Thank you to Souleye of Unleashed @ Telon..
Overview
- Unfortunately it's kinda hard to find a good, up-to-date resource where you can reference everything you need to know about gear, stats, attributes, augs, etc. Generally you can maybe pick up bits and pieces from forums or asking people or such, so hopefully this will help people understand how their gear and stats work and make educated decisions as to what gear to use, which augs to pursue, etc.
- So here's a FAQ with all the questions I can think of that I've seen asked relating to gear, stats, etc. These should help you better understand what your gear and stats are actually doing for you, and make educated decisions on gear choices and augment choices. If you have a question that is not answered here, feel free to ask.
- Afaik, this is all accurate, or accurate enough to not make a difference (For example, I'm going to just roll on the assumption that 130% heal crit multiplier means your critical heals do 30% more than your regular heals, even though that's not true due to the where in the heal formula the crit multiplier is added; it's close enough to accurate to not make a significant difference in gear choice and such, so topics like that are beyond the scope of this article). Some parts may be incomplete or vague, particularly those that pertain to stats that a disciple would have no use for as I have limited knowledge and done minimal research on things like spell strikethrough and such (I don't care about my psi enough). For the most part though, this should help people understand what their gear really does for them, make their own decisions on gear and augment choices, and realize why certain seemingly inferior items are highly sought after. If you have accurate information on things that I do not elaborate much on, or if something I post is incorrect, please feel free to post corrections or comments.
What does Rating mean on a stat
(i.e. Damage Rating, Critical Hit Rating, etc.)?
- A: Rating gives you a certain percentage increase to a stat. At level 55, ~52 'rating' is equal to 1%. For example, if you have a helm that gives you +52 Damage Rating, this increases your damage bonus by ~1%. This does NOT increase your damage by 52 points. Note that you can see the percentages in parentheses next to each item.
- So why not just have a percentage increase on the item to make it more obvious, like +1.29% damage or something? Basically the point is have gear scale with level. A lvl 30 chest piece might have +20 damage rating, which would be good at lvl 30 because at that level, perhaps 5 damage rating gives you 1% damage. If the chest piece instead simply gave 4% damage, it would still be good at lvl 55 because 4% damage is 4% damage. The idea is to ensure that higher level items are actually better than similar low level ones.
What's the Cap for stat X?
A:
Damage/Critical Chance/Accuracy Bonus: 25%
Critical Heal Chance: 20%
Heal Effectiveness: 10%
Mitigation: 65% (?)
Critical Damage Bonus, Strikethrough Chance/Amount, Heal Critical Multiplier: Uncapped. Okay, they're not actually uncapped, but I can tell you with 99.9% assurance you are not near the cap on these (unless you are an order healer wearing t2 armor, which is bugged and maxes your heal crit multiplier).
Above Cap?
You're an idiot, Souleye. I'm looking at my stats sheet now and stat X is way above what you claim to be the cap.
A: You're an idiot, that's a statement not a question, so why'd you put a Q in front of it?
Anyway, those are the caps from GEAR. It's really important to understand the distinction between stats from gear and stats from buffs. You can basically consider all stats uncapped from buffs. For example, you probably realize that regardless of what your damage bonus is at from the gear you wear, bard song still increases it more. That's because bard song is a buff and buffs are considered separately from gear stats. Unforunately, damage bonus is the only stat that the game will automatically split up between gear and buffs for you (you can mouse over the stat and it will tell you how much is from 'items' and how much is from 'buffs'. You will never see the amount from 'items' above 25%). In order to know what you are at from gear for any other stat, you must make manual calculations (some people like to keep a spreadsheet of their gear stats).
One important distinction to note is that some gear items give you buffs, and this will not count towards your gear cap. Let's look at the classic example:
Anything that gives an 'Equipped Effect' is a buff, and whatever that buff gives you will not count towards your gear cap. This is why the ASG is such a highly sought after item, because the 5% damage and accuracy will transcend your gear cap, which is quite easy to reach.
