Which gives better damage overall to a weapon: +10min damage or +10max damage

[eugene]

Hi, I'm in 2 minds right now. I have 2 jewels but only 1 slot in a rare claw. So I was wondering which is the better option to get the best damage overall: the +10 minimum damage jewel or the +10 maximum damage jewel.

Thanks.

[sweetalmonds]

same .

ed-although damage range will be more stable with the min jewel

[eugene]

same .

ed-although damage range will be more stable with the min jewel

Thanks. I will go for more stable damage then. With CB from a pair of gloves, I think constant stable damage is a better way to kill the Primes than extreme high and low variant damages. Here's hoping I can get a better jewel or a better claw. :)

[0blique]

Actually, if the min and max damage of the base weapon is very close (think phase blades), then +min dmg can be more effective. This is because the max damage will always be set to be greater than the min damage by at least 1. So if you start with a weapon that does 5-6 damage, and then add 2 minimum damage, the weapon will do 7-8 damage.

For most items, this doesn't matter.

[jel]

However IIRC, +max damage is usually higher than +min damage, which again gives a higher average, so it's not something that can be answered with yes/no, unless you've min damage = max damage as of here, but that's not very often the case in my experience. (+max damage jewels give more +damage than +min damage jewels, however the spread is less for +min damage, which means against 2 different opponents, +max would have been best against nr. 1, as you wouldn't be able to OHKO, and therefore having a higher average is important, while against opponent nr. 2, who deals huge amount of damage, and it's important to OHKO, you'd be 100% certain with +min, but not 100% with +max damage (maybe 70% or something like that), which is a huge difference).

[sirpoopsalot]

However IIRC, +max damage is usually higher than +min damage...

Correct. The "Vermillion" and "Carnage" mods on jewels can add up to +15 max damage each (so a +30 jewel is possible). The "Crimson" and "Bliss" mods on jewels only add +8 and +10 min damage, respectively (so a +18 minimum damage jewel is possible - assuming Arreat Summit is correct).

However, iirc, Vermillion and Carnage cannot spawn on rare jewels, but the +min damage mods do - so rare jewels are often much closer on their +min/max damage.