Hey everyone. I did a manual parse comparing three weapons to see which would provide the best damage increase for my character and decided that the information may be helpful to the rest of the community. My targets were brutal sheep in Coerthas and I only recorded numbers against the level 40 sheep.

The 3 weapons I tested were a Hart Guisarme, Hart Guisarme +30 STR, and Hart Guisarme +1 with +23 attack materia.

Unfortunately due to my limited time and budget I could not afford to test a Hart Guisarme (NQ) with an attack materia. If someone would like to contribute to my findings that would be the next step I would test.

My stats:

NQ HG || HG +30 STR || HG+1 +23 ATTK
STR: 278 || 308 || 278
DEX: 222 || 222 || 222
Attack: 497 || 497 || 520

**Note** My attack power did not increase when changing from a NQ HG to a +30 STR version.

Data

Average damage over 1000 hits, auto attacks only, crits excluded
NQ HG = 307.03215
HG +30 STR = 312.78
HG+1 +23 ATK = 328.53

Lowest hit
NQ HG = 281
HG +30 STR = 291
HG+1 +23 ATK = 303

Highest hit
NQ HG = 330
HG +30 STR = 337
HG+1 +23 ATK = 354

SUMMARY
NQ HG 281~330 Damage, Average 307
HG +30 STR 291~337 Damage, Average 312.8
HG +1 +23 ATTK 303~354 Damage, Average 328.5


Initial Conclusions
1. Increasing STR does not increase my attack power, at least according to the stat screen, but it does increase your actual damage output (+30 STR gave me a ~1.6% damage increase on auto attack hits)
2. Base damage on the weapon seems to jump your damage the highest. If you have to choose between a double materia +STR NQ weapon versus its +1 counter part, go with the +1 weapon and socket it with 1 materia.

Additional Testing
1. Test a NQ Hart Guisarme with +attack power materia (Heavens Fist)
2. Test damage output on higher level targets to see if the relationships are the same