AoE Spell Cap Mechanics

Area-of-Effect (AoE) spells are spells that will deal damage to each affected target on the spell's cast, according to the AoE spell's capabilities. In certain situations, players find themselves required to use such spells; using them, you will damage multiple mobs, which may be grieved by other competitors in your group or raid. Seeing the plethora of numbers may look fancy, but it's misleading in the sense that as you add more mobs, your damage output per mob lowers, and your total damage remains constant. This behavior is caused by a mechanic that is referred to as the "AoE cap," because upon reaching the cap's value, you will do no more total damage than if you had affected more mobs. By referring to this value, you can determine your options when in AoE situations, like choosing which spell to use, or which talents to choose.

 

Contents

1 Explanation of an "AoE Cap" 1.1 Examples 2 AoE Damage Cap Listings 2.1 Mage AoE Spells 2.2 Warlock AoE Spells 2.3 Druid AoE Spells 2.4 Priest AoE Spells 2.5 Hunter AoE Spells 2.6 Shaman AoE Spells 2.7 Paladin AoE Spells 3 Inspection of AoE Spell Caps 3.1 Spell Choice 3.2 Talent Choice 3.3 Stat Choice

[top] Explanation of an "AoE Cap"

An "AoE Cap" on a certain spell means that you will deal AoE damage to mobs normally, but when you reach this cap, you deal no extra total damage. In an AoE situtation, you will do your normal damage to an amount of mobs, but when you affect a number of mobs such that you reach the cap, the cap is divided by the number of mobs you're affecting. An exception to this rule is critical strikes, which are somewhat affected by the AoE cap; the critical strikes portion of damage is not counted towards the cap, and is extra damage, but the critical strikes themselves are based upon the cap-modified damage. There are two ways to "boost" the damage cap: critical strikes and damage increasing debuffs (on the mob). If a hit from an AoE spell is resisted, the hit is excluded from the cap, and that mob is not counted in the damage calculations; if you land a partial resist, then it's assumed that it will function the same way as a normal, complete resist.

[top] Examples

A theoretical example of Arcane Explosion; 1000 damage cap, 500 hit per mob:

One mob: Two mobs: Three mobs: The three-mob encounter does 333 damage to each mob (the 334 is from the decimals), which is because of the 1000 damage cap. Because I deal 500 damage per mob, it took me two mobs to reach the cap; when I add a third, I exceed the cap, so my damage must be modified to re-equal the cap. The theoretical cap is 1000, so the equation to solve for damage is: 1000 / 3, or 333.3 damage to each mob.

Another example is below, involving one critical strike; 1000 theoretical cap; 500 base, normal damage; 750 unmodified critical strike:

One mob: Two mobs: Three mobs: Also, because CoE and such damage-increasing debuffs "avoid" the cap, a situation can be true:
With a cap of 1000; a base, normal hit of 500; and two mobs:
No mobs with CoE:
One mob with CoE:
Two mobs with CoE:

[top] AoE Damage Cap Listings

Any spells not listed are not subject to this rule; all spells listed are of its current max rank.
A [Placeholder] tag means that we require you to help us! If you know of a certain spell's max rank's damage cap, PM me or post so I know to edit it into the tables.

[top] Mage AoE Spells

Spell Name	Damage Cap
Arcane Explosion*:	10100
Dragon's Breath*:	10100
Flamestrike*:	7830; DoT portion not included, nor is subject to cap
Blast Wave*:	9440
Cone of Cold*:	6500
Blizzard*:	3620 per tic; 28950 total
Frost Nova:	1600
Water Elemental's Freeze: [Placeholder]

*Values taken from this link; Blizzard value from Roywyn.

[top] Warlock AoE Spells

Spell Name	Damage Cap
Seed of Corruption	13580
Rain of Fire	[Placeholder]
Shadowfury	[Placeholder]
Hellfire	[Placeholder]

SoC value taken from here

[top] Druid AoE Spells

Spell Name	Damage Cap
Hurricane	[Placeholder]

[top] Priest AoE Spells

Spell Name	Damage Cap
Holy Nova	~5000

[top] Hunter AoE Spells

Spell Name	Damage Cap
Volley	[Placeholder]

[top] Shaman AoE Spells

Spell Name	Damage Cap
Fire Nova Totem	9975
Magma Totem	1550 per tic; 15500 total

[top] Paladin AoE Spells

Spell Name	Damage Cap
Holy Wrath	[Placeholder]

[top] Inspection of AoE Spell Caps

By using this data, we can conclude a few details about situations where AoE is relevant.

[top] Spell Choice

By using this information of spells' caps, we can conclude that certain spells will be superior than others when you're in a situation that allows you to be capped. If you're facing an abundance of mobs, you will generally become AoE capped; thus, the AoE spell that has a larger cap will essentially deal the most damage. You may also determine the DPS value of the spells, by dividing the cast time with the spell's cap.

[top] Talent Choice

With this evidence we can conclude that talents that increase an AoE spell's damage will have no effect if the mob would become AoE capped without the talent. Parts of talents can become wasted if only a portion of the talent's points will help reach the AoE cap. An example is Improved Cone of Cold, which increase Cone of Cold's damage by 35%. This talent becomes useless in situations where you will get AoE capped without Improved Cone of Cold. However, you may also become capped with one point; thus, you may choose to re-spec to only choose 1/3 Improved Cone of Cold, which will conserve some of your talent points. Some talents will increase the critical strike chance of an AoE spell, and unlike damage increasing talents, these talents will not be wasted, as critical damage is bonus damage.

[top] Stat Choice

AoE caps can also lead players to change their stat composition when they're in AoE situations. Spell Damage is a stat that will increase your AoE spell's damage, but if the spell would be capped without this added damage, it essentially becomes wasted. You could, however, gear for Spell Crit and Spell Haste, which increase your damage output by "avoiding" the AoE cap.