200+Spell Damage Increase Gear Guide.

[alk760]

"This is the way"

Obtaining the following gear is not easy and acquiring it requires completing many quests multiple times.
Also a skilled spellcrafter is needed.

First on the list is going to be a set of jewelry from the Mage Tower Quest. Preferably the red set. 
This gemmed with moonstone will get you over the 26 sdi cap on jewelry. 90 sdi in total 3pc set.

Second your going to need some complete Artifact pieces. Arms,Legs and again use moonstones.
It's ok to mix and match artifacts some will be better than others for caster builds
"Druid and the Divine pieces are best" but the Arcane set works just fine after you spellcraft.

Third is obtaining 8 Guardian's Crest Shields from the Merlin Quest.

Fourth you will seek out Dracula's Shroud From the Vampire Hunter Quest will give you 15 sdi.
Two shrouds drop the other will be 10 sdi.

Fifth you are going to get the 5 sdi Sandals, and 5 sdi belt from the Lernean Hydra Quest.
These are the only sdi items for those slots.
*This will be the most difficult* You may need to do this with an alt if your SDI is under 150.

Other notable items are Hat of the Magi this will be better than the artifact with it's 26 sdi cap.
Wickermans Chest is 15 sdi giving 5 more than an artifact.  "Obtained from the Wickerman in Doom Dungeon Quest."
"has massive spellcraft penalties" but if done right  you can stay bonus caped.
15 SDI Red Umaru's Gloves from the Kings Hunting Preserve Quest. *Very rare will take many tries*  Rewards are very RNG...
Challenge Tower competition Shirt 10 SDI 
Basic spellcrafted necklace with 26 sdi.
Arcane Tailoring Gear has high sdi potential  "has limited charges" 

Finally your going to need a good set of Slayer Books with that super rare sdi bonus of 5 to 25.

[Amairgen]

This may warrant re-Testing . .

I think you will find it capped at 100% . . would be interested in hearing more on this as beyond 100% was not the intended when the shard was created. I am not saying I am opposed if the arguments are valid but at the moment I think 100% is plenty.

[alk760]

You and I tested 600+ sdi and the fireball spell did 288 non slayer damage.
[sdimystats shows sdi over 100% and with what gear is available players can get up to 250ish sdi but sacrifice not having every bonus caped.
The main reason for the gemstone rework was to bring cast damages up so they were on par with melee classes.
Only melee classes benefit from leech & hit spell effects.

[Sargoth]

Coming back to this post. As I tested today, over-capped SDI doesn't work.

I performed a test on a Juggernaut monster spawned in Arete training area (Level 3 - Melee). It has 0% all res.

Test 1:
100% SDI on my character.
Casting only energy bolts.

Total spells to kill the monster: 26
Average damage of a single Energy bolt: 140
Lowest hit: 134
Highest hit: 147

Test 2:
152% SDI on my character checked by [SDImystats command.
Casting only energy bolts.

Total spells to kill the monster: 24
Average damage of a single Energy bolt: 143
Lowest hit: 139
Highest hit: 149

It would seem that there is a slight difference, however definitely not a 52% difference. Diminishing returns? Bug?
With every 10% below 100% you can immediately feel the difference in your spell power. Once you hit 100% and keep adding, no real difference in dmg.
I tested on several other monsters normally spawned in a world (those have randomized resistances) however results were similar showing almost no increase.

At this point I am no longer aiming to obtain any more SDI as it is simply a waste of resources without any added benefit.

[Amairgen]

Sept 18, 2023 8:17:17 GMT -8 Sargoth said:

Coming back to this post. As I tested today, over-capped SDI doesn't work.

I performed a test on a Juggernaut monster spawned in Arete training area (Level 3 - Melee). It has 0% all res.

Test 1:
Total spells to kill the monster: 26
Average damage of a single Energy bolt: 140

Test 2:
Total spells to kill the monster: 24
Average damage of a single Energy bolt: 143

It would seem that there is a slight difference, however definitely not a 52% difference. Diminishing returns? Bug?
With every 10% below 100% you can immediately feel the difference in your spell power. Once you hit 100% and keep adding, no real difference in dmg.

At this point I am no longer aiming to obtain any more SDI as it is simply a waste of resources without any added benefit.

Your test results are an accurate reflection of mine on the 'Test Server' and also of what is intended. The differences from one test to another reflect the randomness of the potential damage done on each spell cast.

Thanks for clarifying this for everyone.

Cheers

[Tracina]

From the UO Wiki, this is what it says about SDI:

Spell Damage Increase (SDI) is an item property that increases the damage of most magical attacks that are cast. This property is capped at 25% in PVP provided you don't have more than 30% of a skill in two different spell lines or Animal Taming or Parry. Then, you will become "focused" to that spell line and can display it from your titles menu, under overhead name, skills. So, if you have Imbuing, mysticism and focus you can be a focused mystic, but not if you have mysticism and 31 in evaluating intelligence. It's noteworthy that chivalry is amongst the magical lines even though it has no spell affected by SDI. So, if you have 120 magery and 120 chivalry, you won't be a focused mage. If you are not eligible to be focused, then your SDI pvp cap will be 20%. For PvE there is no cap on spell damage, so pack it on.


There is no formula needed for Spell Damage Increase because it is a true conversion, a 10% increase means your spell damage is increased 10% and so on. The intensity range of the Spell Damage Increase item property is 1% to 18% for found rings and bracelets. The apparent maximum is 50% for special items (e.g., Shattered Obelisk Invasion Spellbook).

So, I'm wondering if this has to do with the "focused" aspect of the skill.  And, although there are spell damage ranges, a character with 150 SDI should be putting out a good bit more damage than someone with 100 SDI.  It appears that, although we're seeing SDI greater than 100, something may still be capping it.  

I don't really worry too much about uber SDI, a good bow and a better pet always seem to get me through.  I just had to throw my measly 2 cents in there. 

[Sargoth]

I think the difference between the UO Wiki and Traditions is that Traditions are running on an older patch. No TerMur, High Seas content, there is no Mysticism, Imbuing and many other things. We have custom things and custom balance.
Back then on a same patch as we have here now, the SDI used to be capped at 100% even on official, because more wasn't needed for balancing purposes related to the available content.
As the content was added, everything was boosted and certain caps removed because players needed more power to beat the tougher content.
It is the never ending circle of development - Increase player strength -> Increase difficulty of content -> Increase player strength -> Increase difficulty of content and so on.

I don't mind SDI being capped from the balancing point of view. It is good in my eyes that we are not one-shotting monsters and we are struggling now and then :-)
However from the gear progression point, as a Tamer/Mage I can be wearing (and I am) starting armor + crafted jewellery and be maxed-out offensively, having pretty much no reason to improve my gear except defenses.
That is something I'd think is worth looking into.. No matter what build, players should have the reason and possibility to farm more resources, find artifacts, do quests and enhance their items to improve their builds gear-wise.

[Bran]

I don't mind SDI capped at 100%. I do fine with enhanced equipment, nice pots made by Daedalus and a big meat shield.

Getting to 100SDI is just one bonus for enhancing equipment. I got my stats maxed can almost spam cast and rarely drain mana. personal I dont settle for just the good beginner gear.