How does magic arrow skill calculation actually work.
In this link:
rankedboost
/diablo-2/amazon/magic-arrow/
It shows that damage at level 20 gets multiplied by 20. Which damage? The magic damage?
Lets say i deal 100 damage. 80% goes physical, 20% goes magical. Is that 20% magical gets multiplied 20 times?
Well first of all it adds +dmg per level so at level 20 it has +20 dmg
So if you do 100 dmg, with magic arrow you will deal 120 dmg without boost from dexterity and other items. 80% from 120 will be converedted to magic dmg, rest stay as physical damage. Nothing is multiplied.
If I understand it correctly 
Well, at that page it shows Damage X 20.
I think +20 damage would be laughable while spending 20 points in a skill.
You don`t put 20 points in to lightning to get 1-20 damage.
I just thought that it would be 80 physical + 400 (20 X 20) magical.
not sure what page you mean? Its definitely not multiplied. I tested it, its simply +20 dmg at lvl 20 and converts part of dmg to magic
Magic Arrow is really just something you use if you run out of ammo, or if a monster is immune to whatever else you can use. It is not and was never meant as a primary skill.
(There are also weapons which say “Shoots magic arrows” and these don’t need ammo at all. But otherwise, I don’t think it’s actually the “magic arrow” skill of any level.)
Why not though? Why can’t magic arrow be powerful? Most other damaging level 1 skills have synergies that make them much more powerful than that, not to mention raw damage per skillpoint.
Why can’t they make Magic arrow worth putting points into to make it a solid backup skill?
It isn’t powerful because it has a specific purpose. It does come in handy for those purposes, it just isn’t something you need to dump a bunch of skill points in.
Another reason magic arrows aren’t powerful is they don’t miss (due to the attack rating/defense calculation anyway).
They aren’t powerful, but they are useful at times. For this reason I don’t see it getting changed.
Take teeth. It’s honestly better than a lot of people say, but it is only useful against hordes in a wide area, so it can’t really be a primary skill. That’s why they have bone spirit for things like bosses or solitary stronger enemies.
I use magic arrow on physical bowzons to take care of phys immunes, yeah it would be nice if the magic conversion was buffed somewhat (1.5x-2x what it currently is would be nice) but it still works fine/well for doing what it’s meant to; turning phys damage into magic damage.
He? The conversion was already buffed a lot with patch 2.4.
It is absolutely fine right now. Kills all immunes really fast. I really do not like having super GG OP magic damage spammers like Hammerdins for all classes.
Was it? I was speaking to how it is currently on live, btw. If they’re already buffing it for 2.4 (haven’t seen patch notes, sorry), then that’s great, and should be more than good enough, seeing as it’s already good enough as it is on live (though like I said, would be nice to have it buffed a bit, but I guess you are saying it’s already being buffed, so there we go!)
www.theamazonbasin.com/wiki/index.php?title=Magic_Arrow
put web addresses between 2x backticks ` (beside the 1 key) to post a link 
Stat Value +% Attack Rating = 1 + (9*slvl) + Minimum Damage = slvl + Maximum Damage = slvl % Magic Damage = slvl
- Adds physical damage and converts a percentage of physical damage to magic damage, and doesn’t reduce quiver quantity. A quiver doesn’t even need to be equipped, although without one the crossed arrow icon (signalling no ammo) will display on the right side of the screen. [1]
- Level >12 costs no Mana.
- Normal Attack’s attack rate is used.
- Magic Arrow’s +% Attack Rating is not applied, even though the character screen calculates and displays AR as though it is. [2] +% AR from other sources is applied.
- The character screen adds MA’s Minimum and Maximum Damage after +% Damage is applied, when it is actually added before +% Damage is applied: according to the character screen level 20 only adds 20 damage, but with +300% Damage it actually increases by 80.
- Conversion occurs after +% Damage and Deadly Strike or Critical Strike are applied and before resistance is applied: Damage Resist won’t affect converted magic damage but Magic Resist will.
so it adds +min/max damage, equal to the skills level (lvl 30 = +30 min/max dmg), then applies all other damage modifiers (fortitude, etc), also including 2x dmg if it crits from Critical/Deadly Strike, and finally converts a percentage of that physical damage to Magic damage, once again based off of the skills level.
so if you had 100 base dmg, a lvl 30 magic arrow, have fortitude on for 300% more dmg, and have a 100% chance to crit you would deal:
= (base damage + MA lvl) * (Fortitude) * Crit hit * Magic conversion
= (100 + 30) * 4 * 2 * 0.3
= 1040 * 0.3
= 312 magic damage and 728 physical damage
this is ignoring base stats and many other factors, but that’s the gist of it
As stated above, it’s kinda like the damage on war travelers. It doesn’t look like a lot but it goes to the start of the list before multipliers; so it ends up being a nice chunk.
Same w/ how grief works
No, it shows Damage X. X is a variable.
All of those damage values are FLAT values ADDED to the damage. Not multiplied.
Is all this information still true for D2R?
According to the info above, that’s how the game displays it on the character sheet, however it isn’t what is actually happening.
No.
The link the original poster linked is showing a table. The top of the table says “Damage X”. It doesn’t mean multiplied. It’s a variable like in math class in high school. Example: X=1 X=2
I can see how the chart can be confusing the way it’s worded.
Magic arrow simply converts a % of your physical damage to magic. Example: If you deal 100 physical damage. Magic arrow will deal 80 physical and 20 magic. BUT:
Magic arrow also adds a flat amount of damage. +1 PER skill level. At level 20, you get +20 flat damage which is what the chart is showing and is confusing.
It’s as simple as that.
No one is disputing that. I’m referring to these bits:
There are multiple discrepancies between what the game claims is happening in the character sheet and what actually happens. Magic Arrow’s + X damage occurs before things like +X% Enhanced Damage in the calculation, despite the character sheet not reflecting that. If you question that, well, it really isn’t hard to test.
That said, I’m not even sure what table you’re referring to, I don’t see this “Damage X” anywhere in the tables on that page.