Sorry to start yet another WoW thread, but I’ve tried finding this info elsewhere and I can’t find anything useful. Maybe one of the WoW hardcore here can help me out.
What, exactly, does an item that says “+3 shadow spell damage” do for me? or one that say “+9 healing spells”?
I mean obviously those are boosts to my spells. But is that +3 percent? That kinda makes sense. Is it +3 points of damage? Because if so, that’s really good on my fast lower-damage spells, and total crap on my big slow high-damage spells. What does it mean for DoT spells? Is it +3 damge (or +9 healing) for the total amount done over time, or for each tick, or what?
Or is there some other explanation for how they work? I tend to think there is, because I see some real hardcore MC-run types saying that it’s pretty good to get a bunch of “+spell type” items, because you get some really uber crits and whatnot.
+10 is up to 10 points of extra damage… That’s based on a 3 second cast, IIRC. So a 3 second cast spell gets the full 10 points. DOTs also get the full effect since they take a long time to dish out their full damage.
I think that the +damage items need a serious boost.
Thanks, Backov. I seem to recall patch notes from many patches ago where they changed how they work, giving them a significant boost. Maybe it’s based on a 2-second cast now or something?
I believe the coefficient for damage added is based on the ratio of the cast time of the spell to 3.5. The ratio is capped at 1. For AoE spells, the result is divided by 3. Instant-cast spells are treated as having a cast time of 1.5 seconds. Channeled spells get 100% damage applied to the total damage over time, similar to DoTs.
As an example, if you had a total of +100 damage, then the scorch spell, which has a 1.5 second cast time, will receive an additional (1.5/3.5) * 100 damage.
Perhaps you’re thinking of spells that have direct burst damage along with a dot component like pyroblast. They did change something for those spells. I forget the details, but they were improved somehow.
Spell damage is based on a 3.5 second spell cast, so spells that have a base of 3.5 seconds, even when improved to be below that. Anything 1.5 and below gets 43% of the value. In between gets a percentage.
Also, binary spells get an extra 10% taken off as well.
Damage is added at the very beginning of the spell’s damage calculation. i.e. before all percentage modifiers are applied (including talents).
Example: Fireball base average 638 and 400 damage gear. After Firepower:
(638+400)*1.1 = 1141.8
Spells will receive CastingTime/3.5 bonus. CastingTime will never be below 1.5 or greater than 3.5. If it is outside that range, it will be set to be back in that range for damage calculation. This bonus is NOT random.
Spells need to be considered in their UNTALENTED form. Fireballs are always considered 3.5s cast. Frostbolts, 3.0s.
If a spell has a non-damaging secondary effect (Frostbolt, CoC, etc.), it will only receive 95% of the standard bonus from damage gear.
If a spell is AoE, it will receive only 33% of the standard bonus from damage gear.
If a spell is channeled, it will receive 100% of the standard bonus divided over the duration of the channel (20% per AM, 12.5% per Blizzard wave).
Example: Frostbolt gets 3.0/3.50.95 = 0.814 bonus from damage gear.
Example: CoC gets 1.5/3.50.33*0.95 = 0.134 bonus from damage gear.
Example: Scorch gets 1.5/3.5 = 0.429 bonus from damage gear.
One of the better +damage pieces you can get is a green wand. I have one on my priest for +healing, and there are others for +spell you desire. It’s one of the few non-crippling items that lists +static damage (the 3.5 division doesn’t count, I believe) and doesn’t cost humongous stats.
If an item says “Up to +damage” that’s a different thing from “+damage”. Minus the up to modifier, there’s no division of the benefits.
The only real downside is less wand DPS … but I’m willing to accept that :)
