Knowledge

[Phillip Marcus]

Give me a moment to sort through these Putting up some new information as first priority.

[Icehawk]

4pts per 1 stat pt added, at higher levels it's likely you have items that +% so you'll "see" more than the 4pt bump. For example if I increase Str by 1 I get +6 to the stat because of my gear.

[Phillip Marcus]

*phew*

Ok, first page updated with a bundle of new info, take a look

edit:

Evil Homer, reread the first post about OA. Offensive Ability does nothing to your damage (directly), it just boosts the chance of getting a critical hit with a melee hit, and increases the severity of that crit (crits range from 10% extra to 50% extra). It is theoretically possible to start missing enemies with melee hits if your OA is too low, but most melee characters are going to have enough OA to avoid that, as the hit/miss OA/DA comparison is very soft. You'd need to be fighting enemies far above your level with an extremely poor OA for that to occur.

Kratos, about speed. If the cap on the displayed attack speed is correct, then yes, that would be the case - however, I have a feeling that the display is reflecting some modification to the base speed of the weapon, rather than an overall flat speed (that is, two weapons at 170% attack speed, they may actually require different amounts of bonus speed to get to that point), which would mean that slower weapons would require more bonus speed to reach the cap. I'm still not sure why the cap is shown at 300% in the database, but seems lower on the display screen. It could be something to do with the way the display is calculated, or the speed may be capped at 'three times the weapons base speed', which would account for the lower displayed total speed (particularly when dual wielding, which averages the speed of the two weapons to determine attack speed)

Phoenix, to add to what Xaece told you, just look for a few items with an Energy prefix/suffix on them. For my no int/no energy characters, I just pile up some +energy gear, and that usually takes care of my energy needs when combined with some potions. Unless you're running a build that just has an obscene amount of reserved energy and energy over time consumption, that should handle it for most non caster builds.

Xaece, about your shield, depending on what skill you were attacking with, you may have actually (despite the animation) been striking with your shield and your weapon simultaneously.

Hubuchu: You've got the Piercing right. In the case of the +% Bleeding, it'll modify any Bleeding damage you deal with the hit. If you don't have/deal any Bleeding damage, it does nothing! In the case of a Rogue, you do have several 'internal' sources of Bleed, and there's always gear that gives more.

About Battle Rage, yes, and that's part of the reason why even one point in it is useful. +50% OA is a huge bonus (and it doesn't increase with extra points), so while it is active, your crits are likely going to step up one or more tiers against enemies around your level.

No easy answer about the items. The guide has all the base stats for various gear in the game, or you could look it up yourself in the database (time consuming, obviously). Broadly (ignoring uniques), there are two sets of strength gear, and one set of int gear (that requires a bit of dex). The 'light' strength gear (breastplates, leggings, armbands) requires a bit less str than the 'heavy' gear (suits, greaves, bracers). On base items at least - monster items vary, as do uniques.

[Arthias]

I am Conjurer(Earth/Spirit) I use both Core Dweller and Lich King along with Ternion and Earth Enchantment. I have a few questions about this setup I would like to ask:

1. Does Volativity's chance to increase fire damage include fire staff attacks?

2. Does Earth Enchantment's +% fire damage raise spell damage or just increase fire melee damage. (For example would it increase Core Dwellers Wild Fire spell).

3. Does Brimstone's chance effect pertain to only physical attacks or can you get the effect with staff attacks(particularly while using Ternion).

---Arthias

[Derek Newcastle]

Hi Phillip, I have a couple issues that I'm still confused about.

First is %life leech/% damage converted to health. You said, "The +% Life Leech modifier, as with other similar % based modifiers ONLY works if you ALREADY have Life Leech". When you say, "Already have life leech" what do you mean? Can you list some of these skills/affixes/mods?

My second issue is with health regeneration. How is it calculated? Does everyone regenerate health at a specific speed and the stacked health regeneration % items/skills apply to that base regeneration rate? I read how some people regenerate hundreds of health a second and I was wondering how to do that.

Thanks for this post it has been extremely helpfull.

[leth]

Thanks for the great update Phillip, but you missed my questions:

wow, I have been away for the 4th, and I come back and you got so much more info for us Phillip! Thank you so very much!

