Spell Damage vs Regular Attack damage

I've just read through the notes for the upcoming patch and was disheartened to hear the news that "Melee characters gain the most from these changes, but many previously underpowered builds have also improved."

Really Melee characters are so much stronger than spell based characters. I've been trying for ages to get my spell damage up but it seems the number of affixes that boost spell damage are few and far between where the number of affixes that boost a regular attack are plentiful.

I keep getting wands with "adds x-y elemental damage" then don't get that damage when I attack with my spell. Where is the love for spells in this next patch they seem underpowered to me.

Maybe when I start playing in merciless It'll get better for me as a spell caster.

Spell casters can get more damage and bring more utility endgame(shock/freeze), though with the RF nerf they should be balanced

Imo melee is garbage so if your melee char does more damage than your caster... You didnt do well at all

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Really Melee characters are so much stronger than spell based characters.

ROFL.

RF nerf? sorry what is RF?

Righteous Fire.

i played a physical ranger with 6,5k split arrow and 11k frenzy dmg, but it was still much much worse than an average elemental ranger.

imo it's good to boost a bit physical dmg

yea but an elemental ranger is still getting their damage based on an attack that uses their weapons. Spells don't use weapons so all that elemental damage is wasted affixes for them.

On the other hand, spell casters rely less on their gear and more on their gems, which means you can more easily run a self-found spell caster, or deck yourself out in magic finding equipment.

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xtertristl wrote:

yea but an elemental ranger is still getting their damage based on an attack that uses their weapons. Spells don't use weapons so all that elemental damage is wasted affixes for them.

Their are elemental based attacks that are really powerful, Lightning Arrow being the most popular.

You also have Elemental Hit, and you can also do physical conversion (converting physical damage to elemental) using attacks like Rain of Arrows

you can use http://www.exilepro.com/builds/marauder/490-marauder-lightning-arrow-elemental-tank

as a good reference as to why elemental damage is currently superior