Context:
Take three players as example (call them: "Buffer", "Attacker", and "Defender").
In a very brutal battle Attacker jumps with his hammer towards Defender, but part way through the attack animation, Buffer helps Attacker out by giving him 12 Stacks of Might.
What will happen here?
Two Different Moments:
The damage for the attack can be calculated in two moments, at the beginning of the attack animation or on the contact with the enemy player (or target).
The first option, would lead to ignored Boons upon strike, if the boons are activated after the beginning of the skill animation.
The second option, would be the optimal one, leading to boons actually working even if activated in "mid-air" or after the skill animation starts.
Question:
Which approach is being used for calculating skill damage?
Best Answer
Answer:
The damage is calculated as soon as the character actually hits the target
Test Method Used:
I've played a Guardian. Tons of Dumies got killed in the process.
As a Guardian, i've calculated the Average of my Mighty Blow skill on the dumies, after using the skill, with no armor, and no boons for 50 times
After getting to the "raw" / "unbuffed" damage average, i've repeated the test for another 50 times, but, in the middle of the "leap" generated by the Mighty Blow skill (Animation), i've shouted Save Yourselves and activated my Virtue of Justice, that gives me 3 stacks of might, because of Inspired Virtue Trait.
The second test result is an higher average damage (around 12% higher), caused by the "boons" that were taken in account even after the animation start, since i've shouted and activated the virtue always in the middle of the atack animation.
Just to double-check it, i've repeated the test, but on the third time i've used the Mighty Blow skill right before the boon ends, leading the boon to actually end in the middle of the Animation strike.
The result for the third test worked as expected, leading to an average very close to the one obtained in the first test.
Conclusion: