Dungeon Siege III
All Discussions Screenshots Artwork Broadcasts Videos News Guides Reviews

Dungeon Siege III

Dungeon Siege III > Guides > LazyFly's Guides
290 ratings
Dungeon Siege 3: Stats Explained
By LazyFly
Since so many miss the help options in-game or (on a likely related note) find the game to be unfairly difficult, this is just a quick review of what character stats do. The descriptions here in are based on the information in the game's help file as well as my own personal experience and may include tidbits from researching online if I can verify said results.

Since the majority of your character's customization is going to come from the gear you're wearing, it's important that you understand what points do what- if you're just equipping the orange items because they're orange, there's no doubt in my mind that you'll find this game to be insanely difficult if not impossible to play through.






3
   
Award
Favorite
Favorited
Unfavorite
Created by
LazyFly
Offline
Category: Characters
Languages: English
Posted
Updated
11 Feb, 2013 @ 12:14am
29 May, 2013 @ 7:21pm
15,842 Unique Visitors
207 Current Favorites
Guide Index
Overview
Base Stats 
Chaos Stats 
Stances 
Comments
Base Stats
Agility
Agility represents your hero's precision, and converts into Critical Hit Chance. However, the higher your hero's level, the tougher enemies become, so you will need more agility for your hero to keep the same Critical Hit Chance.

Armor
Armor represents the amount of damage that your hero mitigates with their gear. As their Armor increases, they absorb a higher percentage of damage from enemy attacks. But, as their level goes up, monsters become tougher and higher Armor value is required to have the same percentage of damage reduction.

Attack
Attack is a general measure of your hero's ability to damage enemies. As you equip weapons and armor that grant higher Attack values, your hero's Attack DPS will go up.

Perhaps contrary to the description provided by the in-game help screens, the Attack statistic has no bearing on Ability damage output.

Block
Block Value represents your hero's ability to deflect damage when blocking. Whenever a hero blocks, they will take no damage. But, they lose a percentage of Focus equal to the percentage of their health that the damage would have inflicted. Block Value is subtracted from the incoming damage before this percentage is calculated, so having a higher Block Value means your hero can block attacks without losing as much focus.

Doom
The Doom statistic grants you additional damage when you critically hit monsters. The amount of damage is increased with slower attacks.

Momentum
Momentum grants your hero additional Focus when attacking enemies. The amount of Focus gained per point of Momentum is dependent on your level - as you become more powerful, your attacks require more Momentum to generate the same amount of Focus.

Retribution
Retribution grants your hero a high chance to deal damage to enemies that attack them. The amount of damage dealt is equal to your character's total Retribution score. Note that Retribution will take effect even against blocked attacks.

Stagger
The Stagger statistic grants your attacks a chance to stun your enemies. The chance is determined by the value of your Stagger statistic - however, as you gain levels and your enemies become tougher, it will require a higher Stagger value to have the same chance to stun an ememy.

Stamina
Stamina represents your ability to survive wounds and injuries. As you equip weapons and armor that grant you a higher Stamina value, your character's Hit Points will go up.

Warding
Warding grants your hero a low chance to stun enemies that attack them. The chance of the stun is increased with additional points of Warding, however, as you gain levels and fight more difficult enemies you will need a greater Warding score to have the same chance of stunning enemies. Note that Warding will take effect even against blocked attacks.

Will
Will represents your ability to draw on the magical, or supernatural. As you equip weapons and armor that grant you a higher Will value, your character's Ability DPS will go up.

*Critical hits will always do x2 damage- this applies to Weapon Damage, Ability Damage, and DOT Damage on a per-tic basis. This calculation is made before Doom is applied.
Chaos Stats
Bloodletting
Bloodletting grants your attacks a high chance to inflict bleeding wounds on your enemies, dealing moderate damage over 6 seconds.

Fire
Fire grants a moderate chance to set enemies on fire, dealing moderate damage over 6 seconds.

Ice
Ice grants your attacks a moderate chance to freeze your enemies, dealing low damage over 9 seconds.

Lightning
Lightning grants your attacks a small chance to electrocute your enemies, dealing moderate damage over 2 seconds.

Poison
Poison grants your attacks a moderate chance to poison your enemies, dealing heavy damage over 9 seconds.

Vampire
Vampire grants your attacks a moderate chance to drain life from your enemies, returning that life to you.

Weakening
Weakening grants your attacks a moderate chance to weaken your enemies, dealing low damage over 9 seconds and reducing the amount of damage they deal.

Withering
Withering grants your attacks a moderate chance to wither your enemies, dealing low damage over 9 seconds and increasing the amount of damage they take from subsequent attacks.

*All Damage Over Time (DOT) effects are capable of doing critical damage, these crticals are calculated per tic.

