A question about damage calculation

Hello all! I'm new to Guild Wars and have a very simple question.

I'm playing an Elementalist, and the starting weapon is the "Starter Elemental Rod" which has 3-5 fire damage and grants +20% damage. I'm confused as to what the +20% damage applies to.


Is it only applied to damage dealt by the rod, or is it also applied to spell damage?

Also, does adding attribute points to Fire Magic increase fire damage dealt with weapons?

Only to the damage when you attack with the rod. Spell damage is never affected by +damage mods. You'll want the mods that halve the casting time / recharge and extend enchantments.

As for attributes: in short, no. While we could go into details about critical chances, weapon damage and so on, for practical purposes, you need to have the attribute at least as high as the requirement on the weapon for it to do maximum damage or gibe the bonus that's conditioned.

Note that casters do their damage with spells, and you'll hardly ever need to use your wand/staff to attack - except when you have nothing better to do...

Thanks for the help!

Huh. I never actually bothered to test, but I always kind of assumed that, for instance, a strength and honor inscription WOULD affect damage from spells, just as a poisonous bowstring would affect the duration of poison you inflict through a means other than your bow. Guess I should visit the isle of the nameless after work tonight...

this is just not true. the damage mods only affect the damage the weapon itself does. A 15^50 does nothing for your spells.

All +damage% modifiers (the inscription/inherent and customisation bonus) only apply to raw weapon damage. If you're not hitting with your weapon it doesn't count for anything. The Poisonous mod would trigger on poison application rather than on hit, so there's a difference.

It hardly matters for me, of course. As someone who's primarily been a mesmer since he began playing, the idea of adding damage to a spell is less important to me than that of improving my overall casting performance.

It was just an assumption I made which resulted in absolutely no harm to anyone, anywhere, whatsoever. I'm so sorry I seem to have offended some folks here by making it. Sheesh.

Relax. Seriously, no one's been offended, unless you have an issue with people filling in gaps in your knowledge.

BTW, people, you can test these things. Spell damage, unlike weapon damage, is fixed, so you can always go to the master of damage, switch weapons around and see whether things change.