What is a damage modifier?

Some pieces of equipment don’t just increase your stats, weapon attack, or elemental damage, sometimes they will increase your damage by a percentage. We’ll call these effects damage modifiers.

Examples and extra info can be found in the spoilers. Click them to see the additional information

Note: most modifiers do not affect status damage! That’s a guide for another day.

There are three types of modifiers; unstackable, stackable, and multiplicative.

Type Modifiers Unstackable Attack Damage, Crit Damage Stackable Additional Damage, All attacks, Additional Attack Damage, Additional Critical Damage, %STR/INT, %Physical/Magical/Independent Attack, Extrinsic Attack Damage Multiplicative Skill Damage

These modifiers may also increase your damage in a less straightforward manner, or affect status damage. They won’t be explained yet.

Type Modifiers Defense %Defense Reduction, Defense Pierce Status %Status Damage, %Abnormal Damage Other +Skill Levels, Cooldown Reduction

Unstackable

The greatest source of each unstackable modifier is multiplied to your damage.

Unstackable modifiers are Attack Damage and Critical Damage.

Some items may have multiple effects that may still make them worth equipping, even if their unstackable modifiers would be redundant.

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Attack damage, sometimes called Smash damage, has the description “Attack damage +%”. It increases your damage directly by the amount stated.

In-game detailed description Multiple +% damage bonus does not stack. Only the highest value of bonus applies. (Not applicable to Critical Damage.)

Sources Resplendent Goddess Silver Knife, Executioner’s Butchery Necklace, Night Shadow Top, Sensory Satisfaction set effect, NINJA title, Petit Nornil, etc.

A common modifier found on all kinds of equipment. It was featured prominently on level 85 epic equipment, especially weapons and necklaces, but still has a significant presence on level 90 epics.

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Critical Damage, sometimes called Crit Smash, has the description “Critical damage +%”. On a critical hit, it further increases your damage by the amount stated.

In-game detailed description Multiple Critical Bonus does not stack. Only the highest value of bonus applies. Applicable with only Critical Damage.

Sources Light Sword Masamune, Remnants of Avarice, Red Fang Bottom, Sensory Satisfaction set effect, Petit 2nd awakening pets

Extra Critical hits naturally inflict 50% more damage, but this is multiplied separately from the critical damage bonus, so if you have 20% critical damage, your critical hits do 100% * 1.5 * 1.2 = 180% damage. Its also distinct from the critical damage buffs/passives that some classes have.

A common modifier found on all kinds of equipment. It was featured prominently alongside attack damage on level 85 epic equipment, but also has a presence on level 90 epics.

Stackable modifiers

If you have multiple sources of the same stackable modifier, they are ADDED together, then multiplied to your damage.

The stackable modifiers are Additional Damage, All attacks, Additional Attack Damage, Additional Critical Damage, %STR/INT, and %physical, magical, and independent attack (%P/M/I attack), and Extrinsic Attack damage.

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Additional damage has one of many descriptions: Bonus damage +%, Additional damage +%, or sometimes incorrectly labelled as Attack damage +%. Older players will sometimes call it “Elenore” damage. Its damage bonus is applied as a line of damage directly below your main line of damage.

Sources Gold Lux, Ice Spark Bowgun, Ice Princess’s Breath set effect, Wesley’s Tactical set effect, Hot Summer [Dream]

This modifier comes on all kinds of equipment, but is most frequently found on weapons and set effects. It also exists as a title.

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There is another version of additional damage called additional elemental damage. This additional damage takes on an element, so it applies your elemental damage and the enemy’s elemental resistance. For all other purposes, it is the same as regular additional damage.

Sources Natural Guardian set effect, Newlington Rod, World Pendulum, Nen Cluster

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All Attack has the description “All Atk +%”

All attack increases your damage from all sources. This means that it will also increase your status damage alongside your regular damage.

Sources Crow Ceremony set pieces, Crow Ceremony set effect, Sky Traveler set pieces, Scents of Sparkles, Babylonian Symbol

This modifier comes on all kinds of equipment and set effects. All attack is sometimes loathed for being overloaded on certain endgame equipment sets, but this isn’t something you should really worry about

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Additional Attack Damage has the description “Additional Attack Damage +%”.

Additional attack damage is added to your highest attack damage modifier before being applied.

If you have 20% attack damage, 10% additional attack damage, and 15% additional attack damage, your total attack damage modifier is 45% (20%+10%+15%).

Sources Cursed Sword: Muramasa, Shore Edge, Radiant Golden Lower Armor

This modifier is found on many pieces of equipment, notably on weapons and some armor set pieces.

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Additional Critical Damage has the description “Additional Critical Damage +%”.

Additional critical damage is ADDED to your highest crit damage modifier before being applied; it follows the same formula as additional attack damage.

Sources Pandemonium Gentleman set pieces, Hell Havoc, Supercontinent Panottia’s Volcano

This modifier is found on many pieces of equipment, notably being on weapons and some armor set pieces.

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%Strength/intelligence has the description “STR/INT +%”.

