Shaman Melee Damage Cap

[Pryda]

Hi, I have a question regarding Shaman melee damage. The wiki says with the patch in 2017 casters/priests/melee were all put on different tables for damage caps via levels. Previously, Shamans would have been the same as every other class which was at 30+ you could do 2x weapon damage or more. Now it is:

https://wiki.project1999.com/Game_Mechanics#Melee_Combat_and_Damage
priest

levels 1-9 - damage cap is 18
levels 10-19 - damage cap is 24
Levels 20-29 - damage cap is 40
Levels 30-39 - damage cap is 52
Level 40+ - damage cap is 80

Is this accurate? It takes until **level 40** for weapons with a base of 27 damage or more to do their full damage? So a Granite Faced Grinder becomes almost useless unless you're still melee tanking 40+?

Am I reading that right? Poison Wind Censer is a better weapon that GFG until level 30? Buying Shaman gear right now and trying to decide if I should go ahead and sell that GFG I bought and instead put it towards something that isn't artificially restricted.

A second question I have - Do shamans get the same weapon bonus damage that melee do?

Level 28: 1
Level 31: 2
Level 34: 3
Level 37: 4
Level 40: 5
Level 43: 6
Level 46: 7
Level 49: 8
Level 52: 9
Level 55: 10
Level 58: 11

[Pryda]

Got my answer. It is indeed level 40 before GFG damage is unlocked. Just curious about the damage bonus portion now.

[Sacer]

Yeah and at lvl 40 you start to miss quite a bit, I think PWC still outvalue GFG cause it's so fast I used mine until 50 then switched to epic.

[Jimjam]

'Priests' and 'casters' don't get damage bonus. That includes shaman.

[jolanar]

It is correct that GFG doesn't get it's full potential until after 40 for a Shaman. Definitely not before level 30.

[Danth]

Hi, I have a question regarding Shaman melee damage. The wiki says with the patch in 2017 casters/priests/melee were all put on different tables for damage caps via levels. Previously, Shamans would have been the same as every other class which was at 30+ you could do 2x weapon damage or more. Now it is:


Is this accurate? It takes until **level 40** for weapons with a base of 27 damage or more to do their full damage? So a Granite Faced Grinder becomes almost useless unless you're still melee tanking 40+?

Am I reading that right? Poison Wind Censer is a better weapon that GFG until level 30? Buying Shaman gear right now and trying to decide if I should go ahead and sell that GFG I bought and instead put it towards something that isn't artificially restricted.

A second question I have - Do shamans get the same weapon bonus damage that melee do?

Yes, Poison Wind Censor gets out from under the effect of the damage cap well before the Granite Face Grinder, so it performs better into mid levels.

If you want to split hairs, the material you quoted is slightly inaccurate. Damage caps work by capping the effective weapon base damage, not the damage dealt. Meaning from levels 1-9, a Granite Face Grinder counts as a 10/36 weapon on a melee, and 9/36 on a priest type (or equivalent to a fine steel great staff--not a great "twink" item for starter level priests!). During the teens the same weapon counts as 14/36 for a melee, and 12/36 for a priest. This is why during the teens high-strength characters will notice themselves hitting for more than the "caps" listed in the original post: damage scaling from strength/etc still works. It's a minor distinction but answers why some teens characters see themselves hitting for in the 30's when they're not "supposed" to according to the above chart.

As a general rule, low-level twink characters, especially Shamans, heavily favor fast, lower-damage weapons because weapon delay is in no way level dependent, unlike base damage. Hence the popularity of the Poison Wind Censer, as well as the popularity of using cheap fast 1H weapons like Smoldering Brand up to about level 20 or so.

Danth