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How 'Afterburn' damage works in Skyrim

Tags: #Tips and Tricks Showcases 
  • Member
    May 26, 2014

    A Discussion on 'Taper Mechanics' - Part I

    *All damage based on ADEPT difficulty without resists factored in*

    CLICK here to read Part II

    Contents:

    1. Introduction to Taper Mechanics - What is it and what does it do?
    2. Example of Taper Mechanics in action using the Fireball spell
    3. Ways to Modify the damage of Taper Mechanics
    4. How Necromage affects Taper Mechanics (and breaks the game)
    5. Conclusion
    6. Credits

    *Note: Before we begin I want to clarify the statement "Targets on fire take extra damage".  When a target is hit by certain spells they are set 'on fire' and they recieve extra damage.  This extra damage comes from a special condition that is being applied to them (that is the topic of this discussion today); targets DO NOT take any additional damage from any weapons that they are hit with nor do they take any additional damage from other spells that hit them (fire or otherwise).

    This is 'Part 1' of a three part series of discussions.

    Introduction to Taper Mechanics

    Certain spells in Skyrim use a special mechanic to apply something I call 'Afterburn', which is the additional burning damage that targets take when hit with a fire spell.  Most fire and sun spells use this mechanic but a few in particular are of special interest to us and will be the focus of this series of discussions. 

    To apply this special 'Afterburn' damage, Skyrim uses an equation to calculate how much damage should be added.  The equation is as follows:

    The 'Taper Curve' is going to be of great significance to us.  A 'Taper Curve' basically tells the game how quickly damage falls away over a length of time.

    If the curve is a straight line then the damage will be the same for every point in time, an example of this being a lingering poison that does 5 damage per second for 10 seconds; the poison does the same amount of damage each second so the 'curve' is actually a straight line.  If the curve is a positive value the damage will decrease over time and if it is a negative then the damage will actually increase. 

    I don't want to spend much time on this because it can get far too complicated for what we're using it for.  What is important to keep in the back of your head is that most spells in Skyrim that have a 'Taper curve' have a value that is 2.0.  If we were to lower this value then it will have a direct effect on how much damage is done, this will be coming into play later in this discussion.

    Example of Taper Mechanics

    So let's jump into a few examples to actually see this mechanic in action.  For all examples in this discussion we'll be looking at the Adept level destruction spell 'Fireball'.  The statistics for this spell are as follows:

    FIREBALL: 40 BASE damage (AKA Spell Magnitude)

    • 0.3 - Taper Weight
    • 2.0 - Taper Duration (in seconds)
    • 2.0 - Taper Curve

    Most of you will be familiar with Fireball doing 40 damage per cast, the rest of the numbers are values that are hidden inside the game and are used to calculate the spells' afterburn damage.  If we take the equation for 'Afterburn' from above and plug in the numbers for the Fireball spell we get the following:

    [Spell does 40 damage]

    From this we can see that Fireball has an 'Afterburn' of 8 damage spread over a duration of 2 seconds. 

    Fireball does 48 total damage: 40 BASE + 8 AFTERBURN

    Ways to Modify the damage

    Now that we know what Taper Mechanics are and how they are applied to the Fireball spell, let's look at how we can begin modifying the damage!

    The Afterburn equation uses the spells' damage value for it's calculation.  Due to this we are able to boost the Afterburn damage with anything that also boosts the damage of the spell.  The Main methods of boosting the Fireball spell damage are as follows:

    • Augmented Flames perks (+50% damage total)
    • Fortify Destruction potions
    • Dual Casting
    • Necromage perk against undead (more on that soon)

    Augmented Flames:

    Let's look at the equation for a Fireball that is being boosted by both ranks of 'Augmented Flames':

    [Spell does 60 damage]

    From this we can see that an augmented Fireball has an 'Afterburn' of 12 damage spread over a duration of 2 seconds. 

    Fireball now does 72 total damage: 60 BASE + 12 AFTERBURN

    Fortify Destruction Potion:

    For this example I'm going to use a basic +75% Fortify potion.  This potion can be made if you have 100 Alchemy skill and take all related perks then combine 'Glowing Mushroom' and 'Nightshade'.  We will assume both Augmented Flames perks have also been taken.

    [Spell does 105 damage]

    From this we can see that an augmented Fireball has an 'Afterburn' of 21 damage spread over a duration of 2 seconds.

