Dragon Age II Guide Essentials Strategy & Analysis

Elements

There are actually six types of elemental damage – fire, cold, electricity, nature, spirit and physical – the last being associated with ordinary melee weapons. Most offensive spells produce one type of elemental damage and certain weapons (including most staves) inflict elemental instead of physical damage. Weapons that have been enchanted by Runes (see page 214) may inflict several different types of damage simultaneously.

Use the Bestiary chapter of this guide to discover the elemental weaknesses of enemies (which may include physical damage if they have weak armor) and select the appropriate weapons for the task. On Nightmare difficulty, enemies also have elemental resistances. A shield icon next to an enemy’s health bar indicates an immunity to your current attack.

If you enable “Show Damage Numbers” in the Options screen, you can identify different types of damage by the color the text appears in.

Element	Text Color	Secondary Effect	Rune	Ability
Fire	Orange	Immolation	Rune of Fire	Fireball, Firestorm
Cold	Blue	Slows enemies	Rune of Frost	Winter’s Grasp, Cone of Cold
Electricity	Yellow	Stunning jolt (holds enemies briefly)	Rune of Lightning	Chain Lightning, Tempest
Nature	Green	-	Rune of Nature	Wrath of the Elvhen, Ensnare
Spirit	Purple	Halves magic resistance and damage resistance	Rune of Spirit	Holy Smite, Spirit Bolt, Despair
Physical	White	-	Rune of Impact	Stonefist, Fist of the Maker, weapon attacks