Maximizing Physical Damage Guide

NOTE: This guide was written before the 2-hand weapon patches, so some of the information is no longer accurate. Specifically, the pDIF function has changed such that the caps are ~2.5 and 3.15 rather than 2.4 and 3.0; the exact functions have not been determined.
There are many different ways for a melee attacker to increase the damage they do in a party. Attack, Accuracy, STR, DEX, Store TP, Haste, Double Attack, Zanshin, Dual Wield all increase a player's total Damage per Second (DPS) in different ways. This is a guide to how to choose between them for an optimal setup.
Note that an optimal setup is not just gear, it also includes any spell buffs; it also depends on what you're fighting. Optimal equipment for Greater Colibri will be different from optimal gear for Kirin. A Warrior's optimal gear may change depending on whether Berserk and Aggressor are up or not.
For most melee jobs, total Weapon Skill damage is about half of total melee damage. So a 1% increase in TP gain is worth about 0.5% increase in damage during TP. A Samurai's total WS damage is usually larger than their total melee damage, but a large portion of their TP comes from Meditate, so the effect of melee TP gain on overall DPS is probably similar.
Thief is more complicated if they stack Weapon Skills with Sneak Attack or Trick Attack; a THF may want to emphasize TP gain more than melee damage in order to have TP ready whenever Sneak Attack or Trick Attack are ready. But this guide doesn't try to take that into account.
==Accuracy==
The effect of accuracy is pretty straightforward: Every point of accuracy increases Hit Rate by 0.5%, up to the cap of 95%. But even though the effect on Hit Rate is linear, the effect on DPS decreases steadily up to the cap.
Current Hit Rate	DPS increase from 1 Accuracy
50% 	1.500%
60% 	1.250% (High Evasion)
70% 	1.071%
75% 	1.000%
80% 	0.938% (Low Evasion)
90% 	0.833%
94% 	0.798%
95% 	0.000% (Capped)
Improvement calculated by (0.5%/Hit Rate)*1.5*100. We multiply by 1.5 because Accuracy increases both melee damage over time and TP gain.
Note that High/Low Evasion from Check are based on comparing your Accuracy to the mob's Evasion directly, but the game then gives the mob a bonus of 4 Evasion for each level it is above you. So a level 75 player attacking a level 82 mob will need +28 Accuracy past the point it starts checking Low Evasion to actually get an 80% Hit Rate.
==Haste==
The effect of Haste is also pretty straightforward: each 1% of Haste decreases the delay between attacks by 1%. Like accuracy, the effect on DPS of adding more Haste depends on how much you already have. But unlike accuracy, the effect on DPS increases as your total Haste rises.
Current Haste	DPS increase from 1% Haste
0% 	1.515%
5% 	1.596%
10% 	1.685%
15% 	1.786% (Haste spell)
20% 	1.899% (Marches)
25% 	2.027%
30% 	2.174%
35% 	2.343% (Haste+Marches)
40% 	2.542%
43% 	2.679% (Magic Haste cap)
50% 	3.061%
60% 	3.846%
65% 	4.412%
Calculated by (((100-Haste)/(100-Haste-1))-1)*1.5*100. Again, the 1.5 because Haste increases both melee DPS and TP rate.
Many people argue that while this calculation is valid for long fights, the benefits of Haste are significantly reduced in a merit party consisting of many short fights, as switching targets resets weapon delay.
==Dual Wield==
Dual Wield gear works similarly to Haste, except that TP per hit is based on the reduced delay rather than the original delay. For slower weapons like Axes this means that TP rate is similar; for faster weapons like Daggers and Katanas TP rate is still increased, but by a lower amount than Haste.
Current Dual Wield	DPS increase from 5% Dual Wield
15% 	6.250% (Dual Wield II)
30% 	7.692% (Dual Wield IV)
35% 	8.333%
40% 	9.091%
TP rate for Senjuinrikio/Perdu Blade (delay 227/190):
Current Dual Wield	Average Delay	TP/hit	TP/sec	% Increase
00% 	208 	5.6 	1.615 	N/A
30% 	145 	4.7 	1.945 	20.394%
35% 	135 	4.6 	2.044 	05.122%
40% 	124 	4.5 	2.177 	06.504%
45% 	114 	4.4 	2.316 	06.354%
The uneven rate of increase in TP/sec is due to truncation of TP/hit to a single decimal place. So, for Senju/Perdu TP rate increases about 70% as fast as melee attack rate, so multiply the DPS increase in the first table by 1.35 (1 + 0.7/2) to get a decent approximation of overall DPS boost from Suppanomimi, Ninja Chainmail or Koga Hakama.
