Focus or Strength??

[Runiix]

When your ability says:
"Deals 50% weapon damage as ice damage.
800-900 ice damage over 5 sec"

In my head, the first portion is for strength and weapon damage+crit.
The DOT effect is for focus and pure elemental damage.

Since i can "only" focus on one stat when i level up, which one am i supposed to take and why?

I know that spells like Flame Pillar are purely magic and only need focus.

Thanks

[potterman28wxcv]

You can focus on both, you don't have to focus on only one. Back in the days someone made a study on strength vs focus for Emberquake, the result was that Strength was generally more effective but you still needed to get quite a bit of Focus to dish out the maximum theoretical damage.

Anyway, how it works :
- 50% of weapon damage is 50% of the weapon DPS. Weapon DPS is computed on strength but focus also matters if your weapon deals elemental damage.
- Since that damage is ice, it scales off Focus. So if you have both an elemental weapon AND use that skill, Focus will count twice to get the final damage output.
- 800-900 ice damage -> that part only scales with Focus.

Personally I would invest a bit of strength and a lot of focus. Something like 2/3 str/focus or 1/4 str/focus + bit of strength here and there. The exact "what" would depend on the gear that drops, I tend to keep my stat points so I can rush high level gear.

[Runiix]

Originally posted by potterman28wxcv:

You can focus on both, you don't have to focus on only one. Back in the days someone made a study on strength vs focus for Emberquake, the result was that Strength was generally more effective but you still needed to get quite a bit of Focus to dish out the maximum theoretical damage.

Anyway, how it works :
- 50% of weapon damage is 50% of the weapon DPS. Weapon DPS is computed on strength but focus also matters if your weapon deals elemental damage.
- Since that damage is ice, it scales off Focus. So if you have both an elemental weapon AND use that skill, Focus will count twice to get the final damage output.
- 800-900 ice damage -> that part only scales with Focus.

Personally I would invest a bit of strength and a lot of focus. Something like 2/3 str/focus or 1/4 str/focus + bit of strength here and there. The exact "what" would depend on the gear that drops, I tend to keep my stat points so I can rush high level gear.

Thanks, helps alot :)

[potterman28wxcv]

Oops sorry it was the other way around for Emberquake, Focus was more effective but you still needed Strength to get critical damage increase to dish out the max theoretical damage

Thanks, helps a lot :)

No problem

[delta]

So if you're using Icy Blast or Magma Spear on an Embermage, you do 1/4 strength/focus and then equip a hammer or sword? How effective is this compared to a Prismatic Bolt Embermage?

[steffire3]

Originally posted by delta:

So if you're using Icy Blast or Magma Spear on an Embermage, you do 1/4 strength/focus and then equip a hammer or sword? How effective is this compared to a Prismatic Bolt Embermage?

I don't have the raw data to answer this question (with exact numbers) however based on Haadrak's Guide chapter: "Mechanics of Build Design" that expounds on Emberquake's example; there's more potential damage to gain if mixing both Strength and Focus. It's worth noting that Boris the Stat Enchanter is very important to empower any build especially mixed builds.
Embermage's Dps / weapon damage skills are also dealt as some kind of Elemental Damage hence Strength and Focus are both empowering different parts of that calculation.
I'm aware that there's games out there that give penalties if spreading Stat investments however Torchlight_2 provides decent calculation synergies when skills allow both Stats to be sourced.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1883242935
= = = =
Here's more Guide info that may help; one for general quick info and another for specifics since Gakm7 knew how to build Dps-Mages very well:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=924384705
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1709334997
= = = =
Another way to explain is that there's only 3 (4 if time is available) positions in an Armor-piece (within 10 Set-Equips or 11 with an added Shield) to roll for Strength or Focus (from Boris). It's easier on inventory to aim for just one Stat (for Prismatic Bolt skill) however when mixing then it's easier to randomly roll at Boris for both Stats.

Strength will provide the benefit within 1000 points because of the Critical Damage increase however Focus will outpace Strength in extreme end game scenarios after that -
- (NG+ Tarroch's Tomb rising enemy-level-up-towards_190+ bosses).

It really depends on what end-game sections of optional challenges a player aims for.

[HiFive]

Originally posted by delta:

So if you're using Icy Blast or Magma Spear on an Embermage, you do 1/4 strength/focus and then equip a hammer or sword? How effective is this compared to a Prismatic Bolt Embermage?

