The Art of Boom

By Darkgolem

As a spellcaster using direct damage spells in Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach (DDO), spell points are always in short supply. To avoid using spell points in an inefficient manner, a spell caster should understand the ways to do the most damage in combat, what spells are best used for particular combats, and how to decide when damage spells are appropriate.

When to Use Direct Damage Spells

To determine when it is best to use a damage spell as opposed to other types of spells, the resistance of your enemies to spells and the amount of danger your enemies pose to your party are the key determinants for what type of spells to use.

Damage spells are most appropriate when:

• Your opponents are resistant to spells that either prevent any offensive action or kill your opponents AND your opponents are able to debuff or damage you and your fellow party members rapidly. Examples are drow spell casters, golems, mephits, fire elementals.
• You are opponents have very high armor classes and are resistant to spells that prevent any offensive action by or kill your opponents. An example would be drow blackguards or marut.
• You are facing large numbers of opponents. An example would be kobolds.

The key thing to judge is whether an “all or nothing” spell is effective (since these are more efficient, in general), whether warrior types in your party can kill the opponents without large amounts of damage done to themselves (since they use no spell points to kill opponents), and how many hit points an opponent has (since it may be less effective to kill your opponent quickly using damage spells than to heal up party members after combat because your opponent won't last long enough to do much damage if  they have low hit points).

Consider whether buffs can change the above scenarios. If your party members can destroy opponents fast enough with Haste being cast on them, or the amount of damage your opponent can do your party is drastically reduced with, say, Energy Resistance: Fire, then using these spells instead often makes a damage spell less warranted.

Which Damage Spell to Use

When using direct damage spells, consideration should be made about what type of spell should be cast. Most important to consider is the resistances your opponent has to damage. Some creatures, of course, are resistant to different types of damage, and these drastically reduce how much damage you do with damage spells. When in doubt, lightning is often most effective. If a creature is immune to most or all types of damage, always use force damage. Nothing is resistant to, saves against, nor is spell resistant to, Magic Missile (at the time when this article was written) with the exception of rare spell casters using Shield spells and golems.
Remember that the spell point cost of spells and the rate of casting spells can drastically affect what spells are better to use.

Take the following example of Lightning Bolt:

A 10th level wizard (whose target fails its save) can use Lightning Bolt to do 100 points of damage with Maximize Spell [average of 10(1d3 +3) *2 for Maximize Spell]. A wizard using Lightning Bolt to kill an opponent (barring spell resistance) who has 225 hit points must cast this 3 times, spending 180 spell points and taking 18 seconds.

Now look at Shocking Grasp;

A 10th level wizard (whose target fails its save) can use Shocking Grasp to do 50 points of damage with Maximize Spell [avegage of 5(1d3 +3)*2 for Maximize Spell). This wizard using Shocking Grasp to kill an opponent (barring spell resistance) who has 225 hit points must cast this 5 times, using 150 spell points, and taking 10 seconds to do so.

In this case, an opponent loses 8 seconds worth of actions when Shocking Grasp is used. Those 8 seconds can be the difference between taking too much damage and dying or living to face the next oppnonent. In addition, opponent casters are having to make more concentration checks, because they are taking damage (albeit less damage) more often.

Clearly, using a lower level spells for single opponents is better in many cases. Remember that in combats where only certain opponents are an immediate concern, often this is the same as fighting single opponents. Allow your other party members to handle opponents who are not a deadly threat, while your spells bring down the immediate threats.

In other cases, when multiple foes who present immediate threats to your party (groups of spell casters, etc) are present, it is better to use area of affect spells even if slightly slower than low level single target spells.

How to Stack Damage

There are four ways to enhance your damage spells: Metamagic Feats, Enhancements, permanent enchantments, and temporary enchantments.

1. Metamagic Feats are covered in other guides, it is enough to know that they stack with each other and with all the other means of increasing damage mentioned here.
2. Enhancements are purchased by using action points. Enhancements do not stack with each other, such as two different types of combustion enhancements, but do stack with both permanent and temporary enchantments.
3. Permanent enchantments are always found on items--never as potions. They do not stack with each other or temporary enchantments. It is important to remember that permanent enchantments are named the same way as character Enhancements, and that permanent enchantments and character Enhancements do stack with each other.
4. Temporary enchantments are much like spells found in potions or items. They have a limited duration and do not stack with permanent enchantments or each other.

