Damage Types

Damage Types

All damage is either Physical or Magical. Both Physical and Magical are then broken into several types, including Neutral if it has no type.

Physical Types

All Physical damage is one of the following types, otherwise it is Neutral damage.

Slash

Horizontal or Vertical swiping attacks are typically Slash, like Arming Sword's 1st and 2nd attack.

Pierce

Thrust attacks are typically Pierce, like Arming Sword's 3rd attack.

Blunt

Attacks dealt by non-sharpened weapons tend to be Blunt, like all 3 of Flanged Mace's attacks.

It is a common misconception that Cleric's Blunt Weapon Mastery applies to Blunt damage, when in reality it only applies to Maces.

Magical Elements

All Magical damage is one of the following types, otherwise it is Neutral damage.

Following are some iconic examples of each, the list is not meant to be exhaustive.

Note that a Spell can be of one element, but the damage it applies can be another. For example, Wizard's Zap Spell is Light, but it applies Fire damage.

Fire

Wizard's Fireball, Zap, and Explosion.

Water

Examples Missing.

Ice

Wizard's Ice Bolt.

Lightning

Wizard's Chain Lightning and Lightning Strike.

Earth

Cleric's Earth Quake.

Arcane

Wizard's Arcane Missiles.

Light

Wizard's Light Orb does not deal any damage.

Dark

Warlock's Ray of Darkness and Bolt of Darkness.

Evil

Warlock's Curse of Pain, but not Power of Sacrifice.

Curse

Warlock's Curse of Pain and Power of Sacrifice

Divine

Cleric's Holy Strike spell and Judgement skill.

Air

Examples Missing.

Spirit

Examples Missing.

Neutral

Any Physical/Magical damage that is not in the above mentioned types is said to be either Physical Neutral or Magical Neutral. Examples of Magical Neutral damage include Crystal Sword and Staff Mastery's Magical portion, and Poisoned Weapon. Examples of Physical Neutral damage include..., but not weapon hits which deal Slash/Pierce/Blunt.

All bonuses or reductions to a specified type do not apply to other types, nor Neutral.

For example, Warlock's Antimagic perk gives 25% Magical Damage Reduction against all types but Divine, Curse, and Neutral. As such, Poisoned Weapon is not affected by it, and neither is Cleric's Holy Strike / Warlock's Curse of Pain.

Cleric's Faithfulness perk increases only Divine damage, as such, only Holy Light and Judgement are impacted and not Neutral damage.