ORGANIZED CHAOS
~ A Savvy Enchanter’s Guide to Mastering the Elements ~
Many people are aware that Chaos Damage is quite powerful on its own, and furthermore, that it can be made much more powerful with certain perks and passives. However, there seems to be some confusion on just how this enchantment works, and just how far it can be pushed. This discussion aims to fix that.
If you just want to see how far you can push it, scroll to the bottom. And you’re a bad person, and you should feel bad.
UNDER THE HOOD
Let’s start with the mechanics: How does Chaos Damage work?
Chaos Damage is rather unique, in that you don’t get the same result every time you hit an enemy. The enchantment ingame reads, “50% chance for each element of fire, frost, and shock to do <mag> points of damage.” To be clear, this does not mean that it’s an “all or nothing” deal. Rather, each element has a separate, independent diceroll for each swing. Consequently, there are eight possible scenarios, each of which has a 12.50% chance to occur on every hit:
- All three elements apply = <mag> * 3
- Fire and Frost apply (Shock does not) = <mag> * 2
- Frost and Shock apply (Fire does not) = <mag> * 2
- Shock and Fire apply (Frost does not) = <mag> * 2
- Fire applies (Frost and Shock do not) = <mag>
- Frost applies (Shock and Fire do not) = <mag>
- Shock applies (Fire and Frost do not) = <mag>
- None of the three elements apply = 0
Caution: Even if none of the three elements activate, you will still lose a charge!
Also note that each swing generates a new, completely independent diceroll. It is entirely possible to have five hits in a row that don’t proc a single element; it’s also possible to have five hits in a row that proc all three elements every time.
Lastly, be aware that standard resistances apply. e.g., a Fire Atronach cannot be damaged by Fire Damage, meaning at best, you’ll only be able to get the Frost and Shock damage effects for <mag> * 2 damage (e.g., if <mag> = 50, you could get 50 Frost and 50 Shock for 100 total elemental damage).
TAKE IT TO THE LIMIT
There are many ways to buff Chaos Damage beyond its base value. What makes this enchantment so amazing thing is that:
- These buffs all stack multiplicatively — rather than added. e.g., two 25% buffs will stack for (1 + 25%) * (1 + 25%); rather than (1 + 25% + 25%)
- Most relevant buffs affect ALL elements (e.g., Augmented Frost will also improve Fire and Shock damage when they apply)
I’ll post an example in a bit, but for now, let’s just look at all the ways to increase the enchantment (beyond the obvious Enchanter perks and your character’s Enchanting skill level). Let’s start with simple, permanent multipliers:
- Augmented <element> Destruction perks: +25/50% each
- <element> Enchanter Enchanting perks: +25% each
- Stalhrim weapons: +25%
- Seeker of Sorcery: +10%
There are also a couple of Enchanting skill level buffs that can augment your Chaos Damage magnitude in a slightly less straightforward manner — rather than simply adding a multiplier to the enchantment magnitude, these effectively increase your Enchanting skill level by the stated magnitude, and will permanently modify the enchantment if they’re active when you craft the weapon.
- Ahzidal’s Genius -- wear exactly four pieces of Ahzidal gear: +10 Enchanting skill level. Four shall be the number of the pieces, and the number of the pieces shall be four. Thou shalt not wear three pieces, excepting that thou then proceedst to four. Five is right out.
- Potion of Enchanting: +<mag> to Enchanting skill level
Having both of the above will increase your enchantment’s power by approximately 17-20%, allowing for rounding errors. For details, consult the formula expressed in UESP’s Enchanting Effects article.
Furthermore, there are several temporary simple multiplicative buffs you can use to increase elemental enchant damage for a brief time:
- Fortify Destruction potions: +<mag>%
- Elemental Masks: Zahkriisos, Dukaan, or Ahzidal: +25%
- Weakness to Magic poisons: +<mag>%
- Weakness to <element> poisons: +<mag>% (only to the specified element!)
Be aware that you must apply the Weakness poisons prior to hitting with the Chaos weapon -- if you poison your Chaos Weapon, the elemental damage that particular swing will not be modified; only ensuing swings will benefit (for the duration of the potion). Also consider that Weakness to Poison poisons will augment the effects of Weakness to Magic/Element poisons.
Something else that should go without saying (but I’ll say it anyway): Net damage is always affected by difficulty. If you play on Master, calculate your damage based on the applicable buffs as covered above, then cut it in half to determine your actual damage dealt.
One other thing to note: If you use the Extra Effect perk to apply a secondary enchantment that falls under the “Destruction” school, all of the above effects EXCEPT the 25% Stalhrim buff will also augment that second enchantment (but NOT the other way around — that is, adding an elemental enchantment with the Augmented effect perk will NOT further increase the Chaos enchant; the Augmented element perk has already been applied, and the game will not apply it a second time).
