour is also a Belt of choice for its 26-50% Critical Hit Damage roll, combined with a 5-7% Attack Speed roll.

Elemental Damage is a separate damage multiplier that increases the damage of skills depending on their element, which generally depends on the rune chosen. This damage roll, that reads "Arcane / Cold / Fire / Lightning / Holy / Physical / Poison skills deal X% more damage", is generally found on Bracers and Amulets, even though you can find it on some other items as a special roll (Stone of Jordan for instance). Elemental Damage rolls are additive with each other with their sum acting as a separate damage multiplier.

Mask of Jeram is a specific case that gives 150-200% Pet Damage. Pet damage from this legendary effect is additive with Elemental Damage but it is however not shown in your character sheet as it only applies to Pets. Black Hole Absolute Zero and Spectral Blade Flame Blades damage buffs from the Wizard are also additive with Elemental Damage.

Frostburn gives 20% Cold Damage as Elemental Damage but it has a special interaction with most Pets that makes them double dip this legendary effect, granting them 40% Cold Damage instead. Stone of Jordan has an interesting legendary affix that makes all your Elemental Damage bonuses equal to your highest one.

Here is a list of all the sources of Elemental Damage besides the normal 15-20% rolls on Amulets and Bracers:

Elite Damage is a separate damage multiplier that increases the damage dealt to Elites. Elites include Champions, Rare Minions, Rare Elites, Bosses and Goblins. Note that other Players are also affected by Elite Damage.

This primary affix (except on The Furnace), that reads "Increases damage against Elites by X%" is very rare and generally found on Weapons and Offhands (5-8% range). It is however a guaranteed roll on Empyrean Messenger. Elite Damage rolls are additive with each other with their sum acting as a separate damage multiplier.

• Stone of Jordan
• Sun Keeper
• The Furnace
• Unity
• Aughild's Authority (3) Bonus
• Blackthorne's Battlegear (2) Bonus

This category is pretty much unused in most builds in the modern Diablo III because you generally always have a better option. You can find those affixes as Secondary Affix on some legendary items and they are not shown in your character sheet. Similarly to Elite Damage, these affixes buff all your damage against specific monster types. Here are some examples:

• Monster Hunter
• Pig Sticker
• Sever
• Tyrael's Might
• Demon's Hide (4) Bonus

This category is probably the most complicated one for any Diablo III player. The name "Additive" can be misleading as it implies this category does not multiply your damage. This is misleading: the term additive is commonly used because in this category, you can find most of the damage buffs coming from your skills (hence why the name DIBS can sometimes be used as well) and as seen earlier, all damage buffs within the same category are additive with each other to form one separate damage multiplier.

This category includes for instance Taeguk, Gem of Efficacious Toxin (stacks), Hexing Pants of Mr. Yan or more generally, primary affixes on your equipment that increases the damage of a specific skill (worded as "Increases X Damage by Y%"). You can find Primary Skills Increased Damage Affixes on Belt and Pants, while Secondary Skills are spread on Helm and Boots for some, and on Shoulders and Chest for the rest. Offhands can roll any specific skill damage increase. However there are quite some special specific skills damage increases you can find like Scrimshaw for instance.

Buffs are applied on players. Global additive buffs are shown in your character sheet under the label "Damage Increased by Skills" while Skill Specific increases have their specific label and both are additive with each other. Debuffs are not shown in your character sheet as they are directly applied on monsters, hence calculated upon hit for every monster individually.

As a result, this category is more often than not "overloaded", mainly in group play (150% from Odyssey's End, 50% from Threatening Shout Falter + Horde of the Ninety Savages (2) Bonus, stacking Strongarm Bracers buffs). Even in solo play, some builds stack a lot of additive damage buffs such as Wizards (with Black Hole Spellsteal) or LoD Rapid Fire Demon Hunters due to Wojahnni Assaulter's 3,000% damage buff being additive damage.

This means adding more buffs to this category will generally result in a much lower relative damage increase than adding another separate damage multiplier buff. Skill Specific damage increases for Pets on your equipment do not follow this rule, they are a separate damage multiplier as explained in the section just below. But there's also some more specific rules applying to that additive damage category:

Buffs Snapshot
Some skills snapshot damage buffs upon cast. Meanwhile this is not something one can notice with most skills, you will stumble onto that rule as soon as you play a DoT effect (Haunt, Exploding Palm, Rend) or a skill with a duration (Energy Twister, Spirit Barrage Phantasm, Bombardment). But channeling skills like Rapid Fire and pets like Hydras for instance do not snapshot damage buffs. On the other hand, debuffs are always fully dynamic as they are directly applied on the monster, they are only calculated when the monster is hit.

