Larian Studios Forums Divinity 2 - Ego Draconis (English) Help/Tips/Tricks Regarding damage calculation/formula

Can anyone enlighten me with the damage calculation/formula in the game, as I still yet to decide which mastery I should go for, 2 hand or dual wield. Below are my damage as stated in my char status window

2h weapon damage : 68-102+(13-95)
dual wield weapon damage: 97-116+(51-60)

By just the numbers above, I expecting a much higher damage output with dual wield, but below are the damage output I tested with Razakel(18) while I am at lvl20

2h weapon damage output on razakel score with the lowest damage around 50+ to 110+ range, with highest critical damage output at around 190+, where as

dual wield weapon damage output is at 60+/20 or 70+/20 with each successful strike. Critical damage is at the range of 120+ - 140+ range.

Both my weapon mastery are still at lvl1, as I still cant decide which to go, especially after the testing made, seeing the 2h damage not actually much difference as comparing to dual wield, where dual wield just merely provided a more stable damage output.

The topic Character Optimization includes a bit about damage, but I don't think any low level formulas, etc, have been revealed.


Welcome to the forum.

Well thanks for the link. I did read it before but it still didn't hold the answers for my question, how come the dual wield damage output is so low where as it's min damage number is far greater than the 2h weapon damage numbers which show in the my character status window

Enemies have armour ratings too...

Well I do understand enemies had resistances as well, that why I wonder why damage of the dual wield being high halve as compare to 2 hand weapons

I assume here the total weapon damage is physical+magical damage. So I will add up the damage of both different types as I listed in 1st post

total 2h weapon damage : 68+13 - 102+95 = 81-197, min damage on Razakel is 50+ damage
total dual wield weapon damage: 97+51 - 116+60 = 148-176, min damage on Razakel is 60+ + 20+ damage

During the type I performing the test with the dual wield weapon, I can hardly see a normal strike which able to exceed 100 damage. All the damage combination number that pop out is from the range 60+ +20+ till 70+ + 20+ damage. I did the test for more than 5 times, which involve whacking Razakel from full health till it drops.

By just looking at the weapon damage number in the character status window, I do expect the dual wield will able to provide a much better damage output with alot higher min damage number, but it dont actually do that as compare to my 2h weapon. That is why I raise the question up before I actually decide to put any points in any weapon mastery yet.

Have you compared the numbers that are shown during combat with the total main hand weapon damage & total offhand weapon damage?

Maybe there's a modifier for the offhand.

Save equip a weapon find a single mob kill it, check log, reload use next weapon on the same thingy.
Compare logs.
It is bit frustrating to calculate weapon dmg in the game. Too many variables, especially for dual. Easiest way is go with flow and use figures in character tab.
My final dual weapon dmg was over 600 at lvl 34 and 12 points in dual mastery.
Pay attention to firewall. Lvl 34 I had 11 points in it and 5 points in destruction.
Total dmg 510 per second X 5 =2550. Instant killer.
Don’t pay attention to character optimization. It is written by total moron.

Each success strike will pop 60+ to 70+ follow by 19 to 20+ damage, so I think the higher damage will be the damage output from main hand, where as lower 1 should be off hand. I will put down the weapon screenshot below for easier references.





The reason I started the topic is for finding the reason why weapon damage stated for dual wield having a much higher minimum damage number, but the actual output is not a lot difference when comparing to another 2 hand weapon which I use for comparison, even though the 2 hand weapon had a higher fluctuation in damage output, which is 50+ to 110+.

This question is more for devs then for players. You need to see whole math behind it.
I like dual. More charms and enchantments with about same level of dmg.

Actually I also prefer dual wield more, with the same reason you mentioned, more charm and enchantments. But also took more time to actually get a pair of good weapons as well. Guess I really need make the decision on my own for now. Thanks for those that provided their ideas so far.

Perform another test with max lvl5 dual wield mastery, weapon damage figure show in character tab is
132-157+(71-84), but actual damage output on lvl18 Razakel is range from 70+ + 40+ to 80+ + 50+. The total damage of each strike is still very far from the actual figure which display in the character tab.

All i know is when dual wielding, if you have a nice boost to melee damage by enchantment, the offhand "bonus" does not get penalized. Like, +25 to melee damage weap. if that occupies ur offhand, it adds +25 and the chance of you finding such a weapon is high enuff, so DW is fine by me.

Well do you mean the additional damage through enchantment slot or the bonus melee damage that come with the weapon? If those bonus melee damage, I had 1 hammer default come with +40 melee damage. If bout enchantment, for the moment I only had lvl8 recipe, which add 21 damage or magical damage.

Im finding the dual wielding is killer .. im killing guards with almost 3 hits.
Throw a magic missile then run and slaughter
But i think the confussion is in the item screen. because the hover over gives you the difference between what you have and the one your selecting which in dual wield is usless becuase it doesnt give you the stats for if you had both.
Just a suggestion, maybe for DD3 ..STAT CALC! Maybe a small button on the item screen that will pop up with the types of wield and give you a quick "if you do this you get that" sort of screen..
i dont know im not a dev .. but maybe theres something in that ^_^

And 1 thing about dual wield, dont believe the damage figures you see in the character tab, but check on damage alone for each weapon, as each weapon will reduce damage its damage with mob's resistance. Also its quite pointless to raise dual wield mastery after level 8, cause from what I notice, the off hand weapon wont increase damage after skill lvl 8, only slightly increment for the main hand weapon only. For best damage with thousand strike, 2 handed weapon will be better compare dual wield, as 2 handed weapon will had the highest damage output, where thousand strike with dual wield will result in each hit having the same damage output as your normal strike. The pros of using dual wield is we will be getting alot more charm slots, and enchantment slot, comparing to 2 hander and a more stable damage output.

I'm lvl 30 now and confirm doing 300+ damage with each strike on enemy similar lvl to me, if both hand crits damage will be bout 500+ to 600+. Damage on lower lvl mob bout lvl 27 will be bout 400+