Base DPS * elemental damage * elite damage * skill damage = final DPS (not talking about other DPS contributors such as area damage and so on, of course).
Within the same category (i.e., elemental damage) bonuses are additive. So for example, if I have a Crusader with bracers/amulet physical damage, boots/helmet Phalanx damage, and perfect SoJ and Furnace the result would be:
Base DPS * (20% from bracers + 20% from SoJ + 20% from amulet) * (30% from SoJ + 50% from Furnace) * (15% from helmet + 15% from boots) = Base DPS * (60%) * (80%) * (30%)
= Base DPS * 1.6 * 1.8 * 1.3
= Base damage * 3.744
So all those bonuses increase your DPS by a whopping 274% (instead of 1m DPS you deal 3.744m DPS against elites).
Weapon damage is irrelevant, it's overwritten by your skill damage type. EXCEPTIONS: 1) Wizard's Elemental Exposure passive, as described in the tooltip, and 2) weapon damage procs effects such as cold damage on weapon chills enemies and freezes them if you're wearing Frostburn, or lightning damage on a weapon procs Wyrdward (both tested).
Every additive bonus has diminishing returns. Let's only look at 1m DPS and adding physical damage:
1m DPS and an amulet with 20% phys damage = 1.2m DPS.
1m DPS and an amulet and bracers with 20% phys damage each = 1.4m DPS.
1m DPS and an amulet, bracers, and SoJ with 20% phys damage each = 1.6m DPS.
Now, the first item increases your DPS by 20% - but the third item being added here only increases your DPS by about 14.3% damage (from 1.4m to 1.6m DPS). There are your diminishing returns.
So the more elemental damage you have the less effective it is after the 2nd item? In that case you would get more benefit from stacking other stats than wasting time trying to farm out more and more ele damage?
By the 4th item 20% would be like ~10% or less? Do other stats have diminishing returns?
The 6th item is about 10% relative damage, which is still better than Core stat once your core stat is above 5500. It's not diminishing returns, it's linear scaling, and all stats have linear scaling when you stack them.
CDR in particular has accelerating returns on DPS.
for me that is not diminishing return
20% is always 20% of the base dmg of the skill
now of course if you compare 140% to 160% then you see less increase in the calculation but for me that isn't diminishing return because it's still increasing the same 20% from base dmg of the skill.
Diminishing return is like what xmep said for me at least ""Like a stun duration being shortened for each stun until it no longer works at all for a set amount of time.""
Say a skill deals 1000% and you have 40% ele dmg already which is 1400% so every 20% is 200% increase, now you add another 20% ele dmg and it becomes 60% ele dmg increase which makes it 1600% it's still another 200% added to the skill there was no diminishing return here
to the OP: the elemental damage on the weapon does not matter unless you are a wizard and you are using a passive called Wizard's Elemental Exposure like Bagstone said.
To be honest: this entire discussion about what are diminishing returns and what are not is very nitpicky. Read the definition of diminishing returns (not sure which site to use for the "best" definition, so I'm just gonna pick EB for now):
"diminishing returns, also called law of diminishing returns or principle of diminishing marginal productivity, economic law stating that if one input in the production of a commodity is increased while all other inputs are held fixed, a point will eventually be reached at which additions of the input yield progressively smaller, or diminishing, increases in output."
So - base DPS, elite damage, and skill damage are fixed, and you only increase elemental damage in 20% steps. With every 20% added, they yield progressively smaller DPS increase. I'm no economist but to me that sounds pretty much in line with what the very definition of this law stats.
Now, for *some* of you diminishing returns are about stun duration, because that's when this term is used most commonly; it's the same thing - the 2nd stun, 3rd stun, and so on will yield a progressively lower stun duration and therefore decreasing efficiency. The difference here is that stuns are not added to each other but cast one after each other, so if the stun duration was the same for each cast it would have no diminishing returns. The outcome is actually exactly the same: the 3rd stun has a much lower duration because of the artificially implemented diminishing returns.
There's also the diminishing returns on CDR/RCR/armor, which often leads people to believe that as you stack up more of them, it becomes less usable - which is not exactly true. If you have 90% mitigation through armor and you add 50% mitigation more, it'll result in 95% mitigation - which of course looks like "diminishing return", but it's a fallacy. Of a 100k hit you took 10k damage before, now you take 5k damage - which is exactly 50% less. The diminishing returns are only perceived in the raw number we're looking at, and the only reason why we care is because we have not only one defensive category but multiple (e.g., armor and all resist) and there's this mechanic kicking in which tells us that we should balance those for perfect mitigation.