Thorns Interaction
Buffs and debuffs are separate categories when it comes to Thorns Damage calculation. What we saw above is that whether it is a buff or a debuff, all damage buffs are stacking additively within their category and their sum forms one separate damage multiplier. This is however not true in regards to Thorns: buffs and debuffs from the additive category are multiplying with each other, meaning they're both separate damage multipliers for Thorns.

Yet, this is only true for "Real" Thorns such as Reflected Thorns or Thorns applied by Hack. Indeed, Converted Thorns such as Bombardment Barrels of Spikes or Thorns of the Invoker (6) Bonus are not affected, additive buffs and debuffs from this category stays additive with each other, as Converted Thorns damage are using normal damage calculations.

On your equipment, you can sometimes find primary affixes that increase the damage of a specific skill (worded as "Increases X Damage by Y%"). As seen earlier, in most cases, these are in the "Additive" Damage category. But when this affix buffs the damage of a Pet skill, they become a separate damage multiplier. This means the special Primary Affix on items such as Inna's Reach or Bombardier's Rucksack are very potent. Some special cases:

• Fetish Army Damage is a separate multiplier for all your Fetishes, Fetish Sycophants included.
• Poison Dart Damage is a separate multiplier for your Fetishes' Darts when using Carnevil.
• Spirit Barrage Damage is a separate multiplier only for the Phantasm rune.

Even though Attack Speed scales the rate of attacks using Breakpoints in most scenarios, there are a few exceptions as is tradition in Diablo III. Wave of Destruction damage from Chantodo's Resolve scales with Attack Speed as a separate damage multiplier but with a reduced scaling of APS/1.75. Tempest Rush does not have Breakpoints but instead a static tickrate of 0.2 seconds and utilizes Attack Speed as a separate damage multiplier as well.

For most Pets, your sheet Attack Speed acts as a separate damage multiplier instead of scaling their own Attack Rate. This means Tasker and Theo is the only way to scale the Attack Speed Rate of most Pets. The only exceptions to that are Hydra and Command Skeletons, which use Breakpoints and scale their Attack Speed Rate off of your sheet Attack Speed instead of using it as a damage multiplier.

Yet, every Pet follows different rules. Mirror Images for instance do not use your Attack Speed as a separate multiplier and Attack Speed buffs (Slow Time Stretch Time or Laws of Valor) do buff their Attack Rate. Also, Spirit Barrage Phantasm is worth mentioning, as it is considered a Pet regarding Attack Speed, using it as a separate damage multiplier.

Attack Speed "double dips" with Carnevil + Fetishes because due to these items and skills in combination, Fetishes shoot Poison Dart when you do, which means they scale with your own Attack Speed Rate on top of using it as a separate damage multiplier. This is however not the case for Sentry with Embodiment of the Marauder (4) Bonus, as Attack Speed is not a separate multiplier for Sentries.

If it doesn't belong to any other category, then it probably belongs here. Every other damage multiplier is its own category and they are fully dynamic (for instance Oculus Ring or Convention of Elements), which means you need to have them when your skill is hitting. They are not shown in your character sheet.

As a rule of thumb, all stacks of the same damage buff are additive with each other, their sum being a separate damage multiplier. Yet, as always in Diablo III, this is not an absolute rule, so here are a few generic examples and noteworthy cases:

• Focus & Restraint both grant a 50% separate damage multiplier, for a total of 125% (1.5 * 1.5).
• Oculus Ring gives a 85% separate damage multiplier that does not stack.
• Mantle of Channeling grants a 25% separate damage multiplier when you're channeling some skills.
• Archon and The Swami stacks are additive with each other.

Spectral Blade Flame Blades as well as Black Hole Absolute Zero grant elemental damage buffs.

Energy Twister Gale Force and Disintegrate Intensify apply 15% additive damage debuffs for specific element damage (Fire and Arcane respectively).

Elemental Exposure gives up to 4 stacks of 5% damage (one for each element), their sum being a separate damage multiplier. Primordial Soul buffs this bonus to 10% per stack.

"Increases Hydra Damage" primary affix is a separate damage multiplier but remember that unlike other Pets, Attack Speed is not as Hydras use your sheet Attack Speed to scale their attack rate instead.

Archon grants a 30% global separate damage multiplier. Archon's stacks give 6% damage, additive with each other and with The Swami stacks, their sum being a global separate damage multiplier.

