Damage Types

Damage in the game is categorized into three primary types: physical, magical, and unique.

In Patch 6.3, a UI option will be added to allow players to view the type of damage they were hit by. Currently, it is not possible to view damage types without third-party websites or tools.

Physical

Physical damage includes most player weaponskill actions. Most (but not all) enemy auto-attacks are physical, along with many enemy actions.

Physical damage taken can specifically be reduced by the melee DPS role action   Feint, along with other actions that reduce damage from all types. Only physical damage can be parried.

Magical

Magical damage includes player spell actions and many enemy actions.

Magical damage taken can specifically be reduced by the melee DPS role action   Addle, the gunbreaker ability   Heart of Light, and the dark knight abilities   Dark Missionary and   Dark Mind, along with other actions that reduce damage from all types.

Unique

Unique damage, sometimes referred to as darkness damage by players, includes some miscellaneous enemy actions and instant-kill damage (e.g., enrage actions or death walls). Unique damage cannot be mitigated by actions that affect only physical or magical damage, although some sources of unique damage can be mitigated by actions that reduce all damage taken.

Other types

Damage can also be categorized into other types such as elemental (fire, ice, lightning, water, wind, earth, dark, light) and physical sub-types (slashing, piercing, blunt). These are usually specific to particular duties.

Often, players will encounter debuffs that will increase damage taken from a certain primary type, element or physical sub-type (e.g., Fire Resistance Down). These are commonly used to enforce ways of handling particular mechanics.

• For example, a mechanic may require players to soak an attack that inflicts Fire Resistance Down. Players with that debuff would take lethal damage if they attempt to soak the attack, requiring someone without the debuff to handle it.
• In another example, a "tankbuster" attack inflicts Physical Vulnerability Up to the target. The other tank can   Provoke provoke the boss to prevent the original target from dying to the boss's auto-attacks due to the debuff.

Many action tooltips will indicate the element of an attack (e.g., "Deals fire damage with a potency of XXX"). Innate elemental resistance is not a factor in combat, so these can be ignored. For example, a Bomb will not take reduced damage or absorb damage from Fire. It will also not take increased damage from Blizzard.