Sacred 2:Damage Types

There are five elements used which involve damage and their corresponding detrimental effects:

• Physical

• Fire

• Ice

• Magic

• Poison

Damage is calculated separately for each damage type. It is important to understand resistances and how they are applied to damage. Each weapon or spell that inflicts injury delivers some combination of these five damage types; perhaps all physical, perhaps half fire and half magic. In the discussion below, any reference to damage applies to any or all of the types separately. For example, physical damage and poison damage are each calculated using their respective damage and resistance values, then once computed, the two types are added to arrive at the final figure.

All socketable elemental damage types have their own element which must be socketed to increase its elemental damage as well as the chance to inflict their own corresponding Secondary Damage Effect which is also a type of detrimental effect:

	Chunk of Lava (Fire)
	Converts a percentage of physical damage into fire damage. (Burn)
	Poison Fang (poison)
	Converts a percentage of physical damage into poison damage. ( Poison)
	Magic Pearl (Magic)
	Converts a percentage of physical damage into magic damage. ( Weaken)
	Ice Crystal (Ice)
	Converts a percentage of physical damage into ice damage. (Freeze)

Weapons can be socketed with elements that will change a part of the damage type that is already native to the weapon. Almost all weapons start with Physical as a damage type. The above elements will convert a percentage of the original weapon damage (usually from Physical) into the new, chosen element. For example, if a player wanted to enhance fire damage, he would socket one or more "Chunk of Lava" into their chosen gear and that would give them ~30-50% of the previous damage now as fire damage instead of Physical. The more elemental damage a player can produce, the better the chance of applying the relevant Detrimental Effects as well as being able to target a monster's weakest resistances.

As well, all monsters may and usually do have weaknesses against specific damage types. Having the correct damage type versus an enemy's weakest resistance towards that damage type can result in a significant increase in damage as well as increasing the chance to inflict its correlating detrimental effect.

Elemental Damage Type Effects on Weapons

Damage type elements, when socketed, change the appearance of the weapon and will imbue it with glows depending on the type of element socketed as well as extra animated effects. A weapon with no element socketed within it will have no extra color or animation unless it is a unique or legendary. It is possible to tell what kind of damage type a weapon has by checking its color and animation. Damage types on weapons can be a mix of many of the elements. The highest element damage type on the weapon is what will "win" and give the weapon its color and animation.

Ice - White hoarfrost emanates and pulses downwards off the weapon. Secondary Damage Effects (Detrimental Effect) - Freeze.

Fire - The weapon is surrounded by animated flames. Secondary Damage Effects (Detrimental Effect) - Burn (Damage Over Time).

Magic - Blue arcs of energy will travel up and down the weapon with pulsing glows at its head. Secondary Damage Effects (Detrimental Effect) - Weaken.

Physical - No extra special colors or animated effects upon the weapon. Secondary Damage Effects (Detrimental Effect) - Can potentially inflict Open Wounds (Damage-over-Time) if the correct modifiers, weapon or skill lore unlocks are chosen. Socketing elements into a weapon will actually lower the physical Damage-over-Time of Open Wounds, as the weapon will then have a percentage of its physical damage converted into another element.

Poison - Green vapor will float off the weapon while dripping drops of liquid. Secondary Damage Effects (Detrimental Effect) - Poison.