Ted's Thoughts on Damage Types

[Emtedroni]

We all know that some damage types are more effective in some situations and less effective in others. That being the case, I've decided to put my thoughts and observations down for everyone to see in the hopes of helping our newbies and having my own mis-conceptions corrected.

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Different Damage Types:

Ancient Dwarf
Beleriand
Common
Fire
Light
Westernesse

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What damage types are effective against:

Ancient Dwarf Damage: Drakes and Worms; Cave Claws. (I understand some of the worms in Angmar seem more resistant to AD than other worms.)

Beleriand Damage: Spiders/Insects, Unseen (Ring-wraiths), Half-Orcs, The Dead (when they intersect with AE), Ancient Evil (Morrovail and Helchgam among others), Orcs (rarely) and Trolls (rarely, Wood Trolls).

Common Damage: If the mob is resistant to any particular type of damage, this would be it.

Fire Damage: Creatures of Nature (Trees and Helchgam's Tentacles), Trolls, and some Beasts (Hillbeasts).

Light Damage: The Unseen (Ring-wraiths), Orcs and Trolls. (Orcs are almost always weak to Light, Trolls less so)

Westernesse Damage: The Dead/Undead (Ghosts and Wights), Unseen (in Fornost, and Carn Dum) and Ancient Evil (when it co-insides with The Dead: Gaunt Men).

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What mob types tend to be more vulnerable to:
(1. is found often, 2. is found sometimes and 3. is found occasionally)

Ancient Evil - 1. Beleriand, 3. Westernesse (Gaunt Men)

Beast - overall standard resistance, 3. Fire (rare, Hillbeasts) 3. Ancient Dwarf (rare, Cave Claws)

Creatures of Nature - Fire

Dead/Undead - 1. Westernesse, 3. Beleriand (Gaunt Men)

Dragon Kind - 1. Ancient Dwarf (Angmar worms seem resistant), 3. Fire (Angmar drakes)

Dwarf Kind - overall standard resistance

Giant Kind - overall standard resistance

Half-Orc - Beleriand (Not to be confused with Orcs!)

Man Kind - overall standard resistance

Orc Kind - 1. Light, 3. Beleriand

Spider/Insect - Beleriand

Troll Kind - 1. Fire, 2. Light, 3. Beleriand *Special Exception* In Carn Dum there are two types of trolls. The uglier-than-usual trolls are *the exact opposite* of the normal trolls. They are *stronger* against Fire and Light damage; even Common damage is better against those uglier-than-usual trolls.

Unseen - 1. Light, 1. Beleriand , 3. Westernesse

[Ukki]

Actually just a note on AD ... Nor and I have looked it over and Drakes and Worms not only in the Rift but in most places out in Middle Earth are exactly opposite when it comes to AD damage. Drakes are weak to it and worms are superior to it. They seem to be the only ones so far that share the same Mob type but completely opposite resits.

Its odd to be sure.

Also, I don't know why. It makes no sense to me, but it seems that in the Rift at least, I seem to get an average of 20 to 30 points more damage with Beleriand damage on the orcs over fire. I have a bow with each with the exact same high/low and speed and have done quite a few tests with auto shot to get solid numbers, and I have to say the Beler seems to be the better overall damage type to fire, light, and even AD except on the Boss Drakes.

I can't say for absolute certainty with Light though because I don't have anything with the exact same stats as my fire and beler, and don't have a Western bow at the moment so I can't test that either.

[Emtedroni]

One note, all the worms I've tested with Travil (in the Ram Duath, but not Angmar proper; Trollshaws; and salamanders in Evendim) their weakness was to AD like drakes. Maybe it's level based?

[Ukki]

Found out something interesting about Rep dungeons yesterday. I was showing Noraia Sarnur so we decided to scan the special protection mobs, and it turns out that the only weakness thay have is to AD and Shadow damage.

They have the highest resist possible (the word was purple, don't remember what it was though) to Common, Western and Belerand, and had the third highest possible (it was an orange word) to Fire and Light.

We also found out that while inside the rep dungeon a LM cannot de-buff their mitigations. De-buffing the fire mitigations did nothing to any mobs, special or not.

So for Sarnur at least AD is the only real damage of choice. Light and fire work but they are heavily reduced in effectiveness.

The Bree rep may be the same since we know Beler and Western both do nothing there also but it will still need to be scanned and tested.

[Emtedroni]

For the Bree rep dungeon Westernesse is the way to go. Almost everything in there is dead/undead and it works great, even against the things that are not dead before you get to them.

[Ukki]

Good to know.

I couldn't remember if there were any special protection mobs in there or not. Its been a long time since I went passed the first couple rooms in there. I'm assuming that the mobs in there also can't be damage mit de-buffed also?

[Bayron]

Yes, there's a whole section with kergrims and so forth that common damage does nothing to.

Westernesse is the way to go there, as Ted said, it works best against the undead, though not the belly worms.