Dear Mythbusters,

After Kaevas did some experiements with the Magical Damage Runes. More specifically the 20% damge rune he found that they have no effect on mobs what so ever. He judged this by showing us that he could two of the same types of mobs with the same number of hits with and without the rune. The problem is that he was having interference of critical hits.

I was wondering if this is true or at all. Would someone mind doing some testing?


Thank you in Advance.

Our tests weren't very thorough. We're going to do some more extensive tests soon. It's tricky since a +X% damage run will only reduce the number of hits against some foes (usually larger hp monsters). We also need to do the testing without critical hits interfering. Still, having other people share the results of their testing would be good!

Critical hits only interfere if you get the kill with one.

I know, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that magical damage runes have no impact on cudgel damage against mobs. I figured it was an oddity of the physical damage types, and I bugged it a long, long time ago. Can't speak to anything else.

Probably the artifact runes has no impact on mobs themselves and only on players?

Basically this is what we want confirmed. Some of us have bought this rune assuming all magic damage was boosted. It's also listed on the artifacts list between two other runes that work on mobs. The effects we've observed suggest it doesn't work though. Confirmation would be good!

If you're having troubles with standard-issue magic type damage, here's the test I did.

Bulbous spider, no modifiers: 4 hits
Bulbous spider, +15% damage rune: 4 hits
Bulbous spider, +15% damage rune, war blessing: 3 hits
Bulbous spider, war blessing: 3 hits

War blessing is generally reported as +10% damage. The rune should have greater impact, but it does not.

3-4 hits? That's a relatively weak monster and thus not a good one to test a small % increase on, even a 20% increase on a 4-hit monster would be .8 so 3.2 and still taking 4 hits. Tests are best done on harder things. Something that would normally take 10 hits, a 20% increase in damage would be 2, so 8. The stronger the monster (the longer the fight and thus the more times you hit and that small percentage makes itself known) the more the result will vary. (Yes your numbers seem to indicate a discrepancy anyway, but it would still be better documented on a stronger monster)

That being said for the rest of the magical attacks, the last time I talked with elryn about it (quite some time ago) cudgels were acting oddly. I can't attest to how it is now. Either way, tests are much more reliable with a stronger monster, but for cudgels it might not matter.

Was going to say the same myself. I did a big spreadsheet of numbers varying all sorts of things like sample damages and monster health to see if war or harmony provided me the best exp increase (I was bored at the time). The problem in testing directly is that you don't know how much damage you deal to a mob, and whether a mob has the same HP as another that you tested on. Astral creatures very definitely do vary in HP (or defence, but HP is more likely here). Something tough yet with a static HP count. Prime monsters seem the best for that. Another problem in having a lot of hits is that you want to avoid criticals... the more hits you deal the more chance of scoring a crit. They're pretty statis multipliers though, so as mentioned they only change the total if it kills the mob.

Don't know if this helps but I just tested with the old version of the +20% magic damage rune, the Scepter of Esoteric Authority.

I killed a number of Sandojin as an Igasho, with no other damage or int modifiers. I repeated the experiment until I had two kills with and and two kills without the scepter, clear of any criticals.

While wearing the Scepter I could kill a sandojin in 10 hits of nature curse.

After removing the scepter and dropping it on the floor it took 11 hits of nature curse to kill the sandojin.

Except I wasn't attempting to determine if it was actually 15%. I was attempting to determine if it worked at all, using a known condition against a hypothetical one. The known 10% boost is more effective than the hypothetical 15%, therefore, the hypothesis is rejected, and the rune does not give a 15% boost on cudgels.

And for the record, it's not 3-4 hits. Barring criticals, it's always four, unless there's a war blessing, in which case it's always three. There is no random factor.

Which I agreed with you on, and even supported with my own past experience. My point was it's always better to test on stronger monsters, rather then something of rockeater strength.

Though, if you do want to get technical, to refute both of us, cudgels != Ialie's bard attack. So, saying cudgels haven’t worked in the past doesn’t give evidence for or against the rune not effecting magic type attacks from magic sources. (and yes, in fact, I know it works for some of those)

umm, if a war blessing makes a difference, but the rune doesn't, than that means the rune does not affect mobs. It is pretty simple I think.

If the war blessing didn't affect anything, than the size of the monster would matter.

I'm not going to agree with Daganev here, regardless of whether or not he's actually right. It'll only make his accursed sig longer.

Someone thinks the Scepter works, we think the rune doesn't... I'm not sure. I'd like an answer from the admin if possible, but chances there are slim.

I'm not arguing against that, I haven’t from the beginning. Why don't you and xav understand that?