Fire, Ice, Magic or Poison - What do you socket?

[chattius 2,531]

Background

I recently used an old necromancer-build which I did short before the AddOn for a challenge again. I had to play a underworld-inquisitor who was not allowed to use a weapon lore or a magical lore other than the netherworld one. Since tactics are the lore for inquisition they were of limits. So the build was straight forward:

 

2 inquisition focus (to unlock astute supremacy focus)

3 armour

5 damage lore

8 speed lore (I wanted unarmed hits for RpH, Regeneration per Hit)

12 astute supremacy focus (for buff only)

18 concentration

Up to this it was a melee build, just to reach a level when underworld spells would have useful regeneration times.

 

25 netherworld lore

35 netherworld focus

50 ancient magic

65 constitution

 

I stopped the character when the AddOn didn't allow to use Inexorable Subjugation in begin of a combination anymore. With the discussions about Kungfu-Characters raising up I recycled the old character to do some tests. And one single item proved to be really useful:

 

Weaken

I equipped the character with gloves which turned damage to magical. Even damage lore mastery doesn't boost the weakening effect the 20% attribut decrease is something which shouldn't be ignored.

Less enemy constitution: 20 percent less hitpoints is like raising your damage. If you need 5 strikes with 2000+ damage to kill a 9000hp beast you will need only 4 to kill a weakened 7200hp target, maybe even deathblow kicks in earlier.

Less enemy strength: the enemy is less likely to hit you, and if he does , it will be for less damage

less enemy dexterity: you have a higher chance to hit your enemy

....

 

So weaken will give you damage, protection and hit chance.

 

Compared to the other damage types:

ice: reduced run and attack speed- mainly for better protection

fire: damage over time. But to make the DoT ticks sum up to a full weapon hit it will take longer than 4 hits, so weaken kills quicker in a no boss scenario.

poison: the same

 

Of cause enemy resistances are a big part in the calculation but against not magical armoured enemies weaken shines.

 

And its not only for sockets:

The dragon mage has a mind strike which does more damage the more armour the opponent has. Doing a maelstrom reduces the damage of the mind strike. But the weakening effect of maelstrom turns the calculation, so that a maelstrom/mind strike will do more damage than the mind strike.

 

It's somehow funny I was socketing mainly different damage types into my weapon slots for a long time and only looking for the enemies resistances to make a proper choice. But playing unarmed and having to find good damage changing gloves I put some more thoughts in what to socket for my other characters.

 

My inquisitor test character from above is doing magical circle-kicks to weaken surrounding enemies so that he is less likely to be hit while he gathers enemies for the explosion of Dislodged Spirit. And the surrounding enemies have less hitpoints to survive the explosion.

 

What are your tricks with the different damage types?

[gogoblender 3,071]

Great topic, glad you're bringing this up. I just started doing some work with a Dragon Mage... Funnily enough, I've only been socketing magic for mobs and ice for bosses. Freezing bosses repeatedly does wonders...they're like sitting ducks as I chip then tear away at their hp (hmm, lol, or is this my stun working o_O). The magic on mobs is great too..I've actually been finding it kills faster with my dragon mage than the dots. I love the hp reduction it inflicts upon enemies AND the fact that stuff beats up on me while they are weakened.

 

 

 

question ...the weaken... this is done through attribute reduction on the enemy it affects correct?

 

 

gogo

[Llama8 8]

Attribute Reduction (as a mod on certain Combat Arts) is equivalent to Weaken (though IIRC Weaken is a fixed 20% & the effect from Combat Arts usually starts off small at low levels & slowly increases with Combat Art level).

[chattius 2,531]

Yes weaken seems a fixed 20% attribute reduction. Damage lore mastery is said to add nothing. Given that deep wounds are now only 8% hitpoint loss and don't stack anymore: weaken seems to be better than deep wounds.

 

I wonder how a combination of both is calculated: weaken and deep wounds together.

Edited February 8, 2010 by chattius

[Llama8 8]

Deep Wounds is probably added last since it affects the "end product" of the stats (HP being a calculated figure based on Vit, amongst other things).

[essjayehm 58]

When I have the choice, magic and ice are my preferred secondary effects. Usually because I have found that there are more enemies with resistances to fire and poison than magic and ice. I was not paying any real attention to the effects they were having before playing with my Temple Guardian. It was then I noticed that I was almost always weakening enemies with the occult (magic dmg) modifier on Deathly Spears, I had a look thru the wiki and noticed the 20% stat. I stopped wondering why my Temple Guardian seemed to be such a tank, as not too much damage was being done to him while I was spamming spears with a crowd around me.

 

I tried socketing ice (35% conversion) into my weapon, and that definitely proved that it was the magic damage that was doing the work, as he took more damage (although at a slower rate...). When fire and poison were tried, it was like I was running around without my shield buff on, as the damage being done to him was that much more. The real kicker was that I was not doing that much more damage that I noticed (with the fire and poison damage, but it was only 35-40% conversion....)

 

I was going to try Damage Lore with my Temple Guardian, but when I finally got to level 65, I balked and took Combat Reflexes instead. So my experiments with DL will have to wait for my next character.

 

But I feel that this discovery will not change a whole lot with my playstyle, I will continue to carry around one weapon with magic and one with ice. I usually have a bargaining weapon with no element socketed for when I am exploring areas that have enemies resistant to those types.

[claudius 104]

When I have the choice, magic and ice are my preferred secondary effects. Usually because I have found that there are more enemies with resistances to fire and poison than magic and ice. I was not paying any real attention to the effects they were having before playing with my Temple Guardian. It was then I noticed that I was almost always weakening enemies with the occult (magic dmg) modifier on Deathly Spears, I had a look thru the wiki and noticed the 20% stat. I stopped wondering why my Temple Guardian seemed to be such a tank, as not too much damage was being done to him while I was spamming spears with a crowd around me.

 

I tried socketing ice (35% conversion) into my weapon, and that definitely proved that it was the magic damage that was doing the work, as he took more damage (although at a slower rate...). When fire and poison were tried, it was like I was running around without my shield buff on, as the damage being done to him was that much more. The real kicker was that I was not doing that much more damage that I noticed (with the fire and poison damage, but it was only 35-40% conversion....)

 

I was going to try Damage Lore with my Temple Guardian, but when I finally got to level 65, I balked and took Combat Reflexes instead. So my experiments with DL will have to wait for my next character.

 

But I feel that this discovery will not change a whole lot with my playstyle, I will continue to carry around one weapon with magic and one with ice. I usually have a bargaining weapon with no element socketed for when I am exploring areas that have enemies resistant to those types.

 

Thats bizarre because socketing something different on your weapon won't change what damage deathly spears is doing. Occult always does magic damage regardless of sockets. Its just a display bug. I think its in your head unless your actually hitting with your weapon.