Okay I have couple questions that bothered me in the nature tree:

1. For the Dessimation skill the tool tip says something like:

+x target, +y healed

what is this "y" ? Is it the additional hp healed for each "x" targets? Or is it a total of hp that is healed which is then divided among the "x" number of targets? In fact, how is the amount healed per target calculated? Is it just a flat division of the hp healed shown for regrowth and "y" by "x" ?

2. Does Birar ward scale with difficulty? I mean the amount of hp they have must be a joke in harder modes.

Could you please explain these please?

[rainchaser]

Hi Phillip. What happened to the old avatar. I liked it because it had the same eye color as me. The new one is nice though too ;p

For a serious question, this came up in another thread. On the skill Art of the Hunt does the +piercing damage apply only to beastmen or is it universal?

[kamix]

Originally Posted by Phillip Marcus

Singing with blades
The Dual Wield ability is giving a chance for BOTH weapons to hit at the same time, dealing full damage, modified by your abilities, each with a chance to score a critical hit.

The rest of the time, your hands randomly attack, with a 50/50 chance of either hand swinging (they do not alternate, it's random - you can try it yourself, stand still with Onslaught on your rmb and hold it down, watching the swinging pattern - you can even see Dual Wield/Cross Cut/Tumult triggering).

Your attack speed is averaged between the two weapons you have equipped, so if you have a very fast sword in one hand and add a slow club in the other, your attack speed will drop (causing a resultant decrease in DPS).

In response to this. If I had a very fast weapon in left hand and slow in my right, when I land a single attack (dw didn't trigger) with say the slow right hand, will the speed of the swing be slow or the average of the two weapons? Or is the 'averaged speed' just a product of the randomness of left and right weapon?

Thanks, I've had trouble testing this.

[Phillip Marcus]

Derek: Just like other +% damage modifiers, if you don't have the damage type in place for it to modify, it does nothing. In this case, either X Leech damage over Y seconds (occurs on a variety of items), or '% of Attack Damage converted to Health' (same, a few items). It might apply to the few skills that leech (Life Drain?), not certain.

Health Regen % just modify your base (+1/sec) regen rate. However, there are items that add to that base rate, and skills that greatly increase the base rate. Since the % modifiers increase the base rate, skills that give health regen can give you a huge health regen boost. I'm not actually an enormous fan of health regen, since burst damage is what kills characters, not damage over time (usually), but I could see a defensive build getting some substantial milage out of the modifiers with the right skills and gear - defense is usually a bigger issue in Legendary than offense is, most characters have plenty of offense by then (additionally, defense may be of greater import once people start going for hardcore wins)

Leth, sorry, didn't mean to miss that. As far as I know, Dissemination gives that health amount to each target that it 'bounces' to. 900 or so at max level? Database indicates a max of 3 extra targets at 8 meters away per jump, though I don't know offhand if that increases with more points. Curiously, it also lists a max level of 5 higher, rather than 4 higher. Typo or deliberate to allow more healing, I don't know. It does have a dependancy on Regrowth, so it may add that healing amount to the healing from Regrowth. I can't test that as easily, next time a friend is around, I'll bug them to test it with me.

Briar ward is a 'pet', so it probably gets the boost that normal your pets do.

kamix, as far as I know, the averaged speed is used for either hand, and any triggered attacks, as long as you are dual wielding

chaser, the eye changes from time to time I think I answered that question somewhere earlier in this thread... anyway, it's universal, separate modifiers are always on separate lines iirc

[Archmag]

Originally Posted by Phillip Marcus

... (particularly when dual wielding, which averages the speed of the two weapons to determine attack speed)
...

I have tried to test it, but was tottaly confused. I started a warfare character. Got to level 3, and gathered a lot of loot from those satyrs at the beginning. Among them a lot of similar identical broken weapons. Have put one point in dual wielding and started to experiment. Two weapons (daggers i think): each has a speed of 93 alone. When I wear them both, speed drops to 84, redusing dps below that of a single weapon. The same thing was with all the other weapons: swords, axes, clubs. Attack speed drops by about 8-10 when dual-wielding them. When my lvl 42 assassin removes one of the fast swords his dps goes up by 100 (speed is raised from 171 to 190). So it is not so easy as just average from two weapon speeds, something else is hidden here. Ohh, and when you get your skill that adds attack speed to swords, axes, clubs while dw them, it only adds half of the written speed.