Kicking Basics

Kick Damage Equation

MinDamage=(str+dex-20)/4)*(100+skill_bonus)/100 + BootMinDam*(100+str*StrBonus/100+skill_bonus)/100
MaxDamage=(str+dex-20)/3)*(100+skill_bonus)/100 + BootMaxDam*(100+str*StrBonus/100+skill_bonus)/100

*Decimals are dropped off whenever you get them in any part of this equation*

Heres the list of boots and their damage:

Name____________mindam_____maxdam_____StrBonus
Leather Boots_______3__________8__________120
Heavy Boots________4__________10_________120
Chain Boots_________6__________12_________120
Light Plate Boots_____8__________16_________120
Plate Boots__________10_________20_________120
Demonhide Boots_____26_________46_________120
Sharkskin Boots______28_________50_________120
Mesh Boots__________23_________52_________120
Battle Boots__________37_________64_________120
War Boots___________39_________80_________120
Wyrmhide Boots______65_________100________120
Scarabshell Boots_____60_________110________120
Boneweave Boots______69_________118________120
Mirrored Boots________50_________145________120
Myrmidon Greaves_____83_________149________120

Rather than try to explain each skill on its own, Im going to just explain the damage formula. After that, Ill move onto some skill and effect specifics.

(Str+dex-20)/4) and (str+dex-20)/3)
Indicate that for the base kick damage with no boots on str and dex have the same effect on damage. Dex, however, also boosts AR and defense. Thus, in 1.09 dex was the better choice for boosting your kick damage. This is no longer strictly true in 1.10, but the difference comes in a later part of the equation and Ill leave the explanation for then.


*(100+skill_bonus)/100
The skill_bonus spot is where the ED for Dtalon, TS, Dflight, and skills such as might get placed. Non-weapon ED will not affect this number. IMPORTANT: If more than one of these sources of ED are present, they get added together and placed into this slot. Also important: Dtail is not figured into the equation in this place, its actually figured using the result of the kick damage equation.

The last part of the equation dealing with boots and their damage was added in 1.10. A couple of points worth noting are this boot damage is added to the normal kick damage, not multiplied with it and the str bonus is added to the skill_bonus, not multiplied by it.

+BootMinDam, +BootMaxDam.
Hopefully self-explanatory. Just grab the numbers off the chart.

*(100+str*StrBonus/100+skill_bonus)/100
As you can see from the boot damage chart, all boots have a str bonus of 120. The skill_bonus slot is handled just as it was in the previous part of the equation except non-weapon ED is also added to this portion of the equation. Heres why str becomes a better choice than dex for raising kick damage in 1.10. Dex will still give AR and defense, but for pure damage increase str gets figured into the equation twice whereas dex only gets figured into the first part of the equation.

Understand that the bonus added from strength and ED from skills gets effectively reduced by this formula if you're wearing boots. Charging a level 20 TS (1440% ED) wont up your damage by anywhere near 14 times.

Off-weapon ED does get added into the boot damage portion of the equation according to the character screen, but whether or not its added to your actual damage is still under debate. Its a hard thing to test in game. Either way, the actual change in damage is very small and really not worth sacrificing any other mod in order to obtain.

Notes on the skills

First, a couple of comments on kick skills overall. Kicks now leech using the percent leech you have on your equipment (if your dual claw, itll only take the leech off the first claw you equip). Kicks carry effects such as crushing blow, chance to cast on striking and elemental damage from equipment, charms and the venom skill. They do not carry deadly strike or critical strike from CM. Dtail carries these effects only to the release target, not in the area of effect. Kicks use the effects on the first claw you equip. I would suggest that you only count on using effects from one claw and instead use a claw providing + skills, statsc etc. in the second position.

Ill mention again that Dtalons and Dflights damage bonuses are added into the kick damage equation, not multiplied by the result, as is Dtails. If you assign skill points so that all three have about the same listed ED, youll see on the character screen that Dtail lists much more actual damage due to this.

Dragon Talon:
TS is almost never used with talon except when talon is still at low levels. The ED added by TS is only applied to the first kick of the talon attack. Charging TS to three orbs and releasing with talon will deal less damage over time than attacking with talon alone once multiple kicks are involved.

Talon gets one additional kick every six skill levels (i.e. two kicks at level 6, three at level 12 etc.).

Talon is a great means for applying crushing blow and chance to cast on striking effects due to its multiple kicks done in a very short timeframe.

With a very heavy investment in str and high damage boots talons damage can be very nice, but without such investment it tends to be rather low.

When figuring damage with talon, remember to take into account the number of kicks. The damage equation gives the damage done by each kick, not all of them together.

Dragon Tail:
Dtails damage is easiest to understand if you think of it as being in two parts, the release damage and the area of effect damage. The release damage is physical and is figured with the kick damage equation above. The area of effect damage is figured based off of the release damage. Take the physical release damage, multiply it by the Dtail bonus, and convert it into fire to get the aoe damage. This is why Dtail is ineffective when released on a physical immune enemy. No release damage is actually done, therefore no damage is available to be multiplied and converted.

Fists of Fire has a property in 1.10 that is worth mentioning in connection with Dtail. FoF now converts 3% of you physical damage to fire for every level of FoF. This conversion happens before Dtail figures its aoe damage and will reduce the physical damage done by the release thus reducing the damage done in Dtails aoe. FoF at level 34 and above will leave no damage done in the Dtail aoe. Using FoF and Dtail at the same time is really not recommended unless the aim is to kill a non-fire immune, physical immune enemy that Dtail itself cannot harm.

Dragon Flight:
Dflight at first glance seems to provide far and away the most damage of the three kicks. Remember, however, that flights ED is added into the damage equation not multiplied In the late game the skill is going to be hurt by this.

Dflights casting delay has been reduced in 1.10 from 2 seconds to 1 second making it a little more pvm friendly.

One large note for those wanting to use Dflight with a trapper or hybrid build. When you teleport with Dflight, your traps disappear.

Kicking Speed

Kicks have a base fpa of 12. The WSM of your main claw (the first one you equip) will be used to figure your kick speed. The EIAS (Effective Increased Attack Speed) formula is:

EIAS = ((120*ias)/(120+ias)) + skill_ias WSM

You need 63 EIAS to get to a 7 frame kick speed. The breaks for a 0 WSM claw with no BoS would be:

IAS_EIAS_Frames
0____0___12
10___9___11
23___19__10
42___31__9
72___45__8
133__63__7

Dtalons subsequent kicks have different break points. 0 to 24 EIAS puts them at 4 frames. 25 to 66 EIAS makes for 3 frame follow up kicks. 67+ EIAS will get you 2 frame follow up kicks.

FYI, heres the breaks for a 30 WSM claw with no BoS:

IAS_EIAS_Frames
0___30___10
2___31___9
18__45___8
46__63___7

Thanks to JRichard for extensive kick information.