Borderlands 2 Formula for the Roll to apply Elemental Effect (WIP)

Borderlands 2 Loot and Weapons
#1

(a.k.a chance to add SLAG/corrosive/electric or fire DOT on target. Work in progress since there are a lot more tests that need doing …)

A few observations

  • because the weapon/grenade granted elemental DOTs DON’T benefit from elemental damage multipliers But elemental relics ALSO BOOST DOT damage multiplier (separate parameter) this is mostly about chance to to slag
  • the actual chance used per projectile is hard to put on the weapon’s card because the some of the target’s parameters are factors, thus it will vary depending on what you’re shooting at ( defense type, level difference, ).
  • level difference has a MASSIVE impact on the chance to apply elemental effects.
  • the chance to apply elemental effect displayed on the weapon’s gun is not a full blown lie, but is just a small factor in the calculation of the chance to apply elemental effects
  • splashes don’t always use the % as the main impact ( odds get lower depending on the distance between splash impact location and target)
  • other (non-gun) sources of elemental damage such as grenades, nova shields, spike shields don’t take into consideration ALL of player stats/gear/perks that increase the odds to apply the elemental effect

Formula:

Chance To Apply Elemental Effect = CTAEE

CTAEE = F1 * F2 * F3 * F4 * F5 * F6 * F7 * F8 * F9 * F10

That’s right 10 factors ! I don’t know a lot about all of them yet, more tests will explain/edit in more in the future.

F1: (enemy resistance to the application of the elemental effect) This is usually 1. I've seen this at 0.1 when attempting to freeze a glacial enemy in TPS. Not impossible, just 10 times harder. It is 0 when trying to slag creatures immune to slag (ex slagged X, constructor, saturn, ..)

F2: (base chance to apply effect of element type vs defense type) (UVHM mode tested) SLAG (30 vsHealth, 30 vsArmor, 30 vsShield) Fire (30 vsHealth, 15 vsArmor, 15 vsShield) // 60 vs health in TPS Electric (15 vsHealth, 15 vsArmor, 75 vsShield) Corrosive (15 vsHealth, 30 vsArmor, 15 vsShield)

// in general they played abit more with these base values in TPS compared to Borderlands 2


F3: Zero when shooting civilians in Sanctuary This is zero when shooting civilians .. 
# Chance to trigger effect 1.0000 * 20.0000 * 0.0000 * 1.1377 * 0.6000 * 1.0000 * 1.0000 * 1.0000 * 1.0000 * 1.0000 = 0.0000

F4: A * B // for guns Yup, this one is a bit hard to explain. splashes have the gun's F4 * F5 here. (this is done since F5 =1 for splash and F7 <=1 , only max value 1 when splash lands dead center on target )

A: (Semi-)hidden weapon parameter

The various weapon parts can have elemental chance application modifiers.
One can ‘calculate’ this value from the Weapon’s Card chance to apply effect like this:
F4 = (CardValue * 100) / (F5 * GenericElementApplyChance) // Possible problem here is the UI values tend to be rounded.

GenericElementApplyChance: Fire, Shock and Corrosive(20), Slag (30), (Cryo 15 TPS)

For example a Slag Maliwan Sniper Rifle that shows 56.3% :

F4 = 0.5625 * 100 / (1.5 * 30) = 1.25

Krieg’s Raving Retribution fireballs have 3 here

Gaige’s Interspeed outbursts has 0.07 * IO rank * #Stacks here

Gaige’s Shock Storm has 100 here. (regardless who triggers it Gaige/Deathtrap)

Maya’s backdraft skill has 1 + 0.45 * skill rank here

Maya’s Ruin and Helios Skills have 9001 !! value here - all but guaranteeing it applies its DOTs.

Elemental barrels have 100 here (pretty much guaranteed to apply elemental effects unless high resistance to the element)

B: (1 + sum of +element chance effects) ) . This only works for guns !
The BAR elemental effect chance is added here. And the effects of Maya’s Flicker skill.

COMs, relics and skills that boost the chance to apply a SPECIFIC element type aren’t used here but make up F9.


