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 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's.

Magical Elements

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

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 and Neutral. As such, Poisoned Weapon is not affected by it, and neither is Cleric's Holy Strike.

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