The current battle system mainly calculate everything from Your Rank vs Mob Rank

[Physic]

Cause you know... Games don't change the calculations at the cap. Thats totally not possible.

lol if this is your premise, you problem with the equations have nothing to do with dlevel, and have something to do with this change at cap.

[Reika]

ok heres really numbers

surf eft level 42 pug level 58 eft
dlevel 16

damage with weathered hora heavy strike 18-20
damage with level 39 boarskin cesti hevey strike 50-54

level 42 pug, level 61 biast
damage with weathered hora heavy strike 14-16
damage with boarskin cesti 25-26

so yeah attack does matter, but it had no effect when you fought the nm..... hmmm COULD IT BE THE NM AND NOT THE DLEVEL OHHHH SNAP THATS CRAZY TALK

Then there was the lancer in my party with the wethered spear. I was upset that she was doing close to equal damage as me >.> apparently that person was also testing it out too.
And I believe it is the closer you get to the targets rank, the less your weapon matters. which goes back to Rank vs Rank having too much of a role in the end judgment.

[Kurokikaze]

ok heres really numbers

surf eft level 42 pug level 58 eft
dlevel 16

damage with weathered hora heavy strike 18-20
damage with level 39 boarskin cesti hevey strike 50-54

level 42 pug, level 61 biast
damage with weathered hora heavy strike 14-16
damage with boarskin cesti 25-26

so yeah attack does matter, but it had no effect when you fought the nm..... hmmm COULD IT BE THE NM AND NOT THE DLEVEL OHHHH SNAP THATS CRAZY TALK

Wow... you have got to be trolling. LOL if you posted this on BG you would be banned immediately.

That sad part is that you probably won't understand why this test itself is flawed.

[Physic]

It is obvious. The issue with Rank vs Rank determining everything becomes obvious as well once you actually go observe it for yourself.

so how do you explain my numbers on mobs well over 10 levels higher than me, and my attack having a noticeable effect, to the tune of 50% and 35% more effective for using high level weapons versus not.

Once again the point is the NM has different stats, it is likely that its mdef and def is off the wall. or it has a straight damage reduction.
Attack is most noticeable when you are making a dent, not when you are far above, or far below. dlevel lowers your damage for high level mobs, no one has shown anything proving that these NMs are more high level than crap in the field. In fact, the fact that they do not do MORE Damage to you implies they are not extemely high level.

[Physic]

Wow... you have got to be trolling. LOL if you posted this on BG you would be banned immediately.

That sad part is that you probably won't understand why this test itself is flawed.

I am not on BG, why is the test flawed, cause this isnt BG

[Kurokikaze]

Omfg this is too funny. You really don't have a clue do you? lol

[Physic]

Then there was the lancer in my party with the wethered spear. I was upset that she was doing close to equal damage as me >.> apparently that person was also testing it out too.
And I believe it is the closer you get to the targets rank, the less your weapon matters. which goes back to Rank vs Rank having too much of a role in the end judgment.

so what your are saying is that dlevel actually makes you less effective for fighting things close to your level? and the reason people are mad is because when they are the same level as uraeus, their weapons wont matter?
actually reika, before i even test this, it probably comes down to weapons only giving attack, and attack most likely functions versus defense, so once your attack is high enough you wont see much difference because you are both overcoming their defense.
as far as i know weapons give no base damage increases like in FF

Well i can perform some tests on this is as well

edit: ok i performed some tests, and i get way more damage on boarskin even on monster that is level 38. something like 50% 110-120 versus 50s

to kuro, ok ill just ignore you now, because you aint saying anything of value.

[Peregrine]

People are just trolling now. If you can't blatantly see that dlvl dominates every stat in the game, you have no hope in any job requiring observation.

If you all have forgotten how ridiculously powerful levelling up made you during the grind, while your other stats and the mobs' stats remained the same, well...pay attention next time you level up.

One level is a bigger performance boost than respeccing your dex and str from 15 each to 80 each. Fact.

Watch. When the level cap is raised, level 55 players will kick the **** out of the R65 great buffalo, with the same gear. Fact. Why? Because they'll be hitting for 90 on that spirit dart, not 24.

Dlvl dominates every jobs' performance. Fact.

[Physic]

dlvel at the extremes will dominate perfomance, this is obvious. Some one 5 levels higher than you is going to be stronger than you, just from being 5 levels higher than you, we know this. But to say that your stats have no effect and are useless is incorrect. Also keep in mind things in this game are adjusted with dlevel so that the stats arent required to get insanely high. You arent going to change the fact that at 50 they designed whatever NMs so that your damage sucks. it has nothing to do with the dlevel. you damage sucks because they designed the NM so that you would need drastic reductions in its defenses to notice a damage increase. and skills that ignore defense are of course hax. much like chi blast and spirits within, this is nothing new. So basically get mad at the NM design that makes your stats seem useless, because what you are talking about is an NM issue, not a dlevel issue.

i cant speak on the effect of respecing strength, but i can tell you i can double my damage on monster 16 levels higher than me by increasing my attack.

The point really comes down to this, you need the equation, what matters is not how badly i can kick something 50 levels lower than mes ass. Until yall have an equation, you really dont know what it all means, or what is effecting what.

[Lerris]

Tell that to the same people that gave you your damage formulas and weapon skill modifiers in FFXI. Dozens of man hours were spent on those bunnies in Ronfaure.

But to test which variables? I'm not saying data from level 1 mobs isn't valuable or necessary, I'm saying they're a poor control group for testing the variable in question. A handful of fights doesn't give you a statistically significant dataset for level 1 mobs. Dozens of man-hours does. That's a datapoint, not a control group for dLevel. Testing against the rabbits makes sense when you're isolating your maximum damage output, but not for finding dLevel.

Theorycrafting damage formulas are done specifically for the purpose of performing well in End-Game. Testing on NMs and mobs that are at the floor are the most important monsters that can be tested on. No one cares about your damage at any other level but the cap.

This may be true, but to efficiently deduce the formulae, tests need to be conducted changing only one variable at a time. Since monster stats change from level to level, the only way to isolate dLevel is to test with characters of different levels against identical level mobs of the same type, equipping gear and assigning character stats to keep all other character variables the same ( as you can't change a mob's stats ).

If you recall the english enmity-testing exercise, he conducted a series of experiments with the intent to disprove the japanese claim that there were two enmity values, one static and one decaying. He ended up proving it. What was "obvious" through observation was found to be untrue through rigorous testing.