07-08-2003, 03:51 AM
Ah yes, this question tickled my fancy a while ago, and I do have an answer! First of all, I will say that "% elemental damage bonus" is taken after all synergies are applied; so a 5000 damage Armageddon with all maxed synergies will indeed become 6000% damage if you have 20% fire skills damage bonus. However, before you starting concocting new builds and equipment for your next sorceress, I will warn you that it has a slightly different effect with sorceress' spells.
You see, they already have such "% elemental damage bonus", and it's called masteries (except cold mastery). Yes, the effect of masteries is exactly like that of the % elemental damage bonuses found on items. So while for a druid, who doesn't have masteries, 50% additional fire skills damage is a huge boost, to a sorceress 50% fire skills damage is only a slight addition to 200-300% that Fire mastery already adds. And just like the % elemental bonus damage from items, the masteries also are applied to overall spell damage after synergies. This pertains only to Fire/Lightning trees of the sorceress. Cold mastery will indeed get a huge boost from such items, since the additional damage for cold skills is done through lowering the monsters resists.
You see, they already have such "% elemental damage bonus", and it's called masteries (except cold mastery). Yes, the effect of masteries is exactly like that of the % elemental damage bonuses found on items. So while for a druid, who doesn't have masteries, 50% additional fire skills damage is a huge boost, to a sorceress 50% fire skills damage is only a slight addition to 200-300% that Fire mastery already adds. And just like the % elemental bonus damage from items, the masteries also are applied to overall spell damage after synergies. This pertains only to Fire/Lightning trees of the sorceress. Cold mastery will indeed get a huge boost from such items, since the additional damage for cold skills is done through lowering the monsters resists.