Alright, so I'm just copying a reply I posted to a different topic, as I feel this needs more attention. This builds off me using a T11 Staff, in Dungeoneering, compared to other weapons, and later how it does on the surface.
Upon closer inspection, it seems I was wrong about which Hitsplats were doing what damage. The autohits, unboosted, were hitting usually between 800-2000 damage. Okay, still quite low for Magic's best Staff, compared to the other two-handed weapons of Melee and the shortbows. I can live with this, though, especially if I can get my hands on a boost, but I'm 99 magic, hitting 2K, with a guy with the Prom 2h beside me, hitting better, and a guy with a tier 9 shortbow, hitting a little harder than me as well. In general overall. Huh?
My abilities on the other hand, are what's falling so short. If my active spell "100%" damage value is in the 2000s, (which makes sense, given the +50% damage value due to the staff) and most of my abilities are supposed to be hitting up to 125% or better, then why are most of them hitting into the 3-digits as often as 4-digits? Get a person with a T11 Staff, compared to the T11 Shortbow, compared to the T11 2H, and the ranges in hit damage are going to be THAT different? Did I miss something here?
I was also wrong about Ranged, building off this. Like I said- it wasn't that Ranged generally hits low, it's that the Longbow has half the written damage (and half the attack speed as well?) compared to the shortbow. The shortbow, having the attack power almost equal to each arrow it fires, has both high ability AND high autohit damage. Which hardly makes sense, the Longbow is a more physically powerful, longer range, slower, and harder to create, kind of bow. Based on the usual "shortbows are bad" logic, the differences between the two bows are ridiculous.
Magic ability damage hardly changes at all on the surface with a wand, as well. What values is it using to calculate damage? There seems to be a constant here.
17-Dec-2012 23:47:28