Destiny: elemental damage discussion

[wittyscorpion]

It seems to me that as a player is approaching end game content, elemental damage consideration will take more and more center stage. As a result, I would like to start a discussion thread to share info, tips, and loadout considerations around this aspect.

I have not played the game much so I am mainly here to learn. To get the conversation started though, I will put down my understanding first.

---

Destiny has 4 types of damage:

1) Kinetic Damage: color coded in white, this is basically the non elemental damage, or "physical" damage;



2) Arc Damage: color coded in light blue, this damage is electric energy related;



3) Void Damage: color coded in purple, this damage is dark energy related;



4) Fire Damage: color coded in orange, this damage is solar energy related;

---

Shielded enemies will have their shields colored with the damage type to which they are weak. In other words, players should use Arc on enemies shielded in blue, Void on enemies shielded in purple, and Fire on enemies shielded in orange.

---

Subclass focus

Each subclass has a specific damage focus (from Super, and possibly grenade options), best illustrated with the table below:

Damage Type	Enemy Races susceptible	Warlock subclass - super	Titan subclass - super	Hunter subclass - super
Arc	Fallen		Striker - Fist of Havoc	Bladedancer - Arc Blade
Void	Vex	Voidwalker - Nova Bomb	Defender - Ward of Dawn
Fire	Hive / Cabal	Sunsinger - Radiance		Gunslinger - Golden Gun

As you can see: in the current setup each class is missing a specialized subclass for one particular damage type, which probably can be addressed by a) equip weapons for that damage type, and/or b) team up with a friend who can do that damage type very well.

Also, it is now obvious why the fireteam has a size of either 3 or 6, because ideally you want each member of your fireteam to be specialized at dealing one specific damage type.

It is also interesting to note that a team consisted of 3 players of the same class will have a significant weakness. You need to at least have 2 different classes to cover all damage types.

My speculation on how Bungie want players to team up: 3 member fire team as basic building blocks, then when doing Raid have 2 (well coordinated) fireteams pair up and take on different duties.

(It's also interesting to note that, although each class only has 2 subclasses at the moment, there is an empty third subclass slot in the class loadout screen. Whether this suggests that there will eventually be a third subclass or not is anybody's guess right now).

[wings]

I can't seem to find anything on any damage multipliers for these elemental choices. Do we know?

[n1gh7]

I think one of the Dattos videos after the beta mentioned the multiplier. Also remember, if they have shields, you can't do headshot damage while the shields are up.

[mannon]

I think that if your attack is able to break the shield the rest of the damage can be applied with headshot multiplier, though as I've noticed getting headshot crits when sniping captains with weak shields.

[hebbnh]

Sept 17, 2014 10:05:31 GMT -5 mannon said:

I think that if your attack is able to break the shield the rest of the damage can be applied with headshot multiplier, though as I've noticed getting headshot crits when sniping captains with weak shields.

This is correct.  Any damage in excess of what it takes to break the shield gets applied as if the shield was never there.

[iw5000]

Ughh.

Being partly color blind, I can't tell any difference at all between the above purple and blue. They look identical.

[wittyscorpion]

Sept 17, 2014 10:13:30 GMT -5 iw5000 said:

Ughh.

Being partly color blind, I can't tell any difference at all between the above purple and blue. They look identical.

That really sucks. Does Destiny have a color blind mode? Borderlands 2 started without but lated added it due to demand.

iw5000: if there is no such mode yet you'll have to start with a weapon with one damage type first, and immediately switch to the other when you see "immune" popping up on the screen. You don't need to worry about elemental damages until you reach level 20+ (I just reached level 20 by only playing story missions and completing bounties, and I have not seen an enemy with colored shield yet).

[hebbnh]

Sept 17, 2014 10:13:30 GMT -5 iw5000 said:

Ughh.

Being partly color blind, I can't tell any difference at all between the above purple and blue. They look identical.

General rule of thumb:  Shields for the Fallen are weak to Arc damage, Hive and Cabal are weak to Fire, and Vex are weak to Void.  I've only seen one exception to this which was a group of Vex Harpies on Mars that had Arc shields.  Hopefully that helps!

[wittyscorpion]

Sept 17, 2014 11:10:52 GMT -5 hebbnh said:

Sept 17, 2014 10:13:30 GMT -5 iw5000 said:

Ughh.

Being partly color blind, I can't tell any difference at all between the above purple and blue. They look identical.

General rule of thumb:  Shields for the Fallen are weak to Arc damage, Hive and Cabal are weak to Fire, and Vex are weak to Void.  I've only seen one exception to this which was a group of Vex Harpies on Mars that had Arc shields.  Hopefully that helps!

Great to know. I am adding these to the table in OP.

[iw5000]

I am looking at these two closely, ...frustrating, they look almost exactly alike. The one on the right, looks just a sliver darker.

[mannon]

Sept 17, 2014 11:09:01 GMT -5 wittyscorpion said:

(I just reached level 20 by only playing story missions and completing bounties, and I have not seen an enemy with colored shield yet).

You sure about that? I'm pretty sure every shield I've ever seen had a color, though the blue ones for the fallen look fairly generic until you see a wizard with a orange shield.

[wittyscorpion]

Sept 17, 2014 11:25:41 GMT -5 mannon said:

Sept 17, 2014 11:09:01 GMT -5 wittyscorpion said:

(I just reached level 20 by only playing story missions and completing bounties, and I have not seen an enemy with colored shield yet).

