How well does Str scale with melee damage?

[Archived Post]

Hi all,

Im just curious if theres a significant difference in damage if you choose it as one of your superstats or if you dont. It says in the description Str affects melee damage, but I've been recommended by a friend to go Dex/Ego for my Dual blade/Munition guy. How much does superstating Str make a difference in melee damage numbers (as compared to building Str up externally through items). Is it a must?

Many Thanks.

[Archived Post]

pretty badly ...

its not worth worrying about

[Archived Post]

I was doing a bit of testing myself on this since it was a known fact that STR does help boost melee damage, even if it is not your superstat.

The results?

This was with a level 40 character at the end of open beta, however I can't remember what two melee powers I tested, but I believe they were both from Might.

10 STR
First Melee Power: 133-395 damage
Second Melee Power: 154-645

15 STR
FMP: 133-398
SMP: 155-649

20 STR
FMP: 134-399
SMP: 155-652

23 STR
FMP: 134-400
SMP: 156-653

28 STR
FMP: 135-402
SMP: 157-656



Looking at the data, across almost 20 points of STR, the damage goes up by less than 2%, meaning you get more bang for your buck investing points in to your superstats. On the other hand, if you had a melee character and they chose STR as a superstat, then you also get that little tiny bit of additional bonus.


There is also a misconception that I've come across that Ego modifies the damage of Telekinesis attacks which is false. The same kind of test I did above showed that the Telekinesis damage values did not scale with Ego. However, when you are in Ego form, your damage does get modified by your Ego.

Here's some data to back that up:

EGO 25
First TK Power: 148
Second TK Power: 128-193

EGO 30
FTP: 150
STP: 129-194

EGO 35
FTP: 151
STP:130-196

Again not a very huge boost across 10 points of Ego. This too was a test at level 40.

[Archived Post]

Hi all,

Im just curious if theres a significant difference in damage if you choose it as one of your superstats or if you dont. It says in the description Str affects melee damage, but I've been recommended by a friend to go Dex/Ego for my Dual blade/Munition guy. How much does superstating Str make a difference in melee damage numbers (as compared to building Str up externally through items). Is it a must?

Many Thanks.

It doesnt make the blind bit of different. You can super stat w/e you want, your damage is based of both you super stats anyway.

Strength is for things like Tangible break free resistance, weight you can pick up and .knockback resistance/strength in general.

Just because its called "strength" does not imply it has anything to do wtih your melee damage, unless you want it too if your going to be a melee guy.

Dex would be Crits and Agression stealth strength, and Ego is for your crit "severity" and intangible hold resistance.

@ Above post

Ok so only a tiny bit of difference if you dont SS it.

But SS it then invest in it and you do a hell of a lot more melee damage.

[Archived Post]

so that means that its better to do dex ego

[Archived Post]

so that means that its better to do dex ego

If you want, its up to you

[Archived Post]

The tooltip says it boosts melee damage, but i'm told it does not. Unless its your superstat of course.

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Those level 40 tests may not very accurate, especially if the person had gear from before they were boosted. At least with Dexterity there's a point where after you get X amount the boost gets noticeably stronger. So if you go from 10-20 DEX you may notice a 2% increase, but if you go from 100-105 you'll notice a 5% increase.

These numbers are not accurate, but are an attempt to explain the concept. I don't know if that's true for other stats.

[Archived Post]

so that means that its better to do dex ego

I'd like to disagree with many so far. However would like to disclaim, I could be wrong.

One person above mentions at level 40 they saw little benefit to STR damage bonus. I looked at the scaled numbers they were using and they were ridiculously low. I am at Level 13 and already have a STR of 77, bye 40 probably ~200, they used STR numbers like 10 and 15 STR at level 40, I spit at those numbers, lol.

At my current levels, every swing I make, I get a +36% to damage bonus. Now compare that to Dex/Ego, I would have to level each. Dex gives me a % to critical, maybe if lucky, splitting resources I'd get that to ~25% of the time I get a crit, probably not even that high. Then I have to keep Ego up to get the Critical bonus damage and it would have to be kept up fairly well to get the STR bounus I receive now on every hit. You would have to invest in both all game long, so investing heavily in two means A. Not as high numbers as investing strong in one and/or others secondary stats will suffer a bit more.

