This Is Why Your Damage Sucks—A PSA on Damage Modifiers

PC General Discussion
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There are many misconceptions regarding damage “multipliers” in Diablo 4.

First, launch Diablo 4 and access the in-game settings. Head for Options → Gameplay → Enable ”Advanced Tooltip Information”. This enables in-game indicators on certain effects that show whether a modifier is additive [+] or multiplicative [x].

Now, understand that there are 3 multiplicative damage modifiers in Diablo 4: [X] % Damage, Main Stat and Vulnerable Damage. Attack Speed and Critical Strike modifiers take up 2 isolated damage buckets with a total of 12 affixes. All other damage bonuses in the game are additive—at 79 different equipment affixes alone; or just over 84% of all affixes. This number doesn’t even consider any unique additive Paragon bonuses, of which there are many.

To the point

In Diablo 4, additive and multiplicative bonuses refer to different ways that damage bonuses from different sources can be combined.

Basic understanding

  • Additive bonuses stack directly with each other. For example, if you have an ability that deals 10,000 damage, and you have two items that each provide a 20% additive damage boost, your total damage would be 10,000 * (1 + 0.2 + 0.2) = 14,000 damage. Additive bonuses are simply added together before being applied.
  • Multiplicative bonuses compound with each other. Using the same base damage and bonuses, with multiplicative calculation, your total damage would be 10,000 * 1.2 * 1.2 = 14,400 damage. This is because each multiplicative bonus is applied to the damage total after the previous bonus has already been applied.

Deeper understanding

Let’s dive into that example. We’re starting with an ability that deals 10,000 damage, and we’ll apply a +20% bonus ten times.

  • For additive bonuses, each 20% bonus adds the same flat amount of damage: 2,000. So if you add a 20% bonus ten times, you’re adding 2,000 damage ten times, for a total of 20,000 additional damage. Your final damage output would be 10,000 (base damage) + 20,000 (bonus damage) = 30,000 damage. As you can see, each consecutive additive bonus of 20% contributes less to the overall percentage increase in damage. The first 20% bonus is a 20% increase of the base damage, but the second 20% bonus is only a 15% increase of the initial base damage, the third is approximately 13%, and so on.
  • For multiplicative bonuses, each 20% bonus compounds with the previous total. So you’d start by increasing the 10,000 base damage by 20% to get 12,000. Then you’d increase that 12,000 by 20% to get 14,400, and so on. If you do this ten times, your final damage output is 10,000 * (1.2^(10)) ≈ 61,917 damage. With multiplicative bonuses, each 20% increase is always a 20% increase of the previous total, so the increases get larger as you go along.

This example clearly shows how much more potent multiplicative bonuses can be compared to additive bonuses, especially when they are applied multiple times. The multiplicative bonus resulted in over twice the total damage of the additive bonus, even though each bonus was the same numerical size.

Level 3

In Diablo 4, it is very easy to reach at least 10 additive and multiplicative bonuses through equipment, skill trees and paragon boards.

Let’s calculate the relative value increase of each subsequent multiplicative bonus compared to the equivalent additive bonus:

Note: Since multiplicative bonus are always a constant 20% increase relative to the number it’s applied to—what I’ve done is compare subsequent multiplicative bonuses as compared to the base with additive bonuses as compared to the previous total.

  1. The first x20% multiplicative bonus results in a 20.0% increase, same as the additive bonus.
  2. The second x20% multiplicative bonus results in a 24.0% increase, compared to the 16.7% from the additive bonus.
  3. The third x20% multiplicative bonus results in a 28.8% increase, while the additive bonus is a 14.3% increase.
  4. The fourth x20% multiplicative bonus results in a 34.6% increase, while the additive bonus is a 12.5% increase.
  5. The fifth x20% multiplicative bonus results in a 41.5% increase, while the additive bonus is an 11.1% increase.
  6. The sixth x20% multiplicative bonus results in a 49.8% increase, while the additive bonus is a 10.0% increase.
  7. The seventh x20% multiplicative bonus results in a 59.8% increase, while the additive bonus is a 9.1% increase.
  8. The eighth x20% multiplicative bonus results in a 71.7% increase, while the additive bonus is an 8.3% increase.
  9. The ninth x20% multiplicative bonus results in a 86.1% increase, while the additive bonus is a 7.7% increase.
  10. The tenth x20% multiplicative bonus results in a 103.3% increase, while the additive bonus is a 7.1% increase.

