What use is increase of weaponskills?

[Vulkan_NTooki]

<DIV>Hi.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Im down the wis line in AA and have the group buff that gives +34 to all skills but parry/deflect and defense..</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>My question is this.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Does increasing slashing/crushing/piercing skills increase dps in any way?</DIV>

[Crib92]

It increases your effective level.  So you attack as if you are a higher level and miss less thus increasing your dps.

[Turb]

If you're tanking in defensive stance, you lose weapon skill, so this buff counters that, helping you do more melee dps and thus get more aggro. It also helps your group hit yellow or even orange con mobs, or can help a lower level filler toon in your group actually hit some stuff that he couldn't otherwise.But other classes can buff these skills, so it depends who you group with as to how useful it is to you.

[Vulkan_NTooki]

<DIV>Would sta line to melee crit prolly be a better choice dps wise?</DIV>

[MeridianR]

Dps for yourself, yes....very much so.  The skill modifiers are nice if you are in defensive against an orange con mob.  Other then that, there really is no use for them anymore.<div></div>

[Vulkan_NTooki]

Thx alot.. time to respec again then.. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Boethius_Permafrost]

You should test it yourself with a parser.  Turn on your misses, and see how often you hit with and without the buff.  I can give anectodes about how it helps me not miss, but I haven't actually parsed it, so the following is pretty useless info. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />So there I was, fighting yellow raid mobs (Lyceum?), and I noticed that I actually missed.  Then I missed again!  I thought [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn], and looked at my buffs.  My achievement buffs were at +4.2 skill because I mentored someone and forgot to recast them afterwards.Back when I was doing claymore quests in the sanctum with a pickup group, we started pulling frogloks.  One of my groupmates says, "I hate these guys.  They're monks, so they take forever to kill, with their avoidance."  Funny thing how I never noticed a single miss or deflection, though.<div></div>