Weapon / item requirements

Hi all,

I've done a search on this but can't really come up with anything that seems to answer my question.

Most of the higher powered items in the game have a requirement next to them, such as (Air Magic 5) for example. I always took this to mean that you needed to have 5 attribute points in Air Magic before you would be allowed to use that item?

However, with several character now, I have equipped items that have requirements higher than my character currently has (For example, my warrior has Axe Mastery 6, yet I'm using a purple axe that requires Axe Mastery 11, and my elementalist has no skills in earth magic, but uses a yellow wand that needs Earth Magic 5).

Seeing as how I'm able to use them, and in the case of the wand, even get access to its special abilities (% change of speeding up spell casting, bonusses to health), I'm wondering what the deal is with the requirements?
It SEEMS that my warrior with the axe is not doing the maximum amount of damage that he could, but then again, on a 6-28 damage axe it's hard to verify.

Could someone explain the ins and outs of the requirements system, or show me where I can find a thread about this?

Thanks very much

Creston

This might partially answer your question:

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...nics-id674.php

I think the attribute requirements determine more your % of the bonuses rather than the damage of the weapon (which is explained rather well in the linked thread). So if a staff with +10 energy has a 9 smiting requirement and you only have 7, you might only get 8 energy.

Thanks Granamyr

Creston