Maximizing spell damage?

Let me start by saying I have searched the forums for this information but have come up empty. It might be I'm just not searching correctly so if there are answers to this already out there I apologize for the clutter and would be most appreciative if someone would point them out.

Like many I am struggling with generating spell damage. I have 80 in almost all spells, but I'm interested primarily in fire. I decided I would do my best to read all the skills and basically try to find every angle to increase my damage. I recognize that I could use some more skill levels but I'm not seeing damage increases from 80 to GM as all that much more. For instance Fireball only increases a couple of points from 80 to GM. So I am thinking i need to look beyond the strict spell damage and deeper into the other trees.

One thing I recently discussed with some guildiest is Eagle Eye and how it applies to melee crit too. While the description says ranged, the actual skill numbers do not specify ranged or melee. Now I had my doubts and thought maybe it was just a typo - that it really only applies to ranged weapons. But it appears not, it does indeed apply to melee crit.

So I got to thinking if there were other little hidden items that I could use to add to spell damage. And I saw, also in the ranged tree, the skill called Range. Since it does specify ranged weapons, does the game perhaps interpret spells as ranged weapons? I don't know and maybe some of you do? But this is an example of where my thinking is going. To try to find some leverage to increase spell damage.

At any rate back to the point of my post. I am looking for advice on min/maxing a Mage. I'm happy to use skills like Spellbinder stance. At this point in my search I want pure damage output, I'll worry about defense later. To paraphrase the old adage, I want to build a cannon and I don't care if it's made of glass.

And last but not least, if I have to use something other than fire or a combination of multiple schools that's ok with me. Just want to see what can be done with a SoTA Mage.

Thanks!

 

Few things:

• Eagle Eye only helps archery, so no help on spells
• INT is very important to spell damage, make sure you have your INT buff in the sun tree trained. You can also specialize in Sun for more spell crit if you so want.
• Whats not reflected in training up the skills is attunement. Attunement is the total of the top 10 skills in your tree + any gear. It helps damage, chance to hit, resist, buncha stuff (I may be wrong in all the exact) so while it looks like damage doesnt go up much on tooltip because of attunement it will increase.
• Gear - +INT, + spell damage/crit, and attunement on your gear will help damage A LOT. Can also get +fire damage and range procs on gear.
• Evaporate Combo - combo of juxtapose and douse gives a -fire resist skill you can cast on a target - also helps a lot.
• Stacking - you get 5 glyphs at 80, stacking them will decrease their focus and add to their damage. Very good to do with those fire rings and immolation.

Those things will help a lot - Im sure there is a lot more but that will get you going.

 

Great Fruck, didn't check the Sun tree but will now. I've been debating locked vs drawn deck. Currently use a drawn deck. But there aren't many combos I think that would help damage so maybe locking and charging is the way to go. Thanks again

 

As well fire specialization will help some.

The fire passives will be one of your larger fire damage increases. Fire is a Dot component and you have to take into account that damage correctly. Sadly some fire skills aren't great.

As well make sure you aren't overwriting certain skills. Some shields will overwrite each other; as well figuring out which dots overwrite is important.

In regards to 80-100 skills; it works out that your min damage tends to increase 4ish points for non-DoT but your upper damage increases 5-9 damage. Fire skills are about duration of the Dot time length, and you'll see a huge gain there. The fire passives compress the time variable while increasing base damage. So a 2 min Do t will do 200-600 damage but the fire passive at 10% will give about 244-733 damage. The base hit will not gain alot of bonus.

 

Thanks Talimar. If I can plant my feet and keep the dots going it could be brutal. I'm also looking at air. Unlike Fb, lightning does not require ground targeting. So it's a high damage spell you can use on the move. Tricky part is enlightenment vs Airs Embrace. The latter should work with all spells, incl. lightning, whereas AE only impacts Air spells (and archery of course)

 

It's the average of the top 10 skills in a tree.

 

if a skill has required equipment, like eagle eye does, then if you use it and then remove the equipment, it'll disappear. it was a popular thing for a bit to put on heavy armor, buff up, and switch to light, so they squashed it.

 

Also look for or socket gems and jewels to the wands, chest, ring and necklace to increase attunement - rubies are ones to use for fire magic.

 

Here is how you maximise spell damage

Gear :
2 x wands - 27 attune (54 attune both) - 10.2 intelligence ( 20.4 int both) - 12% spel dmg hard maple wand (24% spell dmg both) - 4.3-4.5 spell crit ( 8.6 -9 % spell crit from both)
Hood dolus - 20 int base ( 26.8 with enchant)
Chest - carapacian (13.7 int )or chain (must have 10 int min).
Legs carapacian - 13.4-13.7 int
boots and gloves - 6.9 int each (13.8 int from both)
Ring and neck - 5.3 int each ( 10.6 int from both)
Belt - Sage Sash - 20 int
Total intelligence from gear - 115,3

Skills -
Int at lvl 100 (GM) - gives 50 int
With sun spec - enlightmenet at 100 (GM) gives 28.1 int

Total int from skills - 78.1

Food and potions

Potion of acumen - 15 int
Shrine - 5 int
Food Phoenix bite - 5 int

Total - 25 int

Grand total - 218,4 Intelligence

I probably missed some stuff but with 218 Int nothing will stand in your way ..make sure your attunement ( in the magic tree you choose ) is very high 250-300-400 plus as much attune as you can.

 

Thanks Elromd, this is great. For some really dumb reason I missed the entire gearing part. General MMO approach, best in slot, applies to SoTA too. Shoulda seen that one. Cheers

 

Great explanation, and also if you add a bit of sun attunement you can have more intelligence from your enlightment buff.

 

So, I've been playing in cloth armor of truth for awhile now. This post explains I want int and attunement on my gear, I'm wondering how I should go about getting the gear though. In many mmo's there's quests and boss fights that get you the gear you want. From what I've heard from people, it seems like the way to get gear is paying crafters. I only have 40k, so I'm assuming I'd have to find a way to farm gold for awhile before I'd be able to do that. Keeping in mind a newbies ability to get money, is paying a player crafter the best way for a newbie to upgrade their gear?

Next question belongs under "maximizing spell DPS" not damage, but, how do people maximize their spell dps in terms of deck set-up and playstyle?

 

You could contact some of the GM Tailors in game, and ask them a price, for a set of crafted armor. The more enchanting and master work you want on them starts to get expensive. As well as the different materials they can make them from.

Visit the Rinzai Museum to see a museum of all crafted items in the game. See what kind of armor you might be looking for.