+20 Int or +50 spell damage?

[rexkwondo]

<p>I'm currently a levl 69 necro.  Which would be more beneficial for a solo'ing necro: a piece of armor that has +50 spell damage, or another peice of armor that has +20 more int. than the piece with +50 spell damage?</p><p>Is there a good way of determining these kinds of things?</p>

[Mew]

INT can only boost damage just so much.  After about 650 INT the amount of damage you gain begins to level out.  So, having max INT is not always a good thing - particularly if you can boost a secondary stat or crits or dmg.  If you INT is near 600-700 you will probably get a better boost from the +dmg items.  Keep in mind that there is a cap on damage of 100% of the base max dmg of the spell.  For example, a spell that has a base damage of 100 to 200 will have a max dmg of 400 (not counting crits) regardless of how much +dmg gear you have.  In the case of dots the dmg boost only applies to the initial hit.  The follow on dot does not get the bonus. 

[rexkwondo]

<p>Good to know.  Thanks <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p>

[Sabutai]

<cite>Mewse wrote:</cite><blockquote>INT can only boost damage just so much.  After about 650 INT the amount of damage you gain begins to level out.  So, having max INT is not always a good thing - particularly if you can boost a secondary stat or crits or dmg.  If you INT is near 600-700 you will probably get a better boost from the +dmg items.  Keep in mind that there is a cap on damage of 100% of the base max dmg of the spell.  For example, a spell that has a base damage of 100 to 200 will have a max dmg of 400 (not counting crits) regardless of how much +dmg gear you have.  In the case of dots the dmg boost only applies to the initial hit.  The follow on dot does not get the bonus.  </blockquote>you are right about the int but you are wrong about the +spell infoThe max is 50% of the total damage a spell can do, so a DD that does 1000 max you benefit from +spell is 500.  a dot that ticks 5 times for 200 is the same thing 500.  +spell doesn't have anything whatsoever to do with crits, they are completely different mechanics.  Dot ticks are different, if you look at a spell while wearing +spell gear you will see 2 numbers.  The first is the +spell attributed damage and the second is the dot portion, BOTH hit on the first tick the bottom number is what will tick over time.  Also dots have a small effect over all the ticks, so basically +spell is much better to wear for dps.

[rexkwondo]

<p>Thanks for all the tips guys.</p><p>I got to thinking, and I was wondering if the 650 INT number has increased since RoK?  Just checking.  Thanks a ton in advance.</p>

[Daghammerskold]

The hard cap is 15xlevel, so when the max level was 70 the hard cap was 1050 and somewhere around 650-700 you moved into the diminishing returns of the soft cap. With RoK the hard cap should be 1200 and diminishing returns are probably around 900-1000.

[rexkwondo]

<p>Interesting.  A hard cap and a soft cap.  </p>

[Kiel]

<p>nm, I got it.</p>