Damage Strength...Is It Any Stronger??

eviltwintwo

I recently tested the difference in damage with and without Electric Sheath on my Tempest. It was rank 2 (+50%) damage...and the damage it added was almost unnoticeable.

I may think this because my mind is still used to Aim and Build Up in City of Heroes, which actually added the stated percentage of damage to your attacks...but having a power add a few dozen points of damage and calling it 50% is just stupid.

It's not that I'm unaware of this...if you take the description of Fire Strike literally, you should be doing double damage by the 4th or 5th hit. But no, it's not increasing in damage but in damage strength. And while that does seem to add up a bit (+25% 4 times = +100%), it definitely was misleading the first time I read it.

In fact the only damage percentage which actually seems to give an actual literal ??% damage is Crit Damage.

So is there anything about this I'm missing? For example, does the advantage Matter-Energy Union affect damage strength or something? (I don't think it says so in the description.) Or are these supposed damage increases better used just for escaping holds?

pantagruel01

I recommend this thread (though matter-energy union doesn't relate to damage at all; it actually applies a force field effect).

championshewolf

It is adding the stated damage, the problem is it's additional damage added to the damage bonus you already have. It's a 50% damage increase but when you already are getting around 200%, 50% isn't going to look like a huge change. So when you add that 50% on top of that 200%, your base is still going up 50%, but that's base damage, but the over all difference will only look like it's 25% because of the already huge increase you currently have. However, this is not to be mistaken for it's insignificant, because it isn't.

Essentially, you have to remember you are getting bonus damage from a lot of sources in this game; super stats, form, specializations, and slotted passives potentially. They all add up. Crit damage and offense damage are the only damage types that multiply this already large pool of damage.

spinnytop

Generally the big contribution to damage comes from stuff like crit chance and severity that certain AOs add. But basically the entire thing matters if you're trying to scrape out every last bit of damage you can. even 5% more damage for something that activates instantly is enough for some people if they're basically just trying to get their damage as high as possible and don't care about anything else.

eviltwintwo

pantagruel01 said:

I recommend this thread (though matter-energy union doesn't relate to damage at all; it actually applies a force field effect).

Because of the lack of extra damage, I was wondering if the defensive effect negated the offensive effect. But you're right, it doesn't. Appreciate the response!

eviltwintwo

championshewolf said:

It is adding the stated damage, the problem is it's additional damage added to the damage bonus you already have. It's a 50% damage increase but when you already are getting around 200%, 50% isn't going to look like a huge change. So when you add that 50% on top of that 200%, your base is still going up 50%, but that's base damage, but the over all difference will only look like it's 25% because of the already huge increase you currently have. However, this is not to be mistaken for it's insignificant, because it isn't.

Essentially, you have to remember you are getting bonus damage from a lot of sources in this game; super stats, form, specializations, and slotted passives potentially. They all add up. Crit damage and offense damage are the only damage types that multiply this already large pool of damage.

That explains a lot actually. Thanks for the reply.

eviltwintwo

spinnytop said:

Generally the big contribution to damage comes from stuff like crit chance and severity that certain AOs add. But basically the entire thing matters if you're trying to scrape out every last bit of damage you can. even 5% more damage for something that activates instantly is enough for some people if they're basically just trying to get their damage as high as possible and don't care about anything else.

Personally, I'm not a fan of increasing damage just so you can finish a weak enemy 1 damage tick earlier. The Tempest already finishes things (that it can finish) really fast. Oh well, there's the defensive advantage, which has saved me repeatedly, so there's always that. Thanks for the reply, Spinny.