Diablo 4 Attack Speed & Weapon Speed
D4 Attack Speed
The Attack Speed of a weapon is an item attribute that determines how fast the hero can attack. The faster one can attack, the less time it takes to get a swing in, leading to increased damage per second because of more hits in a shorter amount of time.
Bonus Attack Speed:
- You attack {#} faster than your base Weapon Speed.
- Combined with your weapon, your total Attack Speed is {#} Attacks per Second.
Bonus Attack Speed after Dodging:
- You gain {#} bonus Attack Speed for {#} seconds after Dodging an incoming attack.
Minion Attack Speed Bonus:
- Increases the Attack Speed of your summoned Minions. This includes your Skeletal Warriors, Skeletal Mages, and Golem.
Weapon Speed
- Weapon Speed: {#} Attacks per Second
- This is the base Attack Speed inherent to your weapon before applying bonuses.
- When wielding One-Handed weapons, their weapon speeds are averaged.
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Attack Speed affixes
- +x% Attack Speed
- +x% [Skill] Attack Speed
- +x% [Power] Attack Speed
- +x% [Minion] Attack Speed
- +x Attack Speed while Fortified
- +x% Attack Speed for x Seconds after Dodging an Attack
- +x% Weapon Speed
Related: Assault Elixir
| Name | Requires | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Weak Assault Elixir | Level 20 | Increases Attack Speed by 7% and Experience by 5% for 30 minutes. |
| Assault Elixir | Level 50 | Increases Attack Speed by 10% and Experience by 5% for 30 minutes. |
| Strong Assault Elixir | Level 65 | Increases Attack Speed by 13% and Experience by 5% for 30 minutes. |
| Potent Assault Elixir | Level 80 | Increases Attack Speed by 16% and Experience by 5% for 30 minutes. |
| Heady Assault Elixir | Level 95 | Increases Attack Speed by 20% and Experience by 5% for 30 minutes. |
You may only have one Elixir active at a time.
Diablo 4 Weapon Speed
- This is the base Attack Speed inherent to your weapon before applying bonuses.
- When whielding One-Handed weapons, their weapon speeds are averaged.
For example, weapon speed: 1.0 Attackes per Second.
One more stat that doesn’t directly contribute to your damage, but does affect your Damage Per Second (DPS) is Weapon Speed. Your Weapon Speed indicates how often you can cast your skills (although some skills have fixed animation length not dependent on Weapon Speed). To calculate your Weapon Speed you need to consider two parameters: your weapon’s Attacks per Second (APS) which is averaged when dual-wielding and your Attack Speed bonus. Attack Speed can roll as a stat on your Gloves and also comes from different skills and passives. All these bonuses are added together and act as a multiplier to your weapon’s Attacks per Second:
Now for direct damage skills you get a very simple DPS formula:
DPS = DMG . Weapon Speed
More or less the same applies to DoT skills that can stack, except the actual damage is delayed by the DoT’s duration. For non-stacking DoTs Weapon Speed doesn’t affect damage at all.