So thinking about it... I got STR to 77, if I were maxing 2 other stats instead of only one, I would have those two at say 38.5 each right now. I'll make a wild guess here and say if I did that I say my crit would be around 15-20% and my crit damage bonus around 20-35%. IMO that doesn't compare favorably to the STR bonus at this time.

I enjoy a 36% bonus every time I land a blow with high STR.

[Archived Post]

It doesnt make the blind bit of different. You can super stat w/e you want, your damage is based of both you super stats anyway.

Strength is for things like Tangible break free resistance, weight you can pick up and .knockback resistance/strength in general.

Just because its called "strength" does not imply it has anything to do wtih your melee damage, unless you want it too if your going to be a melee guy.
I thought this for a long time as well, but melee damage IS affected by strength. It was confirmed by an orange name that, yes, Strength affects melee damage even if it's not a super-stat. It gives 2/3 as much benefit as an equivalent super-stat. Strength and melee damage are the exception to the rule.

Unfortunately the post in question was on the closed beta boards and so is long lost.

[Archived Post]

I'd like to disagree with many so far. However would like to disclaim, I could be wrong.

One person above mentions at level 40 they saw little benefit to STR damage bonus. I looked at the scaled numbers they were using and they were ridiculously low. I am at Level 13 and already have a STR of 77, bye 40 probably ~200, they used STR numbers like 10 and 15 STR at level 40, I spit at those numbers, lol.

At my current levels, every swing I make, I get a +36% to damage bonus. Now compare that to Dex/Ego, I would have to level each. Dex gives me a % to critical, maybe if lucky, splitting resources I'd get that to ~25% of the time I get a crit, probably not even that high. Then I have to keep Ego up to get the Critical bonus damage and it would have to be kept up fairly well to get the STR bounus I receive now on every hit. You would have to invest in both all game long, so investing heavily in two means A. Not as high numbers as investing strong in one and/or others secondary stats will suffer a bit more.

So thinking about it... I got STR to 77, if I were maxing 2 other stats instead of only one, I would have those two at say 38.5 each right now. I'll make a wild guess here and say if I did that I say my crit would be around 15-20% and my crit damage bonus around 20-35%. IMO that doesn't compare favorably to the STR bonus at this time.

I enjoy a 36% bonus every time I land a blow with high STR.

You got STR that high WITHOUT making it a Superstat?

[Archived Post]

I'd like to disagree with many so far. However would like to disclaim, I could be wrong.

One person above mentions at level 40 they saw little benefit to STR damage bonus. I looked at the scaled numbers they were using and they were ridiculously low. I am at Level 13 and already have a STR of 77, bye 40 probably ~200, they used STR numbers like 10 and 15 STR at level 40, I spit at those numbers, lol.

At my current levels, every swing I make, I get a +36% to damage bonus. Now compare that to Dex/Ego, I would have to level each. Dex gives me a % to critical, maybe if lucky, splitting resources I'd get that to ~25% of the time I get a crit, probably not even that high. Then I have to keep Ego up to get the Critical bonus damage and it would have to be kept up fairly well to get the STR bounus I receive now on every hit. You would have to invest in both all game long, so investing heavily in two means A. Not as high numbers as investing strong in one and/or others secondary stats will suffer a bit more.

So thinking about it... I got STR to 77, if I were maxing 2 other stats instead of only one, I would have those two at say 38.5 each right now. I'll make a wild guess here and say if I did that I say my crit would be around 15-20% and my crit damage bonus around 20-35%. IMO that doesn't compare favorably to the STR bonus at this time.

I enjoy a 36% bonus every time I land a blow with high STR.
This is a bad comparison. If you went Dex/Ego, you'd still be getting 36% to every swing because that's what super-stats do. This thread isn't about the super-stat bonus, it's about the (unlisted) bonus from Strength that applies specifically to melee attacks.

And for what it's worth, my level 15 Dex/Ego character has roughly 25% crit and 100% crit severity. That's, on average, equivalent to an extra 25% flat damage bonus, on top of the 60-odd % I'm getting from super-stats.

