Damage Dealing Fundamentals
Every damage dealer build on this site runs on the same few habits. Learn them once and any class is easy to pick up.
The damage dealer's job
A group usually has two damage dealers in a dungeon and eight in a trial. Your damage decides how fast the fight ends, but a dead damage dealer does none, so the job comes in this order:
01
Stay alive
Dodge and block the mechanics. Free self-heals like Puncturing Sweep and Critical Surge exist for a reason.
02
Do the mechanics
Interrupts, portals, adds. A boss that never wipes you dies faster than one that does.
03
Keep your damage up
Damage over time effects and buffs first, then your spammable in every free global.
04
Use your synergies
Take Blessed Shards, Conduit and the rest when they're up. They're free damage and resources.
Your rotation
Every build page lists a priority: the things to keep up, most important first. When two run out together, refresh the one higher on the list. Everything else goes into your spammable, the skill you cast whenever nothing needs refreshing. Below a set Health (25% for 
Impale, 40% for 
Radiant Oppression), most builds swap the spammable for an execute.
Pre-cast long buffs and pets before the pull, and stop refreshing long damage over time effects when the boss is about to die: they won't finish ticking.
The shared kit
| Skill | Its job |
|---|---|
 Barbed Trap | A bleed and Minor Force (10% Critical Damage) while it's out. |
 Stampede | Gap closer and a burning patch that keeps procing your weapon glyph. With Merciless Charge it adds direct damage. |
 Quick Cloak | Major Evasion against area attacks, and damage that procs your glyphs during a channel. |
 Camouflaged Hunter | Major Savagery, and Minor Berserk when you crit from the flank. |
 Banner Bearer | A scribed toggle: more damage of one type and Weapon and Spell Damage from your speed. On both bars. |
 Flawless Dawnbreaker | Slotted for its passive Weapon and Spell Damage, and cast on packs. |
Light Attack weaving
Skills share a one-second global cooldown, but a Light Attack doesn't. Tap a Light Attack just before every skill and you add a free hit each second, proc sets like 
Whorl of the Depths and build Ultimate. It's the biggest single jump in damage for most new players.
Channelled builds are the exception. You can't Light Attack during 
Engulfing Dragonfire or 
Pragmatic Fatecarver, which is why those builds slot Quick Cloak and Stampede to proc their weapon glyphs instead.
The buffs you need
Every build covers 
Major Brutality (20% more Weapon and Spell Damage) and 
Major Savagery (12% Critical Chance) itself, from a skill or a potion. Since Update 51, Spell Power and Weapon Power potions give both. Most builds also keep 
Minor Force up with Barbed Trap or a scribed 
Ulfsild's Contingency. Your healers and tanks bring the rest:
Penetration and crit caps
Most veteran bosses have 18,200 Armor. Penetration above that does nothing, and your tank, sets and debuffs like 
Major Breach already cover most of it. Critical Damage stops at 125%, so once the group's buffs get you there, swap Fighting Finesse for Untamed Aggression. The penetration and crit calculators work out where you stand with your group.
Tip
Dexterity, Light armour adds Penetration through 
Concentration. That's why some builds mix weights.Bosses and trash
Every damage dealer build has a Boss and a Trash setup. On bosses, single-target skills and long damage over time effects win. On trash, packs die in seconds, so the Trash setup swaps a slot or two for skills like 
Proximity Detonation that you cast as you run in, and you swap Deadly Aim for Biting Aura. Your gear stays the same.
Pure class or subclass?
Pure class keeps your Class Mastery, and for damage dealers that's some of the biggest damage passives in the game, so every top parse is pure class. Subclassing lets any class borrow the strongest lines: the Beam build gives every class the Arcanist's beam. Compare them all on the Damage Dealer Tier List.