Tough questions about weapon traits and damage

HalloweenWeed

I know that weapon traits will apply to direct-weapon direct-damage attacks, but what about weapon skill abilities? For instance nirnhoned adds 11% damage, but does it apply to, for example, snipe (bow ability)? I know that Infused increases weapon/spell penetration, but does it apply to snipe? Or Puncture (SnB)? If you are using an Infused resto staff, does it apply to "Minor Lifesteal" in "Force Siphon?" What about "Lightning Splash (Sorcerer ability)?" Would a Nirnhoned staff increase the damage by 11% in "Lightning Splash?"

jypcy

Most weapon traits increase your stats, which in turn affect all of your abilities. Nirnhoned, for example, increases your weapon and spell damage. Higher weapon or spell damage, in turn, make your abilities that scale with them more powerful.

Waffennacht

Nirnhoned is referring to the damage stat number of the item itself (example would be a 2H sword, it's base is about 1600 wpn damage/spell damage, so nirnhoned would add approximately 176 to that) - numbers are not exact.

Then abilities take that number and use a formula (including max resource i.e. stam/mag) to determine how much damage it will do.

Nirnhoned does not directly increase an ability's damage by 11%

HalloweenWeed

Some abilities state the amount of damage (and type) that they do. So in these, nirnhoned would not increase the damage?
What about Sharpened? Would sharpened increase the abilities damage, if the recipient was (partially) resistant?
Is this the reason I've seen Sharpened recommended for some builds?

What about weapon enchantments? I've seen the results of my fire enchant on whirlwind. Does infused increase this effect?

jypcy

Most abilities that deal magic, fire, Frost, or shock damage are calculated based on your spell damage and Max Magicka.

Most abilities that deal physical, bleed, poison, or disease damage are calculated based on your weapon damage and max stamina.

Nirnhoned as a weapon trait increases your spell and weapon damage by a percent, thereby increasing the damage done by those abilities listed above.

Sharpened increases your physical and spell penetration, thereby allowing these abilities to deal a higher percent of their stated damage (assuming you’re not already fully penetrating the target’s resistances).

Weapon enchantments are primarily affected by the infused trait.

Reinforced is an armor trait that increases your own spell and physical resistances, allowing you to take less damage from enemy attacks (assuming you’re not over the resistance cap of ~33k).

HalloweenWeed

jypcy wrote: »

Weapon enchantments are primarily affected by the infused trait.

Reinforced is an armor trait that increases your own spell and physical resistances, allowing you to take less damage from enemy attacks (assuming you’re not over the resistance cap of ~33k).

Oh I meant Infused, sorry. I have edited my previous.

Nestor

The last, and every test I have seen on DPS, the spread between Nirn, Infused, Sharpened and Precise is usually within 1%, for a given build. I have not seen a test since Murkmire, perhaps that player moved on.

Now, a number of people state categorically that being 1% down means it sucks.

As much as some people want it to be otherwise, the spread between good builds is quite small. And, there are more good builds than bad ones, even if the bad ones can be real bad.

Sharee

Nestor wrote: »

The last, and every test I have seen on DPS, the spread between Nirn, Infused, Sharpened and Precise is usually within 1%, for a given build. I have not seen a test since Murkmire, perhaps that player moved on.

Interesting. I would have assumed that nirnhoned was less effective for DPS than sharpened, since the latter only boosts damage done, while the former also affects healing done.

Gatviper

Damage of a weapon directly affects your Weapon / Spell Damage stats, so Nirnhoned trait adds 200 damage to a weapon, thus adds 200 to Spell Damage / Weapon Damage.
If you're natively at about 9k-10k spell / physical penetration through light / medium armor, champion points etc., without any debuffs through skills, then Nirnhoned seems to give better dps than Sharpened on a weapon. With only, like, 7k Sharpened actually gives a noticeable benefit.

therift

Sharee wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

The last, and every test I have seen on DPS, the spread between Nirn, Infused, Sharpened and Precise is usually within 1%, for a given build. I have not seen a test since Murkmire, perhaps that player moved on.

Interesting. I would have assumed that nirnhoned was less effective for DPS than sharpened, since the latter only boosts damage done, while the former also affects healing done.

Healing Done is a consideration of build, not damage done, but it is a noteworthy consideration, even though it doesn't add to damage per second (dps).

If I'm thinking of the testing that Nestor refers to, then I agree those tests proved conclusively there is no such thing as one set or one trait being 'best in slot'. The facts are that several sets or traits meet the threshold of 'best in slot' for a given application. This has been so for some time.

I know that there are hold-outs who firmly believe in one set/trait as best above all others, but this belief is a legacy of the obsolete vertical progression model of WoW.

OP, you could benefit from a comprehensive guide on damage in ESO to answer your questions:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/422268/a-comprehensive-guide-on-damage-dealing-in-elder-scrolls-online