How does the % in a skill tooltip turn into the numbers that kill a boss?

[AjiBuster499]

I think I have the basic idea (the % in the tooltip is multiplied by your damage, and after applying other factors i.e., ele attack, fd, crit, etc. the damage is dealt) but I'm confused still. Looking at the number before the other multipliers are added:
1. When I look at Flaming Locust's 2017% ATK, does that mean that, if I have 100k phys damage, the math turns out as (100,000)(20.17) or (100,000)(21.17) because everything has a base multiplier of 1 (which does nothing to the number by default)?
2. When Flaming Locust EX's additional hit does 200% of the base attack, is that 2*20.17 or 3*20.17 (since base multiplier is 1 again)?
3. Assuming that the answer to 2 is 3*20.17, does that mean that 60.51 (3*20.17=60.51) gets multiplied to the phys damage, or is it 61.51 (base multiplier of 1)
4. What's the purpose of a damage range?

I know the full equation is something like (phys damage)(%ATK on tooltip)(1+ele%)(other multipliers that follow similar to ele%) = number that kills the boss.

tl;dr where does the base multiplier of 1 fit into the damage equation?

[ceruulean]

You don't know because every skill has a coefficient that affects its dmg. You can probably collect data experiment and eventually find the coefficient but that's annoying and most people don't bother

[Vahrheit]

The full formula is
ATK * (1 + ELEATK) * (1 + FD + SKILL_PLATE_BONUS) * (1 - TARGET_DEF - SUM(DEF_MOD)) * (1 - TARGET_ELEDEF - SUM(ELEDEF_MOD)) * (CRIT ? CRIT_DMG : 1.0) * (SKILL_BOARD_DAMAGE * HIT_COEFFICIENT)

ATK - your stat damage (patk, matk) as rolled by your damage range (see below)
ELEATK - Elemental attack (for that element)
FD - FD as a % for the target level cap
SKILL_PLATE_BONUS - The % bonus from a skill damage plate (e.g. Armor Break +20% damage plate)
TARGET_DEF - The target's defense for the corresponding attack type (physical/magic) for the target level cap
DEF_MOD - % defense modifiers (e.g. defense buffs/debuffs)
TARGET_ELEDEF - Elemental defense
ELEDEF_MOD - elemental defense modifiers (usually from skills, like Goddess Relic EX)
(CRIT ? CRIT_DMG : 1.0) - If you crit your damage is multiplied by your crit damage, otherwise multiply by 1 (do nothing).
SKILL_BOARD_DAMAGE - The Skill % you see on your skill tooltip
HIT_COEFFICIENT - The multiplier applied to the SKILL_BOARD_DAMAGE. For instance, Guardian's Justice Crash EX has two hits: the first hit has a coefficient of 0.5, the second has a coefficient of 1.0.

A skill's tooltip damage doesn't always accurately reflect the damage that a skill will deal. You need to learn/figure out/feel for the type of numbers you should be seeing. For instance, here is the hit coefficient table for some Guardian skills. Just focus on the SKILL%, HITCOEFF, TOTAL COEFF, and TOTAL SCALING columns.
SKILL% - The damage % shown on the tooltip
HITCOEFF - That particular hit's HIT_COEFFICIENT
TOTAL COEFF - The total (sum) coefficient of all hits from the skill
TOTAL SCALING - The total skill damage percentage, equal to SKILL% times TOTALL COEFF.



Damage range is to introduce variance into your damage and a bit of RNG. It appears to be normally distributed within your range. So if your attack says 100-120, then when you land an attack, your ATK variable (from above) can be anywhere between 100 and 120 inclusive.

For Flame Locust EX's 200% damage modifier, that means that the hit coefficients are multiplied by 2 - aka the skill's damage is doubled. This usually but not always the case (prime example is [Awakened] Armor Break, which should have a multiplier of 200% and 300% combined for 600% according to the tooltip, but instead has a real multiplier of 930%.

tl;dr the formula, the logic, you'll need to go test. Testing requires you to have a range of 0 (so 100-100 for example as your damage) which can be achieved by reducing your weapon durability to 0 (where it "breaks").

[BowieSage]

While it's not entirely important, to add to what Vahrheit said:

From my understanding, when calculating damage for skills that use both damage types (such as Crusader's skills and certain old costume skills), you want to calculate both parts separately (basically, find the total physical damage the skill inflicts, then find the total magic damage), then add the two values together to find your true damage with those skills.

Also, it kinda goes without saying, but ELEATK, TARGET_ELEDEF, and ELEDEF_MOD aren't used if a skill doesn't have a natural element nor is ele-converted. Though if you're doing raids, you'd be a fool to go with non-elemental damage and miss out on the ele debuffs, so this fact isn't really applicable in those situations.

[Fox Says Meow~]

+1

if u look at the formula, u can categorize all terms into 3 categories: player, boss, and skill
player: dmg, ele, fd (+skill plate), crit (+crit dmg)
boss: defense, ele resist, crit resist
skill: skill %, hit coefficient

this is really useful when ur just comparing simple things and for those situations u only need to compare result from 1 category. examples:
1) gear vs gear: since boss and skill dont get affected by ur gear, u only need to compare all terms in player category (i call this compound dmg)
2) playstyle vs playstyle: same idea, boss and gear dont get affected by how you prioritize skills, only need to find out skill% and hit coefficients (best way to do this is experimentally with a pps calculator that i keep procrastinating to release =.=)

overall there is really only 1 formula (compound dmg) that u need, boss stats are irrelevant since u have no control over it, skill % u can simply look up/ask people who already figured out
especially for those who are in high end gearing, u very often meet questions like do i get 2k dmg or 2% crit dmg, and its not easy to give an answer directly, with compound dmg formula u can precisely figure these things out

(general advice to anyone that is into optimizing gear, take some time and figure out how these things work, and it will help u so much in the long run)

[Jennicans]

Stack Haskell compiler, calculations to the Hackage repository may affect the formula

from the damage coefficient, with respect to the scaling % .