Recently, developers released a major update about Damage Bucket in a live broadcast. After some research and calculations, I have some new discoveries.

Simply put, the statistics of Crit Damage and Vulnerable Damage will be accumulated in Season 2 instead of being kept separately as before.

The bad news is that we’re going to get a major damage nerf in Diablo 4 endgame. By my calculations, it will reduce our damage output to about half of what it was pre-patch.

The good news is that more damage stats will be relevant and trigger multiplier bonuses. This will help further enrich our Diablo 4 item assortment. For example, Elemental Damage and Overpower build will be stronger. Next, we will show this change through calculations.

Endgame Damage Nerf

To understand this change, let’s first look back at the old Damage Formula. I’ll use my level 100 Sorcerer’s stat sheet as an example.

Total Damage=Weapon Damage*Main Attribute (Strength, Dexterity or Intelligence)*Damage To Damage Bucket*Crit Damage*Vulnerable*Overpower Damage*Global Multiplier (Aspects Passives and Glyphs With (x))

His total damage is equal to Weapon Damage times Main Attribute such as Strength, Dexterity or Intelligence, depending on our classes. The damage to Damage Bucket then multiplied this. Among them, all additional damage in these categories on the right is within a Damage Bucket.

Therefore, they are additive and less effective in the endgame. Then multiply by Crit Damage, Vulnerable Damage and Overpower Damage. Unlike critical hit chance, which we can increase through gear stats, it’s always fixed at a 3% chance.

Finally, multiply it by a Global Multiplier, such as those from Aspects Passives and Glyphs.

Damage Calculation

Let’s calculate the total damage. For simplicity, I will now remove Overpower Damage and Global Multiplier.

Let’s say the critical hit chance is 100% since I achieve this with some synergies in the build. According to my stat sheet, my total lightning damage is about 721,000.

In Season 2, as the developers mentioned, the damage range of Crit Damage and Vulnerable Damage is capped, and additional bonus damage from these categories is cumulative.

Because we have 50% base critical damage and 20% base Vulnerable Damage on any character. This means that any Crit Damage and Vulnerable Damage we get from Gear, Skills, or Paragon Board will be cumulative.

The developers have used a clever way of presenting it as a new system so that we no longer think of it as an add-on. But the final result is that they add Crit Damage and Vulnerable Damage together.

So what will my damage be after the update? Given that I have these two plus Crit Damage and Vulnerable Damage stats. I’m going to have these two new additional damages from Crit and Vulnerable. So my bucket’s damage level is about 14000%.

Among them, Crit Damage and Vulnerable Damage bring 80% multiplier damage bonus to Damage Bucket. My new total damage is only about 127,000, which is 127,000/721,000=17.6% of my previous damage.

After the update, it will reduce our damage output to 1/6 of the previous one with the same damage statistics.

According to the patch notes, we will have higher damage stats in Season 2. Certain Paragon legendary nodes also have additional multiplier damage modifiers. According to my rough calculations, even with all these modifiers, we’re probably doing half as much damage as we were before the patch.

It also means that dealing massive damage in the endgame will be harder, and all bosses will be more challenging, that’s for sure.

How To Equip?

Does this mean this is purely bad news for the game? I do not think so.

These changes make damage statistics simpler, as they are all cumulative. All players can visually compare gear damage stats and choose the best gear for their favorite builds and maximize their Diablo 4 Gold savings.

For example, this Ring Of Control. If we hit an enemy at close range, we get 35% extra damage. If we hit a vulnerable enemy, we get 21% extra damage.

But Crit and Vulnerable Damage are not necessary for Season 2. Therefore, random gear is more likely to increase our damage, and we can continually enhance our abilities after level 70.

The above are the changes I found in Diablo 4 Season 2 Crit and Vulnerable Damage and the updated changes in Damage Bucket. How do you feel about the new damage update? I want to know what you think. Happy gaming!