Because examples are usually easier to understand than numbers, let’s see how this all works out in practice.
CHAOS IN ACTION
Meet Professor Chaos. The Professor appreciates Organized Chaos. He’s got all six Destruction “Augmented Element” perks, and all three Enchanting “Elemental Enchanter” perks. His Enchanting level is 100. He’s also using Seeker of Sorcery and Dukaan. He enchanted his Stalhrim Greatsword while under the effects of Ahzidal’s Genius, Seeker of Sorcery, and an Enchanter’s Elixir. He also applied a secondary Absorb Health effect to his sword, for funsies.
IF all three elements proc, Professor Chaos's sword will generate a staggering 999 elemental damage per hit (333 from each of the three Chaos elements). And because all those buffs except the Stalhrim one also apply to the secondary Absorb Health enchantment, that means even if all three Chaos elements fail to proc, the Professor's sword will still benefit from that secondary Absorb Health enchantment, for a cool 105 guaranteed extra damage, returned straight to his own Health pool.
Professor Chaos can push this even further though. Let’s say he drinks a potion of Fortify Destruction. A generic in-game Elixir of Destruction provides +50%, taking it from 333 per active element up to 499 (~1,500 elemental damage per hit if all three apply). But let’s say the Professor is a savvy alchemist ... He can easily get upwards of +150% Fortify Destruction from a custom potion! That puts the damage at 832 per element (nearly 2,500 elemental damage if all three proc) plus 262 from the Absorb Health! Throw in the weapon’s base damage, and you’re looking at close to 3,000 net damage per hit, if all three elements proc.
Add in a Weakness to Magicka poison, and/or Weakness to <element>, and you can make it a whole lot crazier still. Those work in a very straightforward fashion, so I’m not going to go into detail here about them....
One final thing to consider: You can exploit these Chaos Damage buffs purely to benefit the secondary enchantment, then simply tick the Chaos Damage slider all the way to the left, for 0-10 damage. Then, it doesn't really matter whether any/all of the elements proc, and you can keep your weapon from getting too overpowered. But if you've ever wanted, say, Absorb Health 50 points, or Fire Damage 100 points, etc., those sort of enchantments can be obtained this way. (Because 100 points of Fire Damage definitely isn't overpowered, right guys?)
ORGANIZED CHAOS
~ A Savvy Enchanter’s Guide to Mastering the Elements ~
Many people are aware that Chaos Damage is quite powerful on its own, and furthermore, that it can be made much more powerful with certain perks and passives. However, there seems to be some confusion on just how this enchantment works, and just how far it can be pushed. This discussion aims to fix that.
If you just want to see how far you can push it, scroll to the bottom. And you’re a bad person, and you should feel bad.
UNDER THE HOOD
Let’s start with the mechanics: How does Chaos Damage work?
Chaos Damage is rather unique, in that you don’t get the same result every time you hit an enemy. The enchantment ingame reads, “50% chance for each element of fire, frost, and shock to do <mag> points of damage.” To be clear, this does not mean that it’s an “all or nothing” deal. Rather, each element has a separate, independent diceroll for each swing. Consequently, there are eight possible scenarios, each of which has a 12.50% chance to occur on every hit:
- All three elements apply = <mag> * 3
- Fire and Frost apply (Shock does not) = <mag> * 2
- Frost and Shock apply (Fire does not) = <mag> * 2
- Shock and Fire apply (Frost does not) = <mag> * 2
- Fire applies (Frost and Shock do not) = <mag>
- Frost applies (Shock and Fire do not) = <mag>
- Shock applies (Fire and Frost do not) = <mag>
- None of the three elements apply = 0
Caution: Even if none of the three elements activate, you will still lose a charge!
Also note that each swing generates a new, completely independent diceroll. It is entirely possible to have five hits in a row that don’t proc a single element; it’s also possible to have five hits in a row that proc all three elements every time.
Lastly, be aware that standard resistances apply. e.g., a Fire Atronach cannot be damaged by Fire Damage, meaning at best, you’ll only be able to get the Frost and Shock damage effects for <mag> * 2 damage (e.g., if <mag> = 50, you could get 50 Frost and 50 Shock for 100 total elemental damage).
