+15% Cold Damage Tals Set - When is it added?

[MandarkSWG]

Hi, I'm trying to decide what gear to use for my Blizzard MF Sorceress and have been stuck trying to decide between 3 Tals pieces + unique gear and the full Tals set.

My decision hinges on whether the +15% Cold Damage is added after synergies and +skill items are added onto it, or before +skill items are added on.

Does anyone have the answer to that? A link with a thorough analysis or some kind of proof would help me out more than just a yes or no answer and would be much appreciated.

Thanks a lot,

Mandark

[peterpaulrubens]

That kind of added damage is essentially "Cold Mastery" in the same way that Fire and Lightning Mastery adds damage. You've probably often heard that facets don't add that much damage for lightning or fire sorcs because the facet bonus stacks directly with their Mastery bonus. Well, the Tal's cold bonus is the same type of bonus that facets offer, in terms of % damage.

So, it's base damage * synergy * "cold mastery".

I don't know of any link I could post without breaking the rules.

[MandarkSWG]

Thanks for the reply Peter. :smiley:

Just to clarify, the base damage of Blizzard with all the synergies maxed is 2280-2476 according to a skill calculator I found online. So I'd multiply that by 1.15 giving me 2622-2847 (roughly +400 damage) and then the +skill items get added on. So if my Blizzard does 5000-5500 now with +skill item, it'd be roughly 5400-5900?

[peterpaulrubens]

You take your final damage after + skills, which is 5000 - 5500, and multiply the result by 1.15.

So, 5750 to 6325.

[Leohappy]

+% to cold dmg is very worth it on cold sorc because the dmg is multiplied directly, since cold mastery lowers resistances and doesn't increase dmg like fire/light mastery does

[GotFriana]

Maybe this (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=151250) old thread can help you.

[MandarkSWG]

Thanks a lot for the help guys. This is exactly the way I was hoping it would work.

Take care,

Mandark