These values clearly illustrate how each subsequent multiplicative bonus increases in value compared to the equivalent additive bonus.

The formula to calculate the relative value increase of each subsequent multiplicative bonus compared to the equivalent additive bonus is as follows:

For the ith multiplicative bonus, its relative value increase compared to the equivalent additive bonus can be calculated using the formula:

(1.2^i - 1) * 100%

This formula calculates the overall increase from compounding 20% bonuses i times, subtracts 1 to find the increase relative to the original value, and multiplies by 100 to express the result as a percentage.

For the ith additive bonus, its relative value increase compared to the base value can be calculated using the formula:

(0.2 / (1 + 0.2 * i)) * 100%

This formula calculates the relative increase of adding 20% of the base damage after it has been increased by 20% i times, and multiplies by 100 to express the result as a percentage.

These formulas can be used to calculate the diminishing value of additive bonuses and the compounding value of multiplicative bonuses.

In conclusion

While comparing multiplicative bonuses to base damage in relation to additive bonuses as compared to the number it is directly applied to: 10 steps in, multiplicative bonuses are already worth more than 5 times what the numerical value might suggest—while additive bonuses (most) are worth 4 times less what the numerical value might suggest. 10 steps in, multiplicative bonuses are 20 times more effective damage multipliers. Multiplicative bonuses continue to increase in value exponentially with each addition (well multiplication) while the opposite is true with additive bonuses.

A multiplicative bonus is always the exact %-amount applied to the current damage number—thereby resulting in increasing returns—while additive bonuses result in diminishing returns as each %-amount applied is less value relative to the total damage number it is applied to.

So, the next time you’re fooled into believing your Paragon board is broken because you can’t tell the difference after adding a +20% damage bonus—know that it probably works just fine. Your character is simply cluttered with additive bonuses. Not because you’re a silly goose, but because additive bonuses represent more than 90% of available bonuses in the game.

Which affixes are additive and which are multiplicative?

Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as that. Know, that with a single exception all affixes are additive—but additive within a number of related “buckets” of modifiers. The multiplicative nature applies between buckets.

What are these “buckets” of damage modifiers?

There’re 6 buckets of related damage modifiers.

  1. [X] % Damage
  2. Main Stat
  3. Attack Speed
  4. Critical Strike
  5. Vulnerable Damage
  6. [+] % Damage

While Attack Speed doesn’t technically increase isolated damage numbers—they do decrease the time between those numbers appearing, thereby increasing damage over time.

[X] % Damage is currently the exception to the rule, as it seems every instance of this is its own bucket. We call these global modifiers. These modifiers appear almost exclusively on Legendary Aspects, within Skill Trees and on Paragon Nodes and are always marked [x] when Advanced Tooltip Information are enabled.

Main Stat represents the individual main stat of each class. A Main Stat is defined by its +%Skill Damage modifier on a linear curve relative to the amount of Main Stat—every 100 Main Stat is +10% Skill Damage. These are Strength for Barbarian, Willpower for Druid, Intelligence for Necromancer and Sorceress and finally Dexterity for Rogue.

Attack Speed is pretty simple—it’s split into player Attack Speed and Minion Attack Speed and anything that might affect these. Know, that minions only scale of 30% of the players Attack Speed—yet 100% on the specific Minion Attack Speed modifier.

Critical Strike is your Critical Strike Damage as a result of your Critical Strike Chance in a given moment. All Critical Strike Damage bonuses are additive within this bucket. This means that if you have 50% Critical Strike Damage on one piece of equipment and 50% Critical Strike Damage on another, these are added up with the base Critical Strike Damage modifier of 50%. So, 50 (base) + 50 + 50 = 150% Critical Strike Damage. Critical Strike Damage based off conditionals like “vs Injured” and “with Cold” are all additive within this same bucket as well.

Vulnerable Damage is its own bucket—meaning there’s no variants or conditions. Each point of % Vulnerable Damage on equipment, within Skill Trees and from Paragon Boards are added together to form a single multiplicative modifier. 100% Vulnerable Damage on equipment, 50% Vulnerable Damage from your Skill Tree and 80% Vulnerable Damage from your Paragon Boards sums up to a 230% global modifier, when your target is Vulnerable.

