Help me understand Damage and Damage caps.

[Hallibel]

Ok, so I'll start with what I know (or at least I think is correct).

 

-Damage shown on damage attributes tend to be 100% less than what is seen everywhere (on the forums, on the wiki) but that's because of the 100% base damage. IE, I see that Scrappers have a 500% damage cap, but on the Monitor window, it's capped at 400%.

-Enhancements count towards this damage cap. At say 100% damage through enhancements, I'm only 300% damage away from the cap.

 

So my first question is with Enhancements. I usually get my Scrapper up to 400% damage through inspirations and buffs and what have you. Does that mean, that if I have 95% damage through enhancements, once I'm at 305% damage on my Monitor window, any more +dmg is wasted?

 

Secondly, I know that there aren't too many +Dmg IO bonuses, but do those count towards the damage cap as well or are they separate? Theoretically speaking, if on my aforementioned Scrapper, I had +50% damage through set bonuses, would I then be able to actually go 50% above the damage cap?

[nihilii]

Yes, anything beyond 305% damage on your scrapper is wasted on powers where you already have 95% damage enhancement.

 

Your damage IO set bonuses count towards the damage cap, so they won't let you exceed the damage cap.

[Zolgar]

Your damage cap of 500% is:

 

100% (base) - % global debuffs + % slotted in powers + % global buffs (which includes set bonuses, personal buff powers like Build Up, inspirations, and buffs from allies)

 

So yes, if you have +95% damage slotted in a power, anything displayed in the combat statistics over 305% will be wasted aside from serving as a buffer against damage debuffs.

 

The only ways to bypass the damage cap are:

Resist debuffs- if you reduce your targets resist they will take more damage, even if you're at the damage cap.

Chance for damage procs- If you have IOs slotted in your attacks that give you "Chance for <type> damage", or have damage procs from Incarnate powers, you will deal more damage because the procs are separate instances of damage.

[HelenCarnate]

What Zolgar said.

[Hallibel]

Thank you all for clarifying! So IO Damage Buff bonuses aren't as useful, if you can get to the damage cap consistently.

[Dan Petro]

Correct, if you are damage capped consistently -res and damage procs (along with enough +recharge to run your best chain) are pretty much all you are building for. For damage at least.