Quote:
Spectral Throw: this now deals 46% of weapon damage at level 1, but increases as it levels. By level 15 of the gem, you will dealing 60% of weapon damage.
Right now, ST "
deals 60% of base damage" at every level. If I'm understanding this correctly, "weapon damage" is the same as "base damage" and that's not a change. Perhaps they're moving to this terminology to make the damage mechanism more clear. I'm curious whether the gem text itself will change to say "weapon damage" rather than "base damage".
The projectile damage modifier-by-gem-level appears unchanged.
ST "base damage" works like this:
Fake Sword does 120 phys, 30 fire, 12 elemental on hit
That means ST does 120(.6) + 30(.6) + 12(.6) = 72 + 18 + 11.4 = 101.4 on hit
In real time weapons have damage ranges, which means that the calculation above is different for every hit. Your 190-220 sword does one of 190-220 every time it hits, but it can't be calculated as just ((220+190)/2)(.6) for ST because that result is your
expected damage per hit, useful in calculating DPS but incorrect for every case except the one where you roll a hit worth exactly 205.
The nerf means ST is worse through gem level 15, which is significant. But from gem level 16-20 it's superior to old ST.
The low level nerf isn't even that brutal, as the gem is gaining 1% per gem level through to level 15 (where it gets from 46% to 60%).
That means level 5 ST does 120(.5) + 30(.5) + 12(.5) = 60 + 15 + 6 = 81 on hit (80% of previous ST).
It's just not a big deal. I think it's designed to make racers use other builds. The answer for grinding is to spec into ST and level it in the swap slot.