+1 level to gem is useless?

"

rsthrsdj wrote:

"

Wittgenstein wrote:

it's one of the best mods out there.. the unique bow with +2 levels is so sweet.

well show me the difference or example how powerful it is. it is just +1 level. maybe it will cost more mana. very bad. i think it should increase quality than level.

Try to find me in game. name is Draxt - my bow Marauder.

+1 skill level is pretty much mandatory for spells, cause it influences the base damage for them. Same goes for all other skills that work similarly.

"

Xendran wrote:

"

rsthrsdj wrote:

"

Wittgenstein wrote:

it's one of the best mods out there.. the unique bow with +2 levels is so sweet.

well show me the difference or example how powerful it is. it is just +1 level. maybe it will cost more mana. very bad. i think it should increase quality than level.

Ever seen Ethereal Knives, Poison Arrow, Viper Strike, Bear Trap or Elemental Hit? These gems all have utterly insane gem level scaling.

Bear Traps with + Skill Level..*shudder*

Level 1 Ethereal Knives does 8–11 damage
Level 3 EK does 13–19

Level 14 EK does 224–336
Level 16 EK does 279–418

These is a massive increase early on (68%) & still not insignificant later (24.4%).
These are BASE damage increases which means they will be multiplied further by all your supports, passives, etc.

I have a Silverbranch (usable at level 1, has +2 to bow gems). It only does 4-14 (compared to base item crude bow which does 3-10), yet when I place split arrow in it I will easily one-shot three mobs at once for most of the first half of A1.

Simply put, this is a great mod to have in many cases. In certain cases (Searing Touch for fire-spec Witch) you might literally never replace it.

"

xara wrote:

Level 1 Ethereal Knives does 8–11 damage
Level 3 EK does 13–19

Level 14 EK does 224–336
Level 16 EK does 279–418

These is a massive increase early on (68%) & still not insignificant later (24.4%).
These are BASE damage increases which means they will be multiplied further by all your supports, passives, etc.

I have a Silverbranch (usable at level 1, has +2 to bow gems). It only does 4-14 (compared to base item crude bow which does 3-10), yet when I place split arrow in it I will easily one-shot three mobs at once for most of the first half of A1.

Simply put, this is a great mod to have in many cases. In certain cases (Searing Touch for fire-spec Witch) you might literally never replace it.

This Silverbranch sounds awesome for any poison arrow builds :D

Silerbranch is really good for explosive arrow / poison arrow / elemental hit builds, at least for 1-40~ or so. That's why its value shot up compared to CB.

Here is an excellent example from my current Summoner set-up:



All 3 gems on the sockets benefit from the +1 minion gem level. With just a +1 mod, My zombies' HP is boosted from 1.4k HP to a whopping 2k HP. Thats' more than about 40% increase. Not to mention my spectre's benefits. That's a HUGE increase in my minion's survibability and "Minion Instability" skill damage. Huge impact for just ONE mod.

Now Imagine a +2 mod on a 4-slotted equip. With some other useful mods.



Here's another example from the same character:



Firestorm damage boosted from "120-180" to "146-219". DPS is boosted from 60 to 73. And that's just coming from the +1 to fire gems mod. Again, just ONE mod.

A level 14 wand and I'm still rocking it at character level 42.



So yeah, with the right build,sockets and gems, +gem level mods is AMAZING.




.

Like other people have pointed out, it's mostly useful for certain abilities, on which it's pretty godly.

And it's mandatory on any self-respecting minion spec, as it scales their HP tremendously at higher levels.

Know your skill before judging whether its a worthwhile mod. In addition to what others have pointed out about certain skills (mostly physical attack) gaining less benefit from skill level, +skill levels can be exceptionally beneficial during certain stages of progression where there is a huge difference between skill level and level requirement. For example, +2 to lightning skills is much more useful than any amount of dps mods around character level 30 where boosting a level 9 (reqs lvl 32) spark to level 11 (reqs level 42) means effectively boosting the character level by +10. Again, it all depends on the skill.

At level 19 +2 my zombies have 19k hp. Yeah 19,000. That's a level "20" minion life gem and a level "21" zombie gem. but the minion gems have crazy scaling at about level 16up.

granted it depends on the skill your wanting to get the +1 - +2. Some of them as stated already have insane scaling and others are lackluster at best. I would play around with any of them you get and see if any of your skills get a large boost or not. Depending on your gems/passives I can see that the +1 mod might be almost useless.