Does the type of weapon elemental damage really matter?

[Jhelzei]

My level 4 Aedyran knight just enchanted a fine sword with flame lash to help put down shadows. However, from what I've read of the weapon elemental damage mechanics, it doesn't really matter what kind of element you add to the weapon. With elemental it appears that normal damage is calculated with normal DR first (pierce/slash/bludgeon), than a flat 25% of elemental damage is added to that damage. For example, against a shadow with a slash DR of 8, if I score a 'normal' hit of 20 damage, that leaves 12 points of slash damage. A flat 25% of fire damage for Flame Lash would be added to that amount (3 points in my example), for a total of 15 points. Fire DR doesn't seem to matter for this calculation, so it might as well be cold or shock damage.

 

TL; DR Does the *type* of elemental weapon damage even matter?

Edited June 7, 2015 by Jhelzei

[Drath]

Have a look at http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/72272-combat-mechanics-attack-speed-recovery/?p=1627173

Thanks AlphaMagnum

 

So in your case:

Final damage = (Base (Pre-DR) Sword Damage - Slash DR ) +  (Lash Damage (Fire) - modified Fire DR )

 

Where Lash Damage (Fire) is 25% of Base (Pre-DR) Sword Damage

and modified Fire DR is 25% of the opponent's Fire DR

 

As you can see from the equation, elemental type DR does matter and Flaming Lash is a good choice Vs mobs weak to fire (have low Fire DR)

 

 

P/S - In your post above you used post DR values (should be pre DR) for Lash Damage and didn't factor in modified elemental DR