How does Strafe Damage work?

[Zion]

I was just wondering how Strafe damage was calculated.
Does it just effect just physical?
How does it effect phys/elem dmg charms?

My Zon still shows i have less dmg on strafe than normal and my strafe is 70+ extra dmg as of now. I am using a WWS.

[JoJeck]

This old post http://www.rpgforums.net/showthread.php?p=1682627#post1682627 (http://www.rpgforums.net/showthread.php?p=1682627#post1682627 I) I made some time ago might help explain how physical damage is calculated. Elemental damage is basically the sum of all the charms and equipment.

Basically the strafe %ED bonus is added in Part B of that calulation and the strafe penalty is introduced at Part C. The elemental and poison damage is also adjusted by the strafe penalty but does not get a critical or deadly strike bonus (so is always reduced to 75% of basic)

[Shanksie1337]

not sure quite what you mean, so i'll answer, and if i miss the mark slightly, kick me in the right direction :D

Strafe damage is always 75% of weapon damage (it even says this in the skill description for strafe).

As far as i can tell, this is true for physical and elemental damage, having just tested my zon:

normal damage = 4673
strafe damage = 3991

removing one 100 pdsc

normal = 4574 (-99)
strafe = 3917 (-74)

so adding 1*100 pdsc adds 99 to normal and 74 to strafe. (~75%)

Why the starting figures are strafe = normal * 0.75 i don't know, tho i assume it's something to do with dex and +damage mods from WT's & the % extra damage from the strafe skill = 120%.

I am sure some1 more interested in the maths of D2 will post :D - EDIT - like that :D

[Kirsty]

From the Amazon FAQ page 2 (slightly edited)


Physical Damage = [(Listed Weapon Damage) + min/max damage from all sources] x (X / 100 + ED from equipment other than weapon + ED from skills + 1) x Special Modifier

Listed Weapon Damage is the damage on your weapon. Socketing an Enhanced Damage Jewel or Rune will act on the base weapon damage. However, if the weapon already contains a magical enhanced damage modifier it will act on the base weapon damage + 1.
Enhanced damage versus Undead or Demon works just like Enhanced damage modifiers from gear, except only versus their type of creature, of course.

The base weapon damage is expressed in "a to b" damage and can be found in the Items Database on diabloii.net or the Arreat Summit.


If min/max damage modifiers appear on weapons they are already calculated in the listed weapon damage.
Modifiers such as "Adds 15 to 20 damage" are min/max damage modifiers.


The “X” refers to your attributes:

For bows and crossbows, use your dexterity value.
For "hammer" weapons, use 1.1 times your strength value.
For all thrown weapons (even in melee), use (Strength + Dexterity) x 0.75
For class-specific spears, use (0.8 x Strength + 0.35 x Dexterity)
For daggers (and Assassin claws), use (Strength + Dexterity) x 0.75
For all other melee weapons, use your Strength value.


The Special modifier at the end is normally 1.
If Critical Strike or Deadly Strike occurs the value is 2.

For both Multiple Shot and Strafe, the value is 0.75 (the penalty resulting in only 3/4th total damage).
If deadly strike or critical strike triggers it will be 0.75 * 2 = 1.5.


Elemental damage = sum of all elemental damage in gear. Multiple Shot and Strafe do not only lower physical damage to 75%, but also elemental damage.

[JoJeck]

What a lot of new players are confused by, and I guess is at the heart of Zion's question, is two things about Strafe on the Arreat Summit that do not seem to correspond.

1. Strafe has a penalty and only does 75% of damage

2. Each skill point in strafe adds 5 %ED.

So they expect that after investing a few points into the Strafe skill that the penalty will be overcome. If the two types of % damage were the same then only 5 skill points would achieve this. Of course the mathematics is much more complex (as Kirsty and I have shown) and even after maxing the Strafe skill the 100% ED does not mean that an arrow fired from strafe will do as much as one fired with a simple normal shot. This is simply because there are two completely different types of % damage... and these are applied at different parts of the damage calculation. The strafe %ED bonus is often swamped by the bonus from high Dexterity needed by a strafer.

Good ol' Blizzard has created this problem by not explaining how things work clearly :grrr:

[Teknocide]

Good ol' Blizzard has created this problem by not explaining how things work clearly :grrr:


Yah, strafe had me really confused until just about an hour ago as well.. :grrr:
But seriously, this is nothing compared to what Ascaron is doing with Sacred.. that game is so FUBAR it's not even laughable.