Rune of Devastation is a weapon rune in Dragon Age II. For more information about the effect, see below.
Acquisition
- 75
0: Crafted, using Design: Rune of Devastation.
0
Effect mechanisms
Because of the order of operations for damage in Dragon Age II, this rune is most useful to characters with a high critical hit chance or those who cycle a lot of damage abilities/spells during combat.
Damage increasing runes, like the Rune of Impact, add 20% of the weapon's base damage, disregarding bonuses by talents or criticals. This rune increases the damage by only 6% for Dual Weapon weapons, 8% for Weapon and Shield weapons, and 10% for Two-Handed weapons, Staves and Archery weapons, but affects all damage, including that from talents and criticals.
However, it is difficult to rely on the Rune of Devastation for critical damage increase because one would need both, a high critical chance and, more importantly, a high critical damage multiplier. To parallel the damage increase from a typical damage rune with a rune of devastation requires a 333%, 250%, and 200% critical damage multiplier for the above mentioned weapon types. This is only for basic attacks. When concerning bonus multipliers from talents, the damage increase given by this rune will be significantly higher than the basic increase from other weapon runes.
Some examples for an upgraded Bianca at level 50, with an upgraded Archer's Lance and 1.5* critical multiplier:
| Basic attack | Critical hit | Archer's Lance | Runes of Devastation | Runes of Impact | Physical damage | Result, rounded up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5+(5.38*50) | – | – | 0 | 0 | =(5+(5.38*50)) | =274 |
| 5+(5.38*50) | – | – | 0 | 4*(274*20%) | =(5+(5.38*50))+(4*(274*20%)) | =494 |
| 5+(5.38*50) | – | – | 1*(274*10%) | 3*(274*20%)) | =(5+(5.38*50))+(1*(274*10%))+(3*(274*20%)) | =466 |
| 5+(5.38*50) | *1.5 | – | 0 | 4*(274*20%) | =(1.5*(5+(5.38*50))+(4*(274*20%)) | =631 |
| 5+(5.38*50) | *1.5 | – | 1*((274*1.5)*10%) | 3*(274*20%) | =(1.5*(5+(5.38*50))+(1*((274*1.5)*10%))+(3*(274*20%)) | =617 |
| 5+(5.38*50) | *1.5 | *(1.7+0.85) | 0 | 4*(274*20%) | =(1.5*(1.7+0.85)*(5+(5.38*50)))+(4*(274*20%)) | =1,268 |
| 5+(5.38*50) | *1.5 | *(1.7+0.85) | 1*((274*1.5*(1.7+0.85))*10%) | 3*(274*20%) | =(1.5*(1.7+0.85)*(5+(5.38*50)))+(1*((274*1.5*(1.7+0.85))*10%))+(3*(274*20%)) | =1,318 |
Crafting
| Recipe | Makes | Ingredients |
|---|---|---|
 |
 Rune of Devastation
|
 3  4  4  1 |