+Int or +Damage on Wizard...

[Ikith]

So I've been playing my Wizard for a bit and I'm at Act 2, I realized that there are two things I've been presented with by the armor system in place, +Int or +Damage, now one would think GO PLUS INT ITS YOUR MAIN STAT, but at the same time I'm seeing everything say "So and so % of your weapon damage" and items are saying "Damage +so and so", This is confusing the crap out of me because I don't know if I should go for the most int or go for the most damage.

Which should I be going for?

[Odon]

Are you talking about the bonus damage?

[Ikith]

No, when you are swapping an item in to the slot down at the bottom of the item selected it says for example "+0 Life, -10.5 Damage, -1.3% Protection" I'm wondering if I should be going for higher INT or higher "+Damage"

[Odon]

Int factors into your +Damage, the +Damage is the total sum of all the stats on the weapon (this doesn't take into account offhand slots so if you're going from 1h+offhand to 2h it can actually be a DPS loss.

[Ikith]

So basically just go with whatever gives +Damage and not with the highest INT stat?

[Odon]

Sort of, if you intend on actually doing inferno mode you're going to need to pump vit.

This is my Wizard at the moment and I'm in Act 2 inferno.



For reference, shit in act 2 hits me for 30k a swing with all of that reduc/HP, the biggest thing is staying alive so you can actually kill shit.

[Syntex]

I had a bow that had 75 dex on it and was reluctant to upgrade it because 1dex=1% damage for DH.

Well I finally said screw it and put on this bow that was 20dps higher but no dex and my dps almost doubled. Also I put on a +5-10 damage ring and my dps went up 50 points over my +2-5dmg/30dex ring. Weapon DPS is the more important stat.

[aurik]

Dmg will generally give you better dps than primary stat...but primary stat also factors into mitigation. But generally yes you want dmg. Hence everyone putting rubies in their weapons.

[arus2001]

Yeah, I'd say to stick to +damage options sub-50. I wound up swapping a +6-12 amulet for one with like 80+ DEX earlier since it gave me like 260 more DPS and some much needed VIT/HP. There may be some point where a +stat will yield more than +damage, but that's not something lowbies are likely to encounter, I think.

[SubzeroDiabolos]

As someone who learned this yesterday, go for fast 1-handed weapons. I swapped my all int gears for high dps, my damage tripled.

[ringthree]

Yeah, so far it appears higher DPS and bonus damage are much more important than main stats for damage.

[Artemicon]

Int factors into your +Damage, the +Damage is the total sum of all the stats on the weapon (this doesn't take into account offhand slots so if you're going from 1h+offhand to 2h it can actually be a DPS loss.

I did some testing on this last night and I hovered above an item that would replace my current item and I remembered this post saying it doesn't take into account for an offhand and the damage increase was +30, I then unequiped my offhand and the damage increase went from +30 to +65 so I am inclined to believe that it does indeed take the offhand into consideration. Just my 2c.

[Deadgye]

You realize you proved yourself wrong with your example right? If you have a 1h weapon and you're replacing it with a 2h weapon it should take into account that it's going to unequip the offhand as well. The fact that you got different numbers by removing the offhand shows that it didn't.

[MrSamuels]

Has anyone else noticed that items with attack speed on are also adding to your damage stat? I noticed this when a pair of gloves that had Dexterity and Attack speed on giving more +damage then int gloves last night being as i gain no damage from Dexterity it seemed very wierd

[Clash Perez]

Your damage rating is a summary of all of the factors that affect your damage, including weapon DPS, added damage from other gear, primary stat value, attack speed, crit rate/damage, and probably a couple of other things I don't recall off of the top of my head.

[Artemicon]

You realize you proved yourself wrong with your example right? If you have a 1h weapon and you're replacing it with a 2h weapon it should take into account that it's going to unequip the offhand as well. The fact that you got different numbers by removing the offhand shows that it didn't.

Okay apparently you don't understand what I'm saying. I'll lay it out for you...

I have a 1 hand sword and an offhand equipped and I then hover above the 2 hand weapon and it says Damage +30.1.
I then remove my offhand and then re-hover above the 2 hand weapon, it now displays a damage increase of +65.2. This number is now higher as a result of my removing the said offhand.

If what you're saying is true and it did indeed NOT take into consideration of the offhand then the numbers should be the same regardless of whether or not the offhand was equipped. This seems textbook in clarity to me, but because I am human and not perfect I am willing to accept that I'm incorrect, however you're going to have to disprove the logic I've laid out for you. Go.

[Miraun]

Yeah, I'd say to stick to +damage options sub-50. I wound up swapping a +6-12 amulet for one with like 80+ DEX earlier since it gave me like 260 more DPS and some much needed VIT/HP. There may be some point where a +stat will yield more than +damage, but that's not something lowbies are likely to encounter, I think.

This... echoed for truth.

