Classification and Scaling

Perhaps the most fundamentally crucial distinction to make when evaluating DoT/HoT final value outputs is the difference between Classification and Scaling. Classification refers to the type of damage, and it is this damage type which allows for certain modifier stats to apply to the base value. Scaling refers to the base formula from where the DoT value is derived. In general, the order of operations goes as follows: Scaling-->Classification-->modifiers-->Final output.

There are 4 different types of classifications that DoTs can have, the first of which being the All Out tag. The second is the 'DoT' tag, which allows for DoT in and DoT out modifier stats to affect their values. It is important to note that HoTs are essentially just negative DoTs and hence, there is no 'HoT' tag. When a class' passive says that it increases HoT Out that is essentially just flavour text for Heal Out. The 2 more important classifications are as follows:

• Physical
• Magical

No skill can have both of these classifications at a time, which also means that a skill labelled as (Physical/Magical) is either one or the other, not both. However, the DoT itself can in fact have a separate classification to the skill in which its associated aura is tied to. For example, you could have a physical skill that applies a magical DoT, in which case a Phys Out buff would not effect the value of said DoT. Conversely, a Mag Out buff would vary the value of the DoT, but leave the skill damage unchanged.

There also exists 4 types of stat-based scaling components, which correlate to the base formula of a DoT/HoT equation. These result in the DoT value before any modifiers are introduced. The 5 types of scalings are:

• Weapon DPS
• Weapon Damage
• Spell DPS
• Spell Damage

The distinction between DPS and Damage is made to account for the DoTs that depend on weapon damage range, of course since DPS is a static value any DoTs that do not vary with unstable weapons are assumed to be DPS derived. Most DoTs in AQW scale off either Weapon DPS or Spell DPS and are classed as magical. Hybrid DoTs are those which scale off a combination of both Spell DPS and Weapon DPS by varying amounts, however, as previously stated they can only be classified as one or the other. More on this will be discussed in the equations subsection.

DoT/HoT squaring

DoT squaring in AQW refers to how the damage buffs provided from an All Out source are applied twice when used before a DoT is applied, if used after the phenomenon does not occur. If a DoT and an All Out source aura are tied to the same skill (i.e., are applied simultaneously) then DoT boost squaring will not occur. Since most all out damage increasing passives have a constant up-time they will always result in squaring your DoT. This occurs when used just before the application of the aura that is tied to the DoT, therefore, with classes such as Ultra OmniKnight, where 'Recovery' is re-applied with every auto attack it is quite literally impossible to avoid DoT boost squaring. it is important to note that this only occurs with the All Out modifier, Mag Out and Phys Out do not cause DoT boost squaring. In the video clips below I will be detailing how this boost squaring interacts with other modifiers, and what happens when there are multiple sources of All Out being applied both at the same, and at different times (before and after the DoT is applied).

As you can see these calculations become quite convoluted as you introduce multiple different sources of All Out buffs at different stages in the DoT's application. However, as a general rule of thumb you would almost always want to be in a position where you can apply as many all out buffs as possible pre-DoT aura application, as opposed to separating them across two components (this also makes calculations a lot more predictable). So to recap: When dealing with multiple sources of non-squared and squared DoT boosts these two components interact additively within themselves and multiplicatively between one another.