Skyrim Tips and Tricks » Discussions

How 'Afterburn' damage works in Skyrim

• James

  

  Member
   

  May 27, 2014

  UESp is wrong with their numbers from what I can tell.  The 20 points of damage is a different spell in the CreationKit that is used for magical traps (I believe), and is unrelated to the spell the player can cast.  There's still a ton of testing I'd have to do because my current numbers are quite confusing but I can assure you the Flame wall spell does nothing remotely close to 20 damage per second.  I thought it may be 20 damage every 2 seconds but even that doesn't seem accurate...I really don't know right now.  Shock wall spell does more damage than flames and frost does less.  All in all I think the wall spells are EXTREMELY situational and aren't very practical.

  UESp is wrong with their numbers from what I can tell.  The 20 points of damage is a different spell in the CreationKit that is used for magical traps (I believe), and is unrelated to the spell the player can cast.  There's still a ton of testing I'd have to do because my current numbers are quite confusing but I can assure you the Flame wall spell does nothing remotely close to 20 damage per second.  I thought it may be 20 damage every 2 seconds but even that doesn't seem accurate...I really don't know right now.  Shock wall spell does more damage than flames and frost does less.  All in all I think the wall spells are EXTREMELY situational and aren't very practical.

• Alastor

  

  Member
   

  May 27, 2014

  You want some good use of wall spells? Check out my Arctus build. I would also like to know the actual values on wall spells because I do love them! A good way to use wall spells against warriors is combining it with blocking. Pure mages aren't the only ones to use Destruction ;)

  You want some good use of wall spells? Check out my Arctus build. I would also like to know the actual values on wall spells because I do love them! A good way to use wall spells against warriors is combining it with blocking. Pure mages aren't the only ones to use Destruction ;)
• Teccam

  

  Member
   

  May 27, 2014

  Do you have Necromage? Are you using anything to buff Fire Damage (Aspect of Terror, Ahzidal, Augmented Flames, Fortify Destruction potions)?

  Being a low magnitude DPS spell, my guess is that Flames actually would benefit a fair bit from Aspect of Terror. Throw in the other buffs and you can get to a point where you're doing 50+ DPS before accounting for the Taper Damage (~115 with Dual Casting, and ~144 with Necromage).

  I assume Flames only has 1.0 second Taper Duration, like most other Fire spells (Fireball and Fire Storm being the noted exceptions as James has mentioned) but even still, after Necromage and Dual Casting, your taper damage would probably be in the neighborhood of 60-80 damage over that second. If you are rapidly recasting it about once per second, you'd be getting in a new taper each second, so potentially over 200 cumulative DPS (on Adept).

  Jesus, that's just silly, isn't it? Taking a Novice spell whose base damage is 8 DPS up to 200+ DPS, without any overt glitches/exploits.

  @James / anyone else » Do you know how Taper Damage procs with Flames? Is it once per cast? Or a new taper effect every second even if you haven't broken the spell? Or something different entirely?

  Do you have Necromage? Are you using anything to buff Fire Damage (Aspect of Terror, Ahzidal, Augmented Flames, Fortify Destruction potions)?

  Being a low magnitude DPS spell, my guess is that Flames actually would benefit a fair bit from Aspect of Terror. Throw in the other buffs and you can get to a point where you're doing 50+ DPS before accounting for the Taper Damage (~115 with Dual Casting, and ~144 with Necromage).

  I assume Flames only has 1.0 second Taper Duration, like most other Fire spells (Fireball and Fire Storm being the noted exceptions as James has mentioned) but even still, after Necromage and Dual Casting, your taper damage would probably be in the neighborhood of 60-80 damage over that second. If you are rapidly recasting it about once per second, you'd be getting in a new taper each second, so potentially over 200 cumulative DPS (on Adept).

  Jesus, that's just silly, isn't it? Taking a Novice spell whose base damage is 8 DPS up to 200+ DPS, without any overt glitches/exploits.

  @James / anyone else » Do you know how Taper Damage procs with Flames? Is it once per cast? Or a new taper effect every second even if you haven't broken the spell? Or something different entirely?

