Damage

This article is about how damage is defined. For how damage is calculated, see Damage calculation.

Damage in Guild Wars results from actions taken by attackers that subtract a portion of a target's health. This definition includes many attacks or skills (including spells) but does not include health degeneration, life stealing, sacrifice, or direct health loss caused by skills such as Infuse Health, Flesh of My Flesh, or Illusion of Weakness.

When an attacker attempts to damage a target, the following is factored in:

• The damage type, such as fire or blunt. The amount of damage done may vary due to the target's armor rating and resistances to that specific damage type.
• The attacker's ability to inflict the damage.
• The target's ability to resist this damage.
• Bonuses on both sides. An attacker may have bonuses that augment the damage and the target may have bonuses that reduce the damage.

The term damage source refers to each minus number that pops up when you take damage.

See Damage calculation for a more detailed description.

Notes

• Frenzied Defense, Frenzy, and Primal Rage double damage dealt to the user.
• Skills with descriptions that state "damage" or "+<number> damage" and do not indicate a specific type of damage (e.g. fire damage) usually deal armor-ignoring damage.

Related articles

• Area of effect / Point blank area of effect
• Damage over time
• Damage per second
• Direct damage
• Pressure
• Spike

The Guild Wars 2 Wiki also has an article on Damage.