I want to calculate a skill distribution for a sorc that is primary Fire, secondary Lightning, has +8 to all skills and wants to put 35 skill points into lightning, so that "Lightning" can be used to kill Hell Countess for example.
I can check the exact damage outcome with https://diablo3.***/diablo-2/calculatoren/skill/?char=sor but with how the diminishing returns on synergy and mastery points work and with the irregular damage progression of Lightning I feel there is quite a lot of combinations to test so I wonder if there is a better way to find the optimal distribution.
Edit: To be clear with what I mean here is the Lightning vs Lightning Mastery relative dmg increase table:
Lvl_____Lightning_______Ch_Lightning____L._Mastery
1_______40______________40______________50______________
2_______48______22.0%___51______26.83%__62______8.0%____
3_______56______18.0%___62______21.15%__74______7.4%____
4_______64______15.3%___73______17.46%__86______6.9%____
5_______72______13.2%___84______14.86%__98______6.5%____
6_______80______11.7%___95______12.94%__110_____6.1%____
7_______88______10.5%___106_____11.46%__122_____5.7%____
8_______96______9.5%____117_____10.28%__134_____5.4%____
9_______108_____12.5%___130_____11.02%__146_____5.1%____
10______120_____11.1%___143_____9.92%___158_____4.9%____
11______132_____10.0%___156_____9.03%___170_____4.7%____
12______144_____9.1%____169_____8.28%___182_____4.4%____
13______156_____8.3%____182_____7.65%___194_____4.3%____
14______168_____7.7%____195_____7.10%___206_____4.1%____
15______180_____7.1%____208_____6.63%___218_____3.9%____
16______192_____6.7%____221_____6.22%___230_____3.8%____
17______212_____10.1%___236_____6.76%___242_____3.6%____
18______232_____9.2%____251_____6.33%___254_____3.5%____
19______252_____8.4%____266_____5.95%___266_____3.4%____
20______272_____7.7%____281_____5.62%___278_____3.3%____
21______292_____7.2%____296_____5.32%___290_____3.2%____
22______312_____6.7%____311_____5.05%___302_____3.1%____
23______340_____8.7%____326_____4.81%___314_____3.0%____
24______368_____8.0%____341_____4.59%___326_____2.9%____
25______396_____7.4%____356_____4.39%___338_____2.8%____
26______424_____6.9%____371_____4.20%___350_____2.7%____
27______452_____6.4%____386_____4.03%___362_____2.7%____
28______480_____6.1%____401_____3.**%___374_____2.6%____
29______516_____7.3%____416_____3.73%___386_____2.5%____
30______562_____8.6%____431_____3.60%___398_____2.5%____
31______588_____4.6%____446_____3.47%___410_____2.4%____
32______624_____6.0%____461_____3.36%___422_____2.4%____
33______660_____5.6%____476_____3.25%___434_____2.3%____
34______696_____5.3%____491_____3.14%___446_____2.2%____
35______732_____5.1%____506_____3.05%___458_____2.2%____
36______768_____4.8%____521_____2.96%___470_____2.2%____
37______804_____4.6%____536_____2.87%___482_____2.1%____
38______840_____4.4%____551_____2.79%___494_____2.1%____
39______876_____4.2%____566_____2.72%___506_____2.0%____
40______912_____4.0%____581_____2.65%___518_____2.0%____
41______948_____3.9%____596_____2.58%___530_____1.9%____
42______984_____3.7%____611_____2.51%___542_____1.9%____
43______1020____3.6%____626_____2.45%___554_____1.9%____
44______1056____3.5%____641_____2.39%___566_____1.8%____
45______1092____3.4%____656_____2.34%___578_____1.8%____
with
Column 1: Skill Level
Column 2: Lightning Max damage
Column 3: Percentage increase in damage from the previous level Lightning damage
Column 4: Chain Lightning Max Damage
Column 5: Percentage increase in damage from the previous level Chain Lightning damage
Column 6: Lightning Mastery % increase listed on the skill
Column 7: Percantage increase in damage from the previous level Lightning Mastery.:

Columns 2 and 3 are a bit over the place and we haven't touched the 3 synergies yet, which might be optimal to be the same, but one of the 3 (irrelevant which one) could be one more or one less than the other 2 for the optimal distribution so that's why I have trouble finding that optimal distribution.

This post was edited by andy01q on Feb 5 2020 02:00am

Edit time already gone, mmh ok.
After a bit of testing I'm not sure whether the table is even correct, but the calculator seems to match up with the talent description ingame. Either way Mastery seems to need to be on the same level as the synergies (+-1) and whether Lightning gets 19 or 20 points depends on the amount of synergies and if I end up putting something into ES (probably not) but with that logical restriction the optimal distribution is actually not even that hard to calculate and I THINK it is:
20 to Lightning
3 to Lightning Mastery and the 3 synergies
1 to Telekinesis, Teleport and Static Field
for 35 points and 2-2229 Lightning damage.
But I',m not sure if that's correct.
Seems weird that the Mastery needs to be at the same level as the synergies, might be wrong. Mainly got it from testing. Also didn't expect Lightning to need to be at 20+8=28, but kinda matches with what the table says.

This post was edited by andy01q on Feb 5 2020 02:28am

What is your question here?

What's the optimal skill point distribution in the lightning tree with 35 points to be had, +8 to all skills and the target to get max Lightning damage. (And of course 1 point to tele and such needs to be put there too.)
After thinking about it for a while I got one solution, but I'm not sure if I actually did find the optimal one.

do you have +% light dmg (like griffon or ormus)?

also (759+1035)/(2+2229)*12/8=20% more dps with nova

This post was edited by lilith0 on Feb 5 2020 09:01am

I have a +19% light dmg Echutas which I could possibly use on switch, but probably not, so no.
Also Nova is a good point, thanks for noting that. Probably still using lightning for safer Nihlathak-killing, but actually not sure yet.

In simpler terms he wants to know how to skill his lightning tree with only 35 points to get lightning at its highest damage for those 35 points.

Download heroeditor and test ingame. Hell be fixed in a minute

Remember that +skills from items do not count toward synergy bonus.

So clicking 1 in for instance lightning, and you have 10+ skills making the skill level 11, would still make it count as 1 towards synergy. So if Lightning give you 10% dmg per level, lvl 11 skill with 1 hardpoint
will give you 10%, and not 110%.

I know that from watching llama, but thanks for pointing that out.
Also thx for tl;dr @Camaro.