As of Dev Log #3 Death Must Die has reorganized how damage is categorized. Now, skill types are sorted into six categories, as a way to rebalance builds and allow for more variety. While this has overall been an excellent change, there are still some issues causing confusion amongst players. While most the other skill types are self explanatory, there are still two types that need further clarification in Death Must Die: Attack vs Strike. At the end of this article, you will understand the difference between the two types.
Death Must Die: Attack vs Strike
Currently in Death Must Die, there are six different skill types: Attack, Dash, Strike, Cast, Power, and Summon. Dash skills activate whenever your character performs their dash. Cast skills happen automatically when their cooldown period expires.
But when you look at Attack and Strike, it feels a bit confusing. These seem like they refer to the same thing. However there is a slight difference between the two, that make them entirely different skill and damage types.
Attack skills aim to improve your character’s basic attack, usually by causing more damage. Sometimes they can even increase the area of effect. In addition to flat increases, they can potentially cause bonus effects. Summer’s Searing Attack increases your basic attack damage, range, area, and velocity. It also has a bonus chance to cause fire trails on the ground.
Strikes though, are different. Strikes are spells that trigger with your basic attacks, that cause a variety of extra effects to happen. They do not give boosts to your Attack damage directly, rather they make your attacks do extra things. Leigong’s Chain Lightning for example, doesn’t directly boost damage. However it gives each of your attacks a small chance to trigger Chain Lightning. When this effect occurs, lightning will bounce between multiple targets doing substantial bonus damage. While this difference may seem subtle, it’s easier to determine in practice.
Whenever you level up in Death Must Die, you’re given the choice between three upgrade options. These options tell you the category of skill they fall under. So if you’re playing a Nixi run that has a ton of Attack enhancing equipment, take Attack upgrades. If you’re using Skadi and you have bonuses to Strikes, grab the Strike upgrades.
Conclusion
Thanks to the Dev Log update, there are now many more viable builds in Death Must Die. Even though the devs clarified the skill types, there was still a little bit of confusion on the difference between Attack vs Strike. After reading this article however, I hope you are better prepared and know the difference between the two. As far as which to select during your runs, that depends on a few external factors. Take whichever skill type compliments your equipment, talents, and current run build.
For a more in depth video on the difference between Attack vs. Strike skills, you can watch my YouTube video below:
How are you enjoying Death Must Die? Have you make it to Act II yet? What’s your favorite skill type? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
