Damage Increase

Damage Increase (often abbreviated DI or +DI) is an item-property bonus that multiplies the damage a character deals on a successful melee, counter-attack melee, or ranged hit. The bonus is applied before the target's Resistances are calculated — meaning a 100% Poison damage attack still does 0 against a 100% Poison Resist target regardless of how much DI is stacked. DI is capped at 100% for both PvM and PvP from item sources, but the total damage bonus (combining DI + skill-and-stat bonuses + spells/buffs) is capped at 300%. DI is the single largest "DPS multiplier" in the game — every serious melee or archery build aims to cap DI at 100% from gear before optimizing other mods.

DI sources at a glance

DI from gear (the 100% cap)

Item-side DI counts against the 100% cap. A character who has stacked their weapon (50%), main jewellery (25%), and a pair of artifact pieces to +100% is "DI-capped" — additional DI from new items provides no benefit.

The canonical capping pattern:

Sum to 100% — no more value from extra gear. This frees the rest of the build's mod budget for HCI, DCI, MR, LMC, and resists.

DI from skills and stats (above the cap)

A second tier of DI does not count against the 300% cap (per the canonical Five on Friday — June 1, 2007 reference). These come from skills, stats, and spells:

Tactics

Tactics is the universal melee damage multiplier — every weapon swing scales with it.

Lumberjacking (axe-only stack)

Lumberjacking buffs damage on axe-class weapons only:

The Sampire build (axe + Lumberjacking + Bushido + Necromancy) is built specifically around this stack.

Anatomy

Anatomy is the second universal melee bonus:

Strength (statistic)

Strength directly contributes to damage at high values:

DI from buffs and consumables

Grapes of Wrath is the canonical consumable-DI exception — its 35% counts against the 100% item cap and is wasted if you're already DI-capped.

The 300% total bonus cap

Even with full Tactics + Anatomy + Lumberjacking + Strength + Inspire stacking, the total damage bonus is capped at 300%. A baseline weapon swing with DI-capped gear, GM Tactics, GM Anatomy, GM Lumberjacking, 125 STR, and Inspire-buffed in a party can approach 300%. The cap is the canonical "ceiling" of the multiplicative bonus stack.

Removing DI from a weapon

The Whetstone of Enervation is a craftable consumable that removes the Damage Increase property from an Exceptional crafted weapon. Why bother removing damage?

The Whetstone-removed slot is usually re-filled with Hit Lower Defense (HLD), Mana Leech, or Hit Stamina Leech (HSL) — all of which are higher per-percentile-cost than DI for many builds.

Whetstone is a smith-craftable item; check the smithy menu under tools.

DI on jewellery

Imbued jewellery DI maxes at +25% per piece — practical jewelry stacks 2 pieces for +50% combined, leaving room for the weapon to deliver the remaining +50% to cap. Artifact jewellery (Crimson Cincture-tier) breaks the +25 per piece rule with up to +75% DI on a single artifact item — but those artifacts are rare-drop or quest-locked.

Imbuing DI

DI is one of the highest-priority mods on a custom-imbued weapon. The 50% imbue cap on weapons + 25% on jewellery means a fully imbued character only needs 1 imbued weapon (50%) + 2 imbued jewelry (25% each = 50%) to be DI-capped before any artifact pieces.

Damage Modifier (separate property)

Damage Modifier is a separate-but-related property that applies a damage percentage after the target's resistances have been calculated. It's most commonly found on:

• Quivers (ranged-weapon-side multiplier)
• Bard Mastery Inspire (+15% Damage Modifier alongside DI)

Damage Modifier and Damage Increase stack independently — they are not the same property. DI is pre-resist; Damage Modifier is post-resist.

Build implications

Damage bonus vs damage modifier — the formal model

The Broadsword reference draws a finer-grained distinction than is commonly taught at the player-strategy level. Damage Increase is one subset of a two-tier model. Both tiers cap independently at 300%.

Tier 1 — Damage Bonus (additive)

The Damage Bonus is the additive contribution that scales the weapon's base damage. Final damage is:

Final Damage = Base Damage × (1 + Total Damage Bonus %)

Total Damage Bonus is the sum of:

• Tactics bonus — Tactics ÷ 1.6 (+ 6.25 if ≥ 100)
• Anatomy bonus — Anatomy ÷ 2 (+ 5 if ≥ 100)
• Lumberjacking bonus — Lumberjacking ÷ 5 (+ 10 if ≥ 100), axe-class only
• Strength bonus — Strength × 0.3 (+ 5 if ≥ 100)
• Damage Increase from items — capped at +100%
• Divine Fury (Chivalry) — a Karma-scaled bonus during the buff
• Bard Mastery Inspire — contributes both bonus and modifier
• Grapes of Wrath — temporary +35% counted against the 100% item DI cap

The 300% ceiling applies to the summed Damage Bonus. A typical max-stack:

• 100% item DI + 68.75% Tactics + 55% Anatomy + 30% Lumberjacking + 35% Strength @ 100 = 288.75% before consumables/spells
• Add Divine Fury and Inspire on top — the cap clamps at 300%

Tier 2 — Damage Modifier (multiplicative)

The Damage Modifier is a separate post-resist multiplier with its own 300% cap. It comes from completely different sources:

• Slayer properties — super slayers ×2, single slayers ×3 (single slayers alone reach the 300% modifier cap)
• Special Moves (the weapon-special multiplier from Tactics/Lumberjacking-driven specials)
• Bushido Perfection — +100% at max stack
• Chivalry Consecrate Weapon — exploits the target's lowest resist
• Chivalry Enemy of One — multiplier vs one creature type
• Mysticism Stone Form
• The shared-melee mastery Warrior's Gifts
• Bard Mastery Inspire — contributes a +15% Damage Modifier alongside its Damage Bonus piece
• Quiver "damage modifier" — archery-only, +X% via the quiver slot

Putting it together — a worked example

• Base weapon: a Double Axe with minimum base damage 15
• Damage Bonus stack: GM Tactics (68.75) + GM Anatomy (55) + GM Lumberjacking (30) + 100 STR (35) + 100% item DI = 288.75% ≈ 290% after item-DI math
• After bonus: 15 × (1 + 2.9) ≈ 59 (matches the canonical 15 + 44 = 59 example)
• Apply Damage Modifier: super slayer (×2) + Perfection at max (+100%) = up to 300% modifier
• Apply target's resist: 30% Physical Resist → damage × 0.7
• Final: 59 × 0.7 × 3 ≈ 124 damage per hit (rounded up)

This worked example matches the official Broadsword reference. The takeaway: the 300% caps on Damage Bonus and Damage Modifier compound multiplicatively — capping both stacks pushes damage to roughly (4 × 4 × resist factor) = 16× base damage before resists, the canonical maximum-DPS swing.

See also

• Tactics — the universal melee damage multiplier
• Anatomy — the +5%@GM damage bonus
• Lumberjacking — the +30%@GM axe-class stack
• Strength (statistic) — the STR×0.3 damage contribution
• Damage Types — what flavor of damage is being multiplied
• Slayer — 2× multiplier vs. matching creature type
• Imbuing — the +50% DI imbuing intensity
• Resistances — the defensive side that DI tries to overcome
• Skill Masteries — Bard Inspire mastery for party DI
• Special Moves — the weapon-special multiplier source
• Perfection — Bushido's +100% modifier ramp
• Consecrate Weapon — Chivalry lowest-resist exploit
• Enemy of One — Chivalry per-creature-type modifier