The Effect of STR on Combat Arts

Following up on the post on STR and melee damage, I looked at the effect of STR on a combat art that deals damage. The combat art I used was the bruiser skill Hammer, which my bruiser has at Master II.

I took the same approach as with melee damage, tracking how the minimum and maximum examine damage change as strength increases.



STR seems to have the same effect on melee combat art damage as it has on the basic melee attack. At 600 STR, 30 points of STR seems to be equal to an increase of one percent.

There's some sort of odd glitch in the curve, though. I haven't been able to account for it. I did the test without any enhancements to combat art damage.

I then ran a series while equipping one item that had +75 Combat Art Damage. Here's the plot:



There's something odd about this plot. The strength values are not exactly the same, since I started with a different item. But where a comparison can be made, it appears that about 25 is added to the minimum damage, and 75 added to the maximum damage, for an average of about 50 points added.

The slight glitch is still there, too, though at a different spot.

Others have claimed that added damage is capped at 150% of normal. But if this is to be the cause of the effect we are seeing, the cap must apply to other kinds of damage boosts as well. At 203 STR, minimum damage is 302. Equipping +75 Combat Art Damage but keeping STR at 203, minimum damage goes up by 25, to 327. But 150 percent of 302 is a lot more than 327.

So more study of +n Combat Art Damage is definitely in the works. In the meantime, STR affects Combat Art damage in exactly the same way it affects melee damage.