weapon requirements

i notice that next to some weapons it says requires___ _______ (ex. requires 9 tactics) But i find that i can still wield those weaons. Is their a consequence to not having that requirement? Also in auctions and stuff it says the weapon and then R11 or R9 or something. What does that mean?

If you don't meet the requirement, the thing listed before it won't do what it says. For example if you have a sword that says 'Slashing Dmg: 15-22 (requires 12 Swordsmanship)' and you've only got 10 Swordsmanship, the sword will act as if the damage range was 2-3 (the same range as a starter sword).

R11, R9, etc are the requirement.

R11 or R9 means the weapon has a requirement of 11 or 9.

If you fulfill the requirement the weapon/shield will deal the listed damage/give the listed armor bonus, if not you will get only get a fixed amount. I.e. if you don't fullflil the requirement of a shield you'll get only 8 armor, axes will deal only 6-12 damage etc.
Keep in mind that once your weapon mastery is at least one point higher than the requirement the requirement doesn't matter anymore, i.e. if you have 14 points in Axe Mastery it doesn't matter if your axe has an req of 13, 12, 11, 10, 9 or 8. Weakness (a condition) can lower all your attributes by one point, so having a req 14 weapon would make a great difference in the previous scenario because you would no longer fullfil the req and your damage would decrease greatly.

edit:
Afaik if you don't fulfill the req most weapons will will be as good as the best version of the weapon type that exisist without a requirement, which would be 8-10 damage for a sword.

Wiki disagrees with you.

Marty & Desert, here's the deal:
When not meeting the requirements of a green weapon it'll act as if it's the starter dmg.
Golden weapons on the other hand, become half the dmg they state they do if not meeting the req.

It says "similar", not "exactly" like a starter weapon; also, wiki has often been wrong about the exact details of the game mechanics.
I've just tested it Greater Sage Blade, 15-22 damage, req 13 with 12 swordsmanship, I've caused 5-7 damage with 10 damage crits; that's way more than a starter sword (2-3). Sadly I've no other req 13 weapons or non max damage weapons at hand to test further.

The second rule is definitely wrong (my single test already disproved it), and I'm would be surprised if the first one is also false.

Tut, have none of you seen the damage calculators designed by the venerable Charles Ensign?

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/calcula...uru_weapon.php

The point that most people don't get is that the stated damage range of a weapon only applies if your stat in the required attribute is 12.

For example, if you have a (max damage) req 9 sword and 9 in swordsmanship, you wil be doing 11.57-16.96 damage (rounded up) - not 15-22 as you might expect. If you have 12 in swordsmanship, however, you WILL do 15-22 damage - regardless of whether the weapon's req is 8, 9, 10, 11 or 12!

No, I don't know what the point of weapon requirement is. Price inflation, maybe?

Either I'm blind or the link doesn't provide any additional informations for the discussed issue in this thread because the question is how much BASE damage a weapon deals if you NOT meet the requirement, not how much ACTUAL damage you deal IF you meet the requirment and if you don't have 12 points in the weapon mastery.

Yes, that's true - I thought it would be a good idea to quash some mis-conceptions while we were on the subject.

To elaborate on this a bit, since the others seem hung up on damage calculations......
As has been said, the requirement only affects the stat that it is listed next to. If, for example, you have a Vampiric Sword of Fortitude, with an energy+5 inscription, the requirement will only affect the base damage of the sword. Even if you don't meet the requirement - even if you are not even a warrior - you will still get the Vampiric life steal, the health bonus from the Fortitude, and the +5 energy from the inscription.
So, basically, depending upon what you want from a weapon, the requirement doesn't matter much in many cases. Which is why you see crazy stuff like Assassins wielding scythes and Monks with spears, etc. (Not a good thing imho)

My casters use a spear and shield almost exclusively. That combination provides 13 armor, 30 health, and 5 energy while still attacking from range.

Much more useful than a staff imo.

Only gain is the armor increase.

if your really pro, you weaponswitch.

even still, not sure if +armour is really all that useful on a general purpose caster weaponset when you have the likes of sy and other imba defenses.

If you are a pro at PvP you weapon switch. If you are a Pro at PvE you know that it rarely matters.
And, I agree that the +armour is not all that useful in PvE. It would be better to have more energy or HCT. But, spear and shield is "leet" (except on a Paragon, of course.)