DOT & spec points

[crookshanks]

I've had one too many trolls club me over the head recently - anyone care to enlighten me to the following question I've been wondering about please?

Does speccing in a particular spell line affect DOT damage at all? ie. is a sorcerers matter baseline DOT going to be worth using for a high mind line specced char? Or - like ice specced wizards trying to throw fireball bolts, is it about as effective as throwing a (hardback) spell book in the trolls general direction?

Ta in advance.

 

[old.mattshanes]

It effects the variance.

i.e for example my wizard is specced 50 ice 20 earth, but if i was to choose 20 fire my baseline bolt would do about 15% or so more minimum damage, around that anyway.Also the +11 effects the variance of spells such as these too.

 

[crookshanks]

Thanks for the reply Matt - not quite what I was asking though! Yes I agree it affects the variance with dd/bolts, but some spells (eg. the self AF buff, Wizard earth line DPS buff) arn't affected by speccing the line - I wondered if DOT's are one of these type of spells?

 

[Hargh]

I believe speccing affects DOT damage the same as if it were DD or bolt damage. If you spec 1 in Cave (Shaman) and fire off a L41 baseline DOT it may only tick for a few damage per tick.

 

[Hargh]

http://ballistic.desolation.org/shaman/#15

3.2. What effect does specialization level have on base spells?
Specializing in a spell line has two effects. Most obvious is that it grants you access to the spells in that specialization. You will get new, more powerful versions of each spell as you add spec levels.

Specialization also affects the damage done by your "base" spells (the ones you get just by gaining experience levels). Here's how it works:

If you don't put any points into a specialization, then base spells in that specialization will vary wildly in damage, doing 25-125% of their nominal, or listed damage.

Putting points into a specialization will gradually raise the "damage floor." this means that, if you specialize to 2/3 your character's level, base spells will do 75-125% of their nominal damage.

Specialization points above 2/3 your character level will increase both the floor and ceiling on damage. A fully specced character (one with specialization equal to character level) will do 100-150% of nominal damage with spells.

Specializing above your character level will continue to increase the damage floor, but you will see diminishing returns.

Note that skill points from items (for example, a ring that gives +1 Darkness) count in the damage calculations, but they do not give you access to higher level spells.

Also, specialization-only spells will always start out at 100% spec level, because you have to specialize to have access to those spells in the first place.

 

[crookshanks]

bah humbug.

OK thanks Hargh - I had hoped DOTs might have been exempt - wishful thinking on my part! Thanks for the response.

 

[Maeloch]

Light ment with secondary line in mentalism here. Variance on baseline DoT's definately are affected by spec (my baseline DoT is in the mentalism line) tho' I've not really played around with it enough to give you figures.

Think my baseline DoT ticks for about 105 - 145 on mobs with 20 +10 in mentalism (yeah yeah, pre-SI template ) but don't quote me on that.

 

[old.linnet]

Yes, it does affect DoT damage. (I get huge variance on baseline DoTs with my sorcerer .... much more than when I had a BG mana mentalist.)

 

[Juiliet]

What char is this for? If its for a wiz (with dots in specline) earth level over spell-level will not increase dot damage or reduce variance in damage.

If the dot is in a baseline, speccing up to the level of the spell reduces variance.

 

[soullessminion]

Originally posted by crookshanks
bah humbug.

OK thanks Hargh - I had hoped DOTs might have been exempt - wishful thinking on my part! Thanks for the response.

on a bright note dot ignores your rezz sick

 

[liste]

unspecced DoT's are very good in combination with confuse too