How does damage, crits etc work in ESO?

Bam_Bam

Hi peeps. Coulds someone kindly explain to me how damage works in this game? Spell criticals, weapon criticals, weapon damage, spell damage, the contribution of attributes to damage - it confuses the **** out of me. I'm a magika NB and I've successfully followed a build that I found online. And while I (apparent;y) do good damage, it would be nice to know what EXACTLY causes the damage/increases the damage/sustains the damage. Because at the moment I'm flummoxed.

Dagoth_Rac

If a skill uses magicka, the strength of the skill scales off spell damage and max magicka, crits based off spell critical, and is mitigated by spell resistance. If a skill uses stamina, the strength of the skill scales off weapon damage and max stamina, crits based off weapon critical, and is mitigated by armor. Ultimates scale off the higher of the two.

Sunburnt_Penguin

1. Weapon & Spell Damage is scaled off Max Stamina and Magicka, respectively (although I'm not sure what one attribute actually equals in terms of damage increase). So in the simplest sense, if you're a Magicka NB and using Stamina based abilities, you're going to excerpt less damage than a Stamina NB using those same abilities at the exact same set-up as you.

2. Weapon and Spell Critical % is the chance at which your attacks hit for a critical.

3. Weapon and Spell Critical damage/rating buffs (usually given as unit damage) essentially increases your W&S Crit % percentage and I'd imagine the unit damage adds to your W&S Damage. (E.g. Putting on Camo Hunter increases my weapon critical rating by 1580 which translates to ~10% increase in W&S Crit %)

Also, Ultimate damage scales off the largest Max of either Stamina or Magicka.

You can increase all of the above by the appropriate abilities, passives, glyphs, traits and armour sets for your build (increase: Stam/Mag, W&S damage, W&S Crit damage etc)

Sustaining the damage is mainly about recovery and reducing costs but depending on your playstyle and the fights you get in to in PvP/PvE you need to figure out for yourself which to use. Personally, I'm more of a burst damage dealer and get out quick so I go for reducing costs to maximise output in a short window rather than being in larger fights and requiring more recovery.

Does this answer?

Out of curiosity.. What are your stats?

ShadowDisciple

God..what complicated response...

If Abilities use STAMINA - then - Max Stamina, Weapon DMG increase the Damage of the Ability

if ability uses Magicka - then - max magicka, spell DMG increase the damage of the abilityw

Stamina benefits off if Weapon Critical cchance for The Crits, which do 50% more base dmg

Magicka benefits off of Spell Critical chance for the crits, which do 50% more base dmg...

i dont see whats too complicated

Bam_Bam

Sunburnt_Penguin wrote: »

1. Weapon & Spell Damage is scaled off Max Stamina and Magicka, respectively (although I'm not sure what one attribute actually equals in terms of damage increase). So in the simplest sense, if you're a Magicka NB and using Stamina based abilities, you're going to excerpt less damage than a Stamina NB using those same abilities at the exact same set-up as you.

2. Weapon and Spell Critical % is the chance at which your attacks hit for a critical.

3. Weapon and Spell Critical damage/rating buffs (usually given as unit damage) essentially increases your W&S Crit % percentage and I'd imagine the unit damage adds to your W&S Damage. (E.g. Putting on Camo Hunter increases my weapon critical rating by 1580 which translates to ~10% increase in W&S Crit %)

Also, Ultimate damage scales off the largest Max of either Stamina or Magicka.

You can increase all of the above by the appropriate abilities, passives, glyphs, traits and armour sets for your build (increase: Stam/Mag, W&S damage, W&S Crit damage etc)

Sustaining the damage is mainly about recovery and reducing costs but depending on your playstyle and the fights you get in to in PvP/PvE you need to figure out for yourself which to use. Personally, I'm more of a burst damage dealer and get out quick so I go for reducing costs to maximise output in a short window rather than being in larger fights and requiring more recovery.

Does this answer?