One final note is that Heal Effectiveness shows up in the character sheet as if it is capped at 25%. You'll note that if you put on gear that puts you past, say, 25% damage, the extra damage will not show up in the character sheet. Heal Effectiveness however will show up to 25% from gear (and higher from buffs, such as pota arms etc.). Simple testing however will show that nothing past 10% from gear has any effect.
Damage Rating
4: What's the difference between Damage Rating and Spell Damage Rating and Melee Damage Rating, etc.?
Spell/Melee/Ranged Damage Bonus/Rating should be self-explanatory. The simplest way to think about plain old 'Damage Rating' is that if you have something that gives, say, +100 Damage Rating, this is exactly the same as having something that gives +100 Spell Damage Rating, +100 Ranged Damage Rating, and +100 Melee Damage Rating. In the past, 'general' Damage Rating was actually separate from the specific ones, but this is no longer true. Adding Damage Rating when you are already capped on Melee Damage Rating will not increase your Melee Damage Bonus (it may increase your Ranged or Spell if you aren't capped on that).
The same applies for General Critical Hit Rating vs Melee/Ranged/Spell Critical Hit Rating, Accuracy Rating vs Melee/Ranged/Spell Accuracy Rating, Mitigation vs Spell/Melee Mitigation, etc.
Theoretically, the same applies for Strikethrough Chance/Amount vs Melee or Spell, but the majority of things I've seen with Strikethrough Chance/Amount give only Melee Strikethrough, i.e. bird shaman buffs, disc epic, etc.)
Finally, Critical Damage Bonus is probably supposed to give Spell/Melee/Ranged Critical Damage Bonus, but stat screen shows it only giving Spell/Melee Critical Damage Bonus. It is unclear of this an actual bug or just a display bug, or perhaps it works like Strikethrough where Melee really means Melee/Ranged (see next question).
Ranged Strikethrough and Accuracy
5: I use a lot of ranged attacks. Why isn't there a Ranged Strikethrough stat?!?!?!
Melee strikethrough applies to ranged attacks.
6: I don't miss very often, despite not being near accuracy rating cap. Why should I pursue more?
A: This is a tough one and it's hard to quantify an answer. First, missing in the middle of a chain sucks a lot and really can screw your dps. However, it also is theorized, and supported by some limited tests, that higher accuracy causes your hits to more frequently land in the higher parts of your damage range. For example, say your damage range for auto-attack is 1000-1200. You'd expect your average damage to be 1100, but testing suggests that increasing your accuracy will increase your mean damage, though it will not increase your max (or min) damage (i.e. you will be more likely to hit for 1200 than 1000, 1150 than 1050, etc). I don't have an answer for exactly, or even roughly how much accuracy helps this, or even if this entirely true. It does seem to be fairly widely believed however, and it seems to be at least a significant amount, as evidenced by how much people value accuracy augments.
Increase DPS through Augments
Q7: I'm capped on Damage and Critical Chance Bonus. How can I further increase my DPS through augments?
A: Strikethrough and Accuracy (if not capped) infuses and Weapon Damage (if melee) and Critical Damage Bonus Runes. These are not cheap, but I can pretty much assure you that you are not capped in these stats and they will increase your DPS. Unfortunately, there is no welfare solution to this question.
Q8: Runes of Efficiency add 15 damage. Core Ring adds 75. Hell, Unstable rings add 200! Why the hell are Efficiencies so expensive when they give a fraction of what these items do?
A: You're confusing +damage with +weapon damage. +Weapon damage is way, way more powerful because it adds to your base weapon damage, which means that it benefits from all the modifiers you may have. For example, you probably have a good amount of damage bonus from gear and buffs, you'll get another 10% from your weapon skill, and then consider you likely have attacks that do 200% weapon damage + x, or maybe even 300% or 400%. Your weapon damage is sort of the starting point for how much your (melee) attacks do, so even a seemingly small number like 15 has a large benefit due to the sheer amount of modifiers it will go through.
