In Diablo 4, understanding the damage system is crucial as it directly impacts your gameplay. Focusing on the basic calculations of damage is a great starting point. By considering multiplicative and additive damage bonuses, critical hits, and vulnerable enemies, you’ll have a strong foundational understanding of how damage works in most games with our Damage calculator..
Please note that other factors such as attack speed, class-specific features, and enemy defenses can significantly influence actual damage outcomes in practice. Here are the core concepts to understand:
Diablo 4 Damage Calculator
Base Damage Calculation
The base damage for a skill is calculated by multiplying the weapon damage by the skill modifier. The formula is as follows:
Base Damage = Weapon Damage * Skill Modifier
Mainstat
Mainstat, such as Dexterity for a rogue, contributes to skill damage. The total damage can be calculated as:
Total Damage = Base Damage * (1 + Mainstat Modifier)
Multiplicative Bonuses
These bonuses contribute to your overall damage multiplicatively. The formula for total damage with multiplicative bonuses is:
Total Damage = Base Damage * Multiplicative Bonus1 * Multiplicative Bonus2 * …
Additive Bonuses
Additive bonuses also contribute to your total damage but add up differently than multiplicative bonuses. The formula with additive bonuses is:
Total Damage = Base Damage * (1 + Additive Bonus1 + Additive Bonus2 + …)
Damage Against Vulnerable Enemies
Damage against vulnerable enemies can be calculated as:
Total Damage = Base Damage * (1.2 + Vulnerable Damage Modifier)
Critical Hits
The average damage of critical hits can be computed as follows:
Average Critical Damage = Base Damage * (1 + Critical Strike Chance * Critical Strike Damage)
Damage Over Time (DoT)
The damage for Damage Over Time (DoT) skills is calculated by dividing the total damage by the duration of the DoT:
Damage per tick = Total Damage / Duration of DoT
The damage for DoT skills against vulnerable enemies can be calculated as follows:
Damage per tick = (Total Damage / Duration of DoT) * (1.2 + Vulnerable Damage Modifier)
The damage calculation process can be divided into two main aspects – Damage Base and Damage Bonuses. Let’s delve into both:
Damage Base
This is the starting point of your damage calculation. There are two primary sources:
Weapon Damage
Many skills and passive abilities scale their damage based on your weapon. In the advanced skill tooltip, there’s a percentage next to the damage number. You can multiply that percentage by the damage value on your weapon to calculate the damage dealt by that skill. If you’re dual-wielding (as a Rogue or Barbarian) or using a one-handed weapon with a focus (as a Sorcerer), add the damage of both weapons.
The equation for this would look like: Damage = Skill% * DMG_weapon
Flat Damage
Some effects, like Thorns or specific Legendary Aspects (e.g., Arrow Storms or Trickster’s), deal damage that isn’t based on your weapon. They have a flat value that’s used as the base for damage calculation, like your total Thorns amount.
This could be represented as: Damage = DMG_thorns or Damage = DMG_LegendaryAspect
Damage Bonuses
Various damage bonuses come from items. These bonuses are additive, meaning they’re added together rather than multiplied.
Some examples of additive bonuses include:
- Skill Damage derived from your main Core Stat.
- [Skill Category] Damage, such as Core Skill Damage, Pyromancy Skill Damage, Trap Skill Damage, etc.
- [Damage Type] Damage, including Shadow Damage or Physical Damage.
While these bonuses sound appealing, they may not provide as significant an improvement as they suggest. An item with “+20% Core Skill Damage” won’t necessarily increase your damage by 20% if all your damage is from a Core skill. The more you stack these bonuses, the less effective they become due to their additive nature.
There are other damage bonuses that weren’t thoroughly tested in the Open Beta. It’s unclear whether they are additive, fall into separate multipliers, or constitute entirely new categories. Examples of these include:
- Damage to Healthy/Injured Enemies.
- Damage to Burning/Poisoned/Bleeding Enemies.
- Damage Over Time and its elemental variants: Poisoning Damage, Burning Damage, Bleeding Damage.
Understanding these mechanics helps you make the most of your gear and skills to maximize your damage output, which is essential to progress in the game and defeat tougher enemies.
Separate Multipliers
Some bonuses in Diablo 4 are multiplicative, as indicated by a prefix “x” before the percentage. For example, “x30% increased damage if this and that condition is met”. This indicates that the bonus multiplies your damage output by the given percentage when the stated condition is fulfilled.
There are also other damage bonuses that, despite not having an “x” in front of the number, stack additively with each other but work as a separate multiplier when combined. These include:
All Damage: A generic and unconditional damage boost that can roll on Amulets and Chest Pieces. Some Aspects and Passives provide multiplicative bonuses that are added to this stat.
Distant/Close Damage: These stats can roll on your Weapons and Rings. The categorization into Close or Distant depends on the enemy’s distance from your character.