However, the 24% (?) invisible bonus you're getting from Strength, now that's worth talking about... :)

[Archived Post]

I'd like to disagree with many so far. However would like to disclaim, I could be wrong.

One person above mentions at level 40 they saw little benefit to STR damage bonus. I looked at the scaled numbers they were using and they were ridiculously low. I am at Level 13 and already have a STR of 77, bye 40 probably ~200, they used STR numbers like 10 and 15 STR at level 40, I spit at those numbers, lol.

At my current levels, every swing I make, I get a +36% to damage bonus. Now compare that to Dex/Ego, I would have to level each. Dex gives me a % to critical, maybe if lucky, splitting resources I'd get that to ~25% of the time I get a crit, probably not even that high. Then I have to keep Ego up to get the Critical bonus damage and it would have to be kept up fairly well to get the STR bounus I receive now on every hit. You would have to invest in both all game long, so investing heavily in two means A. Not as high numbers as investing strong in one and/or others secondary stats will suffer a bit more.

So thinking about it... I got STR to 77, if I were maxing 2 other stats instead of only one, I would have those two at say 38.5 each right now. I'll make a wild guess here and say if I did that I say my crit would be around 15-20% and my crit damage bonus around 20-35%. IMO that doesn't compare favorably to the STR bonus at this time.

I enjoy a 36% bonus every time I land a blow with high STR.


You make some good points, and I think it all depends on what character theme you are going for in the end. However, you did forget to mention that you get TWO superstats either way (which means at least 20 of both at level 13) and Dex and Ego are generally not combined into the same gear slots. (Dex usually appears on offensive and defensive items, Ego usually appears on Utility and occasionally as a secondary on others) You would be able to increase them both without any loss to the other stat.

I also think (not sure) that it should be possible to get (at least) a 50% crit rate with a fairly high (more than double) damage improvement from ego if one statted right and used an offensive passive, as the 25% crit rate you were talking about was fairly easily achieved on the character I tested it with.

Once I get the game on the first of September, I'll try and do some testing to get some accurate numbers.

[Archived Post]

It doesnt make the blind bit of different. You can super stat w/e you want, your damage is based of both you super stats anyway.

Strength is for things like Tangible break free resistance, weight you can pick up and .knockback resistance/strength in general.

Just because its called "strength" does not imply it has anything to do wtih your melee damage, unless you want it too if your going to be a melee guy.

The reason is because you don't have your STR stat high enough, once high enough bonus damage percentages kick in.

[Archived Post]

You got STR that high WITHOUT making it a Superstat?

No, it is a superstat. Was that part of this? Not allowing to use it as a superstat? If so, oops, sorry.

[Archived Post]

No, it is a superstat. Was that part of this? Not allowing to use it as a superstat? If so, oops, sorry.

Yeah you completely voided the entire test.

If STR is a superstat then it DOES increase your damage. Whatever your SUPERSTATS are is where your damage comes from.

[Archived Post]

This is a bad comparison. If you went Dex/Ego, you'd still be getting 36% to every swing because that's what super-stats do. This thread isn't about the super-stat bonus, it's about the (unlisted) bonus from Strength that applies specifically to melee attacks.

And for what it's worth, my level 15 Dex/Ego character has roughly 25% crit and 100% crit severity. That's, on average, equivalent to an extra 25% flat damage bonus, on top of the 60-odd % I'm getting from super-stats.

However, the 24% (?) invisible bonus you're getting from Strength, now that's worth talking about... :)

Thank you. That clears it up for me and why I use "I could be wrong". I'm learning as well, is that documented within the game? I did not know this. Thanks.

[Archived Post]

Yeah you completely voided the entire test.

If STR is a superstat then it DOES increase your damage. Whatever your SUPERSTATS are is where your damage comes from.

Yes, just learned this. Thank you.

[Archived Post]

Thank you. That clears it up for me and why I use "I could be wrong". I'm learning as well, is that documented within the game? I did not know this. Thanks.
Super-stats are incredibly poorly explained in-game; that's why we get a zillion threads asking about them. Then there's the fact that Strength's extra melee bonus isn't displayed like the super-stat damage bonus, and... yeah, it's no wonder people don't know about this stuff :o