Cap: What is a Cap in Online Games?

In many online games, a cap refers to the maximum limit imposed on a specific statistic, mechanic, or resource. This prevents certain stats from scaling indefinitely and ensures game balance. Caps are commonly applied to damage, attack speed, cooldown reduction, critical strike chance, and resource generation across various games.

Examples of Caps in Online Games

Damage Cap

A damage cap sets a maximum limit on how much damage a single hit or ability can deal. This is often used to prevent one-shot mechanics from becoming too overpowered. For example, in Path of Exile, some league mechanics have a damage threshold to prevent excessive burst damage.

Attack Speed Cap

Many games limit attack speed to prevent infinite scaling. In League of Legends, for instance, the attack speed cap was recently increased from 2.5 to 3.0, allowing champions to attack faster but still preventing endless stacking.

Cooldown Reduction Cap

In League of Legends, ability cooldown reduction used to be capped at 40% (or 50% with special items or runes). Which ensured that abilities always have a minimum cooldown and cannot be spammed indefinitely. Riot introduced Ability Haste as a replacement for CDR, which scales differently but still prevents abilities from becoming permanently active.

Critical Strike Cap

A critical strike^[1] cap ensures that not every attack lands as a critical hit. In Path of Exile, critical chance is capped at 100%, meaning you can never exceed a guaranteed critical strike rate.

Why Are Caps Important?

Caps maintain game balance, prevent unintended power scaling, and encourage strategic build diversity. Without caps, some stats would become overpowered, leading to unhealthy game mechanics where only certain builds dominate.

References

1. [1] "Critical strike". www.poewiki.net. Retrieved February 06, 2025