Can someone explain to me how this damage is being calculated?

[Starhowl]

What I'm trying to figure out is this:

I don't understand how the game gets to 52.1. The base damage could be anything between 38 and 55, and then there would also be the critical damage multiplier of 0.3 and the 45% more damage.:

Is there someone who can explain these mechanics to me?

[Silvaren]

Damage formula is:

Base Damage * (1 + coefficient 1 + coefficient 2 + ...)

You add 0,5 from critical hit and substract -0,5 when you graze.

Damage displayed by tooltip are already affected by weapon enchantment (superb) and bonus from your Might.

Iirc Arbalest has base damage range 22-32.

So you have a number from range 22-32 multiplied by:

(1 + 0,45 from superb + your % from Might Bonus + 0,5 from critical hit - 0,3 Crit Damage from Arbalest multiplier)

Final value is lowered by DR. 

Lash damage are multiplicative and calculated from final value before aplying DR and lash damage must overcome 1/4 DR.  Eg. +25% fire damage is your damage result (before DR) * 0,25 and then apply 1/4 of Fire DR. It's possibly huge damage boost so lashes are important enchantments.

I don't remember if Slayer Enchant/Talent is additive or multiplicative +25% but I would guess it's additive with the rest of the bonuses. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Edited December 8, 2019 by Silvaren

[Boeroer]

I can (edit: oops, was late ).

Weapon damage is the base of all calculations. But you have to understand that every weapon has a base damage that does never change. Not with quality (fine, exceptional etc.) nor with Might and Sneak Attack or crit.

The base damage always stays the same.

In your case, an arbalest has a fixed base damage of 22-32. The number shown above is that base damag PLUS all dmg bonuses the game can easily calculate (like the +45% dmg increase because it's superb). Stuff like Sneak attack or crits are of course not part of that tooltip because those are circumstancial bonuses that not always apply.

So, basically the tooltip is preventing you from grasping the "real" calculation which goes like this:

Weapon base damage * (1+ dmg_bonus_1 + dmg_bonus_2 + dmg_bonus_3) = overall weapon damage. This has to go through DR.

That overall weapon damage is used to calculate the lash damage (if you have a lash): overall weapon dmg * lash = lash damage. Lashes have to go through 1/4 of DR.

Grazes, crits, Might, Savage Attack... basically ALL dmg bonuses and mali are additive as you can see. So a crit isn't really a multiplier. It's just an addition. Maybe it once was a multiplier in the beta version or such, but nowadays it's not. It's a plain additive bonus.

Lashes as you can see are multiplicative. But they have to overcome DR seperately. So while they tend to have a bigger impact at higher levels they can get eaten up by DR and then do nothing.

Now in your case the calculation goes like:

22-32: avererage of 27. Crits usually do *0.5 base damage. But arbalests have -0.3 so it's only 0.2 in this case:

27 * (1+0.45superb+0.2crit)  = 44.55 on average. However you rolled a 52.1 in this case which is absolutely in the lines of what's possible. Maybe yo ualso have some other dmg bonuses like a bit more Might or whatever - or not, no idea. You rolled 52.1.

So 52.1 has to go through 12 pierce DR. Usually that would mean 52.1 - 12 = 40. But an arbalest has 3 DR bypass and thus reduces the enemy's DR from 12 to 9 (12-3) and thus it can do 43 pierce damage.

If you had a burning lash (or whatever element - which I highly recommend to put on every weapon asap) you'd have an additional 52.1 * 0.25 = 13 burn damage which woud have to go through the enemy's burn DR/4. Let's say it also has 12 burn DR. So that would mean 13 - (12/4) = 10 burn damage that goes through.

All in all you'd have 43 pierce + 10 burn damage. You can see why lashes are so good.

Edited December 8, 2019 by Boeroer

[Boeroer]

To add: generall speaking every dmg bonusyou see in the game is additive.

Exceptions:

• all lashes. This includes Wounding and also the tiny lashes that some weapon come with which is listed right besides their physical damage and not as enchantment. Weapons like Justice (10% crushing lash on top of its "official" 15% crushing lash), The Unforgiven (10% burning lash on top of the 25% burning lash) and Starcaller (same). All elemental lashes can be rised with Scion of Flame or one of the otehr elemental booster talents. So a 25% lash becomes a 30% lash or a 10% lash becomes a 12% lash. If you add several lashes (see Paladin with Flames of Devotion, Intense Flames and a burning lash on the weapon) they don't add to one big lash! They stey individual lashes which each has to overcome enemies' DR/4. So a bigger singular lash like Flames of Devotion (50%) is much more powerful than two 25% lashes. Turning Wheel (x% burning lash per wound) adds up to one singular lash though.   
• Confident Aim. The raised MIN damage actually raises the min base damage of your weapon.
• Solitary on Comtessa's Gage gauntlets. Works a bit differently than Confident Aim but alters base nonetheless afaik.

The highest damage numbers can be seen if you can add a lot of additive dmg bonuses with high base damage and then some lashes. If you have low physical damage but high lashes it's not optimal. If you have high physical damag but low lashes it's not optimal either. You want both. Rogues for example can get to very high physical weapon damage but they don't have access to many lashes like monks or paladins or chanters have. So if you can give them lashes they profit a lot. 

[Silvaren]

One important thing about lashes is that they are not affected by minimal damage mechanic, so damage from a lash can be eaten completly by high DR. Normally if your damage is affected by high DR you will deal at least 20% of your damage score, so if you deal 30 damage but enemy has 28 DR then you will deal 20% of 30 so 6 damage (instead of 2 damage) - it has minimal damage afix in combat log. Lashes don't work that way. They can be reducted to 0 damage by that 1/4 DR they have to overcome separately.

[Boeroer]

Correct. Also lashes do NOT profit from DR bypass such as Vulnerable Attack or Penetrating Shot or Rending (enchantment on weapons). They always have to overcome DR/4, no further reduction of DR.

Bythe way: there are some spells that also only have to overcome 1/4 DR. Those are the ones with fixed damage (no roll but a fixed base). No idea why. But stuff like Iconic Projection is actually a lot better than it looks at first glamnce since it also only has to overcome 1/4 of freeze DR. the other one I remember is Thorny Roots and Brutal Takedown (Ranger). I think there were one or two more...? Anyway - just a sidenote...

Edited December 8, 2019 by Boeroer

[claudius]

I'm curious if the wounding shot of ranger can be active at same time of another party member who is NOT a ranger but has the Runner's Wounding Shot talent?  I don't know why I ask but I was skeptical if you can apply both at same time?

[Silvaren]

22 minutes ago, claudius said:

I'm curious if the wounding shot of ranger can be active at same time of another party member who is NOT a ranger but has the Runner's Wounding Shot talent?  I don't know why I ask but I was skeptical if you can apply both at same time?

There are different types of DOTs in different way afected by Int for eg. but in case of Wounding Shot and Runner's Wounding Shot - these stack. They are better with high damage range weapons.

Details about DOT:

 

 

Edited December 8, 2019 by Silvaren