What is considered an attak?

Maybe explained elsewhere but I couldn’t find it just by googling. Is everything that’s capable of dealing damage considered an “attack”? (Oppose to other games where actions are generally split into spells and attacks). If I bind Maul to reaping strike, and use cadence to trigger reaping strike. Does Maul have a 15% to trigger every time I cadence? Or every time I trigger reaping strike?

Is the default war cry considered an “attack”? It does no damage by default but has the line “X% reduction to enemies health” which I have no clue the meaning of.

not all devotions can be bind to everything

you can for instance bind ulzaad to war cry

and you can bind phoenix devotion proc to curse of fraility (a skill that deals 0 damage can still crit lol) but you can not bind assassins mark to same skill :stuck_out_tongue:

but if you bind to reapin strike you only have chance to proc when reaping strike is used.

on the other hand, if you bind to cadance you can still proc devotions even on the 2 non-cadance hits

You attack if you apply damage or a debuff with any of your active skills or Weapon Pool Skills (WPS).

The basic attack is also an attack for the purpose of triggering procs, but you cannot bind a celetial skill to it.

Auras that attack enemies can only be used with celetial skills which are triggered on (you being) hit or on block.

Proc’ed effects do not trigger additional procs.


The forum search is pretty good, GD’s Game Guide and especially the page about Combat is a useful starting point - there you also find an explanation for % Current Life Damage (aka x% Reduction to Enemy’s Health) - and if you need to dig deeper you can find Mechanics Guides and other tutorials. A regular web search would only be my last resort.

This was one of the most fun discoveries in the game, for me. Ignaffar’s Presence, the toggled skill on Rune Armor of Ignaffar, would trigger “% chance on attack” procs on my other gear pieces! So i could effectively stand next to an enemy and trigger a ton of shit without even pressing any buttons.

Test it on training dummies. I thought this was the coolest thing ever and of course then began experimenting with builds based around these mechanics.

This data was very helpful later, when I started playing HC classless. Without the ability to choose classes, the only skills you can get are those from Devotions, and those on Gear, so a piece like the Rune Armor can be really helpful in defining the flavor and utility of your build.

Or use Nightblade’s Veil of Shadow aura and equip a lot of of the Winter Storm gear.

1 Like

Yeah, theres tons of things you can do to “exploit” the mechanic, and thats one thing i love about this game- so many different things to try.