Out of curiosity.. What are your stats?

Awesome! Thanks for the replies all. My stats aren't very good. I'm using purple vr15 gear and enchants (the price of vr16 gear is insaneeeee haha! - once I have saved I'll buy better gear or craft it. I've seen people with a CRAZY amount of spell AND weapon damage - I have no idea how they get such high stats. I wish I did!

here's my stats: i1158.photobucket.com/albums/p616/Toxxo1/ESO/Screenshot_20160217_160158.png

Sunburnt_Penguin

@Baranthus

No problem. I've tried to look at your stats and I don't know whether it's photobucket's upload quality or an issue with iPhone's but I can't make out your stats. Don't worry though, I'm only V3 so I'd be of limited help tbh.

What armour sets are you using though? As that may be a factor in the disparity between your stats and those of other V16s.

Bam_Bam

Sunburnt_Penguin wrote: »

@Baranthus

No problem. I've tried to look at your stats and I don't know whether it's photobucket's upload quality or an issue with iPhone's but I can't make out your stats. Don't worry though, I'm only V3 so I'd be of limited help tbh.

What armour sets are you using though? As that may be a factor in the disparity between your stats and those of other V16s.

Max Magicka/Recovery: 28827/1715

Max Health/Recovery: 13146/355

Max Stamina/Recovery: 9947/951



Spell Damage/Critical: 1831/62.8%

Weapon Damage/Critical: 1235/46.8%

---

Armour I'm using:

Head: Torug's Pact - Impen.

Shoulders: Torug's Pact - Divines

Chest: Julianos - Impen.

Gloves: Julianos - Divines

Belt: Julianos - Divines

Breeches: Julianos - Impen.

Boots: Julianos - Divines

Destro staff - Torug's Pact

Resto staff - Torug's Pact


Enchants all Magicka

Sunburnt_Penguin

@Baranthus

Hmm.. Aside from V16 gear and Weapon Damage glyphs (which I presume you're saving for with that gear as well) it seems like you're all kitted out tbh. The only suggestions I can make is:

1. Experiment in changing your Mundus Stone from Thief to Mage (increase Max Magicka) and Apprentice (increase Spell Damage) to see how these affect your Spell Damage and whether the trade-off is worth it. Unfortunately this will have to be subjective unless you wanna do some maths from the link below - it's based around Sorcerer but the equations and logic are transferable so it's worth a read anyway.
(http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/pts-2-1-2-sorcerer-arithmagic/)

On my StamNB I switched from Thief to the Warrior (increase Weapon Damage) and placed Camo Hunter on my damage-dealing bar as just slotting it offset the loss of Crit%. This is really good in PvP as when activated it gives an additional 15% damage to Vampires and Werewolves (requires a skill point in to the passive).

2. Switch out Impen for Infused to increase your Max Magicka which should increase your Spell Damage. This appears to be up for debate though but IMO as NBs who don't have any health increasing stats are solely built to stun/evade and kill quicker to reduce the damage we take: the benefits of Impen are of less value than other classes. Just food for thought.

3. If you haven't already, consider levelling up Undaunted and unlocking the Mettle passive which boosts Max Mag/Stam/Health by 3% (6% when maxed which on your current Magicka is an extra ~1.5k) when you wear all 3 different armour types. You'll then be able to utilise the Medium (of limited value to you tbh unless you have spare Skill Points) and Heavy passives (increase Health). But again.. I'm not sure whether the trade off will be beneficial for you and it's something which is subjective.

If you want to experiment with points 2. & 3., just create whole new sets of the lowest level gear for the different builds that you're considering on getting for your V16 gear but leave them white. Even though your stats will be considerably lower, you'll still be able to analyse the differences between them all which will be representative of the V16 Epic gear (although the differences between them at this stage will be lower) and select the most optimum gear loadout for when you can purchase your V16. It'll save you a tonne of cash down the line if you're not happy with the V16 gear's performance.