+Damage on the other hand, you can basically just look at like this: if you have a +50 damage buff, an attack that would normally do 1000 damage now will do 1050 damage. This is an oversimplification, but the point is the same really.
Main Hand, Off Hand DPS
Q9: This dude was running around with a 85 dps weapon in his main hand and a 93 dps weapon in his offhand. What an idiot! Wouldn't switching the higher dps weapon to the main hand increase his dps?
A: Not necessarily. The actual range of damage on the weapon is considerably more important than the 'dps' of the weapon. DPS represents the base amount of damage you would do with it when autoattacking. Auto-attack is generally a small percentage of your actual DPS; Most of it comes from using your abilities, which are based not on the weapons 'DPS' or its attack speed (which can artificially inflate the 'DPS' of the weapon), but on the range of damage.
Basically, the point is to not overvalue the weapon speed (sorry rogues). This only affects your auto-attack (same with melee haste) which, again, is generally a small part of your DPS.
Before you completely disregard weapon speed though, consider parsing yourself and seeing what percentage of your damage comes from your autoattack, and maybe parse yourself with different weapons and look at the differences. One other thing to consider is that more autoattacks also means more chances for procs, which depending on your class/gear, may be significant. For example, more auto attacks means more inner light heals for disciples, more chances to proc a hate increase for tanks using something like a jharru weapon, etc.
Damage Rating Scale?
Q10: So I get that Damage Rating etc. scales with level, which doesn't matter to me since I'm stuck at 55. But does it scale with the level of the mob?
A: No. At least, not directly. You may think this because you definitely do less damage to higher level mobs. But your damage bonus is the same vs a lvl 100 mob and a lvl 1 mob. Before I can explain why you do less damage to those annoying SoD drakelings though, here's a quick aside:
Mitigation DOES scale with the level of the mob. Mitigation is the only stat that you should worry about 'overcapping'. An easy way to see how mitigation is affected by the level of a mob is to simply select one and look at your character sheet and watch your mitigation change. When you have nothing selected, the stat reflects your mitigation against an even level target (i.e. 55). Even if you are maxed against a lvl 55, you may not be maxed against a lvl 59 (like Zodifin!). So, it may make sense to try to get more mitigation even if you already show 65% in your character sheet (select a lvl 59 mob and see if you can still get to the cap).
Back to you doing less damage against higher level mobs… that mob also has a mitigation stat, and is getting a bonus to it because you are lower level than it is. So, you're still getting the same percentage increase to your damage, the issue is that the mob is mitigating a higher percentage of it than lower level mobs typically will, hence lower damage.
Healing Focus? / Crit Heal
Q: Increasing my heal focus past 500, or 520, or some other number seems to do nothing for me, why?
A: Heal focus scales with the level of your spell. Note the caps at various levels: 500 at 50, 520 at 51, 560 at 53, 600 at 55. So if you have 500 heal focus, your lvl 50 heals will receive the full 20% benefit, but your lvl 55 ones will not. Increasing your HF to 600 will make your lvl 55 heal stronger, but have no effect on your lvl 50 spell.
So you sort of need to make your own decisions about how much HF you should aim for. Consider what other stats you could get if you lowered your heal focus, consider which heals you use the most and what level they are, and perhaps also consider what you can put in your infuse slots, as Heal Focus and Heal Effectiveness are the only healing related infuses available, and HE is extremely easy to cap.
Q: My Heal Crit Chance is not 0%, but I swear I never get a critical heal, WTF?!
A: Few reasons:
1) You need a reasonable amount (maybe 10% at least) of Heal Crit chance before you really will start to see them. Some suggest its a bugged stat but most likely it's just mathematical variance around a small number.
2) Sadly, not every heal is eligible for heal crit. Most notably, HoTs won't crit and neither will inner light. So take that into consideration before you go buy all those heal crit runes. Generally, only 'traditional' heals can crit.
