While experimenting with some newly acquired equipment, I managed to lower my attack power by 1900 points, but gain 5,000 or more (quite a bit more in 1 case), on both sides of the listed damage values, on all used skills. Basically, I would be giving up +%dmg, for skill ranks, and core stats.
I’m finding myself at a loss here. Should I be concerned about losing 1900 attack power, and reverse course, or excited about gaining 5000 minimum to the listed damage, on both sides of the range, on every skill that matters?
attack power is not a stat to keep track of. other stats are much more important. which stats are most important are dependent in your class/build
That attack power calculation is very limited, it can’t take into account all of the different situational buffs and bonuses that will change often in combat. At best, it’s a vaguely useful guide for very new players or very low level characters. At worst, it’s very misleading, and you should pretty much just ignore it.
It’s particularly problematic for some classes, Barbarians for example have 4 weapons - with different skills using different weapons, potentially - but the attack power calculation will only show the value for the last skill used. Great example, let’s say you’re swapping to a 2H slashing weapon with +1000 dps, but losing 50 strength - your listed attack power will go DOWN if the last skill you used is ‘bash’ for example. But That weapon would give you a very significant damage boost for skills that might use it, like ‘leap’.
And then of course there’s all the other stats. Learn to ignore the attack power calculation, and just focus on all of the other bonuses, it’s a bit counter intuitive, but once you learn what stats are important for your build, just focus on those.
And of course, at the end of the day, just try it - swap the gear and see how it feels. It’s usually easy to tell if it’s a significantly better or worse.
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