Attack Speed Skills
| Name | Description | Tags | Power Name | Rewards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battle Frenzy | While Berserking, your other skills gain +5% Attack Speed for each stack of Frenzy you have. | Tags: Basic, Dual Wield, Fury, Physical, Damage, Attack Speed | Barbarian Frenzy |
|
| Combat Frenzy | You gain 8% Damage Reduction for each stack of Frenzy you currently have. | Tags: Basic, Dual Wield, Fury, Physical, Damage, Attack Speed | Barbarian Frenzy |
|
| Duelist | Attack Speed is increased by +{3 skill_rankup_desc: Attack Speed +{3 | Tags: Attack Speed, Dual Wield | Barbarian Talent Berserker T2 N3 |
|
| Frenzy | Attack Speed Multiplier: 1.25 skill_rankup_desc: Damage {20 | Tags: Basic, Dual Wield, Fury, Physical, Damage, Attack Speed | Barbarian Frenzy |
|
| Enhanced Frenzy | While Frenzy is granting +60% bonus Attack Speed, it also generates 2 additional Fury. | Tags: Basic, Dual Wield, Fury, Physical, Damage, Attack Speed | Barbarian Frenzy |
|
| Bestial Rampage | After being a Werewolf for 2.5 seconds, gain +20% Attack Speed for 15 seconds. | Tags: Shapeshifting, Attack Speed, Damage, Werewolf, Werebear | Druid Talent Hybrid T5 N1 |
|
| Inspiring Leader | After you have been Healthy for at least 4 seconds, you and your Minions gain +{4 skill_rankup_desc: Attack Speed Bonus +{4 | Tags: Healthy, Minion, Attack Speed | Necromancer Talent Summoning T4 N1 |
|
| Kalan's Edict | After you have not taken damage in the last 3 seconds, your Minions gain +15% Attack Speed. While you have at least 7 Minions, this bonus is doubled. | Tags: Attack Speed, Minion | Necromancer Talent Summoning T5 N2 |
|
| Haste | While at or above 50% maximum Energy, gain +{5 skill_rankup_desc: Movement Speed +{5 | Tags: Movement, Attack Speed, Energy | Rogue Talent 08 |
|
| Close Quarters Combat | Damaging a Close enemy with Marksman or Cutthroat Skills each grant a +10% Attack Speed bonus for 8 seconds. | Tags: Marksman, Cutthroat, Crowd Control, Attack Speed, Damage | Rogue Talent Discipline T5 N1 |
|
| Alchemical Advantage | You gain +{1 skill_rankup_desc: Attack Speed +{1 | Tags: Poison, Attack Speed | Rogue Talent Discipline T4 N1 |
|
Generally, each class has their own set of attack speed bonuses and penalties. The more adept classes such as the Warrior or the Paladin, have a higher attack speed than caster-oriented classes like the Sorcerer.
Diablo I/Hellfire
Attack Speed is represented in its most basic form in Diablo I/Hellfire. One-Handed weapons, Two-Handed Swords and Maces attack at the same rate. Axes swing a frame slower than them, unless the wielder of choice is a Barbarian, and all other forms of attack vary depending on the class of the player.
Generally, however, it comes to no argument that:
- Warriors and Barbarians swing faster than all other classes with Swords.
- Barbarians swing faster than all other classes when using Maces or Axes.
- Rogues shoot Bows faster than all other classes.
- Monks attack faster than all other classes when he is unarmed or uses a Staff.
Weaponry can be enchanted with suffixes* that allow a hero to swing a weapon faster than he normally would. From weakest to greatest, they are:
- Readiness: Quick Attack
- Swiftness: Fast Attack
- Speed: Faster Attack
- Haste: Fastest Attack
* Ingame, this series of suffixes is bugged. Readiness does nothing but change the gold value of the item, Swiftness affects the hero as Readiness would, Speed affects like Swiftness, and Haste does not offer any better than Speed. Blizzard Entertainment incorrectly claimed they fixed this in patch 1.07 for Diablo I.
Diablo II/Lord of Destruction
Attack Speed is a bit more varying in Diablo II and the expansion set, but classes still retain their bonuses and penalties.
Generally, it comes to no argument that:
- Paladins and Assassins attack faster with most weapons than all other classes.
- Barbarians, Amazons, Druids, and Necromancers are slightly behind Paladins and Assassins with One-handed weaponry.
- Sorceresses have the hardest time attacking with One-handed weaponry.
- Druids attack faster with Polearms, Two-handed Axes, and Two-handed Hammers than all other classes.
Attack Speed increases are not limited to just Weaponry as they were in Diablo/Hellfire, with Gloves being able to spawn with affixes that increase a hero’s Attack Speed, as well as certain skills, like Fanaticism.
Diablo III/Reaper of Souls
Attack Speed returns in Diablo III, but in a different form compared to the earlier installments. Instead of class bonuses and penalties, each weapon type instead has a set attack speed value, in “Attacks per Second” (APS), ranging from 1.20 to 1.60 APS for one-handed weapons and 0.90 to 1.15 APS for two-handed weapons.
