Armour/Weapons + associated Attributes

I've picked up quite a few items during my travels that have attribute point requirements...

for example
11-17 Axe (requires Axe Mastery 5)
Tall Shield Armour +11 (requires strength 5)

My question is... What is you do not meet the requirements? Do I toss a 5-12 Axe and use the 11-17, even though I only have Axe Master 3?

Do I toss a Buckler (Armour +4) in favor of the shield?

Is there any way to tell without testing the items out? Same for energy artifacts.

On another note: I was wondering if the different sizes of shields come into play in GW or do they just enhance your overall armour? Obviously a Tall Shield offers more protection than a buckler.

Thanks,
Rad

Seeing as how in GW there are seperate regions of the body to hit different shields should block differently but they probably just have it set as a percentage chance that a hit won't hit your chest piece or something

As for requirements you may use any weapon/armor but if you don't meet the requirements you won't be using it to its full capabilities or you won't get the bonus involved

Eg instead of 11-17 axe dmg you'll do 6-10 :P

Yeah I wish it would show what the current 'effect' your item is given you based on the requirments. It's only through some mob bashing tests that you can work some weapons out.
I find that my much weaker weapon still does more damage vs a mob than my superior weapon that is still 2-3 levels above me. Even though my superior weapon is a vast improvement over the weaker one.
I am not sure if it scales improvements as you get closer to meeting the requirements mind. This I would like to know also.

At the moment I have a hammer than needs hammer master 12. I am only at 9 and find my old item is better. But if I know that at 10 the new one will start to take over then I will use that one all the way up to 12, instead of the old one and then changing at 12.

I only wish they had a way of showing us our current "armor rating"... I can always add up the AL of what I'm wearing... but when it comes to something like a shield with req's... there's now way to tell how much of the potential you are getting, unless you fully meet the req.

I'm actually a necro, so it doesn't really matter on my end... but I could see how it would annoy a warrior per-say.

-= Beradok Klethmoor =-
Level 10 Necro / Ranger

As a related question...lets say i have a energy thing that gives me 13 energy for 8 blood magic. If i have 6 blood base, but a +2 rune, will it give me the 13 energy, or do i need the base of 8 to get the energy?

It will give you the 13 energy as long as your blood magic skill is 8, runes included. Hit [H] in-game, if your blood magic attrib is 8(it will be blue if it is modified by a rune) you will qualify for the full bonus.

I'm still unsure about bonuses, but it seems to me that they do not scale like damage does if you don't meet the requirement. I know my damage has slowly increased as I edged ever closer to getting my markmanship atrrib maxed to make full use of my good bow, but it may just be that I leveled and my damage increased due to that.

You could probably test it by taking off your rune item and seeing if you get any benefit at all from the energy item when your BM atrrib is only at 6. I know for a fact that runes do count towards requirements though.

Ancient, I'm sure you do slightly more damage as your level increases regardless of weapon.