Stats show Above 0?
Q: I have no gear or buffs with Heal Crit Multiplier/Strikethrough Amount/Critical Damage Bonus etc. etc. so why do these stats show up above 0% for me in the stats window?
A: Certain stats have a base value that is above 0. Strikethrough amount has a base value of 30%, meaning when you successfully execute a strikethrough, you ignore 30% of the targets mitigation. It's really unclear what exactly that means and how it's calculated, but basically you do more damage, and increasing the strikethrough amount will cause your strikethroughs to do more damage.
For critical damage bonus/Heal Crit Multiplier, this is essentially what percentage of your damage/heal you do when you get a crit. The base is 130% for heals and 150% for attacks. This means a critical heal is multiplied by 130%, or increased by 30%, and a critical hit is multiplied by 150%, or increased by 50%. Obviously if these stats started at 0% or 100%, getting a critical hit/heal would either be detrimental or pointless.
Chicken Loot Buff?
Q: I'm looking at the chicken loot on Xanadu and there's no way the bracers/arms/belt are better than APW equivalents, or rewards from Fengrot, Varking, etc.
A: Wrong! The screenshots from Xanadu are generally of the item linked in chat, which does not show the set bonuses that each piece has (even for 1 piece!). They vary based on your archetype, and even class in some cases, but most of them (except possibly tanks, not sure) include a +damage buff. The caster set for example gives you +50 spell damage for each piece, and a chance to proc some stupid energy regen crap. The healer set gives you +5% heal effectiveness per piece (and some damage and heal crit chance), which is significant because it's a buff, meaning it will go past the measly 10% cap from gear.
Augment Slots, Runes, Socketing
Q: What do I do with all these etherence slots in my pota gear….?!
A: Unless you are mega-rich, I highly recommend for most classes to simply stick the +13 hp etherences in them. You should be able to pick them up easily from doing named runs that you did/do to get your pota gear and though 13 hp isn't significant, it'll eventually turn into like 15-16 of them and then you're looking at 200+ hp, which isn't bad. Yes, they could all be socketed ethereal twilights and then it could be 800 hp, but who has the money for that? The +14 energy etherences are even easier to come by, but I'd still recommend most classes go for the hp. In either case, you shouldn't worry too much about trying to fill them all with heroics, just settle for the blues.
Q: Should I throw augment X into gear piece Y, knowing I'll eventually be replacing it with gear piece Z? And should I bother socketing Rune D? Should I put Rune E inside it, or wait until I can get a Rune F?
A: Okay, poorly worded question, but basically I'm going to try to explain choices to make about socketing/unsocketing, and adding/removing enhancements.
First: Placing an aug into a gear piece is mega-cheap, under 50 silver. Removing it also costs under 50 silver UNLESS you want to keep the aug you are removing. If you want to keep the aug, the costs are as follows:
Removing/Keeping from an item with 1 slot: 10 gold
" " " with 2 slots: 35 gold
" " " with 3 slots: 50 gold
" " " with over 3 slots: It's supposed to also be 50 gold, but the items I've seen that qualify for this actually take the 10 gold one.
The item required to remove/keep an aug is only sold by Ini-Herat in PotA. So basically, before you place an aug into a gear piece that you will replace, or before placing an 'inferior' aug knowing you'll eventually want to put a better one in, consider what it'll cost you to remove and keep it, or if you even want to keep it when you get a replacement. In any case, the worst-case scenario is that you have to spend a reasonable amount of money to do so.
Dealing with sockets is a little bit more complicated.
You CAN remove an aug from inside a socketed aug, but DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DO IT YOURSELF. This can ONLY be done by a GM. You must make a petition to do this; attempting to do so yourself will result in destroying the aug inside the socketed aug. Note that the enhancements window does not allow you to use the thickened solvents from pota on a socketed aug. Simply buy the regular one then /petition and ask to have it removed and a GM will do it for you.
