Hi, just had a quick question for anyone who knows how exactly damage over time modifiers work.
Would “increased Damage over time” effect and increase the damage of burn/frostbite? Or is it exclusively “Increased elemental damage over time” that will work on the elemental dot?
What exactly is the difference? Elemental is pretty self-explanatory, but increased dot just kinda leaves me a bit confused on what exactly it does, increases everything else that’s not considered elemental?
Welcome to the forums Nexmel!
I believe if it states “increased damage over time” it means it will increase any damage that will deal it’s damage over time (burn, frostbite, poison, bleed,…) and would be multiplicative with “increased elemental damage over time”
If it specifically states “increased elemental damage over time” it will only increase damage over time coming from elemental sources (fire, elec, cold)
Ok thank you! Makes sense since the Elemental dot usually has bigger values.
My understanding is that all increases are additive with each other unless stated otherwise. You sum all that apply to the given type, then multiply.
If you were doing, say, ignite and bleed with 100% increased ele DoT and 50% increased DoT, your ignites would be increased by 150% and bleeds by 50%.
E: The difference between ele DoT and generic DoT affixes is that ele DoT is narrower in scope but stronger. It doesn’t help non-elemental damage at all but the values are significantly higher for each tier.
They aren’t multiplicative, only “more” modifiers that are in skill trees & occasionally passive trees are multiplicative.
As said, “Increased DoT” will increase all kinds of DoTs, including elemental.
Also, the more precise an affix is, the higher its values. So “Inc Elemental DoTs” should have higher values than “Increase DoTs”
Not exactly true:
Elemental dmg over time has highest roll
Fire dmg and damage over time have “normal” roll
Increased Elemental dmg has lowest roll
Fire dmg would be the most precise affix but is mid range. Damage over time would be the least precise which is also mid range
OK, just for once I was not able to find the source (searched Dammit’s DB), and I’m wrong. 
It is hard to say what is more precise: Fire Damage can scale a fire Hit and a Fire DoT while Damage over Time only scales DoT damage but all types of DoTs. Elemental Damage over Time only scales Elemental DoTs which is very specific.
Let’s rate affixes with points. More points means they are more flexibel. First we give a point for each damage type they scale, e.g. DoT, Hit and Curse (while Curse is rare these are the types I have encountered so far in the game). Secondly we give points for how specific the element must be; Generic gives 3 points, some specification is 2 points and only a single element is 1 point.
Using this rating would yield the tiering we currently have in the game. Of course we do not know how EHG rates their affixes.
tl;dr: Fire Damage is not as specific as you think. Only the element type is specific but it scales all damage types.
The word “precise” was related to shtraks post
But yes you are right
In addition to what Oeller said, fire damage can scale melee/bow/spell/throwing fire damage so I don’t think I’d call it the “most precise” affix.
From the 4 examples i used…can we agree on that?
No, but only because you only gave 3 examples:
I believe if it states:
“increased damage over time”
it means it will increase any damage that will deal it’s damage over time
(burn, frostbite, poison, bleed,…)
and would be multiplicative with:
“increased elemental damage over time”
If it specifically states:
“increased elemental damage over time”
it will only increase damage over time coming from elemental sources
(fire, elec, cold)
Welcome to the forums!
Last Epoch (like at least one other ARPG) is rather specific in its damage calculation rules. All applicable percentage “increases” to damage, regardless of source or type, are first added together and only then applied to multiply the damage (unless otherwise specified).
For example, if you have 100% increased elemental damage over time and 100% increased damage over time, they’re first added together, resulting in a 200% increase, and only then applied. With these numbers, this results in tripling the original damage. This type of calculation is called “additive”, to distinguish it from applying each increase separately.
Separately applied, each 100% increase would result in doubling of the damage, quadrupling the original value. This is called “multiplicative” and is generally indicated by the word “more” or otherwise explicitly specified. Multiplicative modifiers are far more powerful and are used sparingly for balance reasons; most gear affixes and passive nodes are increases rather than more multipliers.
Given:
Then:
Nice ping pong, guys!