Does Bone Shield Reflect the exact damage type back at the enemy?

RedFireDisco

So, if I have a spiked boneshield and am hit with a flame spammable, does it reflect that damage back to the enemy and can this proc a status effect when done so?


Thx in advance

virtus753

RedFireDisco wrote: »

So, if I have a spiked boneshield and am hit with a flame spammable, does it reflect that damage back to the enemy and can this proc a status effect when done so?


Thx in advance

Spiked Bone Shield “returns” damage. It doesn’t “reflect.”

Retaliatory/returned damage is only done as a consequence of your taking damage (against your shield or health) in the first place. It is considered your own for proc purposes. Its type is dependent on the skill you are using, so it will be physical when it comes from Spiked Bone Shield.

Reflected damage never touches you to begin with. It counts as the original attack: effectively, the attacker shoots themselves with their own projectile. The damage type remains the same, and the reflected attack can proc all applicable sets and glyphs that the attacker has (if PvP), plus the related status effects (PvE and PvP).

Example of Spiked Bone Shield returning Lady Solace's Frost Bolts:

Example of Spell Wall reflecting Lady Solace's Frost Bolt:

RedFireDisco

Thx for your answer but I'm still a tad confused as to what damage the enemy will take.

Are you saying it's physical damage and would thusly proc sundered?

Thx again for your answer

virtus753

RedFireDisco wrote: »

Thx for your answer but I'm still a tad confused as to what damage the enemy will take.

Are you saying it's physical damage and would thusly proc sundered?

Thx again for your answer

As above: the damage will be physical when it comes from Spiked Bone Shield.

Other retaliatory damage skills do different types of damage. Bone Shield's is always physical - hence the grey text in CMX.

While it doesn't always follow that physical damage can proc Sundered (physical damage from light and heavy attacks does not), Spiked Bone Shield can indeed do so, although it seems to have an exceptionally small chance.

My CMX reports are showing that in over 250 hits of Spiked Bone Shield tonight, it procced Sundered only once. (I can't continue to test tonight for several reasons, one of which is the severe instability of the servers.) That's a rate of 0.4%, and I do have the relevant CP that improves the chance to apply status effects by 60%. I can't tell you what its chance is meant to be, but even with this small a sample size the rate seems very low compared to the standards published in the help file and confirmed through testing for other skills. That said, it seems ZOS does adjust status effect chances for things that can hit multiple times per second: Jabs, for example, seems to be calibrated to have a 5% chance to apply Sundered per cast, not per hit. Something similar may be going on with Spiked Bone Shield due to the passive nature of the damage and its potential to hit multiple times per second. But that's speculative, especially without more extensive testing to get a better sense of its actual chance to apply Sundered.

But at any rate, here is proof that it is capable of doing so, as rarely as it seems to happen:

RedFireDisco

That's awesome, thx again