Dmg cap increases
 

At what level do tanks/hybrids melee damage caps increase? I have heard a few people say that it increases at level 20, but I haven't really had this confirmed or not. Reason I'm asking is I'm playing a pally and right now i'm using Sword of Skyfire + Cracked Darkwood shield and it seems to be much better than using my Baton of Faith.. Currently at level 16 My max it on Sword of Skyfire is 20dmg, yet max hit on Baton of Faith is only 28. From all I've read on the boards is that Baton of Faith is the way to go, yet I'm finding it much more efficient to use my 1hs right now..

Now I know that at some point the dmg cap increases which will make the baton of faith a much better weapon, but I'm not sure at what level that it will become more viable. I'm still switching in the baton of faith from time to time just to keep the skill ups moving along but I figure that its bound to be at around level 20 or 30 that the dmg cap will make the BoF more efficient, and hopefully by then I'll have enough funds to buy an FBSS hehe

If anyone knows for sure on what levels the damage cap is raised I would appreciate knowing :)

Oh very nice thank you, I was tryin to search the forums, didnt work so well

The wiki isn't entirely right though. High-strength characters go over the damage "cap" at 1-9 and at 10-19. And the wiki says the cap from 20-29 is 60, but it actually scales upwards as you approach 30 until it is removed entirely at 30. I can't find my logs of my SK atm, but I am guessing he was around 180 strength and from 1-9 his highest hit (ebon mace, 19-damage weapon) was in the 26-28 range, and 10-19 his highest hit was ~40-42, and then he was hitting for over 100 by the time he was 27+ (using granite face grinder, 29-damage weapon).

My necro, on the other hand, who is using a rod of annihilation (60-damage weapon) but who only has like 80 strength? He never hit for more than 20 1-9 or 28 10-18 (still only level 18). I'm curious to see what happens when he hits 20, if his hits jump up to 120 or if it takes several levels before the cap raises that much.


I think that the damage cap isn't so much a cap on how much damage you can do as a cap on the damage value on your weapon. My necro at level 1 wasn't swinging a 60/40 weapon with a max hit potential of 20; he was swinging a 10/40 weapon. If the RoA were still actually treated as a 60-damage weapon, I would have seen a SHITLOAD of hits for 20... but max hits were rather rare actually. If I hadn't been lazy about finding str gear, I'm sure 150+ strength would have made my necro hit for more than the "caps."

Yes, this has been exactly my experience. It seems that this "strength bonus" adds to the max hit, but you still tend to hit for a value that is just twice the weapon's damage more often. The wiki's explanation of how the strength bonus and such works is kind of lacking if I recall correctly; would be nice if someone with more know-how on melee damage updated it.

Unfortunately, it takes several levels. RoA wasn't all that great at 20 (I had 150str) but at 30 it's totally ridiculous.

That's because the cap is actually a cap on weapon base damage (value 1/2 the listed cap value, rather than a hardcap on max damage. Max damage is 2x base + level bonus (for non-Bard melees only) + str-based modifier + weapon-skill-based modifier (and maybe offense-skill-based modifier also, not sure), which explains what you saw as an apparent gradual lifting of the cap.

Did you stop reading my post as soon as you saw the part you quoted? Lol :p

Yes, of course. That's why I referred to part of what I hadn't quoted in my reply. :P

(It's also true I didn't read the last paragraph, oh well.)

Lol :)