Anyways, this topic comes up time and time again. TL;DR: Whether or not you associate the term "diminishing returns" with this effect, the efficiency of stacking a single elemental damage type gets less and less as you stack more of it. This was even mentioned in a bluepost: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/13839303805?page=3#58
Elemental damage multiplies damage and skills damage is additive correct?
Also what does a poison weapon that adds 70-100 poison damage fall into this?
Thanks y'all!
Base DPS * elemental damage * elite damage * skill damage = final DPS (not talking about other DPS contributors such as area damage and so on, of course).
Within the same category (i.e., elemental damage) bonuses are additive. So for example, if I have a Crusader with bracers/amulet physical damage, boots/helmet Phalanx damage, and perfect SoJ and Furnace the result would be:
Base DPS * (20% from bracers + 20% from SoJ + 20% from amulet) * (30% from SoJ + 50% from Furnace) * (15% from helmet + 15% from boots)
= Base DPS * (60%) * (80%) * (30%)
= Base DPS * 1.6 * 1.8 * 1.3
= Base damage * 3.744
So all those bonuses increase your DPS by a whopping 274% (instead of 1m DPS you deal 3.744m DPS against elites).
Weapon damage is irrelevant, it's overwritten by your skill damage type. EXCEPTIONS: 1) Wizard's Elemental Exposure passive, as described in the tooltip, and 2) weapon damage procs effects such as cold damage on weapon chills enemies and freezes them if you're wearing Frostburn, or lightning damage on a weapon procs Wyrdward (both tested).
1m DPS and an amulet with 20% phys damage = 1.2m DPS.
1m DPS and an amulet and bracers with 20% phys damage each = 1.4m DPS.
1m DPS and an amulet, bracers, and SoJ with 20% phys damage each = 1.6m DPS.
Now, the first item increases your DPS by 20% - but the third item being added here only increases your DPS by about 14.3% damage (from 1.4m to 1.6m DPS). There are your diminishing returns.
By the 4th item 20% would be like ~10% or less? Do other stats have diminishing returns?
CDR in particular has accelerating returns on DPS.
20% is always 20% of the base dmg of the skill
now of course if you compare 140% to 160% then you see less increase in the calculation but for me that isn't diminishing return because it's still increasing the same 20% from base dmg of the skill.
Diminishing return is like what xmep said for me at least ""Like a stun duration being shortened for each stun until it no longer works at all for a set amount of time.""
Say a skill deals 1000% and you have 40% ele dmg already which is 1400% so every 20% is 200% increase, now you add another 20% ele dmg and it becomes 60% ele dmg increase which makes it 1600% it's still another 200% added to the skill there was no diminishing return here
to the OP: the elemental damage on the weapon does not matter unless you are a wizard and you are using a passive called Wizard's Elemental Exposure like Bagstone said.
"diminishing returns, also called law of diminishing returns or principle of diminishing marginal productivity, economic law stating that if one input in the production of a commodity is increased while all other inputs are held fixed, a point will eventually be reached at which additions of the input yield progressively smaller, or diminishing, increases in output."
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/163723/diminishing-returns
So - base DPS, elite damage, and skill damage are fixed, and you only increase elemental damage in 20% steps. With every 20% added, they yield progressively smaller DPS increase. I'm no economist but to me that sounds pretty much in line with what the very definition of this law stats.
Now, for *some* of you diminishing returns are about stun duration, because that's when this term is used most commonly; it's the same thing - the 2nd stun, 3rd stun, and so on will yield a progressively lower stun duration and therefore decreasing efficiency. The difference here is that stuns are not added to each other but cast one after each other, so if the stun duration was the same for each cast it would have no diminishing returns. The outcome is actually exactly the same: the 3rd stun has a much lower duration because of the artificially implemented diminishing returns.
There's also the diminishing returns on CDR/RCR/armor, which often leads people to believe that as you stack up more of them, it becomes less usable - which is not exactly true. If you have 90% mitigation through armor and you add 50% mitigation more, it'll result in 95% mitigation - which of course looks like "diminishing return", but it's a fallacy. Of a 100k hit you took 10k damage before, now you take 5k damage - which is exactly 50% less. The diminishing returns are only perceived in the raw number we're looking at, and the only reason why we care is because we have not only one defensive category but multiple (e.g., armor and all resist) and there's this mechanic kicking in which tells us that we should balance those for perfect mitigation.
Anyways, this topic comes up time and time again. TL;DR: Whether or not you associate the term "diminishing returns" with this effect, the efficiency of stacking a single elemental damage type gets less and less as you stack more of it. This was even mentioned in a bluepost: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/13839303805?page=3#58