Question about weapon Requirements

Could someone please help me to understand weapon req. vs attribute rank? My original belief was that if you met or exceeded the req. value on a weapon you could do max. damage. I recently saw a thread where someone made the statement "you have to have 12 in an attribute to get max. damage." This was not contradicted by anyone else in the thread.

If that statement is correct, and my attribute rank is 12, that would mean that 2 swords which have identicle mods but different reqs. under 12 (ie. 8 and 11) would perform the same for me, right?

But, if my last statement is accurate, why is there such a price fluctuation between identicle items with only different reqs? I have seen PC's that say: PC X sword of X Req 11 where the response is "Oh, nice sword, 80k....would be over 100k if the req. was lower."

Does the value have absolutely nothing to do with usability, just the number 8instead of 11?

Thanks for your help.

*sigh* I'll explain it again. Though it's clearly spelled out in the combat mathematics guide on this site.

A weapon has a damage range and a requirement. If your attribute meets the requirement, the game uses the damage range listed on that weapon. If you do not meet the requirement, it is treated as a begginer version of that weapon. So for example, the pre-order Ithas Bow has a 13-25 (Req. 10 Marksmanship). If you have 10 or higher in Marksmanship, the game uses the 13-25 damage range to select a random value for damage. If you are 9 or below, the game uses starter bow stats, which are something like 4-7.

Then, there is a second step. If this is not a mage weapon, the higher your attribute, the more damage you do. If it is a mage weapon, your experience level is used instead of any attribute level. This is completely independant of the requirement on the weapon. For simplicity sake, we as players consider 60 Armor, 12 in an attribute, and in the case of mage weapons level 20, to be "Standard". This is where the idea of needing 12 in an attribute to do full damage comes from.

In actuality in the game itself, armor level and Attribute level work on parallel sliding scales where essentially every 5 armor counters 1 attribute level. So if you are attacking someone with only 30 AL, you will be doing 100% damage at only attribute level 6. This is where mage weapons show their weakness, as PC armor levels can go past 60 for most classes, weapon attributes can go past 12, but mage weapons rely on experience level for this, which cannot go past the "standard" 20.

So then, if I understand correctly, the difference is in higher crit out put with a req. 8 sword instead of a req. 11 sword? I had seen the damage explanation on this site, but I was unclear on the effect of having a higher Rank than the weapon requirement.

This thread is pretty good:

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...d.php?t=104524

Screenshots and everything.

Bottom line: Yeah, you do more damage the higher your weapon mastery is, but it has nothing to do with how much you exceed your weapon requirement. Iif you've got 12 in your weapon mastery, a Req7 and a Req12 weapon which are otherwise identical are gonna do the same damage.

official answer

as the above posters have already answered, it doesn't matter how far ahead of the req level you are.
what's confusing you are the widely differing prices, which can be explained by a couple things.
first of all, remember we're talking worthless virtual money of which some players have a ton --- there is no barrier to overpaying for some detail.
secondly, it becomes kind of circular as the lower req items are perceived to be more valuable they will be driven up by traders and speculators.
but most importantly, it is better to have a lower req item because it gives you greater flexibilty in your build --- you aren't forced to buy a particular attribute up just to use the weapon in question, so you can pile on some other stat.

But even if I lower my attribute to the weapons requirement, I am still sacrificing Critical Damage potential, correct?

yes







.

well, you will always be sacrificing crits as well as damage when you lower your attribute lvl.
I wasn't aware that this had any relationship w/the weapon req, though.

I just saw this thread.
So to recap,

if you meet the weapons req then a lower weapon req is not going be doing more damage than a high req weapon (keep in mind that you are meeting the weapon req in both cases)

So the only reason to have higher attribute points than the weapon req to get critical hits??

No, weapon attribute level is also factored in to armour calculations.

dmg * 2 ^ ((stike_level - armour) / 40 )

strike_level is 3 * [character]level for most things, but for weapons its 5 * weapon_attribute (although levels above 12 are only worth 3).
Thats why people say you need 12 to do stated damage 5*12 = 60 and therefore off-sets caster armour level. 16 weapon mastery would off-set 72 armour, or effectively give you more damage than stated against foes with less than 72 armour.

Is there some kind of percentage number for critical hits which increases or decreases when you are raising or lowering mastery attribute?

You need to have level 12 to do 100% damage of your weapon, not max damage.

See this thread written by Ensign:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...nics-id674.php

As a matter of fact, I think I am going to read it again.