RPZip wrote:
It's a higher theoretical hit cap. It is not a buff in any way, as if you're _at_ the hit cap you should instead be trying to ramp up AP and Crit, not the other way around. You'll now have to spend more item stats/sockets to reach the hit cap. It will lower DPS universally... not raise, with the only exception being if you are currently over the hit cap and haven't resocketed for some reason.
RPZip, I'm still not seeing that. Consider the following scenarios:
Assumptions: You're not at the hit cap, but you don't miss your specials, and all other things are equal:
1a. You pick up +10 weapon skill to bring your weapon skill to 360. Against a level 73 mob, this gives you +3.5% to hit. This hit applies only to your white damage, which constitutes less than 60% of your damage. That's an increase in DPS of 2.1%
1b. You pick up +10 weapon expertise. Against a level 73 mob, this reduces that mob's chance to dodge/parry your attacks by 2.5%. That's an increase in DPS of 2.5% because mobs can dodge/parry specials.
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2a. You were at 355 weapon skill due to racials and pick up +10 weapon skill to bring your total to 365. Against a level 73 mob, this only gives you +1% to hit (This has been well tested that weapon skill doesn't scale linearly, in fact after the first 5 points becomes a mediocre stat). Again since this applies only to your white damage (assuming the same 60%), nets you a DPS increase of 0.6%.
2b. You pick up +10 weapon expertise (while still remaining under the expertise cap). Against a level 73 mob, this reduces that mob's chance to dodge/parry by another 2.5%, netting you a DPS increase of 2.5%
To me it seems that expertise is going to scale much better than skill currently does. You're not going to have to resocket to pick up more +hit to make up for the 3.5% that you're losing, because the reduction to mob dodge/parry (more than) makes up for it. It's true that if you have Surprise Attacks, you're increase on the 'b' scenarios will be less than 2.5% because your finishers can't be dodged, but as a whole I think it's still better than weapon skill.
Am I missing something?
Edit: Grammar
Edited, Oct 15th 2007 2:32pm by CamelToad