• James

  

  Member
   

  May 27, 2014

  that's something I am planning on looking at in depth this week.  Flames in particular is of interest to me, all other fire spells have a 1 second taper but with the incredibly quick casting time of Flames I want to see how it stacks.

  I can;t say for certain yet but I think when you use a concentration spell it is being applied once per second so it should be easy to find out if the taper stacks or if taper only occurs once all fire spells wear off.  The Flame cloak, for example, has taper damage but it is only applied at the very end of the 60 second cloak so you only get 1 application of taper damage which is next to nothing in the grand scheme.  I'll be looking into flames this week so it should be fun!

  As for the DPS of flames it can actually get ridiculous quickly using the AoT and other buffs. 

  that's something I am planning on looking at in depth this week.  Flames in particular is of interest to me, all other fire spells have a 1 second taper but with the incredibly quick casting time of Flames I want to see how it stacks.

  I can;t say for certain yet but I think when you use a concentration spell it is being applied once per second so it should be easy to find out if the taper stacks or if taper only occurs once all fire spells wear off.  The Flame cloak, for example, has taper damage but it is only applied at the very end of the 60 second cloak so you only get 1 application of taper damage which is next to nothing in the grand scheme.  I'll be looking into flames this week so it should be fun!

  As for the DPS of flames it can actually get ridiculous quickly using the AoT and other buffs. 

• Paul England

  

  Member
   

  May 27, 2014

  Who says Destruction spells don't scale, right? 

  Man, I am pumped about all of this info.  Planning an Evoker build right now...

  Who says Destruction spells don't scale, right? 

  Man, I am pumped about all of this info.  Planning an Evoker build right now...

• Paul England

  

  Member
   

  May 28, 2014

  Hmm.  I guess the answer to these questions is probably "no", but I wonder if the taper duration can be expanded by the Stability perk?  Or the Slow Time shout? 

  Hmm.  I guess the answer to these questions is probably "no", but I wonder if the taper duration can be expanded by the Stability perk?  Or the Slow Time shout? 

• James

  

  Member
   

  May 28, 2014

  Stability no, that perk only affects spells that are flagged as being under the Alteration school (which is why it boosts Slow Time).  Game mechanics themselves aren't spells nor do they fall under any schools.

  Slow Time is something I have stayed away from for now.  It doesn't directly boost any particular aspect of spells but it changes the game mechanic of how time passes ingame so it can be used to indirectly affect things.  I'll eventually look into it, but it's not something I want to focus on for now.

  I've wanted to play around with how slowtime affects the game when you change the timescale as well.  I usually play on a timescale of 6 (6 minutes pass ingame for every 1 real minute) and the standard game is set to a timescale of 20.  What is slow time actually changing and how does that change when we alter the timescale.

  Breaking game mechanics is fun!

  Stability no, that perk only affects spells that are flagged as being under the Alteration school (which is why it boosts Slow Time).  Game mechanics themselves aren't spells nor do they fall under any schools.

  Slow Time is something I have stayed away from for now.  It doesn't directly boost any particular aspect of spells but it changes the game mechanic of how time passes ingame so it can be used to indirectly affect things.  I'll eventually look into it, but it's not something I want to focus on for now.

  I've wanted to play around with how slowtime affects the game when you change the timescale as well.  I usually play on a timescale of 6 (6 minutes pass ingame for every 1 real minute) and the standard game is set to a timescale of 20.  What is slow time actually changing and how does that change when we alter the timescale.

  Breaking game mechanics is fun!

• James

  

  Member
   

  May 29, 2014

  Not sure how to treat 'bane of the undead'. It's something I should cover but it would almost need a fourth part. Might make a special 'Argument' discussion for a certain weapon!

  Not sure how to treat 'bane of the undead'. It's something I should cover but it would almost need a fourth part. Might make a special 'Argument' discussion for a certain weapon!
• Alastor

  

  Member
   

  May 29, 2014

  Do it!!! Especially if it's Auriel's Bow ;)

  Do it!!! Especially if it's Auriel's Bow ;)

• Paul England

  

  Member
   

  May 30, 2014

  Dawnbreaker would be my guess... :)

  Dawnbreaker would be my guess... :)