==Attack==
The effects of Attack are more complicated. Like Accuracy, the effect of Attack decreases at higher values. Unlike Accuracy, the effect of 1 point of Attack decreases as the enemy's Defense rises. Furthermore, the effect doesn't decrease steadily like Accuracy: there are plateaus where either the maximum or minimum damage don't change for a while. See the pDIF page for the formulas.
The ratio between your Attack and the monster's Defense is reduced by 0.05 for each level the monster is above you for calculating the cRatio. This level correction is not considered by Check or for scaling the effect of 1 point of Attack.
I believe that the average pDIF can be found by the following formulas:
cRatio range	Formula
0-5/12 	0.72*cRatio*cRatio + 0.54*cRatio + 0.1
5/12-0.5 	1.2*cRatio - 0.05
0.5-5/6 	-0.675*cRatio*cRatio + 1.78125*cRatio - 0.171875
5/6-1.25 	0.75*cRatio + 0.21875
1.25-1.5 	0.9*cRatio*cRatio - 1.5*cRatio + 1.625
1.5-2 	1.2*cRatio - 0.4
Applying that, we get:
Generic 	Generic 	Generic 	Greater Colibri (L82, Defense 327)	Greater Colibri (L82, Defense 327)	Kirin (L92, Defense 389?)	Kirin (L92, Defense 389?)
Current cRatio	Average pDIF	Meaning 	Current Attack 	DPS increase from 1 Attack 	Current Attack 	DPS increase from 1 Attack
0.000 	0.100 	ATT/DEF = level correction	115 	1.658% 	330 	1.393%
0.416 	0.449 	Still hitting for 0 	250 	0.777% 	492 	0.653%
0.417 	0.450 	Not hitting for 0 	251 	0.815% 	493 	0.685%
0.499 	0.549 	Top of very high def 	277 	0.669% 	525 	0.562%
0.500 	0.550 	Bottom of mid-high def 	278 	0.614% 	526 	0.516%
 	 	Check normal def 	327 	0.393% 	 	
0.830 	0.842 	Top of mid-high def 	385 	0.239% 	654 	0.201%
0.834 	0.844 	Bottom of normal def 	386 	0.272% 	655 	0.228%
 	 	Check low def 	409 	0.257% 	 	
1.000 	0.969 	 	441 	0.237% 	719 	0.199%
1.245 	1.153 	Top of normal def 	522 	0.199% 	816 	0.167%
1.250 	1.156 	Bottom of mid-low def 	523 	0.199% 	817 	0.167%
1.495 	1.394 	Top of mid-low def 	604 	0.262% 	914 	0.220%
1.500 	1.400 	Bottom of very low def 	605 	0.262% 	915 	0.220%
1.995 	1.994 	Just below attack cap 	767 	0.184% 	1108 	0.155%
If your Critical Hit rate is high, the benefits of attack fall off a bit more from cRatio = 1.666 because maximum critical damage is capped.
==Critical Hit==
A Critical Hit just adds 1.0 to pDIF, so the effect is pretty straightforward.
+Critical Hit rate gear increases DPS by ((Average pDIF + new Crit rate)/(Average pDIF+ old Crit rate)-1)*100, so it will be more effective the lower average pDIF (as in the Attack table above) and current crit rate are. For instance:
;DPS increase from +1% Critical Hit Rate:
 	Current Critical Hit Rate	Current Critical Hit Rate	Current Critical Hit Rate
Average pDIF	5% (base) 	9% (merits) 	15% (merits and +6% weapon)
0.100 	6.667% 	5.263% 	4.000%
0.450 	2.000% 	1.852% 	1.667%
0.550 	1.667% 	1.563% 	1.429%
0.844 	1.118% 	1.071% 	1.006%
0.969 	0.981% 	0.944% 	0.894%
1.156 	0.829% 	0.803% 	0.766%
1.400 	0.690% 	0.681% 	0.645%
1.600 	0.606% 	0.592% 	0.571%
Beyond an average pDIF of 1.6 (max pDIF 2.0) you run into the max crit cap, so the benefits start to fall off more rapidly.
==Dexterity==
It is hard to quantify the effects of DEX at this time, as the formula for Critical Hit rate is not well understood. It seems that it rises slowly until DEX = mob AGI+40, then rises quickly to the cap at mob AGI+50, but this is not clear. Some testing has suggested that this effect is reduced for 2h weapons, but no rigorous testing has been done.
Since adding DEX also gives Accuracy, add half of the Accuracy value for 1h weapons, or 3/4 for 2h weapons, when considering the benefit of DEX.
==Strength==
Unlike Accuracy, Attack and Haste, the effect of STR on melee DPS depends on the weapon used: it is much more effective with low-damage weapons.