You sure about that? I'm pretty sure every shield I've ever seen had a color, though the blue ones for the fallen look fairly generic until you see a wizard with a orange shield.

Hmm... I thought all the shielded enemies I saw have white color. Did I miss something?

[mannon]

I thought it was a whitish blue for all the Fallen I've seen and there were no generic shields. Every wizard I've ever seen has definitely had orange shields.

I have once seen those flying robots of the Fallen spawn with orange shields during an event.

[mannon]

Sept 17, 2014 11:22:42 GMT -5 iw5000 said:

I am looking at these two closely, ...frustrating, they look almost exactly alike. The one on the right, looks just a sliver darker.

Luckily in the UI the game uses the symbols so you can tell what weapons do what damage. I have yet to actually see what the void shields actually look like. Maybe they are also darker or something which could help you distinguish them from the arc shields. Hopefully Bungie will update the game to give each type a unique effect, which would not only help with color bline issues, but also look quite cool. For example, arc shields with bolts of electricity, fire shields that look kinda like they're burning, void... I dunno maybe instead of just glowing purple part of the effect is actually black and somewhat opaque, like the shield glows purple, but also absorbs light.

[iw5000]

Not a huge deal at the end of the day. Just work around it.

[Dumien]

Some minor tips about this. If you are colorblind just memorize the symbols.

The only time elemental damage REALLY comes into play is with the epic modifier which gives minions MUCH tougher shields...as in...they can't really be damaged by anything other that that specific element. Epic modifiers come into play with nightfall missions and exotic quests. My recommendation is (once you hit 20) to keep sniper rifles and machine guns of every element even if they aren't the highest tier. This way you have flexibility when your team of 3 eventually tries to take on one of these epic missions. "I sniped the shield off the left wizard." "Knight's shields are down" are phrases that occur every few seconds on this.

More tips.

Heavy Ammo is what you are going to be spending the bulk of your glimmer on for this purpose. Machine guns melt even the strongest shields of any given element. Where this comes in handy is with the "X Burn" (where X is an element) multiplier on Heroic strikes and Nightfall missions. Normally this works against you since the multiplier will certainly be the damage type most common among enemies, but you can use this to your advantage by having a machine gun of the same element. Snipers will blast through bosses especially well...so special ammo is a good investment too.

[iw5000]

Sept 17, 2014 16:48:23 GMT -5 Dumien said:

Some minor tips about this. If you are colorblind just memorize the symbols.

The only time elemental damage REALLY comes into play is with the epic modifier which gives minions MUCH tougher shields...as in...they can't really be damaged by anything other that that specific element. Epic modifiers come into play with nightfall missions and exotic quests. My recommendation is (once you hit 20) to keep sniper rifles and machine guns of every element even if they aren't the highest tier. This way you have flexibility when your team of 3 eventually tries to take on one of these epic missions. "I sniped the shield off the left wizard." "Knight's shields are down" are phrases that occur every few seconds on this.

More tips.

Heavy Ammo is what you are going to be spending the bulk of your glimmer on for this purpose. Machine guns melt even the strongest shields of any given element. Where this comes in handy is with the "X Burn" (where X is an element) multiplier on Heroic strikes and Nightfall missions. Normally this works against you since the multiplier will certainly be the damage type most common among enemies, but you can use this to your advantage by having a machine gun of the same element. Snipers will blast through bosses especially well...so special ammo is a good investment too.

Some good tips there dumien, but unfortunately it's like reading Greek to me. At least right now. Hopefully I can catch up to speed and understand some of the above.

[wittyscorpion]

iw5000: as you can already see from the threads on this subboard, the game has lots of depths and it will take quite a while to understand them all.

However, from my experience so far I found that I don't really need to understand them to have fun. Just enjoy what I enjoy, and let things unfold naturally. As discussed in denkirson.proboards.com/thread/7300/silly-question, it can be a game for casual play.

Of course, this is assuming that you enjoy the "30 seconds of fun" from the basic game play mechanics. As I mentioned before, the game is not for everyone and no amount of belts and whistles can make the game more fun if you don't enjoy the basics.

[mannon]

I know a lot of people play games for adrenaline rush and everything has to be super tight and challenging and they only play PvP.

Me, I kinda like some dumb AI's to mow down. Sometimes I'll mute the game and just go on patrol solo while watch/listening to Youtube vids with my GF. I can play casually enough to look at the video if anything interesting happens and I can follow along listening without it detracting from me just running around headshooting random mobs and looking for chests. I like how Destiny caters to a lot of ways of playing it.

[Dumien]

Pretty much you can have fun running around and shooting stuff til you hit 20. Enjoy it. The fun from level 1-20 should be exploration and getting the hang of the skills the game gives you incrementally by leveling up. At 20 the game really begins and stops holding your hand. You need to know this elemental damage bits and all the critical points of the enemies( i.e. Fallen: Head/Vex: Tummy). Find a buddy. Then, find another buddy. Then conquer the world. If you don't you really are going to get wrecked. You won't be able to do heroic weeklys. You won't be able to do Nightfalls. You won't be able to do Raids. This is a social experience that focuses on teambuilding and understanding of the game's mechanics.

I definitely recommend having someone show you the ropes. I was lucky enough to start the game with a good 5ish players all bouncing ideas off of each other. A real melding of the minds.