Base damage on weapons tend to be very low until Hell Difficulty (50s). Once you're in this, the base damage of weapons (by base, I don't mean the shown DPS, I mean the 15-70 that shows per shot) shoots up. The relative change of the +6-12 damage necklace is less substantial than the gains from a +50% damage boost from a prime stat.

I remember finding a +2-3 damage ring when I was level 5. It practically doubled my DPS. Now, being in Inferno, I probably gain more from +5 Dex.

A lot of the discussions in this thread need to be curbed for Early gain, Mid Game, and End Game.
Early Game: Normal / Nightmare Difficulties
Midgame: Hell Difficulty
Endgame: Inferno

Early Game: Focus on +Damage attributes on accessories, maybe some weapon speed.
Mid Game: Focus more on Prime Stats, maybe attack speed (varies on class due to Resource (mana, rage, hatred etc) management). Begin to gain Survivability
End Game: Predominantly survivability, which can be assisted through main stats.

[Spira]

you're definitely better off throwing on more dmg first. if you're picking a weapon, then its most likely gonna be one with more damage first, then if it has INT as a magic property, bonus to you. or if its socketable, put a ruby in to the see the damage rise.

i really don't know how the stats work per se, but by eyeballing, +1 dmg is like the equivalent of 7 of your main stat. this will scale as your level goes higher, and i'm assuming as your damage/main stat goes higher as well.

At higher levels, whilst its easy to put on the +dmg stuff, do bear in mind that +dmg only directly affects your damage. If you can put your main stat in the same slot and it nets the same or higher dps bonus, you might wanna go for that.

INT gives you resistance. about 10 INT gives 1 resistance to all elements, and about 5 resistance gives 0.1% damage reduction.. so approx 50 int gives 1% dmg reduction. (but to what i know, this is compounded with your damage reduction stat, so it'd average to about 100 resistance to 1% effective dmg reduction)

towards late hell and inferno, you definitely want to play a bit more defensively. glass cannon builds will die to EVERYTHING - to the extent that you really can't contribute that much.

in that regard, I do recommend keeping defensive / evasion abilities in some slots, and piling on protective stats.
Wearing a shield helps a lot - armor rating boosts damage reduction as well. approx 100 -> 1% as well. Another thing is block rate. With even a 20% block rate, you'll be taking a lot less damage on average. But doing this means you're sacrificing a unique class slot. Some of the stats on Sources are pretty useful.

Gearing in VIT is useful - gives you a ton of Health to soak up damage. but that won't be enough.

Gearing in "resistance to all elements" gear is a good choice too.

don't bother gearing high armor stuff - its inefficient as a stat to rely on.

And.. if you're really into the super suriveability thing, you'll want a weapon with either Life Steal or Life on Hit.. preferably both.
This ensures that even if you're taking hits, you can recover it in the process.

with enough of all the above and specced properly, you could probably tank.
My Wiz isn't high enough to try - tho I'm building her to be more of a glass cannon, but this has been pretty good for my WD.

[Miraun]

Spira, I think either you or I is mistaken how Armor works in Diablo 3.

I'll admit most of my knowledge comes second hand from my roommate, who has almost completed Inferno (He took a week off from work for the release...). But he's an aggressive theorycrafter in any game he plays.

Dodge is the first line of defense for any attack.
Armor is the second line of defense, as a modifier for all incoming damage. Both Elemental and Physical attacks are subject to Armor's % reduction. While armor does have diminishing returns at higher values, having a stable, high Armor value is one of the most valuable ways to mitigate damage taken.

Resistances are a modifier applied AFTER armor. So if you have 50% reduction from armor, and then 20% reduction from resists, you will take 40% damage.

Then block is a static reduction based on block % and shield value, applied AFTER armor reduction.


While armor has perceived diminishing returns, the estimated time to live remains constant throughout it's progression. Therefore, while it may take more armor to raise 1% from 50-51% as opposed to 25-26%, it's because that additional 51st% is effectively reducing all incoming damage by 2%, while the 26% is reducing it by 1.33%, and the estimated survival rate remains constant, and the returns reflect this.

In the end, it's a balancing game, depending on what's right for your class. As a Wizard, there's no reason to go out of your way for additional resistances, as you'll be getting a decent amount from your INT. But if you're forced to choose between +300 Armor versus +100 Resists, the Armor would likely be more valuable.

[Deadgye]

If what you're saying is true and it did indeed NOT take into consideration of the offhand then the numbers should be the same regardless of whether or not the offhand was equipped. This seems textbook in clarity to me, but because I am human and not perfect I am willing to accept that I'm incorrect, however you're going to have to disprove the logic I've laid out for you. Go.

Rather than go through the trouble of logics and proofs I'll just use a slideshow.

Spoiler: show

As you can see my weapon has no vit on it, but my shield has 92 vit. Now my 2 handed paddle has 83 vit. If the game took into account the fact that equipping the 2h paddle would remove my shield then it should say that my hp total would go down. Instead of says that it would increase by 3000, which as you can clearly see it doesn't.