Is empower REALLY + to gem levels?

I don't see it helping totem builds. Usually they are struggling to fit all the gems they need on the build already and empower might give a 20% damage to something like spark but spark is more about stacking a massive amount of them, stacking shock stacks and criting often.

Honestly I'm not seeing empower that great period. It's good, has some great uses but casters have always had many options for support gems. Melee is still fairly limited but +2 to a melee skill is like 1-2 passives.

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Moosifer wrote:

I don't see it helping totem builds. Usually they are struggling to fit all the gems they need on the build already and empower might give a 20% damage to something like spark but spark is more about stacking a massive amount of them, stacking shock stacks and criting often.

This is honestly one of the main reasons they have a lot to gain from it. With spells, there is relatively few ways to gain base damage.

Gaining 20% base damage, and then critting with some absurd crit multiplier results in a LOT more damage. Outside of say the singular mods +__% increased (elemental) damage on jewelry which is pretty weak...Especially since if you already had this, it's multiplied WITH your base damage and then you crit afterwards.

With weapon attacks it's more fluid, especially since you are basing things off of your actual weapon damage generaly...And then boosting it with other gear potentially (flat damage on jewelery)

Considering that it only increases the active gems it's supported to, it's not that amazing. There's a bit of potential with gems with good effects that scale with level, like Lightning Warp, but otherwise I think there are better choices for the socket it would go into.

I can't wait to get 2 empower gems.

You all say its meh, but a poison arrow/viper strike build, its anything but

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Real_Wolf wrote:

I can't wait to get 2 empower gems.

You all say its meh, but a poison arrow/viper strike build, its anything but

Why do you want 2? Do you have poison arrow and Viper strike on the same character?

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dudiobugtron wrote:

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Real_Wolf wrote:

I can't wait to get 2 empower gems.

You all say its meh, but a poison arrow/viper strike build, its anything but

Why do you want 2? Do you have poison arrow and Viper strike on the same character?

Viper Strike on the melee weapon (with +1 to Gems and +2 to Melee Gems) and a bow in the alternate weapon set with Poison Arrow (with +1 to Gems and +2 to Bow Gems). It's a very powerful combination with Vulnerability, proliferating triple Shock, and enough increased skill duration.

Real_Wolf is right about how powerful Empower might be for them. Viper Strike and Poison Arrow gain ~15% more Chaos damage per second per level at level 18 and beyond. With the +2 from a level 3 Empower (if that is what it gives) then that could be ~32.25% more Chaos damage per second.

Yeah, feels like Purity, Poison Arrow, Viper Strike, and Searing Bond are all the big candidates for this support.

Maybe spells if they can't get better damage scaling supports (e.g. Arc).

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Iao wrote:

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Real_Wolf wrote:

I can't wait to get 2 empower gems.

You all say its meh, but a poison arrow/viper strike build, its anything but

Real_Wolf is right about how powerful Empower might be for them. Viper Strike and Poison Arrow gain ~15% more Chaos damage per second per level at level 18 and beyond. With the +2 from a level 3 Empower (if that is what it gives) then that could be ~32.25% more Chaos damage per second.

Looks like those gain the most out of +2 levels, spells generally gain around 10% more per level at those gem levels. It will be great for stuff like arc, searing bond or fire trap as you don't really have that much of a support choice for them.

B Wrath
B Purity
B Clarity
R Anger
R Reduced Mana
R Empower


<3
That mana reserve though. Steep. Only really good if you have VERY high mana already.
You'd probably want to actually throw it into a 4L with reduced mana, purity, and the most useful aura for your build.

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tikitaki wrote:

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Moosifer wrote:

I don't see it helping totem builds. Usually they are struggling to fit all the gems they need on the build already and empower might give a 20% damage to something like spark but spark is more about stacking a massive amount of them, stacking shock stacks and criting often.

This is honestly one of the main reasons they have a lot to gain from it. With spells, there is relatively few ways to gain base damage.

Gaining 20% base damage, and then critting with some absurd crit multiplier results in a LOT more damage. Outside of say the singular mods +__% increased (elemental) damage on jewelry which is pretty weak...Especially since if you already had this, it's multiplied WITH your base damage and then you crit afterwards.

Yes, problem is you can't 7-link an item.