Spell Focusing Sash

Body Sash.png
Spell Focusing Sash
Weight: 1 Stone
Spell Focusing
Brittle
Mana Increase 1
Defense Chance Increase 5%
Strength Requirement 10
Durability: 255 / 255

A Spell Focusing Sash is a possible loot item from Meer and Ophidians found near battle fronts (towns under attack) by Bane Chosen forces during Part III: Rise of the Bane Chosen of the In the Shadow of Virtue event arc.

It functions to adjust spell damage based for consecutive spells cast on the target. Initially it will give a decrease in the damage output, then it will increase the damage for the last 3/4 of spells cast. So by using a low mana/low damage spell for the first few casts, then high mana/damage spells for the remainder in the series, significant damage can be done to the target when activating the sash. As of June 2021, the EC client caps the display of 250 SDI, but the damage numbers match a manual sum of SDI on the character. Using the tooltips on the EC client shows the increase in SDI continues to 30% (factor of 1.3) opposed to the official description from 5 on Friday explanation years ago which said the upper bounds was 20% (1.2 factor). Here is the damage adjustment based on casting a few spell examples:

Spell Cast Base Damage 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
Damage -30 -24 -18 -12 -6 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30
Net -30 -54 -72 -84 -90 -90 -88 -84 -78 -70 -60 -48 -34 -18 0 +20 +42 +66 +92 +120 +150
Magic Arrow damage 14-18 9-12 10-13 11-14 12-15 13-16 14-18 14-18 14-18 14-19 15-19 15-19 15-20 15-20 16-20 16-21 16-21 17-21 17-22 17-22 17-23 18-23
Energy Bolt/Explosion damage 51-56 35-39 38-42 41-45 44-49 47-52 51-56 52-57 53-58 54-59 55-60 56-61 57-62 58-63 59-64 60-66 61-67 62-68 63-69 64-70 65-71 66-72
Flamestrike damage 65-70 45-49 49-53 53-57 57-61 61-65 65-70 66-71 67-72 68-74 70-75 71-77 72-78 74-79 75-81 76-82 78-84 79-85 80-86 81-88 83-89 84-91

The example numbers in the chart are based on GM Magery, Evaluate Intelligence and Inscription. All results are truncated.

While there is a loss given up in the first 5 spells cast, the idea is to make those low level spells. Taking the minimum damage numbers into account, here is a brief summary of how the damage would accumulate. In the case of Magic Arrow, the caster would give up 14 damage for the first 5 casts. For the remaining spells cast higher offensive spells where the caster would gain 129 damage for the level 6 spells and 149 for level 7 spells. That combination equates to about 2 free spells worth of damage output to the target over the course of 21 casts. This analysis suggests that it is the comparable to 10% SDI.

See Also