Dealing with socketed runes is a little bit more tricky and I'll devote the next question to it.
Q: Should I socket Rune X?
A: This may seem like a silly question, but it's not, and in fact, the answer is 'Probably not.' The reason you should be careful before socketing a Rune is as follows:
1) You cannot unsocket a Rune (or any aug)
2) You have a limited number of Rune slots
3) You cannot put a socketed Rune inside another socketed Rune (true for any Aug)
4) You are likely eventually receive 2 already socketed Runes: Socketed Ulvari Might (Reward for killing War Golem) and Humming Stone (Zodifin Drop).
5) You want a Socketed Rune of Efficiency with another Rune of Efficiency inside it in your weapon rune slot (if you are melee… this whole thing applies mostly to melee classes, but the point about strongly considering your options before socketing an aug, especially a rune, is valid to everyone)
You will get rune slots from the following: Pota Shoulders/Chest/Gloves, Weapon. This means you are looking at 6 rune slots at most, 5 if you use a 2-hander or don't have a ranged weapon with a rune slot available to your class, 4 if your using a 2-hander and don't have a ranged rune slot (i.e. disciple, or dk/pally with 2h epic using Zodifin ranged). 1 slot is occupied by War Golem reward, at least 1 by efficiency runes, and potentially another by Humming Stone. In some cases you may be looking at having only one rune slot available for a crafted socketed rune.
Basically the point is that a socketed rune is in many ways less useful than an unsocketed one, because you are likely to have more available rune slots in your pre-socketed runes than in your gear itself. Many people want to immediately fill their new pota armor with runes, and socketed ones to maximize their potential. Keep in mind that depending on your class/gear choices, anything beyond your first socketed rune you may someday no longer have space for. You'll always (unless they add new content) have room for at least one crafted, socketed rune, so if your best available rune is one you are confident you will always want to use (i.e. Rage Reflections and… uh, that may be it, other than Efficiencies obviously), otherwise you run the risk of being stuck with a socketed rune when you really want an unsocketed one to throw in your new Ulvari Might or whatever. Yes, all is not lost because you can sell or trade the socketed rune, but you may notice that for this reason, there actually isn't as much of a market for socketed runes as there is for unsocketed ones. Despite what it may seem, in a lot of cases you are actually lowering the value of a rune by socketing it.
Q: Runes of Efficiency in my offhand weapon!??!
A: Probably not. Tough to say decisively whether you'll get more out of an Efficiency vs something else there, but remember that offhand damage is 50%, so +15 weapon damage really means +7.5 damage if its going in your offhand. In any case, these ALWAYS go in your mainhand first. If you end up with more than 2, then maybe consider throwing it in your offhand, but I haven't seen a definitive argument either way of whether this is better or worse than your next most likely alternative (probably Rage Reflection).
Meat Gear?
Q. This +600 hp yellow sword from an SoD crate would make great meat gear, right!?
A: No. First of all, I am now kinda against meat gear because I constantly leave it on and gimp myself, just so I can get an extra like 100 hp. But anyway, despite meat claiming to give you X% more HP, it's a bit misleading because really it means X% more of your Base HP with only your constitution bonus.
In other words, the ONLY stat that matters for meat gear is constitution; +HP stuff does nothing, neither does endowment of life or vampire form from Talfyn. On the other hand, there are buffs that you can do before taking meat that will increase your yield, such as Despoiling Blight from necromancers and that cleric ability. Yeah, that one.
Spell / Melee Haste
Q. What does +X Spell/Melee Haste do? Theres no percentages next to it…
A: This one actually makes sense. +1 Spell Haste = 1% Spell Haste, same for Melee. Spell haste obviously lowers your cast times. Melee Haste lowers your weapon delay, which means you will auto-attack more frequently. Do NOT confuse this with Global Refresh Haste, which lowers the amount of time you must wait between abilities…. see, epic bard. Melee Haste is not a particularly useful stat, see Q9 for more.