Increasing Spell Damage

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Musashi951 wrote:

My Ice Spear does 86 DPS. It's my Freezing Pulse that's doing 180 DPS. Apologies for the confusion.

My frost witch is currently level 27. Dual wielding maces sounds like not a bad idea. My freezing pulse uses a +Projectile speed and + crit support gem. I use clarity full time. Single targets I use Ice Spear, but I'm starting to think that's not such a great idea.

180 DPS at level 27 sounds a little low to me for Freezing Pulse, but I pass by that level range so quickly on most builds that I'm not positive on that. Both of those support gems help Freezing Pulse in practice (proj. speed gives it more range before fading, and obviously crits always help), but neither of them will increase that DPS number. The DPS number does *not* factor in crits; it's just the damage per hit times the casts per second.

In addition to % spell damage / % elemental damage, you can look for $ faster cast speed. That will only help your sustained DPS if you can sustain higher mana use, though.

IMHO, Ice Spear is a better skill to focus on at low levels. Freezing Pulse feels a little weak without multiple projectiles. Then again, I always build cold casters around crit anyway, so Ice Spear is a natural choice. It also benefits more from the crit support gem, since it becomes almost a guaranteed crit at range with just a bit of +crit chance.

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solistus wrote:

The DPS number does *not* factor in crits; it's just the damage per hit times the casts per second.

The DPS number does factor in crits. It jumps up whenver I boost my crit chance or crit multiplier as well as jumping back down when I lower them.

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Musashi951 wrote:

My Ice Spear does 86 DPS. It's my Freezing Pulse that's doing 180 DPS. Apologies for the confusion.

My frost witch is currently level 27. Dual wielding maces sounds like not a bad idea. My freezing pulse uses a +Projectile speed and + crit support gem. I use clarity full time. Single targets I use Ice Spear, but I'm starting to think that's not such a great idea.

No this is the right way to do it. Ice Spear does a ton more DPS than the paper doll suggests. Freezing pulse is a bit low DPS because with the slow and the freezes it gives you a ton of control and it is AE. Once you heavily talent for slow/freeze you can wear down almost anything using it regardless of your DPS.