Weapon Damage	DPS increase from 1 STR
30 	0.833% (Heart Snatcher)
33 	0.758% (Blau Dolch)
35 	0.714% (Joyeuse)
37 	0.676% (Perseus's Harpe)
40 	0.625% (Ridill)
49 	0.510% (Maneater)
53 	0.472% (Destroyers with capped H2H)
75 	0.333% (Hagun)
85 	0.294% (Subduer)
93 	0.269% (Mezraq)
Calculated by 1/D/4, as 4 STR ~ +1 D up to the fSTR cap, which is lower for lower-damage weapons.
Note that these values are on average; for a particular mob, +1 STR will either increase fSTR by 1 or 0, not some fraction. If you know the VIT of the enemy you are fighting, you can determine exactly which values of STR will increase your fSTR and tune your equipment accordingly. For example, Greater Colibri have 67 VIT, so fSTR will tick up at STR 72, 77, 83, 87, 91....
Since adding STR also gives Attack, add half of the Attack value for 1h weapons, or 3/4 for 2h weapons, when considering the benefit of STR.
==Double Attack==
The effect of Double Attack is pretty straightforward. Like Haste, it increases attacks/time without reducing TP/hit. Unlike Haste, it gets less effective as you add more.
Calculated by ((100+New DA)/(100+Old DA)-1)*1.5*100
Base DA rate	DPS increase from 1 DA
00% 	1.500%
10% 	1.364%
15% 	1.304%
==Triple Attack==
Triple Attack works like Double Attack, but adds two extra attacks rather than one, so it increases DPS by twice as much as DA.
==Zanshin==
Zanshin works like Double Attack, except that it can only activate if the first attack misses (or is blinked/blocked). So the higher your accuracy, the less useful Zanshin is. It's great when you first get it when leveling SAM, but not very useful at level 75.
Also, it's hard to quantify since the base activation rate is unknown.
==Store TP==
A simple way to think of the effect of Store TP on DPS would be to figure that since Store TP+1 increases TP/hit by 1%, it increases DPS by 0.5% (as above).
More accurate would be to look at the actual TP/hit you get before and after, and see if adding a particular amount of Store TP changes the number of hits to get to 100. If it doesn't (and you aren't a Paladin that's getting TP from the mob's attacks) then the Store TP does nothing to your WS rate, so it does nothing to your DPS.
For example, consider Maneater+Joyeuse with Suppanomimi. Normally 5.4 TP/hit, or 19 hits to 100 TP.
*To drop to 18 hits you need to go up to 5.6 TP/hit, or Store TP+4.
*To drop to 17 hits you need to go up to 5.9 TP/hit, or Store TP+10.
So Store TP+1-3 has no effect on DPS, and Store TP+4-9 all give (19/18)→5.56% faster TP, or 2.78% higher DPS.
==Weapon Damage==
((New D/New Delay)/(Old D/Old Delay)-1)*100
If main hand, add 0.5 * ((New D/Old D)-1)*100. Change the 0.5 to 1 if you have Meditate.
==General Guidelines==
In merits:
*If you're eating sushi, you probably have enough accuracy. Unless you're fighting Mamool Ja Lurker without Feint, in which case you need all the acc you can wear.
**Otherwise, 1 haste ~ 2 acc (3 if getting Haste and double March).
* 1 accuracy ~ 3 attack.
*For Dagger and Katana, 1 STR ~ 3 attack.
**For Sword, Axe and Hand-to-Hand, 1 STR ~ 2 attack.
**For 2-handed weapons, 1 STR ~ 1 attack.
In HNM:
* Eat sushi and wear as much accuracy as you can.
* Use Berserk for attack.
==Some Comparisons==
* Optical Hat = Walahra Turban at 90% Hit Rate and 5% Haste (or 80%/15%, 70%/25%, etc. Obviously, multihit Weapon skills benefit from the Optical Hat more.)
* Amir Boots ~ Dusk Ledelsens at 90% Hit Rate and 38% Haste (not counting the +1 attack on Amir)
* At 525 Attack on Greater Colibri, Life Belt ~ Swift Belt at 80% Hit Rate, 12% Haste (or 90%/4%).
** At 409 Attack, 80%/16% or 90%/8% or 60%/32%.
* At 525 Attack on Greater Colibri, Adaman Mufflers ~ Dusk Gloves at 80% Hit Rate, 0% Haste.
** At 409 Attack, 80%/6% or 87%/0% or 60%/24%.
* At 525 Attack on Greater Colibri, Maneater/Juggernaut is 0.25% better than Woodville's Axe/Maneater.
** At 409 Attack, 1.99% better.
** At 525 Attack on Kirin, 11.14% better.