COMBAT MECHANICS (part 1)
5.1 Hit vs Damage Over Time
Damage in Last Epoch can be dealt in two different ways: as a hit, or as damage over time.
A damage over time effect deals damage to a target or area repeatedly over a duration. The most common sources of damage over time are ailments such as ignite, bleed, and poison, which affect individual targets. There are also damage over time effects that damage all targets within an area, such as Fire Aura, Tornado, Consecrated Ground, and many more.
Any source of damage that is not damage over time is considered a hit. Most damaging skills include a hit, such as Swipe, Rive, Fireball, Elemental Nova, Rip Blood, and many more.
Hits can be dodged, blocked, or turned into a glancing blow, and there are many other effects that trigger either when you hit something or when you are hit by an enemy. All non-DoT damage has a +/- 20% variance applied after it’s been calculated, so a 100 damage hit will do anywhere from 80-120 damage.
Damage over time cannot be mitigated by most defense mechanics, except for resistances, endurance, or any source of global/DoT damage reduction. Damage over time cannot critically strike and does not trigger on hit effects such as “health gained on hit”.
5.2 Base Damage
All skills have a base amount of damage that they would deal without any stats, which is called base damage. Base damage can only be modified by a skill’s tree.
The default base damage for each skill is listed on its tooltip.
Melee skills typically have 2 base damage total because most of their damage comes from weapons. Spells and throwing attacks can have much more base damage, but the exact amount varies a lot between skills.
When calculating damage dealt, stats like “+5 melee fire damage” are multiplied by the skill’s added damage effectiveness, then added to the base damage before stats like “30% increased damage” and “10% more damage” are applied.
Added damage without a damage type, such +5 Melee Damage, adds damage of a type that depends on the base damage type of the skill.
For example +5 Melee Damage will add 5 Melee Physical Damage to a Physical Melee Attack but will add 5 Melee Fire Damage to a Fire Melee Attack.
5.3 Damage Conversion
The damage type of specific skills can be converted by skill tree nodes or items. There are two types of damage conversion.
Base damage conversion converts a skill’s base damage from one type to another, which does not affect damage from stats such as “+5 melee fire damage”, but will change the damage type of added damage stats without a damage type tag such as “+5 melee damage”.
Full damage conversion converts all of a skill’s damage to a specific type, including damage from stats such as “+5 melee fire damage”.
Neither type of damage conversion affects ailments such as ignite, nor any other effects applied or triggered by the skill, unless stated otherwise.
5.4 Damage Effectiveness
All skills have an added damage effectiveness, which is a multiplier that is applied to all damage from stats like “+5 melee fire damage”.
Skills with large mana costs or cooldowns typically have greater than 100% damage effectiveness, while some skills that hit rapidly have less than 100%.
For example, Fireball has a damage effectiveness of 125%, while Meteor has a damage effectiveness of 900%. If you had “+10 spell fire damage” from your passives, 12.5 fire damage would be added to Fireball, while 90 fire damage would be added to Meteor.
Damage effectiveness does not affect base damage.
5.5 Resistances
Resistances apply whenever you take damage, reducing how much damage you take. Resistances are one of the few ways to mitigate Damage over Time effects.
https://i.imgur.com/GBBhSma.png
For example, if you have 10% physical resistance, you will take 10% less physical damage.
Resistances cap at 75%, so having a resistance value greater than 75% will not directly reduce the damage you take. Resistances can be reduced to negative numbers, with each 1% of negative resistance increasing damage taken of that type by 1%.
Having greater than 75% uncapped resistances protects against Resistance Shred, Shock, Poison, and the Mark for Death ailments.
For example, a stack of Shock reduces your lightning resistance by 2%, so if you had 75% lightning resistance it would be reduced to 73%. If you had 77% lightning resistance, your final lightning resistance would still be 75%.
Enemy Penetration applies after your resistances are capped to 75%.
5.6 Armour
Armour mitigates the damage you take from all hits, but has no effect against damage over time.
The percentage of damage mitigated by armour depends on how much armour you have and the level of the area you are in. The same amount of amour provides less mitigation at higher levels, and the percentage of damage mitigated cannot exceed 85%.
This is according to the following formula, where “x” is the amount of armour you have and “a” is the zone’s area level.
https://i.imgur.com/4xLISqA.png
Armour is 70% as effective against non-physical damage.
5.7 Penetration
Penetration subtracts from resistances, causing a source of damage to deal more damage.
Penetration applies after resistances are capped to 75%, and can reduce resistances to negative values.
For example, 30% lightning penetration against 20% lightning resistance will result in -10% lightning resistance.
All enemies gain 1% penetration per area level, up to a maximum of 75%. Players with less than 75% of each resistance at area level 75 and beyond will take increased damage due to having negative resistance values.
5.8 Ward
Ward is a shield above your health that is generated by certain effects and rapidly decays over time. Ward has no maximum value but will always decay to 0 unless you continue to generate more. Damage is dealt to Ward before health.
https://i.imgur.com/qZyRwdG.png
Ward decays more quickly as you gain more of it, but this decay can be slowed with the Ward Retention stat. Ward Retention can be found on items and the passive tree, and the Intelligence attribute also grants Ward Retention.
5.9 Dodge
Dodge is a defensive mechanic that grants you a chance to completely avoid taking hits.
Your Dodge Chance is calculated from Dodge Rating and is lower in higher level areas. Dodge chance cannot go above 85%.
https://i.imgur.com/5fPvlwu.png
Where “a” is the zone’s area level and “x” is Dodge Rating.
A zone’s area level can be viewed on the overlay map (Tab button by default).
Dodge cannot protect you from damage over time effects, and dodging does not count as being hit.
5.10 Block
Block is a defensive mechanic that grants a chance to reduce the damage taken from hits.
Whenever you take a hit, your Block Chance is rolled to determine if you block the hit. On a successful block, a percentage of the damage is mitigated.
This percentage depends on how much Block Effectiveness you have, and the level of the area you are in. The percentage cannot exceed 85%.
https://i.imgur.com/bn4MEZX.png
Where “a” is the zone’s area level and “x” is Block Effectiveness.
You can block all hits (including from spells), but not damage over time effects. Blocking a hit counts as being hit.
5.11 Endurance
Endurance is a defensive mechanic that allows you to take less damage while below a certain health value.
While your health is less than your Endurance Threshold, you will take less damage equal to your Endurance value. This reduction applies to health, but does not apply to ward.
Endurance has a cap of 60% less damage taken (multiplicative with other modifiers), while Endurance Threshold does not have a cap.
Endurance applies to any damage taken below your Endurance Threshold, even if the instance of damage was applied while you were above it.
For example, if you take a hit of 100 damage, but 50 of that damage was below your Endurance Threshold, the last 50 damage will have Endurance applied to it.
All characters start with 20% Endurance and have an Endurance Threshold equal to 20% of their maximum health.
Endurance mitigates both hits and damage over time.
5.12 Glancing Blow
A Glancing Blow reduces the damage you take from a hit by 35%. Having a chance greater than 100% has no additional effect.
Glancing Blow cannot protect you from damage over time effects and taking a Glancing Blow counts as being hit.


















