A little bit about weapon damage some people don't know.

This is more or less complete copy paste from Reddit, but I thought it was so informative that I would share it with readers here at this blog. The original post is here, and was made by adalonus.

So I know this, some D2 players remember it, and I'm sure some D3 players have noticed, but getting a weapon with elemental damage on it may that may not be the best DPS, is sometimes more effective than that higher DPS weapon.

A few examples:

Cold damage gives you an innate slow effect and works great on DHs because they can kite a lot easier. The slow will be applied to any ability that isn't using some sort of other elemental attack (i.e. Cinder Arrow rune will change it to fire). That means, Piercing Arrow and Devouring Arrow will apply a slow. As a side note, Nether Tentacles will as well for a nice AoE Line slow, but Ball Lightning wont. Fantastic for kiting mobs.

Fire attacks have a chance of exploding an enemy on death and doing a small AoE.

Holy attacks work a lot like fire, except instead of damaging enemies, it nearby allies when it explodes and it heals enough to be a noticeable amount. Great on tanks as it is a free heal if you get it to proc.

Lightning damage has a higher chance to make an enemy flinch, which is great for interrupts.

It's just something I wanted to share and make sure people know. Maybe instead of grabbing that lightning enchanted weapon because it has a higher damage output, maybe grab that lower DPS cold bow for better survivability or the holy fist weapons on a monk to help counteract the recent healing nerf.

Posted in: dps, Tips and tricks