Enhancements, temporary and permanent enchantments do not cost extra spell points. Their bonuses to damage are applied all at once rather than after other bonuses.

Example:
A 10th level wizard casts a Fireball for 35 points of damage on average (10d6) before other damage bonuses are applied. The wizard has the Empower Spell feat applied, has an Enhancement for +30% to 3rd level fire spells; a robe with Potency IV (+20% to spell damage levels 4 or lower); a staff which has Greater Combustion III, giving a 40% bonus to damage for 3rd level spells or lower (permanent enchantment); and has imbibed a Superior Potion of Inferno III, which provides a bonus of 50% to 3rd level (or lower) fire spells.

The Enhancement provides a +30% bonus. It stacks with everything except other character Enhancements.

Since the staff ( 40%) and robe (20%) are both permanent enchantments, they do not stack to provide 60% bonus. Instead, the wizard gets the larger bonus, this time from the 40% from the staff.

The Inferno potion does NOT stack with the permanent enchantments since it is a temporary enchantment. It does stack with the character Enhancement. Again, the wizard gets the larger bonus between the 40% of the staff the OR 50% from the potion. The Inferno potion provides a 50% damage but cancels the bonus of the robe.

This leaves 30% (the Enhancement) and 50% (the Inferno potion), for an 80% bonus for damage. Note that the bonuses are not applied separately. As a result, the Fireball does 63  (35 * 1.8) points of damage BEFORE the Empower Feat. Empower Spell brings the damage from this to 94 points (63 * 1.5) at a cost of  30 spell points.

The Affects of Bonuses on Items

Enhancements and permanent enchantments stack with wands and items that cast applicable spells. However, temporary enchantments do not.

Enhancement and enchantments types:

• All enhancements and both types of enchantments are classified in the same way.
• There is the amount the effect increased, then the type of effect increased, followed by the highest level spell increased.

The amount of increase is listed as "nothing," improved, greater, or superior. Nothing means nothing is placed in this portion of a classification and means the item provides a 20% bonus. For example the starter wizard Potency staff is listed as “Potency I,” meaning it provides a 20% bonus and affects 1st level spells. Improved is a 30% bonus. Greater renders a 40% bonus, and Superior is a 50% bonus. All temporary enchantments are superior bonuses. The types of effects are listed below:

Type	Enhancement	Enchantment
		Permanent	Temporary
Fire	Combustion	Combustion	Inferno
Healing	Devotion	-	Ardor
Cold	Glaciation	Glaciation	Freeze
Electricity	Magnetism	Magnetism	Spark
Negative Energy	Nullification	-	Nihil
All Damage Spells	Potency	-	Efficacy
Repair	Reconstruction	-	Mending
Good Spells	-	-	Beatitude
Sonic	-	-	Cacophony
Acid	-	-	Erosion
Force	-	-	Impact

I have heard of other types of permanent enchantments, such as impulse items for force spells. I have not seen them, so have not included them in this guide.

The level of the spell increased follows the amount and type of effect, listed always as Roman numerals I through V. An example of an item would be a staff of Superior Glaciation II, which would increase damage of cold spells by 50%, affecting level 2 or lower spells.

Enhancements and enchantments to damage (and healing and repair spells) apply to all classes equally. For example, a cleric can use a potion of Efficacy or a potion of Nihil to increase the damage done by a Cause Light Wounds spell (though, as mentioned, the two potions would not stack).

Parting Thoughts

Direct damage spells in DDO will probably always be a niche series of spells for efficient spell casters because the large amount of hit points many opponents have make these less efficient in many cases compared to all or nothing spells. However, when those situations arise where the only solution to dealing with a problem are to turn your opponents into small piles of cinders, lightning seared flesh, or frozen statues, it's important to know how to do so most efficiently and satisfactorily.

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