    Fireball now does 126 total damage: 105 BASE + 21 AFTERBURN

    Dual Casting:

    You can probably see where this is going.  Dual casting a spell gives you a straight up 2.2 damage modifier.  The equation for a Fireball with both Augmented Flames perks, a +75% potion that is dual casted is:

    [Spell does 231 damage]

    From this we can see that an augmented Fireball has an 'Afterburn' of 46.2 damage spread over a duration of 2 seconds.

    Fireball now does 277.2 total damage: 231 BASE + 46.2 AFTERBURN

    The damage is starting to get up there now!  However there is one perk that can turn this game mechanic into something that approaches broken.

    How Necromage affects Taper Mechanics

    Oh Necromage, you so silly!  

    For this section of the discussion we will be looking at what happens when you use the Fireball spell against an undead target.  I can already hear some people saying "yeah yeah, it does +25% damage nerd!", which is correct for the direct spell damage, but Necromage has a very surprising affect on the game's Taper mechanics.  So what exactly does Necromage do?

    The Necromage perk found in the Restoration skill tree (level 70 required) has two parts:

    1. +25% Spell Magnitude
    2. +50% Spell Duration

    Some of you may already have an idea of where I'm going with this!

    When we talk about the direct damage of the Fireball spell (40 BASE damage) we can accurately guess that Necromage will boost this to a total of 50 damage.  Additionally, all methods of boosting the damage are also affected by Necromage's +25% Magnitude.

    While this seems completely straight forward the true glory of Necromage is in how it breaks the Taper mechanic.  Necromage has the following effects on the mechanics:

    • Taper Weight: This is boosted by +25% giving us a new value of 0.375
    • Taper Duration: This is boosted by +50% giving us a new value of 3 seconds
    • Taper Curve: This is completely broken and whoever programmed this should be kissed, then smacked!

    Remember how I mentioned towards the beginning of this discussion that when the 'Taper Curve' approaches a value of zero the damage over time will become almost consistent?  If you recall, a taper curve value of zero is how we get our lingering poison damage that remains constant.

    What appears to be happening, and this is the one aspect of this discussion that I can't be exact with, is that the 'Taper Curve' is being multiplied by Necromage's 0.25 magnitude then by it's 0.5 duration as well.  The exact numbers are impossible for me to nail down right now but for the purpose of this discussion I am going to use a value of 0 for the Taper Curve; this isn't the exact value that is being used but extensive testing shows that we get values that are close enough for me to use it in this demonstration.

    So let's take a look at the 'Afterburn' equation for the Fireball spell (Augmented Flames) with Necromage being applied:

    *Note: Necromage only affects spells when used against the undead

    From this we can see that an augmented Fireball with Necromage has an 'Afterburn' of 84.375 damage spread over a duration of 3 seconds.

    Fireball now does 159.375 total damage: 75 BASE + 84.375 AFTERBURN

    Necromage is now boosting the 'Afterburn' damage beyond the original spell damage!  Want to see what the fully boosted Fireball (Augmented, 75% potion and Dual casted) spell we looked at earlier is now doing because of Necromage?

    From this we can see that the fully boosted Fireball with Necromage has an approx. 'Afterburn' of 325 damage spread over a duration of 3 seconds.

    Fireball now does over 600 total damage: 288.75 BASE + 324.84375 AFTERBURN

    Conclusion

    Skyrim's Taper Mechanics allow for additional burning damage on enemies which I call 'Afterburn'.  From this discussion we can see that, while at first glance this damage is insignificant (8 extra damage for a 40 damage Fireball), we can use other game mechanics to boost this value in some very fun and interesting ways.  Against many enemies in Skyrim 'Afterburn' will always be just an additional amount of damage which, as I've shown, shouldn't be shrugged off since it can reach some good amounts however when we use our Fireball spell against an undead target and apply the always entertaining Necromage perk...things begin to get wonky.  

    In the above examples I used 'Fortify Destruction' potions that boost damage by 75% and we can see some of the ridiculous amounts of damage that we can squeeze out of Afterburn.  I'd like to remind everyone that it is EXTREMELY easy to boost the strength of these potions much higher.

    +150% is the base value you can make your potions if you have four articles of clothing that have a +25% fortify alchemy enchantment.  A Necromage (since we're taking the perk anyways) vampire can achieve values of over +200% from their potions.  A fully loaded Fireball using a +200% potion will be doing over 1,050 damage against the undead!

    This is Part 1 of a three part discussion that involves 'Afterburn' and 'Taper Mechanics'.  This discussion serves as an introduction to these topics and should be considered required reading for the next two discussions. I know this discussion will seem boring and (possibly) difficult but I promise you we're going to start abusing the hell out of this game mechanic next week!