TAKE IT TO THE LIMIT
There are many ways to buff Chaos Damage beyond its base value. What makes this enchantment so amazing thing is that:
- These buffs all stack multiplicatively — rather than added. e.g., two 25% buffs will stack for (1 + 25%) * (1 + 25%); rather than (1 + 25% + 25%)
- Most relevant buffs affect ALL elements (e.g., Augmented Frost will also improve Fire and Shock damage when they apply)
I’ll post an example in a bit, but for now, let’s just look at all the ways to increase the enchantment (beyond the obvious Enchanter perks and your character’s Enchanting skill level). Let’s start with simple, permanent multipliers:
- Augmented <element> Destruction perks: +25/50% each
- <element> Enchanter Enchanting perks: +25% each
- Stalhrim weapons: +25%
- Seeker of Sorcery: +10%
There are also a couple of Enchanting skill level buffs that can augment your Chaos Damage magnitude in a slightly less straightforward manner — rather than simply adding a multiplier to the enchantment magnitude, these effectively increase your Enchanting skill level by the stated magnitude, and will permanently modify the enchantment if they’re active when you craft the weapon.
- Ahzidal’s Genius -- wear exactly four pieces of Ahzidal gear: +10 Enchanting skill level. Four shall be the number of the pieces, and the number of the pieces shall be four. Thou shalt not wear three pieces, excepting that thou then proceedst to four. Five is right out.
- Potion of Enchanting: +<mag> to Enchanting skill level
Having both of the above will increase your enchantment’s power by approximately 17-20%, allowing for rounding errors. For details, consult the formula expressed in UESP’s Enchanting Effects article.
Furthermore, there are several temporary simple multiplicative buffs you can use to increase elemental enchant damage for a brief time:
- Fortify Destruction potions: +<mag>%
- Elemental Masks: Zahkriisos, Dukaan, or Ahzidal: +25%
- Weakness to Magic poisons: +<mag>%
- Weakness to <element> poisons: +<mag>% (only to the specified element!)
Be aware that you must apply the Weakness poisons prior to hitting with the Chaos weapon -- if you poison your Chaos Weapon, the elemental damage that particular swing will not be modified; only ensuing swings will benefit (for the duration of the potion). Also consider that Weakness to Poison poisons will augment the effects of Weakness to Magic/Element poisons.
Something else that should go without saying (but I’ll say it anyway): Net damage is always affected by difficulty. If you play on Master, calculate your damage based on the applicable buffs as covered above, then cut it in half to determine your actual damage dealt.
One other thing to note: If you use the Extra Effect perk to apply a secondary enchantment that falls under the “Destruction” school, all of the above effects EXCEPT the 25% Stalhrim buff will also augment that second enchantment (but NOT the other way around — that is, adding an elemental enchantment with the Augmented effect perk will NOT further increase the Chaos enchant; the Augmented element perk has already been applied, and the game will not apply it a second time).
Because examples are usually easier to understand than numbers, let’s see how this all works out in practice.
CHAOS IN ACTION
Meet Professor Chaos. The Professor appreciates Organized Chaos. He’s got all six Destruction “Augmented Element” perks, and all three Enchanting “Elemental Enchanter” perks. His Enchanting level is 100. He’s also using Seeker of Sorcery and Dukaan. He enchanted his Stalhrim Greatsword while under the effects of Ahzidal’s Genius, Seeker of Sorcery, and an Enchanter’s Elixir. He also applied a secondary Absorb Health effect to his sword, for funsies.
IF all three elements proc, Professor Chaos's sword will generate a staggering 999 elemental damage per hit (333 from each of the three Chaos elements). And because all those buffs except the Stalhrim one also apply to the secondary Absorb Health enchantment, that means even if all three Chaos elements fail to proc, the Professor's sword will still benefit from that secondary Absorb Health enchantment, for a cool 105 guaranteed extra damage, returned straight to his own Health pool.
Professor Chaos can push this even further though. Let’s say he drinks a potion of Fortify Destruction. A generic in-game Elixir of Destruction provides +50%, taking it from 333 per active element up to 499 (~1,500 elemental damage per hit if all three apply). But let’s say the Professor is a savvy alchemist ... He can easily get upwards of +150% Fortify Destruction from a custom potion! That puts the damage at 832 per element (nearly 2,500 elemental damage if all three proc) plus 262 from the Absorb Health! Throw in the weapon’s base damage, and you’re looking at close to 3,000 net damage per hit, if all three elements proc.
Add in a Weakness to Magicka poison, and/or Weakness to <element>, and you can make it a whole lot crazier still. Those work in a very straightforward fashion, so I’m not going to go into detail here about them....
One final thing to consider: You can exploit these Chaos Damage buffs purely to benefit the secondary enchantment, then simply tick the Chaos Damage slider all the way to the left, for 0-10 damage. Then, it doesn't really matter whether any/all of the elements proc, and you can keep your weapon from getting too overpowered. But if you've ever wanted, say, Absorb Health 50 points, or Fire Damage 100 points, etc., those sort of enchantments can be obtained this way. (Because 100 points of Fire Damage definitely isn't overpowered, right guys?)
