2010-04-22, 03:05 AM
For weapon mastery I'll use swords as a typical example.
The primary stat is STR and the secondary is DEX, and together they contribute two terms to the damage. STR, the main contributor, adds some amount to the maximum damage - let's call it X. It also adds some fraction of X to the minimum damage (this is where mastery comes in - it's usually 60%). So if most of your damage comes from STR (as it usually does), then your damage range usually ranges from 60% of your maximum to 100% of your maximum, because that's how STR adds damage.
By contrast, DEX raises max and min damage equally - so any damage you get from DEX pretends that mastery is always 100%. So if you have no STR and all DEX, you always deal the same amount of damage with a sword regardless of the actual mastery.
Magic mastery works the same in principle, but numerically it's a little different. There is a term in the magic damage formula that acts like DEX does for swords - it adds the same damage to both maximum and minimum. It so happens that this term is proportional to Magic * Magic, so as you increase your stats, this term becomes more and more significant and your damage becomes less and less dependent on mastery. This is why magic damage ranges are usually a lot tighter than what the mastery value indicates (minimum being ~80% of maximum, rather than 60%).
The primary stat is STR and the secondary is DEX, and together they contribute two terms to the damage. STR, the main contributor, adds some amount to the maximum damage - let's call it X. It also adds some fraction of X to the minimum damage (this is where mastery comes in - it's usually 60%). So if most of your damage comes from STR (as it usually does), then your damage range usually ranges from 60% of your maximum to 100% of your maximum, because that's how STR adds damage.
By contrast, DEX raises max and min damage equally - so any damage you get from DEX pretends that mastery is always 100%. So if you have no STR and all DEX, you always deal the same amount of damage with a sword regardless of the actual mastery.
Magic mastery works the same in principle, but numerically it's a little different. There is a term in the magic damage formula that acts like DEX does for swords - it adds the same damage to both maximum and minimum. It so happens that this term is proportional to Magic * Magic, so as you increase your stats, this term becomes more and more significant and your damage becomes less and less dependent on mastery. This is why magic damage ranges are usually a lot tighter than what the mastery value indicates (minimum being ~80% of maximum, rather than 60%).