I wonder about these fight ability/skill rankings for equipped weapons shown on the last stat page. Are they really useful for anything??? How much better is one unit difference between weapons? Was does a score like 40 signify here in actually fighting terms? A char with Bloodlust is rated artificially low, as it does not seem to attach any importance to the extra swing from berserking. It may miss other mitigating features like enemy impairment bonuses or stat boosts. Is it a measure of only "raw power"? I watch the rating and sometime choose among weapons using it, but would like to hear if anyone knows or has investigated an algorhythm for it.

I guess you're talking about the attack rating, etc (uper right corner)? It's accessible on the first inventory page as well by clicking the small shield&sword. Useful since you can directly check weapon/accessory influence. I always thought it was closely related with the "to hit" number. You'll not be able to hit anything unless that number is in the corresponding range. I had the impression that the backstab multiplier is connected with this value as well (never got x2 unless this value was >20). If i don't get enough hits in a fight i usually try to switch to weapons with higher attack rating. Avenstar has some numbers which skills/attributes influence attack range (like .1*weapon skill, etc.).

N.B. Just had a look at the fine manual (p.20):
Attack Rating: An indicator of how likely you are to hit monsters with this weapon...
To Hit: A component of the Attack Rating...

Oh, and Algorithm:
The word algorithm is a corruption of early English algorisme, which came from Latin algorismus, which came from the name of the Persian mathematician Abu Ja'far Mohammed ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (ca. 780 - ca. 845)... (wikipedia)
Unlike Rhythm, which stems from the greek word "flow" (Rhythmos, Rhein)

Edit: Just read you offhand post, if you have 65 in sword you'll get +6 from there, and 45 mace will add +4. So if your attack stats differ only by 1, the nunchakus would be better if you'd get same skill level for sword and maces...

[ 02-06-2004, 02:47 AM: Message edited by: ferro287 ]

This shows you the drawback of Bloodlust: You'll miss very often, unless your skills are quite high (at least in expert mode).