What is “non physical damage” in Diablo 4? Explained

In Diablo 4, som▨e of the gear pieces you obtain may have the “non-physical damage” trait, but what it means isn’t too straightforward. Is it an affix worth keeping? If so, here’s what it means and what it applies to.

What is non-physical damage in Diablo 4?

Non-physical dam🍌age is any damage type that isn’t labeled as physical damage, as straightforward as it sounds. 

For ꧋example, if you are leveling a D💛ruid, all the core skills will be labeled as physical damage except for Lightning Storm. If you are equipping gear that gives a bonus to non-physical damage, you want to make sure that skills listed in your class’ tree have any other label than physical.

A class like a Druid will have a mix of the two, so make sure that you aren’t dipping into a damage type that you aren’t casting. It’s always best to specialize in specific damage types so you won’t lose out on any bonuses.

Is non-physical damage good?

In many cases, the non-physical damage boost can heavily increase your DPS in Diablo 4. This works exceptionally well for Sorcerers since all of their damage will come from fire, lightning, or cold. These are all exa🅠mples of non-physical damage.

Most high-tier Sorcerer builds will either ꦰmake use of the Tal Rasha’s Iridescent Loop, or the Fractured Winterglass becaus𒁏e of the strong affixes they have. What they both also have are significant boosts to non-physical damage. 

It’s basically a direct damage upg🍌rade by equipping these items, even if you’re running unoptimized builds that don’t benefit much from their key passives.

Rogues will also benefit from this when imbuing skills. Just know that just because you’re using a proj🍸ectile attack doesn’t automatically mean it’s non-physical. The skill on your tree will tell you what type of damage it is, even if there is some type of class-specifi💯c element.