In general, Embermages are designed to be using magic weapons, although the game allows us to use whatever weapon we prefer to experiment with.

I recommend that you pick a weapon type when you first start the character and then stick with that weapon type during the entire playthrough with that character. You will be leveling your stats to fit that type of weapon.

Focus gives the most benefit for weapons that use mostly elemental damage, such as a staff or wand.

Gear designed for embermages can be equipped much sooner if you have a high Focus stat. If you want to equip gear that withstands physical damage, for instance, then maybe you will want to make an embermage with a high strength stat that allows you to equip that type of gear. If you want to play a more traditional type of embermage, where you would expect to be a bit more of the glass-cannon type, then level your Focus more.

If you want to face-plant enemies for most of the game, then farm all-damage-reduction gems.

Otherwise, you can do as I do: Take the collar and tags off of your pet every several level-ups and check to see what his physical and elemental resistances are and try to keep yours at the same level or higher. Equip gems and gear that regenerate your health and mana, and perhaps even steal health and mana from enemies.

[delta]

When you hit level 100, will you be able to equip anything, or will the items still have stat requirements?

[steffire3]

Originally posted by delta:

When you hit level 100, will you be able to equip anything, or will the items still have stat requirements?

Character Level 100 (max) will be able to equip all items except level 101+ items like the highest red Legendary weapons or the highest possible Exclusive Class Gear.

Boris the Stat Enchanter is also useful for equipping these items by placing Enchants on lower level gear especially on Rings and Necklaces that don't have versions above level 100.

With that said; some of the best alternative items for specific builds are from mixing any-class Sets including Dragonrift, Inquistor, Asphyx, and Netherrealm Weapons / Shield. All of those can be equipped by Character Level 99.

[delta]

Hmm, so items drops are the same regardless of difficulty, right? So if I want to farm the end-game sets, then should I just have one character on Casual difficulty, get them to level 100, then just do Tarroch's Tomb or Phase Beast challenges repeatedly...and then I can give the gear to my other characters?

[HiFive]

Originally posted by delta:

Hmm, so items drops are the same regardless of difficulty, right? So if I want to farm the end-game sets, then should I just have one character on Casual difficulty, get them to level 100, then just do Tarroch's Tomb or Phase Beast challenges repeatedly...and then I can give the gear to my other characters?

You certainly can do that.

[delta]

Originally posted by HiFive:

Originally posted by delta:

So if you're using Icy Blast or Magma Spear on an Embermage, you do 1/4 strength/focus and then equip a hammer or sword? How effective is this compared to a Prismatic Bolt Embermage?

In general, Embermages are designed to be using magic weapons, although the game allows us to use whatever weapon we prefer to experiment with.

I recommend that you pick a weapon type when you first start the character and then stick with that weapon type during the entire playthrough with that character. You will be leveling your stats to fit that type of weapon.

Focus gives the most benefit for weapons that use mostly elemental damage, such as a staff or wand.

Going back to this...so if I'm using a %dps spell then I'd want to use a high dps staff or wand and max focus? Why not do this for an Engineer? Or conversely, why not max strength on an Embermage using Magma Spear or Icy Blast and use a high dps sword?

[steffire3]

Originally posted by delta:

Going back to this...so if I'm using a %dps spell then I'd want to use a high dps staff or wand and max focus? Why not do this for an Engineer? Or conversely, why not max strength on an Embermage using Magma Spear or Icy Blast and use a high dps sword?

Exactly.

If the Engineer were using a %Dps / Weapon-Damage skill that doesn't covert to (or additionally include) Fire or Electrical Damage and if the Embermage were only using a pure Focus (no Dps / Weapon-Damage) skill then none of this advice would apply.

However because the game is so flexible to allow for Elemental-Engineers and Dps-Mages with certain skills then the mixing (or investing the opposite Stat) becomes beneficial.

HiFive does have a point in the fact that the game does make it easier to equip some gear and weapons sooner by aiming for the default Stats however with that same logic; a player could also invest a Strength-Mage or a Focus-Engineer and still thrive with specific skill combinations while equipping different gear and weapons sooner.

Perhaps the only downside would be having to use more of Boris the Stat Enchanter to equip Class-Exclusive gear that usually requires default Stats however there's plenty of viable All-Class Rare-Tier Sets that offer great affixes for survival to support other builds outside of default Stats.