Vyr's Amazing Arcana (6) Bonus buffs each stack to 100% damage. Improved Archon is a 50% separate multiplier for Archon Abilities and Chantodo's Resolve Wave of Destruction. Chantodo's Resolve's Wave of Destruction damage scales using your sheet Attack Speed as a separate damage multiplier with a reduced scaling of APS/1.75.

Separate Multipliers

The Barbarian is a staple for any group as zBarb, giving the group some powerful buffs.

Threatening Shout Falter applies a 25% additive damage debuff that does not stack. This debuff goes up to an outrageous 50% in combination with Horde of the Ninety Savages (2) Bonus.

Battle Rage gives 10% additive damage buff up to 15% with Marauder's Rage. Horde of the Ninety Savages (2) Bonus doubles that buff.

Separate Multipliers

Necromancer does not have a lot of damage buffs but it does have powerful Critical Hit Chance debuffs (Corpse Lance Brittle Touch and Command Golem Ice Golem) and takes advantage of it in the zNecromancer support build.

Skeletal Mage Singularity scales with additional Resource spent, but unlike Meteor Star Pact and Ancient Spear Boulder Toss, is not additive with the Weapon Skill Damage but a separate damage multiplier instead. "Increases Skeletal Mage Damage" primary affix is a separate damage multiplier.

Simulacrums are not considered Pets! Hence they're not using your sheet Attack Speed as a damage multiplier and do not benefit from Enforcer.

Additive Buffs

• Fate's Vow
• Spreading Malediction

Separate Multipliers

Odyssey's End applies an insane 150% additive damage debuff (which can stack with several Demon Hunters) to enemies affected by Entangling Shot.

"Increases Sentry Damage" primary affix is a separate damage multiplier. Even with Embodiment of the Marauder (4) Bonus, "Increases Hatred Spender Damage" primary affixes stay additive damage buffs.

Natalya's Slayer has a special fifth primary affix which is "Increases Spike Trap Damage by 10-15%".

Natalya's Vengeance (6) Bonus has a primary 10,000% separate damage multiplier and a secondary stacking effect which is a separate multiplier as well (with stacks being additive with themselves).

Separate Multipliers

Hex Jinx offers a 15% additive damage debuff. Toad of Hugeness debuff is additive as well and can be stacked.

Mask of Jeram gives 200% Pet damage as an Elemental Damage buff. Shukrani's Triumph provides you with a 100% additive damage buff.

Gruesome Feast gives up to 50% Intelligence as a Primary Attribute multiplier. This is additive with the 15% from Soul Harvest (30% with Sacred Harvester).

Spirit Barrage Phantasm uses Attack Speed as a separate damage multiplier like Pets. Similarly, "Increases Spirit Barrage Damage" primary affix is a separate damage multiplier for Phantasms. Frostburn legendary effect is double dipped by Phantasm, for a total of 40% Cold damage.

"Increases Fetish Army Damage" primary affix is a separate damage multiplier for all Fetishes, Fetish Sycophants included.

With Carnevil equipped, "Increases Poison Dart Damage" primary affix is a separate damage multiplier for Darts shot by Fetishes, but stay an additive damage buff for your own Poison Darts.

Separate Multipliers

Unity is giving you 5% additive damage buff for each nearby ally up to 20%, and 5% to allies.

Tempest Rush has a fixed 0.2 second tickrate and uses your sheet Attack Speed as a separate damage multiplier.

Rabid Strike's Mimic is a Mystic Ally in regard to the Bindings of the Lesser Gods legendary effect. Enforcer's separate damage multiplier does work on them but "Increases Mystic Ally Damage" primary affix does not work. Frostburn legendary effect is double dipped by Rabid Strike's Mimic if you use a Cold skill, for a total of 40% Cold damage.

Separate Multipliers

Aegis of Valor (2) Bonus used to be the only stacking damage buff in the game whose stacks are multiplicative with each other for Heaven's Fury damage but got nerfed to the usual additive stacks behavior with Season 24 patch.

Vo'Toyias Spiker is a 100% additive damage debuff working for the whole party but only for "Real" Thorns. Those are Reflected Thorns, Hack and Thorns of the Invoker (2) Bonus. Converted Thorns such as Thorns of the Invoker (6) Bonus or Bombardment Barrels of Spikes are not affected.

Heavenly Strength gives a negative 20% additive damage, effectively making your other additive buffs stronger.

Shield of Fury and Hammer Jammers do not buff Area Damage ticks. Hammer Jammers proc from Knockbacks as well despite the tooltip. Bracer of Fury requires the target to be Blinded, Immobilized or Stunned when the hit happens.

Separate Multipliers