Someone use science to explain some of the skill affixes on items to me

[z00t]

I know that it's just datamined info, and things could be different, but for the sake of discussion, let's assume that what we see now is what we're going to get.

To me, when I see something like: "+14% damage Spectral Blades", isn't it effectively the same as saying "+14 Intelligence when using Spectral Blades"?

14 Intelligence as a high-level item affix isn't a lot and it's even worse when it applies only to a SINGLE skill.

I can understand cooldown-reduction item affixes, but the ones that grant +% damage (up to 14%) seem so tiny to me. Surely even a caster character would favour rolling +75 Strength than what is effectively only +14 Intelligence for a SINGLE skill, right?

[Wildmoon]

1 int=1% damage? I don't really know so I can't tell you.

[aj2000]

I'm not up to date on D3 mechanics, but just in general you'd need to consider if the skill damage bonus is multiplicative with stat damage bonus. I wonder if this is the way it works in D3?

eg. Get 50% damage bonus from stat = 150% damage, an item with 50% damage bonus to spectral blade on top of that = 225% damage.

[Dahmer]

A skill affix would be good to have on top of basic stat affixes.

Like you could for example have a dagger with two affixes :
+75 int
+14% damage spectral blades