    To give you an idea of what to expect, next week's discussion is tentatively titled "Taper Mechanics or: How I learned to stop worrying and love Fire Storm!"

    P.S.

    Before anyone asks, Draugr (what I used for testing) are not weak to fire which is why that isn't reflected in the numbers.  It seems to be a common misconception.

    Credits

    For listening to my ramblings and for providing me with a great way to format this discussion (and for 'Liking' this discussion approximately 12 seconds after I posted it!), a big Thanks goes to Teccam

    The really tidy and awesome equations are provided by www.codecogs.com

  • Member
    May 26, 2014

    YES, new James discussion! 

    Seriously, yet another amazing breakdown you've provided here.

    Guys, I'm fortunate enough to have picked up a few bits and pieces from the upcoming parts two and three of this series, and I can say with confidence that you will NOT want to miss them. And reading this post first will definitely help to fully understand the next two.

    The cool thing about the use of Necromage here is that it's not technically exploitative ... you're actually using it for its intended purpose. The player doesn't need to be a vampire to benefit from using the perk, which is really cool. Though, that doesn't detract at all from how ridiculously powerful it is, heh.

    Just to be sure I understand this point: That 2.0 TaperCurve base value that most fire spells have, means that afterburn damage is "front-loaded"? i.e., they receive more damage in the first second than in the last second, because the value 2.0 is positive? BUT with Necromage, when using those same spells on an undead enemy, the [significantly increased] afterburn damage will be more or less evenly distributed because the TaperCurve is approaching 0.0, correct?

    Also, for the "Ways to Modify the Damage" section, don't forget that the Ahzidal mask can also augment Fire Damage by 25%.

    Also, just for anyone thinking of Aspect of Terror: it's applied at the very end, so it really doesn't make a major difference. +15 damage is nice, but when you're doing 400+ damage before accounting for the afterburn/taper damage, it's not going to be a critical piece of the puzzle. It shines for immediate damage on DPS spells like ignite and Flame Cloak, but I don't think it'll change much with regard to Taper Damage.

    Incidentally, James, do you know how Taper Damage works with those DPS spells? Do they proc a new taper with each cast? Or each second of use? Can you stack tapers by repeatedly casting the spells?

    Brilliant stuff, James, and thanks as always!

    PS: Count your blessings that you're not a fan of Cleveland sports.

  • Member
    May 26, 2014

    Just to be sure I understand this point: That 2.0 TaperCurve base value that most fire spells have, means that afterburn damage is "front-loaded"? i.e., they receive more damage in the first second than in the last second, because the value 2.0 is positive?

    Correct.  The damage 'Tapers off' as time goes on.  If you've ever heard the expression that something tapers off, this is what they are citing (albeit probably unintentionally).

    As for Ahzidal's mask I left it out intentionally.  While I used Fireball in the examples for this discussion, the same mechanics are at play for the projectile sun spells which aren't boosted by the mask.  I'll be using his mask in the next discussion.

    Aspect of Terror will also be making an appearance next week!

  • Member
    May 26, 2014

    So, am I correct to assume that these same numbers apply to the sun spells as well? 

  • Member
    May 26, 2014

    the projectile spells, yes.  Taper doesn't do much with cloak spells unfortunately.

    I still need to mess around with Auriel's Bow, it doesn't work the way I thought it did.

  • Member
    May 26, 2014

    Good!  My current build uses them and it's great to have the exact numbers. Auriel's Bow may be dependent on arrows too, no?

  • Member
    May 26, 2014

    Auriel's bow has a lot of different factors which is what is making it somewhat annoying.

    This all started like 5 months ago with me playing around with the sun spells and just snowballed out of control.

  • Member
    May 26, 2014

    Haha, I'm kinda glad for now you will post multiple articles instead of just one!  But seriously, I think there are very few builds that use the bow, the Fiend comes to mind as well as Skalvar's Grahronaan but other than those two, I don't remember any. A shame for it's a great weapon with a very fast draw speed, awesome look and decimating effects against the undead.

    Looking forward to your articles... all of them! 

  • Member
    May 26, 2014
    Called it! I f***ing love you James. One question: do any Healing spells have taper mechanics? Because I swear I've seen that similar effect with Healing Hands and possibly others. Also, can't wait to see the Sun spell stuff. Debunk Auriel's Bow! You can do it!
  • Member
    May 26, 2014
    Triple "liked" ;)