Is there any particular reason why skills cap out at 255 or whatever the cap is? I've never really understood why (even in EQ, though they did change this in later releases) these caps were in place. Similar to the Attack Power cap etc.

The characters cap at that, but the skills go much higher than that with items... don't they??! Unless I left a cap in I forgot about, they're supposed to go quite high (400ish+) in most cases. Some are unlimited.

Correct, characters level cap there; however the skill stops increasing at around L.50 or something (there are 99 levels) which means that the only increase of power is new weapons / gear for the remaining 49 levels.

After playing this rogue for about 80+ levels, using end-game weapons and gear. The difficulty jump to Hell is pretty ridiculous.. I can't see a normal character going through this and succeeding very well. That said, increasing skill caps would certainly help create a more linear power progression and bring things more in-line. Just a thought, maybe something to test.

/fitzor

I was going to get to this once my monk got there but having hand to hand stop increasing at lvl 50 isn't going to cut it. I am waiting to see what the approximate damage of fists is at 255 hand to hand but I'm guessing fists become something along the lines of 22/30.. that.. with no stats... is not a weapon that can be used in hell.

I'll ruminate on this, but it's almost impossible to change this without causing severe balance disruptions. I kind of like how the skills cap because it forces players to look elsewhere for improvements. Mainly talents and items. I don't recommend trying to progress through this game in a linear fashion from normal to nightmare and nightmare to hell. I'd suggest farming some bosses for phat lewtz until you feel confident enough to proceed to the next difficulty. Though, take with a grain of salt since I am a noob that has barely played this game.

Monk hand-to-hand power increases with their level as well. But it is magically hidden data. The inate damage of their fists goes up.

There are no improvements..

Using some of the best gear in the game as a rogue. Hell mobs are basically ALL bosses.. I need to blow all my cooldowns to stay alive and this is with ~55 life leech.

Just reporting what I'm finding! As I mentioned, if I had to use the non-elite gear I wouldn't even be able to do this.

Added a typical combat result in Hell. It ranges from 1500-1700 dps, depending on crits.

Adding some screens to show stats etc.

These are HELL stats, btw.

Thanks. Btw, what weapons?

Attached. I have a L.66 that is 21/20, but all it has it attack speed on it. Figured I should go as defensive as possible so I'm running as much life leech as I can to help mitigate the damage.

Yes give up fitzor, it's futile.

But seriously, I've been able to chain pull in Act 1 Hell and I have lousy Exceptional quality weapons.

If it's any consolation, it's likely 1h damage will be buffed a bit in 1-0-5.

One more thing to note.. I'm always Hyperstrike'd which gives me another 30% Skill Haste, so my Skill Haste is usually at 80% while in combat (not what is outlined above)

I was wondering about this for caster skills (eg Alt, Abj etc). What's the cap on these? 220?

Depends on your class. One of those things that needs a wiki page.

I'll have to take my warrior and swap out my legendary BP and weapon and replace them with Elites and compare the damage. I'm pretty sure he'll do roughly 3x the damage compared to the rogue.

I can chain Act 1 as well, but keep in mind Act 1 is like L.65ish and gives less XP than Act 4 Nightmare (which is much easier).

The point I'm trying to make here is that for those who can't rely on charm or any other mechanics, classes like Monk and Rogue suffer greatly in Hell due to the difficulty jump while the power curve remains quite flat. Just trying to balance things out a bit for classes that are not being played because they're absolutely terrible.

Can't wait to see what Tadace's Monk results look like.

I think we can get there by adjusting 1H damage modifiers. Despite your protests, I still think low blue/green exp needs to be nerfed to prevent farming late nightmare for exp.

Edit: Ignore that statement. A vague number without more specifics isn't very useful for comparison.

Sounds good - Definitely looking forward to seeing how the 1H modifier change will look. I'm sure that will help some.

RE: XP - Different issue. Making a sweeping change like that requires a look at the XP granted for white/yellow con mobs then. Currently the XP is low for them (twice the life, huge damage bonus, definitely not double the XP).

I'm also assuming there isn't a XP multiplier per difficulty level. Currently going from A4 Nightmare to A1 Hell, you actually earn less XP per kill since the A1 hell mobs are like 10 levels lower - but are much harder.

In regards to hell HP jump, I could simply apply a flat bonus to all exp in hell. Something like that.

I am curious how miss chance is calculated. I wonder if it's tied into the skill system because I seem to be missing more as I climb higher in levels. I've had my finisher miss four times in a row (expending the TP each time) and leaving me scrambling to survive. It keeps you on your toes but I'm worried it's going to grow worse.

It's dex. Get some dex, brah.

That would definitely push grinding for higher level characters to hell once they are geared for it. I know I would move to Hell. Right now on Fitzor I have 58% XP bonus on my gear. In Hell I get on average ~2000/kill. In Nightmare I get ~1100/kill. Nightmare mobs have half the hit points and do significantly less damage.

I personally would just add difficulty multipliers so that it's much easier to manage. IE:

Normal 1.0x
Nightmare 1.12x
Hell 1.25x

Something like that - Doing some simple math.. Non-chain. L.98-99 takes roughly 66 million XP.

HELL
Before modifier: 66m / 2,000 = 33,000 mobs
Post modifier: 66m / 2500 = 26,400 mobs

NIGHTMARE
Before modifier: 66m / 1,000 = 66,000 mobs
Post modifier: 66m / 1200 = 55,000 mobs

Still will take a CRAPLOAD of time.. Plus, this would innately affect the chaining bonus too I'd assume - because chaining in Hell should be more valued than chaining in Normal or Nightmare.

My 2c.

Yeah, I think incentivizing hell with an exp bonus is a good idea... I just hate the idea of the "ultimate push to 99" happening in nightmare. That's really anti-climactic.

Unfortunately, there aren't a whole lot of good DEX items.. I have 100+ Elite items now and have only found like two items with dex made for melee. Most have Attack Speed / Casting Haste / Dex or some weird combo like that.