Minions and Spell Damage

[Kogoruhn]

I searched before and read that spell damage nodes do not affect minion damage. However; I could only find discussions in other forums about this that were a year ago or older. I made a witch summoner and decided to check it out. I noticed that when I bought a spell damage node, not only did my raging spirit dps increase, but so did my zombies and skeletons. Did they recently change this with recent updates? I'm confused.

[Azrael]

Take a look at the description of the skill gems:
SRS: Spell, Minion,Duration,Fire
Zombie/Spectre: Spell, Minion

[Elwind]

What you feel is wrong.The only way to increase the damage of minions is minion damage on skill tree and auras you might possess.(also some other indirect ways)

The spell part of the skill,refers to the casting of the skill,which is a spell,but not affected by spell modifiers

[Azrael]

Right if you want to know more : http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Summon_Raging_Spirit

[Kogoruhn]

Then why did the individual dps for my srp, zombies and skeletons all increase after I purchased an increase spell damage node? When I did, my SRP went from 17.5 dps to 19 dps. This is what made it confusing. I didn't have any auras in effect either at the time.

[The_Driver]

Originally posted by Krishno:

When I did, my SRP went from 17.5 dps to 19 dps. This is what made it confusing.

And the ridiculously low numbers didn't set off your alarm bells? 98+% of weapons you find have higher base dps than that.

It not even the minions dps you see, it's some "imaginary" value for summoning/raising them, not the minion itself. (The skill is called "_Summon_ Raging Spirit" / "Raise Zombie/...")

NEVER trust the tooltip dps or damage numbers. They aren't even comparable between different setups of skills, as those might hit a different amount of enemies. Let alone multi-hitting skills that only show one hit. Don't bother looking at it.

[Elwind]

Originally posted by Krishno:

Then why did the individual dps for my srp, zombies and skeletons all increase after I purchased an increase spell damage node? When I did, my SRP went from 17.5 dps to 19 dps. This is what made it confusing. I didn't have any auras in effect either at the time.

For minions,there so many factors that cant be displayed as dps,its one of the very few gems that dps tooltip cant be trusted at all.

Minions,like spells though,gets vey much dps from leveling by themselves.A higher minion gem level means more dps and though not on tooltip,its pretty much visible when you level it up,which might be the case here

[Illumina]

Whatever is leading you to believe that increases to spell damage are making your minions hit harder is being woefully misinterpreted or is not working as intended.

[Kogoruhn]

Well, it would nice if they fixed that then for people new to summoners like me as it can get confusing if it wasn't for you guys being able to clarify although according to driver, seems to be broken with not just summon gems. Thanks for the help!

[Battleseed]

Originally posted by Krishno:

Well, it would nice if they fixed that then for people new to summoners like me as it can get confusing if it wasn't for you guys being able to clarify although according to driver, seems to be broken with not just summon gems. Thanks for the help!

Thats why people make build guides that are geared towards new players. Even if you don't follow one, a well written one will explain how thngs work and why the author made the choices they did. Something you could learn from~ Use the official forums and search. Questions you will have will most likely have already been asked and answered.