Shield Styles: Strength or Dex?

I tried asking gruenesschaf directly on Discord, but I guess he's just a little too busy with everything else he has to do (

), so I'm bringing it here.

I'm in a discussion with my guild, who insists that shield styles are strength based here, but they're dex on Live. Can you settle this? Also, regardless of which they're based on, weaponskill only helps penetrate defenses, not actual to hit %, right?

Tue 23 Jun 2020 8:44 PM by Bradekes

Shield is 100% dexterity. WS & dmg

Tue 23 Jun 2020 10:48 PM by ExcretusMaximus

Bradekes wrote: ↑
Tue 23 Jun 2020 8:44 PM
Shield is 100% dexterity. WS & dmg

That's my contention, but their experience is different, so I came to the team for the 100% clear answer.

Tue 23 Jun 2020 11:16 PM by gromet12

ExcretusMaximus wrote: ↑
Tue 23 Jun 2020 8:16 PM
I tried asking gruenesschaf directly on Discord, but I guess he's just a little too busy with everything else he has to do ( ), so I'm bringing it here.

I'm in a discussion with my guild, who insists that shield styles are strength based here, but they're dex on Live. Can you settle this? Also, regardless of which they're based on, weaponskill only helps penetrate defenses, not actual to hit %, right?

Weapon skill has nothing to do with defense penetration, it's just in the UI and isn't used for anything other than helping you somewhat know what effects your dmg.

Defense penetration is mostly based on weapon spec (being at lvl of target) and your dmg table. Some test we're done in this years ago, going over 51 spec improved so small it was negligible, it was tested between 51 and 70 weapon spec; going to 70 was least than 1% gained

Tue 23 Jun 2020 11:56 PM by Bradekes

ExcretusMaximus wrote: ↑
Tue 23 Jun 2020 10:48 PM
Bradekes wrote: ↑
Tue 23 Jun 2020 8:44 PM
Shield is 100% dexterity. WS & dmg

That's my contention, but their experience is different, so I came to the team for the 100% clear answer.

I will test it, easy to do just equip a shield, use a style, if you do more dmg when you have higher dex your shield is dex based.

So my Damage Modifier dropped 19 points when losing 7 dex, it dropped 0 when losing 9 str. As soon as I gained the 7 dex my Damage Modifier when up exacty 19 again

Sun 28 Jun 2020 4:27 AM by Nephamael

Defense penetration is mostly based on weapon spec (being at lvl of target) and your dmg table. Some test we're done in this years ago, going over 51 spec improved so small it was negligible, it was tested between 51 and 70 weapon spec; going to 70 was least than 1% gained

This is actually not true (anymore).

I tested personally and 39+14 weapon to 50+14 weapon makes 6.67% dps difference.

About to hit i have no idea.

Sun 28 Jun 2020 12:33 PM by gromet12

Nephamael wrote: ↑
Sun 28 Jun 2020 4:27 AM
Defense penetration is mostly based on weapon spec (being at lvl of target) and your dmg table. Some test we're done in this years ago, going over 51 spec improved so small it was negligible, it was tested between 51 and 70 weapon spec; going to 70 was least than 1% gained

This is actually not true (anymore).

I tested personally and 39+14 weapon to 50+14 weapon makes 6.67% dps difference.

About to hit i have no idea.

Defense penetration has nothing to do with DPS.

If you did auto base swings with a 1hander you would see the specs you listed above would do the same base dmg each time, the only thing that will change is the "style" dmg because the formula uses your weapon spec, but it is small (as you mentioned, 7% higher dmg for around 500 spec points if math in head is right). Now if you are swinging a 2hander, the base dmg will continue to rise slightly because 2handers get a 2-hand bonus in the dmg calculation that takes into account spec