Went in there naked having equipped a level 1 weapon with 0 skill (Hoe from mog garden, 0 scythe merits) and it was indeed less than 9,999; however, attack was weird. Starting out with 91 STR I had 77 attack. It went up to 7,595 attack. Starting out with 91 VIT I had 167 defense. It went up to 6,210 defense.
Calculating defense that would be (999 VIT - 91 VIT)/2 = 454 defense + 167 defense = 621 defense. So that is +900% for defense.
Calculating attack that would be (999 STR - 91 STR)/2 = 454 attack + 77 attack = 531 attack. Not +900%
I also tried other skill levels (still base of 91 STR) and observed the following:
160 skill (8 staff merits using cobra staff going rdm/smn) I started with 240 attack and went to 9,195 attack.
16 skill (8 h2h merits using no weapon) I started with 93 attack and went to 7,755 attack.
12 skill (6 polearm merits using pitchfork) I started with 89 attack and went to 7,715 attack.
But doing this opened up some other questions: Why is it that when I went from 16 skill to 160 skill (in town) my attack went from 93 to 240 instead of 237? I also did some observations of adding STR in town (no attack+ on gear) with Hoe as weapon:
Spoiler: show
So from these observations it would seem that +1 skill does not always equal +1 attack (is this only at the early skill levels somewhere between skill 16 and 160?); and attack does not always increase by 1 for every 2 STR.
3/4 for str Has not been /2 for 2H weapons for at least 8 years.
Ok went and equipped a level 1 dagger, and it is not 1 attack for every 2 STR either:
Spoiler: show
Yeah, more recently they updated 1H weapons to also be 3/4 on the main hand. It's hard to just say "wiki needs to be updated" and then not say where the issue is. Wiki has thousands of pages.
This page, for instance, has had the correct information for over two years:
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Strength
Regarding your recent change, attack from skill doesn't have diminishing returns like accuracy from skill does. Putting on a 242 weapon adds exactly 242 attack regardless of what your skill is at, as does equipping a 15 skill torque increasing attack by 15. I'd change, but I was unable to make an account last time I tried.
Riiiight, I shouldn't edit things in the morning or night.
Why does work steal all the hours of the day when my brain actually works?
Do you have Attack +2% from a cheer?