Deathwing Ultimate multiplicators

PTR Bug Report
1

Deathwing Ultimate – damage calculation inconsistencies

Disclaimer: It is possible that I am misunderstanding something about the damage formula, but as far as I know, Deathwing’s Ultimate deals 4 ticks of damage per second. All tests were performed at level 20.

Definitions (used consistently below):

  • Base periodic damage per tick: 20
  • Base periodic damage per second: 80 (20 × 4)
  • Quest bonus (Cataclysm): +2500% vs structures = ×25
  • Dragon’s Ire: +25% damage = ×1.25
  • Burn Beneath My Shadow: +80% periodic damage = ×1.8

1. No talents, no quest (baseline)

Observed values:

Impact damage: 197

Periodic damage: 79 per second
(tooltip shows 20 per tick, but 20 × 4 = 80, not 79)

Expected calculation:

20 × 4 = 80 per second
P.S. it happens because damage per tick ≈ 19.7, that’s why the game rounds impact damage to 20 and the tooltip to 79. This explains why damage to heroes is 39 (not 38 or 40) due to rounding and the 100% bonus to hero damage.

2. Quest completed, no talents

Expected calculation:

  • 80 × 25 = 2000 per second
  • 2000 ÷ 4 = 500 per tick

Observed values:

  • Impact damage: 197
  • Periodic damage: 2052 per second
  • 513 per tick

Expected 2000 / 500, observed 2052 / 513

3. Dragon’s Ire only (≤ 3 Armor Plates), no quest

Expected calculation:

  • 80 × 1.25 = 100 per second

  • 100 ÷ 4 = 25 per tick

Observed values:

  • Impact damage: 247

  • Periodic damage: 100 per second

  • 25 per tick

Matches expected values

4. Dragon’s Ire + quest

Expected calculation:

  • 80 × 25 × 1.25 = 2500 per second
  • 2500 ÷ 4 = 625 per tick

Observed values:

  • Impact damage: 247
  • Periodic damage: 2072 per second
  • 518 per tick

Expected 2500 / 625, observed 2072 / 518

5. Burn Beneath My Shadow only, no Dragon’s Ire, no quest

Expected calculation:

  • 80 × 1.8 = 144 per second
  • 144 ÷ 4 = 36 per tick

Observed values:

  • Impact damage: 197
  • Periodic damage: 144 per second
  • 36 per tick

Matches expected values

6. Burn Beneath My Shadow + quest

Expected calculation:

  • 80 × 1.8 × 25 = 3600 per second
  • 3600 ÷ 4 = 900 per tick

Observed values:

  • Impact damage: 197
  • Periodic damage: 2116 per second
  • 529 per tick

Expected 3600 / 900, observed 2116 / 529

7. Burn Beneath My Shadow + Dragon’s Ire, no quest

Expected calculation:

  • 80 × 1.8 × 1.25 = 180 per second
  • 180 ÷ 4 = 45 per tick

Observed values:

  • Impact damage: 247
  • Periodic damage: 160 per second
  • 40 per tick

Expected 180 / 45, observed 160 / 40

8. Burn Beneath My Shadow + Dragon’s Ire + quest

Expected calculation:

  • 80 × 1.8 × 25 × 1.25 = 4500 per second
  • 4500 ÷ 4 = 1125 per tick

Observed values:

  • Impact damage: 247
  • Periodic damage: 2136 per second
  • 534 per tick

Expected 4500 / 1125, observed 2136 / 534

Summary

  • Dragon’s Ire works correctly only without quest.
  • Burn Beneath My Shadow works correctly only without quest.
  • Quest multiplier does not scale correctly with:
  1. base damage,
  2. Dragon’s Ire,
  3. Burn Beneath My Shadow,
  4. or their combination.

Quest also does not affect minions (And tooltip not updated), as written in the Patch Notes.
video example

2 Likes
2

Are you aware of the fact that damage bonuses aren’t multiplicative with each other?

So if something deals 100 damage, and you have two bonuses, one for 100% more damage, and one for 500% more damage, you aren’t going to be dealing 1000 damage, you’ll be dealing 700 damage.

Like if you observe how much damage Sonya’s level 1 slam talent works with Wrath of the Berserker, you’ll see that they aren’t multiplicative with each other.

3

Ah, so it turns out I misunderstood the damage calculation system.

It is not multiplicative — it is additive.

Using your example:
100 × (1 + 5 + 1) = 700

So for Deathwing it becomes:
79 × (1 + 25 + 0.25 + 0.8) = 2136.95
2137 ÷ 4 = 534.25 per tick

Yeah, now I understand how it works. Thanks.
My bad — I didn’t know the system worked this way.

So there is only one remaining issue:

Either the damage multiplier does not apply to the impact damage,
or the patch notes did not clearly specify that only the periodic damage was increased.