Just a question about the transmutors that reduce the total damage of a skill while also reducing the weapon damage too, because the mechanics in play are so messy. I’m a long time player, but I never quite figured it out.
This question is does the weapon damage get further reduced by the -total damage modifier after the -weapon damage mod is applied? Lets use Forcewave as an example. (Lets pretend that) I have enough ranks in it to have it do 100% weapon damage and 500 base physical. I use the transmutor to -75% weapon damage and -18% total damage. This takes it to 25% weapon damage. Is that weapon damage then reduced by -18% total to 20.5% weapon damage effectively? Or is the total damage modifier only reducing the base physical damage on the skill to 410 with 25% weapon damage?
Based on my observations, the latter is the case. The -18% overall damage would bring the physical damage of the skill to 410, and the weapon damage decrease is an additive (although negative in value, so subtractitive? lol) penalty that would reduce all other sources of damage by 75%. However, if you get the skill to 200% weapon damage, the -75% would bring it to 125%, and the -18% would still only affect the flat damage(s) added by the skill itself (which, as best I can tell, aren’t further nerfed by the 75% weapon damage reduction. That calculation seems to happen independent of that huge drop in weapon damage).
It’s pretty cheap to refund transmutors, so I would hit up the spirit guide and check it out. I tested this out with Primal Strike for the Shaman (-75% WD and -35% Total Damage), yet the skill damage only went down to about 34% of its previous value, and I noticed the damage types added by the skill itself (lightning, etc.) went down significantly less than the rest of the damage types, which led me to believe that -35% total damage modifier was solely for the skill damages.