From highest to lowest, they are:
- Hand Crossbows: 1.60 APS
- Daggers: 1.50 APS
- Swords, Bows, Ceremonial Knives, Fist Weapons, Flails, Wands: 1.40 APS
- Axes, Mighty Weapons, Scythes: 1.30 APS
- Maces, Spears: 1.20 APS
- Two-Handed Flails: 1.15 APS
- Two-Handed Swords, Crossbows, Daibo, Two-Handed Scythes: 1.10 APS
- Two-Handed Axes, Two-Handed Mighty Weapons, Staves: 1.00 APS
- Polearms: 0.95 APS
- Two-Handed Maces: 0.90 APS
If the character fights unarmed (for example unequipping the bow a Demon Hunter starts with) the APS is 1.0: it’s somehow slower to throw punches than it is to shoot even a crossbow much less a bow and arrow: only polearms and 2H maces are slower than punching.
Attack Speed affixes are a bit more diverse than in the earlier installments, with Weapons, Jewelry, and Gloves being able to roll Attack Speed. And there are certain Legendary/Set Items that are guaranteed to have Attack Speed affixes on them. At level 70, all possible item slots can offer up to a +7% increase in attack speed. The one exception are Quivers, which can roll up to +20% attack speed.
In addition, certain skills, like the Barbarian’s Frenzy, can increase Attack Speed for a short duration. Frenzy Shrines can award +25% Attack Speed for a brief time. Heroes can also gain up to +10% Attack Speed from Paragon level points. There exists a hard cap, however; a hero may not gain more than +100% Attack Speed from more permanent sources, like equipment and/or Paragon levels.
Because of the Life per Hit statistic mechanics (the way it was prior to patch 2.1), Attack Speed is not multiplicative with each other except for a weapon with a bonus to Attack Speed. Regardless of circumstances, a weapon’s Attack Speed becomes the base amount, upon which all other bonuses to Attack Speed are calculated.
Upon reaching level 61 and above in Reaper of Souls, almost all melee Two-Handed weaponry available will gain a flat 0.10 bonus to attack speed, with the exception of Swords and Daibos, which gain 0.05, and Flails, which gain no bonus.
For most builds, stacking Attack Speed is a matter of arguable efficiency (since the total amount of attacks a character can make is usually limited by their resource pools). Exceptions may be found in builds that make heavy use of resource-free and primary skills, rather than resource spenders. These builds may find the tactic of having as much Attack Speed as possible rather effective.
Off-hand items for the spellcasting classes (Source and Mojo), along with some rings and amulets, can add a static amount of damage to successful hits. Because the amount does not change amongst weapons, these items are more of an aid to heroes when they wield faster attack speed weapons. Despite this fact, items that add to a hero’s Critical Hit statistics are generally favored. Most skills use a % of raw weapon damage to calculate the total damage, and in some cases, having a more potent, albeit slower, weapon is yielding better results.
Some Damage Over Time skills and similar effects utilize a mechanic called attack period (also known as tick of damage) to determine the damage they are doing, in order to compensate for the “fast weapon vs. powerful weapon” dilemma. A skill stated to deal 100% weapon damage will deliver this damage every 1 / AttackSpeed seconds. For example, with attack speed of 1.0, it delivers 100% damage every 1.00 seconds; with AS 2.0, it will deliver a hit every 0.50 seconds (200% damage per second), and with AS 0.5 it will only deliver 100% damage every 2.00 seconds (that is, 50% damage per second). As slower weapons are usually more powerful, the actual damage output is more or less comparable for different weapon types. Example of skills and effects that utilize attack period include Sweeping Wind and the Chantodo’s Resolve weapon set’s Waves of Destruction. Pets also gain a damage multiplier equal to the attack period.
Some Damage Over Time skills gain no damage increase from attack speed, instead they only cast with a faster animation time. Examples include Haunt and Locust Swarm.
Only Tasker and Theo can increase the Attack Speed of Pets. Any other Attack Speed increase will increase the Pet’s Damage instead. This makes Attack Speed critical for most Pet oriented builds.
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