Damage buckets in Diablo 4 are the different types of damage that are in play for all classes.
Damage Buckets are broken down into five main types that players need to be aware of:
- Additive
- Multiplicative
- Critical
- Vulnerable
- Overpowered
Additive Bucket
This adds damage. This is prevalent on gear where it may say added damage Vs Bleeding or Damage Vs Injured for example. In essence if it says + it's additive.
As of patch 1.2.0, any stats on gear that would have previously been in the Critical of Vulnerable bucket are now added to this Additive bucket. See notes below on Critical and Vulnerable buckets.
Multiplicative
Add damage by a percent. Prevalent on skills and Paragon board where it may say X% increased damage. In essence if it says X it's Multiplicative.
Critical
As of patch 1.2.0 only gives a base damage as a Multiplicative which is 50%. Any additional Critical damage goes into the Additive bucket.
Vulnerable
Vulnerable has 20% base where you will to 20% more damage to a vulnerable target.
As of patch 1.2.0 only gives a base damage as a Multiplicative which is 20%. Any additional Vulnerable damage goes into the Additive bucket.
Overpowered
Overpowered is mainly aimed at classes with Overpower damage and it's Multiplicative. As of patch 1.2.0, it would be advantageous to look at Overpower more closely and thinking about adding Overpower as well as increasing the Additive bucket to increase the overall damage output value.
Notes on Damage over Time Builds
Following the release of patch 1.2.0, Damage over Time (DoT) builds are less affected by the damage bucket changes as there is no Crit in play with effects such as poison.
In-game Indicators
While playing, damage numbers are shown in targets. These numbers are coloured differently depending on what is be applied. Colours are as follows:
- Base Damage
- Critical Hit
- Overpowered
- Overpowered Crit
Keep a note on what you are seeing with the damage numbers to ascertain what is taking effect and how often.