I'm so confused on damage numbers. Any insight?

[BodhiZafa]

The main point is the first pendant you acquire, "Pendant of the Burden." Deal additional damage for every status effect inflicted. It's been working well for me, and I have noticed a huge increase in damage. I like it and want to stay with it.

It seems straight forward until I look at weapons and come across inconsistencies. I've checked reddit threads, steam discussions, and wikis, and I'm not getting a clear answer on this. It's quite frustrating. Okay, so...

I'm using flails. I have...
-Pyric Cultist Flail. Deals Fire Damage. But the little flame icon says 0.
-Infernal Enchantress Flail. Deals Fire damage and the flame icon says 75.

First question, why is there a difference? How can one deal flame and no flame damage, and the other one deals flame and flame damage? That makes no sense.

Second question. Do both of those afflict status effect, thus boosting my Pendant of the Burden? Or does the little picture of the flame icon mean status and thus only the Infernal Enchantress Flail work with the pendant, and the Cultist Flail does not work?

[Swanky]

The numbers next to the little icons detail how fast a weapon will build a status effect. It's different for each weapon and not every weapon will deal one. Sometimes they deal wholly different status effects than their actual damage type (for example Fungal Dagger is physical damage but also has poison buildup). Weapons like Bloodlust which have multiple status effects will build them both with each hit.
The higher the number the faster / better the buildup.

Status effects are separate from the damage types a weapon deals. Allows for some wild combinations. Also allows for more unique weapons.

€ Also note that some status effects like bleed will add extra damage to each hit as long as the status effect is procced.

[Lunar Purge]

To add to this, there are even rings that can add build up to weapons. Let's go with the Fungal Dagger that Swanky brought up.

It deals poison build up, with some rings on you can also do frost and bleed AND flame build up at the same time depending on the rings you have. It can get kinda nutty at times with what you can do with some set ups.

[BodhiZafa]

Perfect, thanks a bunch. This is what I needed to know. It's what I figured. Fire damage is separate from Fire status build up. So if the icons are all zero, it's not contributing to my Pendant of Burden.

I have been using poison salts with the bloodbane ring, very fun stuff.

So looks like I'll be using the Enchantress flail for my build. Shame, the spike adorned skull on a chain that is Pyric cultist flail will be missed. I wish that had status.

Thanks for the replies guys.