How is the weapon damage on this weapon calculated?

Question

A 2h mace damage range as shown in AH is 1405-1944.

The weapon has

+284 min damage +361 max damage 49% damage increase

and no other stats.

The Doomhammer damage range is approximately 655-720 per Blizzard's web site.

I assume the correct approach is to multiply the damage range by 1.49 giving 976-1073, and then I add the min and max damage, giving a final range of 1260-1434.

That's nowhere near the listed damage range. What am I doing wrong?

Solving for what the actual damage range of the mace would have been, I get 752-1062, for an effective +97 min +342 max hidden bonus. Sadly, that hidden bonus doesn't match any known tier min/max table I've been able to find.

(I care because I'm writing an accurate random weapon generator.)

Answer 1

First note that the white version of this weapon has a base damage range of (651-659)-(712-728) Damage - Source: http://d3db.com/item/i/doom-hammer

Because we don't know the damage that the item rolled initially, we can use the average range of 655-720 as an assumption and get a roughly accurate calculation (or once you learn the mechanics, you could reverse the process to find the exact damage roll).

Secondly, minimum damage is added to the damage range before maximum damage. If the minimum damage is boosted above the maximum damage, then the maximum damage is also boosted to the same amount plus one. Afterwards, the maximum damage is added.

+284 min damage +361 max damage 49% damage increase.

minimum = 651 + 284 = 935. maximum = 936 + 361 = 1297 (the max damage was boosted because min damage overlapped).

Next multiply the damage ranged by damage increase.

minimum = 935*1.49 = 1393. maximum = 1297*1.49 = 1932.

This is very close to the weapon range you gave and the discrepancy we can somewhat blame on the initial damage range assumption we made. The rest of the discrepancy we can blame or some rounding issues or technical mechanic that I may not be aware of :)

Conclusion: Min damage is added before Max Damage. Max damage is boosted if Min overlaps due to the boost. Min damage that overlaps Max Damage is worth twice as much damage. Max damage is then added afterwards. Damage increase % is then applied.

Answer 2

Here is the calculation.

First we prove that it is possible to reach this damage value:

• min range is 651 - 659, so min_max = 659
• min_bonus = 284
• max_bonus = 361
• dmg_fact = 1,494 (we do not know the exact value, because it is rounded. best case is 1,4949999...)
• min_pre = min_max + min_bonus = 659 + 284 = 943
• min_final = min_pre * dmg_fact = 943 * 1,494 = 1408,...
• max_pre = min_pre + max_bonus = 943 + 361 = 1304
• max_final = max_pre * dmg_fact = 1304 * 1,494 = 1948,...

And what do you know, this is almost the expected value: 1408-1948. Basically the weapon rolled the maximal min value and the max value was calculated accordingly. The difference is due to the unknown decimals from the dmg_fact (Damage Increase).

Bonus: If you happen to guess the dmg_fact = 1,49044, then min_final = 1405,48492 and max_final = 1943,53376, thus you get the exact range of 1405 - 1944.

Answer 3

It is quite possible that you add the bonus minimum and maximum damage values (as well as any elemental damage stats) to the score before tacking on the damage multiplier. Don't forget the attack speed of the weapon and attack speed boosts for your character, those also play out to the overall DPS of a weapon.

Speculation: DPS values for the same weapon may differ from character to character based on damage stat and innate attack speed. I haven't tested this, but it would make sense.