Karison

I'd always heard ministration skill lowaers the power cost of heals, but I got a 34th level inquisitor / 80 carpenter he's really just a crafter alt.

I made the last 12 levels on collections from my main. Today I leveled his skill up to where they should be so I can play him.

I checked Ministration V when his skill was 75, the spell took 79 power accorrding to the examine window. After leveling the skill to the max of 170 it still said 79 power.

No assuming the examine window reports power reduction like it does for casting speed and such I'm back to wondering what the skill is actually used for.

It doesn't increase crit chance like I've been told.
It doesn't help with resists like other skills do.
It doesn't affect heal amount.

Could someone shine some light this way? I gotta assume it does something.

Thanks

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Karison - 80 Necromancer
Gromdall - 80 Guardian ( still wiping the new smell off of level 80 )

Stubbswick

I haven't ever heard much about Ministration, other than "it reduces power cost" and "it's not very important".

I would chalk it up to the skill being capped, but it's hard to imagine it being capped when you're ~45% of you maximum skill.

My guess is that maybe it just doesn't show up in the spell window. I would try to watch your power amount when you cast it, and see if it's the full 79 power. You'll want to turn Yaulp off, and Dogma if you have it at that level, and anything else which burns extra power.

Another possibility is that power is only reduced based on the skill of Ministration over your natural cap. For instance 0-170 Ministration won't affect it, but if you get some gear with +5 Ministration, it'll reduce your power some.

I'll see if I can figure it out later this evening.

the_mo

ministration has influence on the power consumption of your heals. but the saved power can be rounded up to zero percent. the difference is so incredibly insignificant, that theres no reason to care about ministration whatsoever. you passively level it by using heals but no reason to waste time specifically skilling it

Stubbswick

Ok, my last guess was correct. Testing it out now, I have 400/400 base Ministration skill after taking some jewelry off. Penance costs 216 power, Ministration costs 180 power, and Fanatical healing costs 305 power.

If I pop Yaulp on, my Ministration skill drops substantially (to 364/400). The power of all three stay exactly the same.

Now, I pop my jewelry/gear back on, and my Ministration jumps up to 424. Penance costs 207 power (difference of 9 power), Ministration costs 172 power (difference of 8), and Fanatical healing costs 292 power (difference of 13). Roughly 4% power saved in each case.

So yes, it will display in the spell window the reduced amount. I think you need to be over your natural cap before it actually starts reducing power. And, as you can tell in these numbers, it's not going to save you a hell of a lot of power. Most items don't have more than 3-4 ministration on them, so you need at least 6 to get the amount I have. It definitely isn't worth wasting 6 slots to save 4% power on heals, unless the gear has other redeeming qualities. My goal with this gear wasn't to get Ministration, it was to get other things (heal crit, base heal amount, set bonuses, etc), and I think that's a good rule to follow. If you get healer items with Ministration on them, so be it.

pagansaint

It reduces power as you cast at all levels, but it can round to zero if the skill or power reduction is low enough. It doesn't show in the spell window.

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cellin

ministration lowers the power cost of beneficial heal spells by one for every 4 points of skill. at level 80.

will test it again to see how it works with convert.

profe

For a level 34 character, any ministration skill from 0 to 170 would result in zero power reduction. Only when you have more than 170 skill at this level will your spells cost less. The cap on this type of skill is 6.5 per level, or 221 for level 34.

Your ability to reduce power cost is based on your skill versus your level, not the spell's level, so the amount reduced per additional point is completely based on how far into the curve you are as well as the original power cost value. At best, you can only reduce the power cost to 80% of the original value (for example, a spell that costs 216 power at 400 ministration will cost 173 at 520 ministration for a level 80 character).