Crowd Control Damage: Your Weapons and Rings can roll Damage to Crowd Controlled enemies and all its specific variations. If an enemy is affected by one of these effects, then both Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies and Damage to the specific effect are added together and their sum acts as another separate multiplier.
Example
Suppose you’re playing a Barbarian with the following bonuses:
- Rings 1 and 2: +20% Damage to Stunned Enemies
- All 4 Weapons: +25% Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
Your stats will read:
- Damage vs Crowd Controlled: 100% [25% + 25% + 25% + 25%]
- Damage vs Stunned: 40% [20% + 20%]
If you Stun an enemy, both bonuses apply, resulting in 240% damage to them. If you add the Aspect of Retribution, which gives “x50% Damage to Stunned Enemies”, your stats will change:
- Damage vs Crowd Controlled: 100% [25% + 25% + 25% + 25%]
- Damage vs Stunned: 110% [(1 +20% + 20%) * (1 + 50%) – 1]
With the Aspect of Retribution, your damage against Stunned enemies goes from 240% to 310%, a 29.17% increase.
Vulnerable
Certain skills can make enemies Vulnerable, causing them to take 20% more damage from all sources. This 20% bonus can be further increased by your Vulnerable Damage stat. While these stats don’t have an “x” before the percentage, they are not additive. They are added together with the baseline 20% before multiplying all your damage.
Berserking
Barbarians in Diablo 4 have a unique state called Berserking. When Berserking is active, Barbarians receive a 30% boost to their Movement Speed and deal 25% more damage. This damage bonus can be increased further with the Wrath of the Berserker skill or Unconstrained passive. Similar to the Vulnerable status, this damage bonus is multiplicative, but it’s a buff on your character rather than a debuff on enemies.
Critical Strikes
Damage in Diablo 4 is categorized into direct damage and Damage over Time (DoT), such as Burning, Bleeding, and Poisoning. Direct damage is applied instantly, while DoTs are spread over a specific duration. This distinction is important because only direct damage can Critically Strike; Damage over Time cannot.
Each attack has a random chance to be a Critical Strike, determined by your Critical Strike Chance (CSC) stat. Your CSC can be increased in numerous ways: a baseline of 5%, an additional 0.02% for each point of Dexterity or Intelligence depending on your class, bonuses from Gloves and Rings, and various skills and passives.
When you trigger a Critical Strike, your damage is boosted by your Critical Strike Damage (CSD) stat. This stat can be increased in similar ways: a 50% base, bonuses from weapons and rings, and an implicit stat on Swords. When you land a Critical Strike, your damage can be calculated as follows:
Damage = Base Damage * (1 + CSD)
To calculate your average damage, considering Critical Strikes, you would use the following formula:
Average Damage = Base Damage * (1 + CSC * CSD)
From this formula, we can see that both CSC and CSD become more potent the more you have of them. For example, if your CSC is in single digits and CSD is barely above 50%, an additional CSC roll on a new ring might not have a significant impact. However, if you have something like The Dire Whirlwind Aspect, which gives your Whirlwind an additional +80% CSC, then every single point of Critical Strike Damage becomes extremely valuable.
Weapon Speed
Another essential stat that affects your Damage Per Second (DPS) is Weapon Speed. This determines how frequently you can cast your skills, although some skills have a fixed animation length that is not dependent on Weapon Speed. To calculate your Weapon Speed, you need to consider your weapon’s Attacks per Second (APS), which is averaged if you’re dual-wielding, and your Attack Speed bonus. Attack Speed can appear as a stat on your Gloves and also comes from various skills and passives. All these bonuses are added together and act as a multiplier to your weapon’s Attacks per Second:
Weapon Speed = APS * (1 + Attack Speed bonus)
When it comes to direct damage skills, you get a simple DPS formula:
DPS = Average Damage * Weapon Speed
The same concept applies to Damage over Time (DoT) skills that can stack, except the actual damage is delayed by the DoT’s duration. For non-stacking DoTs, Weapon Speed doesn’t affect damage at all.
Attack Power
Diablo 4 provides an approximation of your DPS called Attack Power, visible in your inventory window. However, this should be considered as a very rough guideline. It doesn’t account for many damage bonuses, especially those that apply only to specific skills or against certain enemies, and it doesn’t include any debuffs you can place on monsters, such as Vulnerable. It does include your Weapon Speed and Critical Strike stats, which can be misleading if your damage comes from a DoT or a skill with a fixed animation length.
Summary
To land those impressive high damage numbers, you’ll need to arm yourself with a powerful weapon, a strong skill, and stack a multitude of different damage bonuses—preferably those that have an “x” in front of the percentage. Then, you just need to continually attack until you trigger both a Critical Strike and Overpower with the same attack. When you’ve achieved this, all that’s left to do is take a screenshot and share it online to impress your fellow Diablo 4 players. Understanding these game mechanics will undoubtedly enhance your damage-dealing capabilities and improve your overall gameplay experience.