So a build’s damage notes make sense
Hard targets, Vulnerable Damage, Crit Chance and Overpower stacks show up on every endgame build. This primer defines the shared language so you can read those lines without a full combat formula.
- Additive [+]
- One shared pile
- Multiplier [x]
- Separate when it triggers
- Conditions
- Vulnerable · Crit · Overpower
- Hard targets
- On the build page
- Primer, not optimiser. No complete DPS equation lives here.
- Build pages own the figures — breakpoints, caps and which bucket to feed next.
The stack, in reading order
Read a hit as layers, not one percentage. Same-type bonuses that share a pile grow less impressive as you stack more of them; separate multipliers apply when their condition is met.
Weapon damage, skill rank and the skill’s own multipliers set the base before gear conditions fire.
Many affixes share one additive bucket — Damage, Skill Damage, Damage to Close, Damage while Berserking, and conditional Crit / Vulnerable / Overpower Damage affixes of the ordinary [+] kind. More [+] still helps, but each new point is a smaller slice of the total.
Bonuses written as [x] (or “increased damage” in that style) multiply when their condition is true. They do not dissolve into the additive pile.
Some gear uses “x% … Damage Multiplier” language. Same-type multipliers add with each other first, then multiply your hit. Read the word on the tooltip — do not invent a second formula from this page.
Landing a Critical Strike and hitting a Vulnerable target each apply their own global multipliers (see the cards below). Affix Crit Damage and Vulnerable Damage are separate, conditional bonuses on top.
Crit, Vulnerable, Overpower
Three conditions appear on almost every Sanctuary build page. Treat them as peer systems — uptime and chance matter as much as the damage affix beside them.
Vulnerable
A condition on the enemy (their life bar shows it; your own orb cracks when you are Vulnerable). While Vulnerable, every source hits for an inherent 20%[x] more — that baseline is a separate multiplier and is not raised by “+Vulnerable Damage%” affixes. Affix Vulnerable Damage only works against Vulnerable targets and feeds the additive (or summed-multiplier) pile for that condition. Builds chase Vulnerable uptime so those buckets stay on.
Critical Strike
Each hit rolls Crit Chance — baseline 5%, then Dexterity or Intelligence by class, plus gear and skills. A crit applies an inherent 50%[x] multiplier, separate from [+] Critical Strike Damage affixes. Past 100% Crit Chance, more chance does nothing useful for that roll, which is why so many builds hard-target full chance before pouring into Crit Damage. Some DoTs and channels do not crit the same way — leave those quirks to the build.
Overpower
Overpower is a stack you generate and spend — not the old lucky 3% big-hit proc. Stacks come from skills, Aspects, Paragon and set effects; builds name how they build and spend them. Affixes such as Overpower Damage and “per Overpower Stack” feed that system. Ignore older advice that still describes a fixed 3% chance and a flat 1.5× lucky hit.
Common mistakes
Do not read “+20% Vulnerable Damage” as “20% more DPS” — additive piles diminish, and the inherent Vulnerable multiplier is the flat x20%. On a crit build, usually do not pour into Crit Damage before Crit Chance is at 100%. Do not plan around the removed Masterworking 4 / 8 / 12 crit ranks — Capstone at 25 is the current ladder (see Gear and Farming).
Phrases you’ll see on build pages
Hard targets and defensive uptime lines are house language. The numbers always live on the build; this page only names the pattern.
- Hard targets are numbers that stop being “more is better,” or that unlock a breakpoint — for example Crit Chance at 100%, an attack-speed frame tier on a weapon, a resource floor for the loop, or a note to keep two multiplier buckets even. When a build says there is no hard breakpoint, follow its priority order instead.
- Attack-speed breakpoints snap weapon APS plus Attack Speed into frame tiers. Builds publish the exact percentages; do not copy other people’s tables onto this primer.
- Barrier is a temporary absorb shield. Some Aspects (and runes) want Barrier uptime — keep the shield up when the build says so.
- Fortify is a fortified defensive layer. Aspects such as Crushing need you Fortified; follow the build for how you generate it.
- Resolve appears as a temper or item effect on some builds — follow the build page; this primer does not define the full mechanic.
- Multiplier balance (for example DoT multiplier versus Vulnerable multiplier) means spread Capstone and masterwork attention so one bucket does not starve the other.
What stays on build pages
- Exact Crit / Attack Speed / resource hard-target figures
- Skill ranks, Paragon nodes and which temper feeds which bucket
- Per-stack Overpower maths and spend effects
- A full combat / DPS formula
- Gear multipliers and Unique choices → Gear and the build
Read Gear for where those rolls live on a piece, then open your class build for the numbers. Season checklist: Season 15.