[+] % Damage is all damage modifiers that aren’t specifically marked multiplicative [x]. Some are specifically marked additive [+], but many aren’t. These include [+] % Damage from Aspects, Skill Trees and Paragon Boards as well as on equipment where they aren’t typically marked. These also include “Damage Vs…”, “Damage while…”, “Damage with…” and “Damage from…”-modifiers.

The total sum of each damage bucket is then multiplied to get your damage:

Main Stat bucket * [+] % Damage bucket * Vulnerable Damage bucket (if Vulnerable) * Critical Strike Damage (if Critical Strike) * Each [x] % Damage global modifier

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For a complete ressource on which affixes specifically affects your class baseline, many have linked this spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Om18GXa0BU7_hjLEKPt2915eWencDtR-SNS9WnVTEcs/htmlview#gid=0 which is accurate; but know that through enchanting an item on a different class than your own, you are able to tab into other classes’ affixes through stash transfer.

78 Likes
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There is a lot to unpack here but every player who doesn’t understand this should read it.

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I don’t blame the players. The game makes no effort to explain how damage works.

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Anyone that has played an arpg ever understands this. Thing is there are certain modifiers that do not even work additive or multiplicative if at all. Like damage to chilled/burning.

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That’s a whole lotta words, too bad I can’t read.

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It doesnt, you’re right, but the advanced tool tips do help, but you still have to do the math to know the specifics. Also, if it means that much and players really want to figure it out they can come to the same conclusion you did.

That said, there should be something in game that breaks it down more concisely.

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i remember when i didn’t need to have a Masters degree in Math in order to play a video game.

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I read it, I ‘get it’ but I don’t understand it, but I appreciate it all the same.
I just hope I’m building properly.
Rogue seems to be doing just fine and hitting hard.

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The Opening Post is too long. The words are too hard to understand. The concepts are too abstract to grasp. Got to make it so a 5 year old can understand without asking adults.

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This was a very long post that has a lot of good information but I will give a TL;DR of it all.

If your damage sucks its because you are not applying Vulnerability reliably. If your build can not apply vulnerability either on demand to follow up with a very heavy attack that normally one shots (Barbarian cahins into HotA) or a way constantly keep up vulnerability at a very high rate proc (Ice Sorc WW barb) your build is useless.

Vulnerability modifier is so asininely broken and powerful that its the only damage type that matters. At level 69, a target being vulnerable is the difference between critting for like 6-9k and critting for 50k for my ww barb.

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demon bad, but also maybe good? good demon still die? I stab bad good demon? I good?

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I honestly feel like its not far off from any other ARPG in that you choose a way to do damage and you look for mods on your drops that boost it. Im playing rogue also, and thats the pathway ive been using to upgrade. And its been working really well for me. My build has been getting stronger as I go.

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Yeah, so most people don’t want to look at spreadsheets and use math algorithms to figure out which item is best. The description in the item should just do what it says. To expect people to do this is terrible design.

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Yup.
As I find pieces that bring something new or better - I’ll upgrade and try them out.
I’m always broke because I’m constantly trying things haha.
I did focus on crit(39%) critdmg(266%) and vuln(272%) atm.
Mixed in Core, Dual wield, flat dmg%, imbue skill dmg(flat) and crit dmg% etc.
I hope it’s “the right way”.
Just got an amazing Quadfecta Chest piece. I’m using it but I fear it may be the wrong way to go…ah this game.

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So in summary, multiplicative is the way to go, too bad the game has almost all additives bonuses and very few multiplicative.

OP please, make a list of which of the multiplicative stats should people chase and which additives are second priority.

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Yes but what in the world is [X] % damage compared to + % damage?

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listening…awaiting this answer.

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Thats why the game seems this way to you, rouge has the easiest time applying vulnerability to everything.
Its why rouge is the best class in the game because it has access to pretty much maximum damage multipliers at all times.

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Go to YouTube and watch “The PROBLEM With Your Damage in Diablo 4! And How To Fix It!”

By NinoMMO

He covers this stuff in about a 4.5 min video.

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Your thoughts here arent irrational, but regardless, numbers are definitely what separates weak players from powerful ones in a game like this. Its not so much terrible in its design more than it is simply terrible in not being explained in game in a way that is easy for you to understand.

Also, expecting players to understand how to play a game well and use its systems to their best potential isnt asking too much from the player. Its kind of lazy for a player to expect to be good at a game while only glossing over how it functions.

2 Likes