F5: (gun class elemental chance application multiplier) Sniper Rifle 1.5, Rocket Launcher 1, Splashes 1 ,Pistol 0.6, SMG 0.5 (Feculent Revenant 0.575), Shotgun 0.4, Assault Rifle 0.3 (splatguns irrelevant since there is no 'weapon impact' just pure splash so it uses the convoluted splash chances to apply effect)

F6: (Level Difference HUGE IMPACT!!) lvl diff Attacker - Target and chance multiplier

Bellow Level 73
-6 *0.0; -5 *0.1; -4 *0.3; -3 *0.5; -2 *0.7; -1 *0.9; +3 *1.1; +4 *1.2 ; +5 *1.4; +6 *2
Above 73
(-7 to -11) *0.6; (-5 or -6) *0.7; (-3 or -4) *0.8 ; (-1 or -2) *0.9; ( >) *1


F7: Reduction of chance to apply effect for splashes based on the distance between the center of the explosion of the splash and the target. So the splash's chance to apply effect equals or approaches the gun's chance to apply effect when the splash center of explosion lands right on the target. Splashes can apply effect to multiple enemies, but the ones on the edge of the splash will have reduced chance to get affected.

(gun)Splash-es usually have this <=1. This is also relevant for splatguns that don’t have gun damage impact just the big AOE splash …


F8: (??) Never seen this other than 1 yet.

F9: (1 + sum of specific element chance bonus). This ALSO APPLIES TO NON-gun sources of elemental damage ( grenades, skill and shield granted novas & spike shields, ...) From COMs, relic and skills.

Examples:
Maya’s Fox COM (chance to ignite applies here)
Gaige’s More Prep skill applies here.
Krieg’s Fuel The Fire (kill skill effect) applies here .
Krieg’s burn baby burn skill applies here (increased chance to ignite enemies)
Krieg’s Toast COM (chance to ignite applies here)


F10: (??) Never seen this other than 1 yet.

Some test numbers 
//slavador using Feculent Revenant SMG to slag on level bullymong

# Normal Hit = 3350.68457; using        Revenant; Scaled Base Gun Damage (CARD) = 2953.33301 ; Sum of Additive Gun Damage Multiplier    0.13454 (beware AMP SHIELD)  
# Damage Type =          SLAG ; ElementalMul = 1.00000; ( GrenadeMul = 1.12819 ); address =   3B8F3818 
# vsHealthorArmorMul 1.00; Intermediary Damage Value 3350.68457  
        359   155870.719 Max    146863.078 Cur   150213.766 Prev     3350.688 Damage   3CF7C958 baseaddress           Monglet vsHealthOrArmor 
# Chance to trigger effect 1.0000 * 30.0000 * 1.0000 * 1.6078 * 0.5750 * 1.0000 * 1.0000 * 1.0000 * 1.0000 * 1.0000 = 0.2773  

// a SLAG jumping betty
# Damage Type =          SLAG ; ElementalMul = 1.00000; ( GrenadeMul = 1.12819 ); address =   3B8F3818 
# vsHealthorArmorMul 0.50; Intermediary Damage Value 12397.27344  
        203   623482.875 Max    602378.875 Cur   608577.500 Prev     6198.625 Damage   3C2C6418 baseaddress    Brat Bullymong vsHealthOrArmor 
# Chance to trigger effect 1.0000 * 30.0000 * 1.0000 * 1.1500 * 1.0000 * 1.0000 * 1.0000 * 1.0000 * 1.0000 * 1.0000 = 0.3450
2 Likes
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#2

How did you know there are 10 factors in applying elemental effect? Like you’ve said, you haven’t seen some of them.

#3

image

Let’s say he wouldn’t be able to answer that and still abide by forum rules.

3 Likes
#4

I’ve seen all of them. Just haven’t seen some of them have a value different from 1.

#5

F7: (Seems to be reduction of chance to apply effect for splashes based on the distance between the center of the explosion of the splash and the target). So the splash’s chance to apply effect equals or approaches the gun’s chance to apply effect when the splash center of explosion lands right on the target. Splashes can apply effect to multiple enemies, but the ones on the edge of the splash will have reduced chance to get affected.

(gun)Splash-es usually have this <=1 . This is also relevant for splatguns that don’t have gun damage impact just the big AOE splash …

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