Curse

Satire Elexus · Jun 17, 2005, 09:28 AM // 09:28

Hi. I was just wandering what shadow damage is. Is Shadow Damage just a name or is there something special about it.

Jun 17, 2005, 10:14 AM // 10:14

just another form of Elemental damage, which happens to have no resistances.

Ellestar · Jun 17, 2005, 12:04 PM // 12:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackace

just another form of Elemental damage, which happens to have no resistances.

I think that there was a list of Elemental forms of damage in some skill description. Air, Fire, Earth and Water is Elemental, other damage types aren't Elemental.

Aalric · Jun 17, 2005, 12:31 PM // 12:31

Why shadow damage is so useful is because it is the only (as far as I know) type of damage that completely ignores armor, resistances etc.

Shamblemonkee · Jun 17, 2005, 01:56 PM // 13:56

I assume the same is true for chaos damage?

Pharalon · Jun 17, 2005, 02:14 PM // 14:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shamblemonkee

I assume the same is true for chaos damage?

No, chaos damage is the same as dark/light/elemental damage, in that it is affected by armor. The damage mesmer spells do (which is what i think you are talking about) doesn't actually have a name. It's just damage. Shadow damage works the same way as that damage, in that it bypasses armor completely, which makes it good against high level/armor targets, but worse against low lvl/armor targets.

Captain Marvel · Jun 17, 2005, 02:27 PM // 14:27

Hmm, I am almost positive the descript of IW lists Chaos damage.

Yup. It does.

Strange.

JoDiamonds · Jun 17, 2005, 04:27 PM // 16:27

There's confusing and misleading things being said. I've searched slightly for threads where people talked about damage types, and if someone else finds it that would be great.

Here's what I remember:

There's three general categories of damage (really, there's two important ones and then "everything else").

There's physical damage, elemental damage, and everything else.

Physical is pretty obvious, things like slashing, piercing, etc. Most Warrior and Ranger weapons do physical damage (unless they do some other kind of damage...) Warrior armor has significant bonuses against physical damage.

Elemental damage is Fire, Lightning, Frost, and Earth. This is mostly important because some armor (especially Ranger armor) has extra bonuses against Elemental damage.

Other damage types include Holy/Light, Shadow/Dark, and Chaos. Armor rarely or never has extra defense against these types, and Holy damage occasionally does extra damage to Necromatic armors or creatures.

Pharalon · Jun 18, 2005, 12:28 AM // 00:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain Marvel

Hmm, I am almost positive the descript of IW lists Chaos damage.

It does. But if IW is actually doing Chaos damage, it should have an extra description at the end saying "This spell ignores armor".

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoDiamonds

Other damage types include Holy/Light, Shadow/Dark, and Chaos. Armor rarely or never has extra defense against these types, and Holy damage occasionally does extra damage to Necromatic armors or creatures.

Right. It's an ambiguity with the skill descriptions more than anything else. Holy damage doesn't ignore armor, but all DD holy damage spells have an inherent "ignores armor", in the same way that all shadow damage spells do. I'm sure if there was a way to do non spell related shadow damage, it would work off the base AL like everything else, but currently the only way to do shadow damage is via spells, so you can't really say for sure.

Shamblemonkee · Jun 18, 2005, 01:34 PM // 13:34

Cheers for the info. Useful to know.

Illusionists · Jun 18, 2005, 08:57 PM // 20:57

(Mmm... my first post here)

Anyways, there are only so many different types of damage to go arround

Physical Damage: -Blunt Damage, -Slash Damage, -Pierce Damage
I cannot confirm this, but blunt seems to be the most universal. Slash and Pierce does less to heavily armored mobs... ESPECIALLY pierce which performs worse than slash.

Elemental Damage: Fire, Lightning, Earth, and Cold

Others: Light, Dark (Shadow), and Chaos; these are not reduced by armor, although sometimes they are extra effective against foes. Also, many other skills are able to reduce this kind of damage; especially Aura of the Lich.

Deathlord · Jun 18, 2005, 09:11 PM // 21:11

Okay, this is probably the post where I get to prove where the ranger armor comes in. Certain ranger armor has +attributes where it has +dmg against elemental damage. My guess is that this will cover the whole array (Including shadow/chaos) of elements. Meaning while elementalist's are limited to defending against the 4 naturistic attributes, a ranger would have a bonus against the entire thing. As for the armor penetration, i have no idea

.

Mango Midget · Jun 19, 2005, 05:24 PM // 17:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pharalon

It does. But if IW is actually doing Chaos damage, it should have an extra description at the end saying "This spell ignores armor".

Some times for me with my 16 Illusion it only does 40 against warriors instead of the 42 the skill says it does.Any idea why?

ziggie · Jun 19, 2005, 05:40 PM // 17:40

so can i assume that most of the Necro skill ignores armor?

Feli · Jun 19, 2005, 09:36 PM // 21:36

Mesmer Spells (and that includes Illusionary Weaponry) do ignore armor all together. HOWEVER, Runes of Absorbtion do work agains the damage a mesmer does. I fought a guy with a minor absorbtion rune and my IW was lacking 1 Damage.

Luggage · Jun 19, 2005, 09:59 PM // 21:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mango Midget

Some times for me with my 16 Illusion it only does 40 against warriors instead of the 42 the skill says it does.Any idea why?

Absorbtion?

silvertemplar · Jun 20, 2005, 02:01 PM // 14:01

Well for the price you have to pay to do "shadow damage" i would EXPECT it to ignore armor. I mean look at the damage, it is usually less than an Elementalist's flare and then you almost always must sacrifice health to cast it.......[i.e. compare dark pact with flare and then you MUST assume shadow damage is something special].

JoDiamonds · Jun 20, 2005, 02:32 PM // 14:32

Well, if you ignore the fact that not all classes are equal in all ways.

I mean, warriors don't have much in the way of spells that do direct damage, nor rangers, nor mesmers. Sure, Mesmers have some stuff like that, but it's not costed at the same scale as elementalist, necro, or even monk damage spells.

Between classes, the rule is definitely "different but equal", but not on a skill-for-skill level.

Jijimuge · Jun 20, 2005, 02:43 PM // 14:43

Dark Pact *does* bypass armour as does most damage inflicted by skills from the mesmer and necro lists and the smiting line. Most of the damage types listed are of the chaos, holy and shadow types. Even cold damage inflicted by a Necro's skills bypasses armour.

However, the base damage of weapons whose damage is of chaos, light or dark type IS affected by armour. Chaos, light and dark do NOT count as elements for calculating the damage reduction provided by the extra armour vs elements on rangers' armour.

silvertemplar · Jun 20, 2005, 03:53 PM // 15:53

Quote:

Even cold damage inflicted by a Necro's skills bypasses armour.

Im not so sure about that, my Deathly Swarm got in its description "cold damage [before armor] " , which insinuates that either cold damage is affected by armor or Deathly Swarm specifically is. Either way, my deathly swarm is -heavily- affected by the type of mob [i.e. white mantles i hardly do any damage, i assume they got alot of armor but against ettins it hurts like hell].