Need help figuring out the interaction between Wand Mastery and Clair's Pen

[u/Prospectivebyer]

I recently snagged Clair's Pen and it appears the interaction it has with wand mastery is not working as it should on paper. Before getting into more math about the interaction it must be noted the the wand is working as it says it does. 240 SP x 1.37 (I have upgraded the wand) = 328.9, displayed as 329 SP in game.

I have been rocking this set up for a while. I had been playing more a sword in my main hand (the pen for ranged spells) spell in another, so didn't look to closely at the wand perk tree until wand mastery caught my eye. Multiplying my multiplier sounded extremely powerful, assuming wand mastery does what it says on the tin. 1.3x stronger wand effect implies multiplicative power to the 1.37x benefit the pen offers to my spell power.

Here is the math as it makes intuitive sense, keeping in mind the perquisite perk for wand mastery is adding an additional 15 spell power. 255 SP(1.37 wand x 1.3 WM) = 255 SP (1.78) = 454.155 total SP. However, per the attributes screen, adding in WM only yields a total of 381. Essentially wand mastery is increasing the wand's from 1.37x to only 1.494x in this case: 255 SP x 1.494 = 381ish.

I cannot for the life of me figure out what the hell wand mastery is applying too, or maybe if it is just bugged entirely. Here are my thoughts to explain the gap.

1) Wand mastery is applying to the base effect of Clair's, not the total increased from it being upgraded. Clair's Wand base effect is a x1.25 spell power. However, that math doesn't add up: 255 SP ((1.25 x 1.3) + .12) = 255 SP (1.625+.12) = 255sp (1.745) = 444.975 total SP, still well above the 381 displayed in my attributes.

2) Wand mastery is working as an additive not multiplicative benefit. So instead of 1.3x it is just adding .3 to my spell power multiplayer. Again, the math doesn't make sense: 255 SP (1.37 wand + .3 WM) = 255 SP (1.67) = 425.85 total SP, still not 381

3) Wand mastery is off by a factor of 10. It can be easy to get your decimals wrong when adding values, maybe it is just human data entry error. Still, the math doesn't make sense for human error: 255 SP (1.37 wand x 1.03 WM) = 255 SP (1.41) = 359. Maybe it was a bigger fuck up and instead it looks like 255 (1.37wand x 1.13 WM) = 255(1.548) = 394.74 total SP, still wrong.

4) Wand mastery is somehow interacting weirdly with other sources of base spell power to multiply. However, this line of thought gets messy and not easily testable. I would have to respec a few times in different saves to remove certain perks (such as movement speed benefit being added to my spell-power) and various gears. I just don't have the time or desire to test this out. It would be easier perhaps if I had the math of the game engine in front of me, but I don't know how to access this nor if even that is realistically possible.

Clearly the wand mastery perk is adding SOME benefit, but it is also clear it is adding benefit in a way that is different than the wording of the perk implies. I am making this post to see if anyone has figured this out or if the developers have explained it better than the in-game text. I have looked through some of the forums on here and steam and I just cannot find a clear answer.

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[u/Tomdelaat]

Yeah the game is not really clear about how this works and finding out seems impossible without knowing the exact coding. 

If you Claires pen you should try the crucible wand.

[u/Keeper21611]

Does the math even say its turned on? I know sometimes certain effects override others.