Spell vs Combat Arts - is there a difference?

[Rhen]

I've found a new items, such as 'Cloak of the Burning Prince' that have the effect of 'Increases spell damage by 65' - or say 'Increases damage done by spells by up to 10 when equipped.' Some of the people I play with tell me that this includes combat arts used by my class, Ranger, but I've not really noticed any different in my dmg. Also, looking through some database sites I found lower level (and potentially very old) items, such as 'Boots of the Ringleader', that have the effect of 'Increases damage done by combat arts by up to 45' So, I'm confused now. Are my friends right.. will spell damage increase effect my Ranger skills, or are they still refered to as combat arts and they are a seperate type of mdg when it comes to item buffs, etc.

[ZUES]

The "spell damage" would refer to your spells that add procs to your arrows and such. Combat art will be your melee skills.

[Rhen]

so, if I get what you mean... taking two of my Ranger abilities: <a href="http://eq2.allakhazam.com/db/ability.html?eq2ability=2840" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Shadow Leap</a> A deadly attack that deals very high damage. It can only be used behind or on the side of the target while in stealth. and <a href="http://eq2.allakhazam.com/db/ability.html?eq2ability=2845" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Heated Shot</a> Two precise arrow attacks that deal heat damage. If one of these attacks misses, the successive ones will miss automatically. In the case of Shadow Leap, the spell damage increase from 'Cloak of the Burning Prince' would do nothing, as the damage is physical, but if I then used Heated Shot, the damage from the heat would be increased. Is that the correct interpretation of what you said above, Zues? If not, what Rangers do you know of (or skills from any class) as an example of when a proc is applied and would be effected by this spell damage increase. and hey.. they do call this the newbie yard hehehe - i'm just proving that concept

[Karlen]

I know for my Paladin, a major difference between combat arts and spells is that STR increases the damage on CAs and INT increases the damage on spells.  Spells and CAs are definitely different.

[Bozidar]

Karlen@Befallen wrote: <blockquote>I know for my Paladin, a major difference between combat arts and spells is that STR increases the damage on CAs and INT increases the damage on spells.  Spells and CAs are definitely different. </blockquote><p> as a paladin you have combat arts and spells.</p><p>A ranger only has combat arts.  Some of them have spell-like effects.</p>

[Rhen]

Bozidar - ok.. but does that mean that those spell like effects would be effected by the items that 'Increases spell damage by 65'? Also, I've seen items specifically for Rangers that include this line.. or at least I believe I have.

[Bozidar]

<cite>Rhenan wrote:</cite><blockquote>Bozidar - ok.. but does that mean that those spell like effects would be effected by the items that 'Increases spell damage by 65'? Also, I've seen items specifically for Rangers that include this line.. or at least I believe I have. </blockquote> no idea <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  Was just answering the question from the pally.  I saw your question earlier in the other forum, just can't answer you.  My instincts say that you won't get jack from spell damage increases, but so many people know this game so much better than i do.. so i shut my pie hole <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[ke'la]

<p>My understanding is that other then Procs from Immbued Weopons and Armor, all damage done by non-bard scouts is consitered Combate Art Damage(this includes poisions, though I don't think +xx to combate arts iteams effect poisions or any "procs&quot<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />, so Iteams that are + to spell damage and having high Int will for the most part not do jack for you.</p><p>On a sidenote, other classes can sometimes apply buffs to you that proc damage, THESE procs are consitered Spell damage but the damage is based off of the buffers equipment and ablities.</p><p>One last thing incase your unaware, a proc is something applied to you, your weopons or your armor, and basicly is a "free"(as in no power cost) spell/CA. Poisions are an exsample of procs as are Immbued weopons and many adornments.</p>

[ZUES]

Spell damage also calulates your poison damage. An increase in INT will cause more pison damage to your encounters also.

[Rhen]

Thanks Ke'la and Zues Here's the main source of my confusion: str: increases melee dmg (and how much I can carry) agi: avoidance of melee attacks and increase power str: max health int: increase dmg with spells wis: increase resists against spell dmg none of these mention ranged attacks, and str specifically mentions melee attacks. Also, another ranger in my guild told me that int was ranged attack dmg... .. so adding 2 and 2 together I was wondering if ranged attacks are classed as spells, in which case int is important for me as a Ranger and therefore spell dmg increase buffs would work for me too did I end up with 2+2 = 5? From what you've said above, I think I did.. but I figured I'd lay out my whole thought process, just so you can see my logic and let me know which part of it is true and which part is false. sorry to keep harping on about this one.. just want to be 95%+ certain of the direction I need to go with my char. cheers!

[Karlen]

<p>>>>>as a paladin you have combat arts and spells.</p><p>A ranger only has combat arts.  Some of them have spell-like effects.<<<</p> Ah.  Good point.  Sorry to confuse the issue.

[SpritRaja]

I play a raiding fury and sometimes get thrown into a scout heavy group. A Fury has a large int buff they can place on a few people in group. From talking to them(the scouts) I have found out that int does increase their proc damage. it does nothing for their CA but if they have an ability that says will do x-xx amount of heat damage on ranged attack 1.8 times a minute then having extra int will make that damage larger. An item that says will increase spells upto 65 does not currently work on procs. It works only on dierct damage nukes and DoTs. There is a large amount of complaints currently on the chanter boards about this as the majority of their damage comes from weird proc like spells. Therefore I dont see items like that increasing ranger damage anytime soon.

[EtoilePirate]

Saphira@Crushbone wrote: <blockquote>I play a raiding fury and sometimes get thrown into a scout heavy group. A Fury has a large int buff they can place on a few people in group. From talking to them(the scouts) I have found out that int does increase their proc damage. it does nothing for their CA but if they have an ability that says will do x-xx amount of heat damage on ranged attack 1.8 times a minute then having extra int will make that damage larger. </blockquote> Ah! This one's in my field, because I have a raiding assassin and a (still-not-quite-T7) raiding fury. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> It's true.  There's a reason most assassins spec their Achievement tree first for STR and then for INT.  Those two increase our DPS, in order.   INT affects non-physical damage.  So crushing, piercing, and slashing are just that, but elemental damage (rangers) and poison damage (assassins) definitely go up with increased INT.  For an Assassin, poisons (especially the mastercrafted T7 ones) and poison-related procs can be as much as 30% of our DPS in a fight, so a boost to INT really adds up over time. It's not a hard and fast rule, and it's not the rule I'd use to describe the difference between spells and CAs, but a good rule of thumb is damage type.  All physical damage -- crushing, slashing, piercing, ranged, all weapon types -- go loosely into one category, with CAs, and all other damage -- elemental, noxious, divine, magic, mental, etc etc etc -- goes loosely into another category, with spells.