How Does Mod Damage Work

I know that its been tested by players and the % damage types do not add to the item. Instead, they convert damage.

So, say you had a 100 physical damage weapon (which is actually a real lot of damage). (The big number isnt a damage number. You have to inspect the item to see the actual damage.)

You add a 10% fire mod.
The weapon now does 90 physical damage and 10 fire damage.

You add on a 10% spectral mod.
The weapon now does 80 physical damage and 10 fire damage and 10 spectral damage.

This is important for resistances and the mini-games.

Mods which say something like +5 Fire damage will add to damage. So your 100 physical weapon would then be 100 physical damage and +5 Fire damage.

I havent actually seen any + damage items though since beta. Ive only seen x% types.

I do think that xxx2112xxx is correct though about status effects - in that the status effect does stack, as the greater the total the greater the chance to proc that status effect.

Note that a status damage type is not the same as x% damage. (Though it is like it in that it does damage of that type.) Like the Ignite status makes the character in question become on fire (which I think is like 5% total HP taken per second fire damage).

You might want to look around for a strategy guide on this. I dont think there has been anything official said here on the forums.

On a weapon only doing x status effect if it has it as a base chance... I dont think so. I think the mod will add that on. However, if you look at your resistances, youll see they are probably in the hundreds. So adding on 15 or so really is squat in terms of doing an effect. Now, +25 or +50 or +100, thats something worth adding.
Information provided by Virtus from Flagship.

This post will help clarify everything I can about mods and their effects.

General Mod Information:
All mods have a mod level and if your weapon does not meet the required minimum OR maximum, the mod will not be allowed to be put into a weapon.

As soon as your weapon out-levels the mods that are already in it, those mods will become obsolete and no longer work on the weapon.

If your weapons have out-leveled your mods, you may use the demodifier located in all stations to get your mods back.

Any mods put in foci will effect ALL spells that use foci..

Different effects:

+X to attack strength:
This will increase the chance of adding a special effect to a weapon, this does not increase damage.
If you have a weapon that deals toxic damage, and add a +X to ignite mod to the weapon, that item will NEVER ignite any mob. However, if you add a +X to ignite mod AND a +X% fire damage added mod, it will have a chance to ignite mobs.

+X% Element damage:
This will take the base damage of your weapon and add additional damage of the element it mentions.
EX: mod to that sword. The sword will now do EX: If you have a sword that does 50-100 toxic damage then you add a +10% fire damage50-100 poison and 5-10 fire damage.

+X% Damage:
This will increase the base damage of your weapon, and all corresponding elemental damage mods.
EX: If you have a sword that does 50-100 toxic damage and 5-10 fire damage (from a fire element damage mod), now you add a +20% damage mod to that weapon.
Your sword will now do 60-120 toxic damage and 6-12 fire damage.

% chance to unleash <effect> on hit:
EX: 5% chance to unleash spectral nova on hit.
These mods are pretty simple, any time you hit any targetable object (mobs,crates,boxes,etc...) You have a 5% chance that a spectral nova will activate.
Same effect mods will stack together. If you take 5 mods with a chance to unleash spectral nova on hit, and they total 25%, it will actually make every hit have a 25% chance to proc, rather then 5 separate 5% chances.
However only same effect mods will stack together if you have 10% fire nova and 10% spectral nova, it will continue to be a 10% of either nova.

*The above will be the base % of the proc going off. With slower weapons you have a higher chance to proc on hit and with faster weapons (machine guns, beam weapons) you have a lower chance to proc per hit.

% chance to unleash <effect> on kill:
See above, all rules apply except it is on kills rather then hit. These do not lose their effectiveness when put in fast firing weapons.

Shield Overload:
Shield overload is how much extra damage you do when hitting a shield.
Take the damage you would normally do to health and multiply it by shield overload, that is how much damage you will do to shields.
EX: You do exactly 50 base damage to health every hit and you have shield overload of 100%. 100% of 50 is 50, so you would do 50 (base) + 50 (100% shield overload) for a total amount of 100 damage to shields.

<Element Damage> Thorns: X
I am pretty sure this is a damage and not a percent, so everytime you are hit by a melee attack, 2 <Element Damage> will be sent to the person attacking you.
EX: Fire Damage (Thorns): 2 --Everytime you are hit by a melee attack, you will do 2 fire damage to that attacker.

*There is not enough information on thorns yet to be 100% sure of it use, it is either a damage or a percent, and from my experience, it seems more like a damage. If anyone has tested this or has more information on thorns, please inform me of your findings.

Shield Penetration:
This is a very useful mod that allows you to bypass shields when attacking enemies. IF you have 10% shield penetration, then 10% of all your damage, will skip the shield and go directly to the enemies health. If your shield penetration mods total 100%, you can actually bypass shields all together and directly damage health for all monsters. Penetration mods do stack together.

Critical Chance Multiplier <mobtype>:
EX: Critical Chance Multiplier +60% Necro
Lets say you have a base crit chance of 10%, the above mod would have the following effect: 60% of 10 is 6 (10*.6=6), so that would be a total crit chance of 16% when fighting NECRO type monsters.

Increase Critical Chance +%:
These are similar to the above mod, but they do not mention multiplier or the mob. Because of this, they actually add their % to your total crit chance.
EX: Increase Critical Chance +2%
Lets say you have a base crit chance of 10%, the above mod would have the following effect: 10% base crit + 2% from mod = 12% total crit chance.

Increase use rate of <skill type> by X%:
These items actually decrease the cooldown of the skill type mentioned by the percent mentioned.
EX: Increase use rate of Evocation skills by 10%
If your skill normally had a cooldown of 30 seconds this item would lower the cooldown to 27 seconds instead of 30 (30*.1=3 --- 30-3=27)

*You can find out what the skill type of the questioned ability is by going to your skill list and highlighting the skill. The tooltip that appears should have the type of skill that the ability belongs to, listed below the name.

Increase Range +X%:
This does exactly what it seems to, it increases the range of a ranged weapon by a certain percent. The only confusion with this would be on whether it works on melee weapons, it is NO USE on melee weapons as there is no range to increase.

Energy Consumption -X:
This mod is only useful in weapons that use energy such as the Zeus Cannon. When these energy weapons are used, a bar will come on the screen displaying the efficiently of the weapon. The longer you hold down the fire button, the more efficiency (damage potential) will be lost during that period. These mods reduce the rate at which energy weapons lose their efficiency per shot.

Weapon Accuracy Degradation:
This mod slows the rate at which your target reticule (ranged weapons) expands while moving and/or shooting.

Weapon Accuracy +X%:
This mod will shrink your target reticules minimum and maximum size. This is especially helpful for fast firing weapons that lose accuracy quickly.

Gigabyte Technology GA-E7AUM-DS2H Core 2 Duo - 190423782677