Scoute/Mage Elite Skills

The description for Ignite reads as following,

"Causes (40%, based on the DPS of the ranged weapon, + 0,30 x intelligence) Fire Damage to all targets within range."

I was wondering wether it's worth using int/patts for the increased damage or would conventional stating (maximizing patt) be better. Ofcourse I am thinking of ToS HM, New Pantheon NM etc.

Also another question, is only the ranged weapon damage considered or would equipping a staff add more m.damage?

I just looked at the full list of elite skills. It looks like it may be similar to w/m, in that a LOT of magic damage can be done if statted and geared for it.

I played quote a lot of Scout/mage in the past years.

INT will Not really benefit you on Scout/mage since the aoe (though the damage counts as magical dmg) solely scales on PDMG and Patk. Using INT will lower your Patk too much so you will lose dmg on it. (Except for the essential Madness Runes)

Nearly Same story for Wind Arrows..

The little extra of INT will Just also deny you too much Patk for your whole buffing kit and burst rota which is all physical.

The Shot fb scalings require mdmg but are random and inconsistant (they are not guaranteed to even proc).

You can also use the 2h-Wand but it is suboptimal because your ranged weapon skill accuracy depend on melee weapon level which hast an insanely low max on that type.

It's a similar story compared to wisdom on Scout druid which makes EQ of your other class viable If that is your main but using These stats is way inferior to dex and strength.

I could go further into detail, but it on paper quickly shows that INT is not good in Scout/mage except for Madness runes.

Edit - Sorry for unneccessary caps. Auto correct was not deactivated on my phone

One of my characters is a Scout/Mage and although INT does add a little bit of Physical Attack, it's not worth losing out on some Dexterity, or even Strength.

Quote from InferiorityC

One of my characters is a Scout/Mage and although INT does add a little bit of Physical Attack, it's not worth losing out on some Dexterity, or even Strength.

My words! However, INT doesn't even give the scout any Patk since classes differ a lot in scaling:

https://runesofmagic.fandom.com/wiki/Attributes

That btw. is generally spoken also the reason why you cannot go cookie cutter builds for different classes in case you want to build ideally (I often heard "facts" from other people that apply to one specific class but not the one they debated about).

Good examples are the PDMG scaling difference between rogue and scout and also the different skill scalings between different rogue combinations when people debate about If 4/2, 5/1 or 6/0 is the best.

Scout/Mage has the most interrupts out of all scout combos and possible the best spammable AoE skill of all possible classes, but there doesn't seem to be a place for it other than some specific bosses for instances. I do play the class almost on a daily basis to do minigames, Mirrorworld or Dreamlands but there are so many better class options for higher damage when running instances with a group of people.

I have stated level 85-95 leather gear with all Int/PA, because I do enjoy the class combo. It's not really good for anything but Ignite and stating Int/PA is not necessary if you are only doing minigames. The extra attack triggered from Wind Arrow and Shot is randomly triggered, and does not occur often enough to stat heavy on intelligence. Stating too much Int/PA will lower your total attack power compared to using Dex/PA and Str/PA stats.

The physical attack staff that can purchased with mementos would be considered the best staff to use as a Scout/Mage if you favored towards a physical build. Ignite hits as a magical attack, but its based on physical damage of the range weapon, ranged physical attack and intelligence. Having more magical damage would only help Fireball, Lightning, plus the randomly triggered magical damage from wind arrow and shot.

The Scout/Mage can be a fun class to play in lower level instances. There have been times I used Purify on another player, because the healer or another player did not react fast enough to cleanse someone. Nuking groups of mobs in ToSH and Bethomia is fun and just about the only time I play the class combo with a group. I really wish this class combo would improve with new or updated elites to make it more useful.

Done s/m for several years, most people here are right that INT/matk helps but is not smart to stat over dex/patk.

The biggest thing I want to add is that 57% 'area damage' that Blazing Energy adds doesn't only apply to Ignite. It also applies to ALL AoEs you do including Piecing Arrow and Reflected Shot. This makes s/m a lot better than a lot of people think by spamming those 2 skills.

From personal experience the Patk staff vs dagger, the staff actually does come out ahead for me but only for ignite alone and only by like 5%. If you have rogue or any use for a dagger anyway just make a good tiered dagger. If s/m is your absolute main making one of these might actually be a decent option.

The more answers we get here, the more questions I have. I don't have a s/m and am too busy trying to gear up the other 5 toons I am running, so this is more an "academic curiosity" question.

Quote from Bakken

From personal experience the Patk staff vs dagger, the staff actually does come out ahead for me but only for ignite alone and only by like 5%.

How about the mementos dagger that has a high mdmg factor? It also has a decent pdmg value. Would it be worth considering, just to gain the extra occasional additional damage from Wind arrow and Shot? Maybe pushing the tier on it higher than normal (I keep telling myself my next weapon will be t14 but I always lose patience with how long it takes to get 3 stones and settle for 13, so I know how hard it is) would help that dagger as well. I realize that t14 really only give 4% or 5% more that t13, but that might be a lot in the end.

Quote from Grumpdaddy

The more answers we get here, the more questions I have. I don't have a s/m and am too busy trying to gear up the other 5 toons I am running, so this is more an "academic curiosity" question.

Quote from Bakken

From personal experience the Patk staff vs dagger, the staff actually does come out ahead for me but only for ignite alone and only by like 5%.

How about the mementos dagger that has a high mdmg factor? It also has a decent pdmg value. Would it be worth considering, just to gain the extra occasional additional damage from Wind arrow and Shot? Maybe pushing the tier on it higher than normal (I keep telling myself my next weapon will be t14 but I always lose patience with how long it takes to get 3 stones and settle for 13, so I know how hard it is) would help that dagger as well. I realize that t14 really only give 4% or 5% more that t13, but that might be a lot in the end.

When tiered that dagger barely has more mdmg than the regular daggers and then you lose the patk for matk likely making it worse overall.
The newest Patk staff though is nuts, at +24/t13 it gives 21k mdmg(2x the mdmg dagger) and almost 16k Patk (4x the dps dagger). For a s/m main it's very clearly superior now and so easy to get as well. T9 still has 14k patk so clean statting it is probably the way to go.