hi, I started a bow azon (guide + multi), and as I don't have any good gears waiting for her (she's lvl60 now in desperate need of gear), I decided to quad socket a ethereal rare bow (ethereal rare gothic bow) with decent mods I found while mfing with my trapsin. I was thinking about gambling for dmg jewels when I found a Ko rune, which has

+8 min, +8 max dmg, and +30 dex to weapons.

I am unsure of how +30 dex is calculated towards the damage, so I'd like someone to explain that to me.

and is it a good idea to quad socket a bow with 4 ko's?

or should i insert jewels that i gambled? (ranging from solid +30 max dmg to +59%ed)


Thanks in advance.

p.s.

My highest lvl char is a lvl70 light trap sin stuck in nm A2.

According to Critter's Site, the white-weapons portion, Dex gives a 3% EDamage (Skill-ED) per point. So Ko in your weapon would increase the weapon's dmg by 8 avg, and then give your character 90% ED as if from a skill. Since most characters seem to have 1000% Skill ED, you'll only notice a 10% dmg improvement on the char screen.

Whether or not that's the best way to use the sockets in your bow depends on how much Skill-ED you've got currently, and the base damage of the bow.

If your bow's base damage averages about 45 (eth Gothic bow), then a 60% ED jewel will increase it's damage by 27 avg, while a +30dmg jewel would increase it by 15 avg. 12 avg dmg is a decent difference although that 60% ED jewel would have a much greater effect in a stronger base bow. Moral of the story: Use +Dmg in weaker bows. However, also note that the jewel would have increased your weapon's damage by 15 avg no matter where you socketed it (If you don't have many socketables, then consider runes that only have good effects in weapons). The 60% ED jewel acts as skill-ED (60% ED on top of 1000 is a 6% improvement. Emeralds above SStone are better (60% ED, 75%, 90%)) in anything other than your weapon.

Here's where only you can make the decisions:
YourDamage = ListedWeaponDmg x SkillED
ListedWeaponDmg = BaseWeaponDmg x (all ED% on the weapon) + (+Dmg from all sources)
SkillED = 3 x Dex + (Total %ED from passives and active skill)

Since your damage is the result of a product, you have to play with the math to decide if upping your SkillED (via Ko or emeralds) will outperform upping your ListedWeaponDmg (+Dmg jewel anywhere in your gear).

Once you've mastered that (quadratic dmg formula), I'll toss you an approximating forumla for a Blazer (4th-power formula, I think. Never really formalized it).