ABILITY stat?

[youcantcatchtheblue]

I've heard before that your Ability stat affects PA damage. (ie. the damage of your abilities)

But recently from another thread I heard that it only affects critical hit rate and min & max damage of your attacks? (ie. make you more likely to do high damage attacks)

So..... which one is it?

I'm about to raise my MAG as an ability MAG so that I can do high damage with my PA's but if that's not the case, I'd rather invest in an attack MAG.

[Scionni]

From what I've inferred, ability does several things. Among the theoretical PA damage and min-max damage, there's a standing theory that states ability is a very subjective stat which dictates whether you will have a defensive or offensive advantage over an individual enemy. If your ability is higher than the monster's ability, you're supposed to receive some sort of advantage.

At any rate, I would level ability as a secondary stat. I have a feeling that weapons, when fed to MAGs, exemplify an ideal proportion between your main stat and the ability stat.

[Mike]

Testing by this blog shows ability as raising the lower end of the damage spread. Haven't seen anything on criticals or PAs yet.

[Miyoko]

uhg, I hate how Ability isn't really defined yet. I have no idea how I want to raise my mag because of it :l If it DOES affect criticals, does that mean it would affect weak spot damage when shooting? If that's the case, all I would WANT as a ranger would be ability. Number crunchers need to figure this stuff out~!

[Spellbinder]

Testing by this blog shows ability as raising the lower end of the damage spread. Haven't seen anything on criticals or PAs yet.

Reading just the description of the ability it's a bit vague, even for my Japanese friends, but this is pretty much the conclusion we came to as well.

[Cash202]

I tested this using shield bonuses.
Equipping a shield that gave +30 bonus Skill and didn't change attack power raised the damage of my power strike from ~85 + ~470 to ~95 + ~535 vs a random mob.
While I was originally planning forcefully level only ATP for my mag, this changed my mind.
I'm just going to simply feed it weapons and level both and not spend too much time balancing it for now. Eventually, I will raise 20+ mags anyway, once I learn what I actually need at high levels.

A lot of times I can't help but worry about all these little details, but I think it's best for now to simply learn how they work, but not over think it. There is a lot of stuff that is still unknown, may be changed, and new stuff might be added on that may make a lot of difference.

Edit: I am aware my test was neither conclusive nor comprehensive, but it did show me the stat has a pretty big impact on skill strength. I still don't know how well skills scale or how much better these same abilities would be with +30 ATP instead of +30 Skill. But this spurs a good idea for a test when servers come back up.

[Mike]

Eventually, I will raise 20+ mags anyway, once I learn what I actually need at high levels.

You'll only be raising one unless you dish out some real money.

[Fusioneko]

I think everyone intends to buy a few mags at least. :X Unless they decide to remake their character. If I do manage to play longer then usual, I'll definitely invest in the game. I think a lot of us will so it's all good.

[Junkboy]

I think everyone intends to buy a few mags at least. :X Unless they decide to remake their character. If I do manage to play longer then usual, I'll definitely invest in the game. I think a lot of us will so it's all good.

I'll have three minimum and I think most will have two at least.

[Crimson Exile]

I'll have three minimum and I think most will have two at least.

2 character's, 2 mag's, and my room.