How to tell apart spells from melee attacks for critical chance?

[Belaythien]

As a Shadowknight I often wonder whether it would be better to raise melee crits or spell crits. Or whether I should go for items with melee procs or spell procs. The problem is however that I don't even know which of our abilities are spells and which are melee attacks.How can you tell them apart?Are magic spells those whose damage is based on int?Are melee attacks those based on str?Are spells those that don't have an animation using my weapon?Is the description really telling the truth?Are spells the attacks that can get resisted (and reset very fast if it happens)?Are melee attacks those that take the full reuse even if missed?Or is it a wild and random mixture of the above? <span>:smileyvery-happy:</span><div></div>

[Xanoth]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Belaythien wrote:<BR>As a Shadowknight I often wonder whether it would be better to raise melee crits or spell crits. Or whether I should go for items with melee procs or spell procs. The problem is however that I don't even know which of our abilities are spells and which are melee attacks.<BR><BR>How can you tell them apart? <FONT color=#9933ff>there is a post a few down someone recently and kindly made, pretty much covers this.</FONT><BR><BR>Are magic spells those whose damage is based on int? <FONT color=#9933ff>kinda <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> most DoT components are int based.</FONT><BR>Are melee attacks those based on str? <FONT color=#9933ff>pretty sure all melee attacks use STR for thier innitial hit.</FONT><BR>Are spells those that don't have an animation using my weapon? <FONT color=#9933ff>not sure, i know pestilence has a weapon animation and thats a spell, but its not a bad asumption.</FONT><BR>Is the description really telling the truth? <FONT color=#9933ff>most of the time, but its not unsual for the spell/CA to have ben changed over the course of the game nd the description to have not been updated</FONT><BR>Are spells the attacks that can get resisted (and reset very fast if it happens)? <FONT color=#9933ff>most yes. pestilance is at least one exception</FONT><BR>Are melee attacks those that take the full reuse even if missed? <FONT color=#9933ff>as above</FONT><BR><BR><BR>Or is it a wild and random mixture of the above? <SPAN>:smileyvery-happy:</SPAN><BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>problem is weather spell crit and melee crit work in this way, or if they are calculated based on damage type.</P> <P>however SKs are much more spell orientated than paladins, making the spell crit line much more appealing for us. most SKs would probably consider someone feelish to have an SK that doesnt take it. it also causes procs to crit too (like a druids damage shield and other such things cast on you by other players that then trigger from you).</P> <P>melee crits really need a weapon with a high damage range to make the most of, due to the way criticals work (just do a search for "melee crit" and you'll probably be able to find a full explination.</P>

[Beldin_]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Belaythien wrote:<BR><BR>How can you tell them apart?<BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>Spells are listed as spells in your spellbook .. melee under combat arts <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><BR>

[Desdichada]

<DIV>Another thing to consider is that since our lifetaps are based on damage, they crit as spell crits and not as heal crits</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Xanoth]

i've heard they crit on both, but the multiplier doesn't stack. so not too useful anyway unls you really wanted the end ability.

[Belaythien]

<div><blockquote><hr>Beldin_ wrote:<div></div>Spells are listed as spells in your spellbook .. melee under combat arts <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><hr></blockquote>Well ... uhm ... ok that sounds somewhat obvious <span>:smileysurprised:</span> Could have thought of that myself ... then again SOE logic is very resistant to the obvious <span>:smileywink:</span>Thanks for the answers. So spell crits are probably more useful  than melee crits. Especially considering that the AA tree with spell crits raises the % more than the melee tree.</div>

[Xanoth]

AE taunt is listed as a CA, but its a spell <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />obvious doesn't work <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Beldin_]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Xanoth wrote:<BR>AE taunt is listed as a CA, but its a spell <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><BR><BR>obvious doesn't work <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>Hm.. i think taunts are special, because all Fighters have taunts but most of them have no spellbs, but all have CAs, so that may be why taunts allways are listet as CAs.</P> <P>And to be honest .. i never noticed if the dot on our single taunt crits also with 68%.</P>

[Xanoth]

<blockquote><hr>Beldin_ wrote:<P>And to be honest .. i never noticed if the dot on our single taunt crits also with 68%.</P><hr></blockquote>it does

[DUNN]

<DIV>When i use my wand/staff of anuk I have seen the proc go off when i use my single taunt.  The staff has a spell proc not melee.  Besides what type of CA is resisted by having more desese resist? I think we are all scewed up because of this lol.</DIV>

[Xanoth]

all fighters taunts are magic based. guardian taunts use mental for resists, i know that much.

[HajimeSai]

<blockquote><hr>Xanoth wrote:AE taunt is listed as a CA, but its a spell <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />obvious doesn't work <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><hr></blockquote>One of the biggest indicators of our taunts being spells is because if they get resisted you don't have the full re-use timer to recast them. Taunts on my guardian do have to wait because they are combat arts. The reason I think our taunts are considered spells is because they have additional damage and debuffs. So in this case, even though our taunts are listed as combat arts, they are indeed spells. The damage on our single target taunt does crit with the INT line modifiers, which makes for a much stonger taunt.<div></div>