From rags to riches to confused - Spell Damage down why?

[mavric240]

So I have farmed and farmed for all these primals of water, waited my four days and made my Shadowcloth over and over till I had enough, hunted down and killed spiders till I wanted to get sick, ran dailies, daily every day for gold to buy gems. Then came the day I had enough to make all my epics, The Frozen Shadoweave Boots, Shoulders, and Chest. I proudly stood outside the bank in UC and crafted my majestic gear. I could not wait to go out and start blasting away in my new gear. But wait after gemming and adding my Aldor enchant I found my Spell Damage to have dropped from 653 to 555. I found my self standing there wondering what happened. Whats all this talk about "you need to be in epics" to raid, when the blues I had not only gave me more spell damage but better crit percentage, mana, and life. I'm confused and need some help to understand this. Where did I go wrong?

[merclyn]

That set gives Shadow Damage, which takes away from your regular damage.
Most of your spells should be shadow damage anyways. Hover your mouse over the
Spell Damage, and it will open up telling you what your shadow damage is.

Try to use shadow damage spells, and shy away from fire damage while using that set.
It is a great set, and will last you a while.

Merclyn

[mavric240]

But with the loss of life and mana and overall loss of spell damage does that not effect my Fel guard and in a sense nerf him?

[merclyn]

Someone else can prob better answer that question, but I dont run a felguard spec, If I
were you I would go Full Affliction. Your probably ready to go into Kara, look for
the gloves off of the first boss, and look for a necklace that drops from trash, gives +55 shadow damage.

[gunthertaha]

Your shadow damage increases your pets attack power too so no its not a nerf

[Solarus]

Well think about it. Look at the stats on your blues and then look at the stats on the shadowweave. You might have noticed that they have more shadow damage than the blues. Surely you didn't think that a level 70 epic would be less useful than a 65 one? :P

Then take a look at your shadow damage.

Felguard's attack power is based on the highest spell damage from any particular class. So if you happened to be wearing fire based gear it would take the attack power from that.

As for stats? Sure, your felguard's hp and mana would have dropped by a couple of points. But not by many. It's negligible when you take into account attack power :P

[mavric240]

Originally Posted by Solarus

Well think about it. Look at the stats on your blues and then look at the stats on the shadowweave. You might have noticed that they have more shadow damage than the blues. Surely you didn't think that a level 70 epic would be less useful than a 65 one?

No I missed the added damage to shadow and no I did not think an 70 epic was not as good as a 65 but I did feel like I went backward and was confused as to why.

Originally Posted by Solarus

Then take a look at your shadow damage.

Yes I see it clearly now that I have had my eyes opened.

Originally Posted by Solarus

Felguard's attack power is based on the highest spell damage from any particular class.

Did not realize that, Learned something new today.

Originally Posted by Solarus

As for stats? Sure, your felguard's hp and mana would have dropped by a couple of points. But not by many. It's negligible when you take into account attack power :P

My hp drop by over 245 and my mana by 177 seems like a lot to me but I guess in the bigger picture your right and its a small price to pay

[Pernicious]

Originally Posted by mavric240

My hp drop by over 245 and my mana by 177 seems like a lot to me but I guess in the bigger picture your right and its a small price to pay

This is where the glass cannon effect comes into play. With the sudden increase in shadow damage you should be able to kill mobs faster than ever, hopefully that will off set the fact that with lower stamina you'll die faster too. Nuke them before they nuke you!

I suggest an Affliction spec as it is very strong with Shadow magic and can offset the lack of spell hit for the early level 70 lock. Then through frequent Kara trips, and into Gruuls/Mag, you'll be able to build up your other stats while keeping your spell damage around 1k.

[mavric240]

Originally Posted by Pernicious

I suggest an Affliction spec

What.....give up my Fel guard......umm.....I'm scared Pern. Lol no seriously that is a tough one for me cause all my experiences with affliction did not go well. The Fel Guard has become a security blanket but I know what I have to do. Affliction urgghhh.....shivers down spine.

[Pernicious]

Originally Posted by mavric240

What.....give up my Fel guard......umm.....I'm scared Pern. Lol no seriously that is a tough one for me cause all my experiences with affliction did not go well. The Fel Guard has become a security blanket but I know what I have to do. Affliction urgghhh.....shivers down spine.

Hehe, I understand exactly what you're going through. Back in the pre-BC days (now i feel old) when I first hit level 60 I decided to give Affliction a try. I wanted to gain experience in all the various spec's of the lock class. So I spec'd affliction and after an hour I wanted to revert back to Demo. I had no clue what I was doing with Affliction.

It's a completely different playstyle if you haven't used it before. Affliction is all about fast casts, movement, keeping your distance, and out surviving whomever you attack. It also allow's for really fast grinding and leveling given that you can dot multiple mobs at once, Howl and drain life.

I forced myself to play as Affliction and by the second day of learning not to rely on my pet, I didn't want to go back. It became a really fun challenging build.