What factors determine damage cap?
From doing a bit of messing around, it looks to me like the biggest one is bow speed. It also looks to me like bow skill plays a role, though not as big as the speed of the bow. Are there any other factors that go into this? Does ToA +dmg raise your cap, or just decrease variance?
Also, how important do y'all feel that damage cap is to your success? I'm thinking that even if you crit for 1200, that's not enough to kill even a caster, most times, so cap might not be super-crucial, unless you just like the impressive numbers.
Opinions?

I am sure the boys will find you the calculation for the damage cap, but on bow it is a combination of dps, dex/weaponskill, and bow speed, I think. There are many variables I haven't figured out yet like summoned arrows.

As for the importance of cap, I am looking for ways to improve my dex in order to increase weapon skill. My perception, and I might very well be wrong, is that the larger damage cap you have the more damage you are going to do.

Dexterity does not affect damage cap. You could have 1 Dex or 400 Dex and still have exactly the same cap if all other things (bow speed, DPS, bow spec, TOA bonuses) are the same.

However, higher Dexterity WILL improve your damage variance, which means you'll have a better chance to get close to or hit your cap on each shot..

The testing I've done bears up what Fadringle said. Capped buffs don't change my cap at all vs. totally unbuffed. Since buffs dramatically increase WS, I would think that WS does not figure into damage cap.

So, factors are:
1. Bow speed
2. Bow DPS (?)
3. Bow skill

And maybe ToA damage?
Any others? I feel like I must be missing something.

there are ALOT of variables in determining your damage cap (lets leave relics out for now). Lets Break down the simple ones.

1) Bow Spec - The higher the spec the more WS and less damage variance.
2) Bows speed- The slower the bow the higher the possible cap can be( bonuses can increase the cap for faster bows but not beyond the games hard cap ).
3) Dex - the more Dex the more weaponskill you have (Dex does not increase you possible cap only helps you reach it by increasing your WS)
4) Weapon Skill - the more weasponskill the less variance between min and max damage (cap)
5)Defense - The targets defense in relation to your WS (abs/AF/pd) Note: there is a forumula that escapes me at the moment to determine what WS you need to cap on every hit in relation to a targets Defense
6) TOA bonus- like relic bonuses they can't increase your max cap (max cap for bow in game is 1200)but will lower the variance and allow faster speed bows to hit closer to the max cap.

Importance of cap damage? to me its not necessary but very nice to cap often.

I think the real # junkies can correct my errors and provide more indepth info.

I am probably wrong about the dex. My mistake, sorry.

If I'm not mistaken, exactly 4 things affect your damage cap:

1) Modified bow spec.
2) Bow speed.
3) Bow quality/condition.
4) Bow dps - 16.2/16.5 at the high end.

Dex, relics, and ToA bonuses contribute to raising your average damage, but do not affect your absolute cap. If you want to find your cap for a particular bow & spec level, just crit shot a low gray con mob -- the result should be independent of relics/toa/dex/etc.

Damage Cap = DPS * SPD * 3 * (1 + (SPD – 2) * .03)

This is the equation for your basic dmg cap I believe.

That is for a 1 handed weapon.

For bows you have to then add in the two hand bonus:

which is

Damage Cap = (DPS * SPD * 3 * (1 + (SPD – 2) * .03)) * (1.1 + (.05 * Spec))

It's "(1.1 + (.005 * Spec))" or it will be a bit high :)

When computing the DPS in that formula is DPS equal to bow DPS PLUS DPS from Damage Add? For instance I have 16.5 bow and DA spell for 7.2 would my DPS be 23.7?


Thanks,
Red
:D

Dmg add DPS should not be included.

Also if you use the formular remember that it's for a regular shot, not a critshot and that the best arrows have 25% dmg bonus.

So if you take a RR7 hunter with 50 bow spec that have GSV and use a Falcon Talon Bow your cap will be :

Damage Cap = (16.5 * 5.3 * 3 * (1 + (5.3 – 2) * .03)) * (1.1 + (.005 * (50+11+6))

= 413.7430028 (regular shot)

= 827.4860055 (critshot)

Critshot cap will then be: 827,4860055 * 1.25 * 0.04 = 1075,73180728

http://www.critshot.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6812&highlight=damage+formula

After studying some actual results from this thread, I revise my earlier statement.

Four things matter for cap damage:
1) DPS
2) Speed
3) Modififed bow spec
4) ToA bonus damage

The formula is
DPS * Speed * 3 * (1 + .03*(SPD-2)) * (1.1 + .005*Spec) * 1.25 * (1 + ToA)

The .03 multiplier is the slow weapon bonus. The .005 multiplier is the 2H weapon spec bonus. The 1.25 is the FFB bonus. So far as I can tell, the 3 is just a numeric constant. :)

That exactly matches almost every result from the earlier thread. A couple of their results are within 1 point of that, which I'm sure is due to rounding somewhere along the line.

The highest possible cap, for a RR10 archer with 50+20 bow, Immolated, and 6% damage from GSV and GOLM, is 1228.

A 50+13 RR3 archer with Immolated and no ToA bonuses would have a 1131 crit cap.

hmmm...the formula dont work for me.

1) bow with 16.3 dps (exactly 16.335 -> 16.5 dps and 99% quali)
2) 5.8 speed
3) 50+16
4) no ToA bonus damage

my result using the formula of sned is 1177.23
i fired a lot of arrows on lowlvl mob and my cap was 1165.
whats wrong?

edit: using the formula of kesteral my result is 1131,95.
:o

Taken From Spydor's Web (http://daoc.nisrv.com/modules.php?name=Critshot_Cap_Calc)

Formula used:
Regular Shot Cap = (edps * spd * 3 * (1 + (spd - 2) * .03)) * (1.1 + (.005 * spec)) * (arrow bonus) * (toa bonus)
Critshot Cap = Regular Shot Cap * 2

When using footed flights the arrow bonus is 25% or 1.25 for the above formula.

using the calculator on spydor´s, my result is 1134.
but why i hit grey mob with 1165?

not sure .. the calculator has always worked for me and been spot on

try this formula, with rounding added in:

round(round(BowDPS * BowSpeed * 3 * (1+ (BowSpeed-2) * .03) * (1.1 + (bowSpec/2)/100)) * 1.25 * 2*(1+archDmg))

Konegs calc:

http://home.comcast.net/~shadowspawn3/bowdmg.html

Koneg's Table works for me exactly.

I did the Spydor's Web one and with Braggerts bow it said my cap was 1150.
I haven't hit for that much, but it i'm not far off. 1120 is what I seem to be hitting for.

That is from a Highlander Scout too.

How would the summoned arrows with extra damage fit in with the cap? Would they extend it or a cap is a cap and they wouldn't effect it?