Ok. I have a few items that have ability modifiers. What are they? I tried removing items and looked at my stats, but didn't see any difference. A couple of my guildies asked me the same question, so I know I'm not the only one who doesn't know this information. Searched, without success, for the answer. This is my last hope.
-Ability Modifier - used to be 'spell damage', 'combat art damage', 'heal amount', 'taunt amount', etc. This still works exactly the same and has been only consolidated and renamed. It adds a flat amount to the effectiveness of that ability. This flat adder is still capped at 50% of that ability's base. -For example: Say Bob's Ice Comet hits for 100 damage. If he equips 5000 Ability Mod, the damage would only increase to 150. However, if he equips INT gear or potency gear and increases his base damage from 100 to 200 then equipping 5000 Ability Mod would raise the damage from 200 to 300 The whole thread, explaining the changes that went in with Sentinel's Fate, is here: http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=471667
so im guessing then at low levels the +ability mod gear is mostly useless since the bonus it gives is so small. for instance, one character i have has a +5 ability modifier chest, which would be +5 damage for spells. it sounds like it would be better to have gear that increased stats and power/health rather then +5 ability.
Not useless, but you do need a mix. You need to boost your primary stat so your damage increases, and you want +ability modifier to boost damage/healing even further. The absolute numbers may be small, but +25% to damage is still +25% to damage and means your DPS is 125% of what it would be otherwise and the mobs die that much faster. OTOH I wouldn't sacrifice an increased primary stat for +ability mod unless my primary stat's already past cap for my current tier.
At the very low levels, +5 Ability modifer is FAR more important than a few points of your primary stat. After SOE did the gear revamp, I leveled up a couple of alts and used the Treasured +Ability Modifier gear pieces instead of Mastercraft jewelry. (For reference, I still gave them Mastercrafted armor and weapons.) Up until about levels 47-52, stacking on +Ability Modifier was godly. The +Ability Modifier cap is 1/2 the normal damage / heal / taunt that the ability would normally do. So if your spell normally did 100 pts, then that ability's +Ability Modifier cap would be +50. Therefore as your stats rise over all, your +Ability Modifier cap also increases. After you hit around the 40's, it's very possible that you may have stacked on more +Ability Modifier than you can actually use. T1 dps classes won't have this problem, but many of the others will. Once you start to hit this ceiling, slowly phase out your +Ability Modifier pieces for others which increase your primary stat. For example, +5 Int at around 20th may provide you an extra +1-2 pts on your damage. Yet +5 Ability Modifier would give you an extra +5 pts on your damage. Now your main goal would be to wear gear which gives you an increase to your primary stat and +Ability Modifier. But if you're upgrading your gear pieces and are forced to choose between a few points of primary stat or an additional +5 Ability Modifier, then the Ability Modifier should win every time. The only real exception to this rule has to do with classes which are based around their auto attack being the primary source of their dps. Both my Inquisitor and Bruiser alts fell under this bracket. Yet even then, it wasn't until the late 40's that I felt the pinch of having a poor auto attack rate. Once I hit 52nd, I switched to all Mastercrafted jewelry and felt a noticeable boost. (Level 52nd MC armor has some +Ability Modifier, so I didn't lose all of my old bonuses.)
