Elemental Damage and Resistances

[Waveclaw]

Im playing an AA ranger, and I’m wondering which one is the best elemental imbues, acid or electricity? (no tier 5 enhancement)

Which notable enemies (preferably plentiful mobs and/or frequent bosses) are resistant/immune to each of them?

[Enkidu]

Im playing an AA ranger, and I’m wondering which one is the best elemental imbues, acid or electricity? (no tier 5 enhancement)

Which notable enemies (preferably plentiful mobs and/or frequent bosses) are resistant/immune to each of them?

Have them all up on the bar so you can switch to what you need. Then watch your damage as you learn the mobs. If you see you're getting resisted, switch imbues. If you're getting purple damage, write it down so you have it for that mob in the future. Some are obvious, like fire elementals are vulnerable to ice, but others not so much like trolls really hate you using acid on them. You also need to learn the ammo types to carry to bypass damage reduction based on alignments. I run acid and good most the time until I see yellow or white, then I rotate through imbues/ammo until I get back to red or purple. If you see green numbers stop shooting! You're healing the mob!

[Waveclaw]

What about the elemental damage passive? Doesn’t it increase the damage and spell power?

[Noctus]

Overall i found Acid to be the best imbue. It has the least monsters immune (almost none) and resistant (not as many as the other elements).

[Waveclaw]

Hmm... Okay, then I guess I'll stick with Acid imbues then... Thanks for the information!

[Enkidu]

What about the elemental damage passive? Doesn’t it increase the damage and spell power?

AA imbues aren't changed by spell power like the ones for eldritch knights. Instead you improve them by moving up the enhancement tree (I think that's what you mean by damage passive). The nice thing about AA rangers are you get most of the elemental and alignment bypass toggles as core enhancements so you can see what works. Just make sure you have your damage set to display individually over the monster's head so you can see what's working and what's not without having to check you combat log.

[Garix]

AA imbues aren't changed by spell power like the ones for eldritch knights. Instead you improve them by moving up the enhancement tree (I think that's what you mean by damage passive). The nice thing about AA rangers are you get most of the elemental and alignment bypass toggles as core enhancements so you can see what works. Just make sure you have your damage set to display individually over the monster's head so you can see what's working and what's not without having to check you combat log.

Incorrect. AA imbues ARE changed by Spell Power.

OP. I'd Pick one (I prefer Electric) and stick to it. Swap to Force arrows if needed.

[Enkidu]

Incorrect. AA imbues ARE changed by Spell Power.

OP. I'd Pick one (I prefer Electric) and stick to it. Swap to Force arrows if needed.

Garix is right, they do scale with spell power. I need to make bigger boxes on my spreadsheet so I can see them better. Getting old sucks, but it beats the alternative.

[Waveclaw]

Okay, then.

How is damage calculated based on spell power?

[Garix]

Okay, then.

How is damage calculated based on spell power?

Hopefully I've remembered this correctly....

Each point of spell power is +1% damage. So 100 spell power will double the relevant elemental damage.

[Waveclaw]

Okay, thanks!

[Enkidu]

Hopefully I've remembered this correctly....

Each point of spell power is +1% damage. So 100 spell power will double the relevant elemental damage.

My turn to help out with a slightly more accurate answer. Because it's DDO it can't be that easy. It's (Spell Power + 100)/100 which looks kinda looks like 1% per point but not quite.

[Garix]

My turn to help out with a slightly more accurate answer. Because it's DDO it can't be that easy. It's (Spell Power + 100)/100 which looks kinda looks like 1% per point but not quite.

I thought that was just for MP/RP? Did they update to use the same formula for SP as well?

[Enkidu]

I thought that was just for MP/RP? Did they update to use the same formula for SP as well?

It's not the same for PRR/MRR which creates a curve. The equation for spell, melee, and ranged power uses the Total Damage = Attack Damage x (Power + 100)/100 formula effectively creating that 1% per point increase.

For PRR/MRR the equation is inverted Total Damage = Attack Damage x 100/(RR + 100) which creates a curve of diminishing returns. Where 100 in in spell power would increase your attack 100%, 100 in PRR only decreases damage 50%. 200 in spell power gives you a 200% increase and 200 PRR decreases damage about 67%.

Now the really fun part is the damage is rounded down always, so if your attack does 10 damage you won't see any increase until you have 10 or more in spell, melee, or ranged power. Normally universal spell power stacks with the elemental spell power, but not so with weapon imbues. So rangers and EKs can't do the Sorc thing and blow up everything in the room with a couple of arrows.

And if this wasn't already complicated enough, ranged power and spell power get calculated separately for each shot. Universal spell power for the imbue dice that it applies to (Not all elemental damage gets it) and ranged power to the bow dice and one offs like law on your side, sneak attack, etc.

Fortunately most of the other things in the game like ac vs. to hit and DC vs. saves use simple equations like D&D players already know. Now I think I have this all correct, but as you can see it's complicated and I'm sure I forgot something.

[C-Dog]

Hmm... Okay, then I guess I'll stick with Acid imbues then... Thanks for the information!

Just a heads up - clay golems are healed by acid. They're rare (a few in Wiz King, one in Tear of Dhakaan), but pro'ly the one you'll encounter most. But they're easy to spot, just so you keep an eye out and aren't suprised when it happens.

[Waveclaw]

Okay! No acid for clay golems then!

What about electric? Will any mob get healing from it?

[Garix]

Okay! No acid for clay golems then!

What about electric? Will any mob get healing from it?

Flesh Golems.

[C-Dog]

Also, Arcane Oozes are Hasted by Electrical attacks. Fun times.

[Waveclaw]

I don't recall seeing Flesh Golems in f2p contents, so this might be fine

Ahh, evil oozes! Will keep that in mind!

[Enkidu]

Just to round out golem healing, iron golems get healed by fire attacks.