How much difference does 1 power level make?

[Nemesis7884]

Is there a general formula or rule of thump how much stronger/better abilities are per power level to get a feel of what we are talking about? Is there a general formula? or is it completly dependent on the individual skill?

 

Are we talking like 5% better or...? I am having a hard time getting a feel for this...

[knownastherat]

Same here, it's far from straightforward. 5% sounds about right.

[Witness41920]

So, the easiest way for me to explain the relationship of power level to abilities is this, and I hope it's clear:

 

Each "power level" adds 10% effectiveness to each power level BELOW that current level, cumulatively. 

 

So, for example, if your character has power level 8...

 

Level 7 abilities will be +10% effective

Level 6 abilities will be +20% effective

Level 5 abilities will be +30% effective

Level 4 abilities will be +40% effective

Level 3 abilities will be +50% effective

Level 2 abilities will be +60% effective

Level 1 abilities will be +70% effective

 

Now this is a general rule as some abilities have different scaling. (Minoletta's Minor Missiles, for instance, would only have a 35% bonus even though it's a level 1 ability). 

 

This means that the most you can get in a single character is Power Level 10 providing a maximum bonus of +90% effectiveness to level 1 abilities and +10% to level 9 abilities. (Without equipment, which can raise this further). 

[Nemesis7884]

So, the easiest way for me to explain the relationship of power level to abilities is this, and I hope it's clear:

 

Each "power level" adds 10% effectiveness to each power level BELOW that current level, cumulatively.

 

So, for example, if your character has power level 8...

 

Level 7 abilities will be +10% effective

Level 6 abilities will be +20% effective

Level 5 abilities will be +30% effective

Level 4 abilities will be +40% effective

Level 3 abilities will be +50% effective

Level 2 abilities will be +60% effective

Level 1 abilities will be +70% effective

 

Now this is a general rule as some abilities have different scaling. (Minoletta's Minor Missiles, for instance, would only have a 35% bonus even though it's a level 1 ability).

 

This means that the most you can get in a single character is Power Level 10 providing a maximum bonus of +90% effectiveness to level 1 abilities and +10% to level 9 abilities. (Without equipment, which can raise this further).

That means at max lvl multiclass spells will be 20% weaker?

[Nanomachin]

It depends on the ability / item. Some get +5% duration and damage per powerlevel, some get +10%. They all get +1 accuracy per powerlevel (on top of the +2 per ability level accuracy bonus inherent to any item / ability).

[Witness41920]

That means at max lvl multiclass spells will be 20% weaker?

Depending on the build but up to 30% weaker, yes. A single-class character can get a base power level of 10 if they take the passive increase at power level 9. A multi-class character can only obtain a base power level of 7.

 

So, at max base power level: [single Class/Multiclass]

 

Level 9 Abilities/Spells: +10% / - -

Level 8 Abilities/Spells: +20% / - -

Level 7 Abilities/Spells: +30% / +0%

Level 6 Abilities/Spells: +40% / +10%

Level 5 Abilities/Spells: +50% / +20%

Level 4 Abilities/Spells: +60% / +30%

Level 3 Abilities/Spells: +70% / +40%

Level 2 Abilities/Spells: +80% / +50%

Level 1 Abilities/Spells: +90% / +60%

 

That's a 30% difference at every power level. I haven't finished testing multi-class yet (I'll be finishing later today), but early testing actually suggests it's even worse than that because it divides the power level by 2 for multiclass, so instead of the usual 10% bonus per power level you actually only get 5% bonus in both classes. I'm not sure if that's true yet or not but that's what it looks like.

[Kaylon]

For spells the rule is simple: +10%dmg, +5%duration and +0.3penetration per (Power Level - Spell Level). So a nature godlike starts already with 20%dmg, 10%duration and 0.6penetration advantage as a spellcaster. For martial classes the benefit of the PL is marginal at best and varies from case to case.

 

PS. These bonuses increase the base stats of the spells (ie they are multiplied also by mig/int bonuses) - ie Empower more than doubles the initial damage and increases the duration by half (in the case of a DoT the total dmg is more than tripled with Empower).

Edited May 18, 2018 by Kaylon