*As the game does not differentiate physical and magical attacks or one magic attack from another, all effects mentioned above can apply to any enemy (i.e. Bloodletting's bleeding effect will work against Automatons).
Stances
There are three stances or for some characters, aspects in DS3- Two offensive stances and one defensive stance for each character:

  • One suited for dispatching a single enemy
  • One for damaging multiple enemies
  • One for blocking and buffing* your character or party.

The abilities you learn through leveling are accessible only through their assigned stance- for instance to cast a heal-over-time spell on your character you must be in the defensive stance (which is the same as blocking).

For those of you who will choose to play as Lucas I can't stress enough the importance of the defensive stance- since Lucas has no ranged base attack he depends on blocking and health regeneration for damage avoidance much more than the other three classes each of which have the option of employing a "run-and-gun" strategy.
40 Comments
< >
VikingTalon 3 Dec, 2023 @ 5:39pm 
And for people saying blocking gets you killed get more warding
VikingTalon 3 Dec, 2023 @ 5:37pm 
Umm just focus on lucas one handed give heroic charge 5 stacks in blue if any enemy is below 50% he auto crits then build up your doom for him he does die every so often but if you good at rolling or blocking you just ignore the dmg hes criting 500+ for me if i empower the ability its dmg 1200+ well worth it
Dwight 23 Jun, 2023 @ 11:17pm 
I see a lot of comments calling Lucas a wimp and I agree to the certain extent. I tried Lucas in my second play-through in Hardcore and I had to play a certain build to progress. Wind Shear with 100% Bleed (5 Wounding Gale) to deal with mobs and Heroic Charge with 5 Executioner's Charge for single target damage usually for bosses. For harder bosses, you have to learn their attack pattern or else you just die. Unbridal Wrath for unlimited focus.

I think one of the issues is the blocking mechanic. Lucas in the character selection screen has a big ass shield so I assume I'm going to be tanking and blocking shit. The problem is that blocking requires you to stand still and that is a big no-no in this game. You get mobbed and die. There are enemy magic attacks that constantly deal dps in an area. Then you look at rolling which gives invincibility frames and be like oh. Rolling is so much better.
wartec77#7295 5 Nov, 2021 @ 11:22pm 
yo yo yo the gun chick is awesome i love playing her
Qoatl 19 Jan, 2021 @ 6:57pm 
Ralphrepo: You're in the defensive stance when you are holding block. Note that, when you hold block, any defensive skills you have populate the the numbered circles on the bottom left of the HUD.
ralphrepo_01 11 Jan, 2021 @ 10:18am 
"...For those of you who will choose to play as Lucas I can't stress enough the importance of the defensive stance- since Lucas has no ranged base attack he depends on blocking and health regeneration for damage avoidance much more than the other three classes each of which have the option of employing a "run-and-gun" strategy."

I looked for and found the 'Stances' button, but it only allowed me to choose between the two offensive stances. Where can I elect to choose the defensive stance? And thanks for such a great guide!
jason.vanwyngaard 31 Dec, 2020 @ 4:17am 
Thanks for this, really helped.
JohnJSal 15 Jul, 2018 @ 1:55pm 
ReznoR: I'm glad to hear you enjoy him now! I don't remember any of his abilities at this point, but there were several I used in combination that made combat so fun and I felt so overpowered doing it. Glad you stuck with him! Not sure if you've tried Anjali or Reinhart yet, but I would make a similar point with Reinhart. In the beginning (until around level 10 or so, I believe) he felt very weak and I got frustrated, but once you get his AoE abilities and get gear that does certain draining moves (I've completely forgotten what they are called), he because ridiculously fun and OP as well, probably more than any of the other characters. Anjali was my first playthrough and I found her to be a fairly smooth character all the way through. Like I said before, I hated Katarina! ;-)
🉑 rezno[R].technology 15 Jul, 2018 @ 12:09am 
JohnJSal: That's what I thought, I didn't want to give up with him just yet after such long time. I just needed to rethink my strategy, use dodging more often, carefully observe enemies and the most important - equip items with many +Stamina and +Armor stats. I also focused on stunning often. I was Lvl 9 I think when the game suddenly got impossibly harder for me, but after checking here and the game's help for tips, rearranging gear and going back to the Gunderic Manor (instead of going forward to the East Forest) I managed to do some quests there and level up and get better gear and focus more on defensive abilities. Now I'm level 33 and I'm at almost the end of DLC, and it's quite fun!
JohnJSal 5 Jul, 2018 @ 11:25pm 
ReznoR: I would suggest sticking with Lucas if you want to play as him. I found him to be very powerful and fun to play as he gets stronger. In fact, the only character I didn't enjoy was Katarina. She didn't seem to have much going for her, and not much AoE either. Maybe she got better later, but I didn't care to continue with her after feeling so strong with the other three characters.