Counter Damage & the Counter-Stun Condition
How Counter DMG is calculated, how raw Counter DMG from Jewels stacks, and — critically — what actually triggers a counter's on-hit Stun rider (Rogue set / Pommel-Strike style talents).
Community-tested in-game (training dummy), not decompile-verified. Complements the base keyword page Counter and the stat pipeline in stat-calculation.
TL;DR
- Counter = your DEF measured against the enemy's ATK. When you take a hit while within Counter range, you deal Counter DMG back.
- Every 5 DEF above the enemy's ATK = +1 Counter DMG. (Only Warriors have a base Counter range of 1 — see Counter.)
- Jewels add raw Counter DMG on top — up to 8 Counter DMG per line, 24 per Jewel, 144 across 6 Jewels. That raw bonus is equivalent to ≈ 720 DEF above the enemy's ATK, but it does not bypass the counter calculation — it just adds on top of it.
- ⚠️ The counter-stun rider needs actual DEF > enemy ATK — not merely dealing ≥ 1 Counter DMG. Raw Counter DMG from Jewels can make a counter deal damage while your DEF is still below the enemy's ATK, and in that state the stun does NOT trigger. To reliably proc the stun, run green DEF-affix Jewels, not Counter-DMG Jewels.
Counter DMG formula
CounterDMG = floor( (yourDEF − enemyATK) / 5 ) [floored at 0]
+ rawCounterDMG (from Jewels / other sources)
yourDEFandenemyATKare the class-mapped combat stats (see the ATK/DEF dispatch table in stat-calculation — e.g. a Warrior's DEF reads from INT).- The
(DEF − ATK)/5term rounds down and cannot go below 0. So at DEF 100 vs ATK 99 the term isfloor(1/5) = 0— zero counter damage from the DEF term alone. - Raw Counter DMG (Jewels) is added afterward and is unconditional — it lands even when the DEF term is 0, or when DEF is below ATK.
You can further scale the result with Counter DMG% and Total DMG modifiers, same as any other damage source.
The stun-trigger condition (the important finding)
The counter-stun rider (Rogue set on Archers/Warriors, and Pommel-Strike-style talents) has a separate, stricter gate than "did the counter deal damage":
| Scenario | DEF vs enemy ATK | Counter dealt DMG? | Stun triggered? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower DEF, no Counter Jewel | DEF < ATK | 0 | ❌ No |
| Lower DEF + Counter-DMG Jewel | DEF < ATK | ✅ 1+ (raw) | ❌ No |
| Higher DEF, DEF term rounds to 0 | DEF 100 vs ATK 99 | 0 (floored) | ✅ Yes |
| Higher DEF | DEF > ATK | ✅ | ✅ Yes |
Conclusion: the stun keys off actual DEF > enemy ATK, not off the final Counter DMG number. A counter that deals 1 damage purely from a Jewel bonus, while DEF < ATK, still fails to stun. Conversely, once DEF just edges above ATK, the stun fires even if the (DEF−ATK)/5 term floors to 0 Counter DMG.
This mirrors the "successful attack" condition discussed for ATK-side effects: a hit is only "successful" when it overcomes the opposing stat, not merely when it chips the life pool. The two sides may share one underlying mechanism, but the ATK-side equivalent was not confirmed in this test.
Practical build implication
- To proc counter-stun reliably: stack green DEF-affix Jewels so your raw DEF genuinely clears the enemy's ATK. Counter-DMG Jewels raise the number you see but do nothing for the stun gate.
- For the Rogue set on Archers / Warriors (which grants +50% ATK until your ATK naturally exceeds enemy DEF): the intended play is to run low ATK and scale damage from other sources, keeping the trigger live as long as possible.
Open question
Whether the ATK side behaves identically — i.e. whether "successful attack" riders require ATK > enemy DEF rather than merely dealing life damage — is untested here (the Stun-immune / high-ATK Isekai portal enemy made this hard to isolate). Flagged for a future dedicated test.
References
- Base keyword: Counter · Stun · Toughness
- Jewel affix system: godstone
- Stat/combat pipeline: stat-calculation
- Referenced page (author's own wiki):
gomg-wiki.pages.dev/mechanics/stat-calculation
[!info] Source (original) Discord discussion, quoted ZerGPT (vault author) and Changed Name, 4:08–5:36 PM. Testing done on a training dummy with mirrored DEF/SPI vs the dummy's ATK. Key confirmations: (1) raw Counter DMG from Jewels adds on top of, and does not bypass, the DEF-vs-ATK counter calculation; (2) the counter-stun rider only fires when actual DEF exceeds enemy ATK, even when a Counter-DMG Jewel makes the counter deal ≥ 1 damage at DEF < ATK; (3) DEF 100 vs ATK 99 (Counter DMG floored to 0) still triggers the stun.