Whats the difference between attack and damage?

[Onmynizzle]

Thanks in advanced

[Highlander]

Attack is what your weapon does for damage and actual damage is what your abilities do for damage

[Phreakazoid]

Attack raises HP, dexterity and DPS. DPS (damage per second) is how strong your attack is.

[csb]

"Damage" is how much health you remove from your opponent with a single hit. "Attack" is a stat that seems to raise damage a little. I experimented with adding a lot of attack, but got very little benefit.

Usually, a one handed weapon has a big "damage" number, but a slow swing rate. Therefore, the DPS (damage per second) is low, but the hits are bigger. Some two handed weapons have a fast swing rate, but low damage. This results in a high DPS number. If you increase your "damage" using gems that add points directly to damage, then it affects the fast weapons more than the slow weapons. Suppose you add 10 damage to a weapons that swings once per second, then this increased DPS by 10. But if your weapon only swings once per 2 seconds, then your DPS would only increase by 5.

I think the higher DPS gives higher skill damage. If you change your weapons, look at the DPS stat, and look at the damage you get from your skills. I choose a weapon that has high DPS and gives high skill damage.

The only time I would use a slow weapon with a big damage would be against a boss. Sometimes I need big hits more than I need high DPS. This is because a boss may absorb some damage (via defense) from each hit. So, i need bigger hits to get through the defense.

In PL, for example, I had a little wand that was very fast, but had little damage. I put on items that had the biggest +damage stats. This added directly to every swing. The little wand became my most powerful weapon. This was unexpected by STS as they came out with new items with large +damage stats. They did not consider the effect on the fast little wand. Eventually, the wand swing rate was slowed so that it would not become so powerful with new equipment.