Attack scaling

Sorry if this question sounds a bit dumb, I'm still new to PoE 2 (have many hours in the first game), but: how important are gem levels for attack gem scaling in this game? From what I have noticed most endgame bows, crossbows and such use gem levels as spells do in PoE 1, but in that game gem levels don't scale attacks well at all.

Is this the same in PoE 2 and people only use gem levels for attacks because of a lack of relevant suffixes to use in its place, or do attacks actually scale better off of them now?

Thanks!

Comments

supermonkey1235•5 months ago•1

In PoE1, lightning arrow's base damage at level 20 is 178.6%, which becomes 198.8%. In PoE2, Lightning arrow's base damage at level 20 is 250%, and at level 40 it's 662%.

Zimvol•5 months ago•1

I only play attack builds but basically every attack skill has linear damage scaling past level 20. You can see these values on poe2db

E.g. every level of Poisonburst Arrow past 20 will increase its base damage (compared to the previous level) by 5%, whereas this value is 7.7% for Explosive Grenade and only 3.3% for Hammer of the Gods

On weapons, skill levels is a suffix, and there are few suffixes that can compete with say, ~~25% more damage from +5 projectile skills on Poisonburst Arrow or 54% from +7 for Explosive Grenade~~

Edit: The actual value is closer to 28% for Poisonburst Arrow, and 68% for Explosive Grenade, from gaining +5/+7 levels respectively.

PaleoclassicalPants•4 months ago•1

Attacks generally gain between 5% and ~8% compounding damage per level, as opposed to around ~15% for spells. Any good endgame attack weapon will have +levels on it, as its just too strong of a scaling vector to ignore, even if spells scale better with the same stat.

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