Cat 1 vs Cat 2 Damage

jdb001

Can someone explain to me to differences or benefits of focusing on Cat 1 vs Cat 2 damage? And how do I know which gear generates which type of damage?

westx211

Cat 2 damage is always better than Cat 1. the difference is Cat 2 damage has significantly less diminishing returns, which means if you stack a bunch of cat 2 buffs your damage will skyrocket. Cat 1's diminishing returns are actually horrifying. As in, say damage consoles that boost a weapon type, after the 1st one, they all become almost completely pointless. Each one giving such a tiny boost to make them worthless

The thing is though that Cat 2 buffs are harder to come across, and very few gears pieces actually give Cat 2 buffs. but the rule is generally +to Damage is Cat 1, Bonus + to damage is Cat 2.

felisean

beside the fact that there is no diminishing return for damage...

you already got a ton of +% damage, because weapon mk upgrades as example are +% dmg boosts too. thats the main reason why +% bonus dmg boosts are usualy better.
math wise its mk 1 dmg from weapon x (sum +% dmg) x (sum +% bonus dmg)

tobiashirt

The difference is in the math, so to speak.
Damage is additive within a category and multiplicative across categories.

Ex:

Base damage of a weapon is 100 Dmg/shot, you have 2 tactical consoles that each provide 30% cat1 and attack pattern Omega 1 that provides 15% cat2. Assume these are the only buffs under consideration.

30 + 30 or 0.3 + 0.3 = 0.6

1.6 * 100 = 160

0 + 0.15 = 0.15

1.15 *160 = 184

The sum of all your cat2 sources basically multiplies the result of your cat1 calculation.

As said above, if something includes the word "bonus", it's generally cat2. If in doubt and you have 2 pieces of equipment or 2 set bonuses, put each one on and look at the dps on the tooltip in space. If a 5% effect gives more damage than adding a tac console, that 5% is cat2.

Common sources of cat1 are the quality and mk of an item, how many points of power you have in the weapon subsystem, and tactical consoles.

TL DR: Focus on cat2 more than cat1 because it provides more benefit for the same percentage, and the only way to find out what gear provides what is experimentation or looking for keywords.