Strength increases the damage of your physical attacks, and intelligence increases the damage of your magical attacks. %Strength and intelligence increases your strength and intelligence by the percentage state; this increases your damage by roughly the same amount *.

Sources Pandemonium Gentleman Set Effect, Crow Ceremony set effect, Pars’s Golden Grail

Details * Your attack is scaled by (stat+250)/250, meaning that your physical/magical damage increases by 1 factor for every 250 str/int. Because there is a base value that isn’t affected by %stat modifiers, your damage increases by slightly less than the modifier would suggest; however, the more strength/intelligence you have, the less that base modifier will matter. This doesn’t really matter, just treat it the same as any other modifier if you don’t understand.

%STR/INT applies to your final stats, after auras, buffs, etc. It is commonly found on armor and set effects.

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%Physical, magical, and independent attack has the description “Physical/Magical/Independent atk +%”.

This modifier increases your physical, magical, and independent attack stats by the percentage stated. This will typically increase your damage by the same amount.

Sources Border of Black and White: Chaos, Recollection of Water Sounds, pre-nerf Nen Empress’s Khai

%P/M/I attack applies to your final physical, magical, and independent attack values, after auras, buffs, etc. This modifier is found in many places, commonly on armor, accessories, and set effects.

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Extrinsic attack damage is attack damage found on pets and consumables. It has the description “Attack Damage +%”. If someone can think of a better name for this modifier I’m all ears.

This modifier increases your damage by the percent stated.

Sources Marbas, Petit Wild West pets, Salaime/Endairon, Warrior’s Cry potion, Warlord’s Cry potion

As one of the rarer modifiers in the game it is almost as desirable as skill damage, though the pets have a lengthy charge time before they can be activated.

Multiplicative modifiers

Each source of a multiplicative modifier is multiplied to your final damage.

The only multiplicative modifier you can find on equipment is Skill Damage. It has the description “Skill Attack +%”. Sometimes a skill will be specified, ie. “Draw Sword +20% damage”.

Each source of skill damage increases the damage of the specified skill by the percent stated. If no skill names or level ranges are specified, it applies to all your damaging skills. Plain skill damage does not apply to your basic attacks.

Sources Breathing Sound of a Morning Star, Rosetta Stone, Savior weapons

Details The Eternal Glory accessories are actually additive skill damage. Eg. Eternal Glory: Agnes increases your savior’s glory weapon skill attack by +20%, raising it from 35% to 55%, which only increases your total damage by 14.8% for savior’s glory weapons.

While we won’t discuss them in detail here, most classes have skill based buffs that are multiplicative modifiers, even if they are called “Attack damage” or “Critical damage”; for example, Death By Revolver, Overdrive, Assassin’s Attitude.

Here are some examples to give you an idea of how much modifiers do to improve your damage.

Nalmuk Nancy has Light Sword Masamune, Strong Rayon Mane Shoulder, Crow Ceremony Day Jacket, Remnants of Avarice, Razor Queen’s Necklace, Refined Destructive Magic Stone Bracelet, Babylonian Symbol, and Rosetta Stone. Whats her total damage modifier?

Answer Its 30% crit damage +12% additional crit damage, 20% attack damage, 21% all attacks, 5% skill damage, and 18% skill damage, multiplied together, for a total of 255% damage. Not bad, Nalmuk Nancy.

12/12 Tony has Savior’s Glory Boxing Gloves, the full Supercontinent’s Collapse set, the full Sensory Satisfaction set at +12 reinforcement, Par’s Golden Grail, Babylonian Symbol, Rosetta Stone, Hot Summer Dream, and the Wild West Pet. Whats his total damage modifier?

Answer Its 20% attack damage + 16% additional attack damage, 20% critical damage +18% additional critical damage, 88% all attacks, 50% phys/mag/ind attack, 18% str/int, 17% skill damage, 18% skill damage, 35% skill damage, 20% skill damage, and 32% additional damage. For a total multiplier of 1908%.

FAQ, or questions likely to be asked

Q. Why didn’t you explain (some aspect) of this modifier?

A. New players are frequently overwhelmed by what they all do. Maybe someone else will explain them in more detail separately.

Q. Does equipping a new piece with a modifier increase your OVERALL damage by the same amount?

A. No, it depends on how much of the modifier you had already. If you already had 40% additional damage and equip an item with 30% additional damage, the real impact of the 30% additional damage will be 170%/140% = 1.214, or about 21%. The only modifier this does not apply to is Skill Damage.

Q. Which modifiers show up on my character info?

A. Only strength, intelligence, and p/m/i attack show up on your character info.

Q. (screenshots inventory) Whats my best setup?

A. i wish there was a guide that could help me with that. oh

Q. (shows two screenshots) Which setup is better?

A. training room

Q. Can’t you help me with this?

A. No

Q. What 90 epic armor set should I go for?

A. Real talk, it doesn’t matter, they’re all stronger than any other unupgraded 90 set, and they’re getting some equalization in the future so it will matter even less. I don’t recommend aiming for a set because if you are unlucky you might end up having to craft the pieces, and depending on your circumstances that could take a long time. If you have plans to gear multiple characters I suggest you to be less picky.

If you have any other questions, ask away.