New items, strange stats

[Arcell]

I'm not sure if anyone's taken a close look at the bonuses given by some of the new NM drops but some of them seem a little strange.

Let's take Bow of Owls for instance.

Archer required
+2 strength, nothing strange there
+2 piety, why is this here?

Frostbite

Gladiator required
+1 Vit
+1 Dex
+1 Piety (?)

Howling Talons

Pugilist required
+2 Dex
+1 Eva
+2 Mind (?)

It was my understanding that mind, int and piety had no effect on damage or accuracy. This leads me to believe either we have no idea what all the stats do or they're changing how stats affect our damage, accuracy, etc...

[Xeno]

Probably a prerequisite for the battle/job patch.

[MonsieurVerde]

I am surprised that Frostbite and Flametongue don't do elemental damage...

[Arcell]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking Xeno. Not only are they simplifying the calculations but they're changing what does what.

[origamikitsune]

...Or, they intend to have the weapons be usable by additional classes that are not in the game yet. Piety makes sense for a Paladin, perhaps they will have access to that item in the future.

[Kilta_Firelotus]

Or it can be so you guys have an easier time when went say having a magic spell like cure or a fire spell. Remember you can cross class skills. Those items are pretty helpful to do that.

[JayvirDeforte]

You do know that Piety influences debuffs right? A high Piety lets a debuff stick more often and stick longer. So those that rely on attacks with debuff (Shadowbind, and more importantly Bloodletter for example) having that slight boost in Piety helps.

[wind]

I'm not sure if anyone's taken a close look at the bonuses given by some of the new NM drops but some of them seem a little strange.

Howling Talons

Pugilist required
+2 Dex
+1 Eva
+2 Mind (?)

It was my understanding that mind, int and piety had no effect on damage or accuracy. This leads me to believe either we have no idea what all the stats do or they're changing how stats affect our damage, accuracy, etc...

MND also comes into play with Magic Def, so a Pug item with it isn't that strange. Most people 'should' have close to 40-60mnd anyways so they don't over burden there healers or die from AoE that shouldn't one shot due to insufficient magic def.

[wind]

I am surprised that Frostbite and Flametongue don't do elemental damage...

If you look at those items they have +5 elemental to them so resistance / dmg (red lotus blade) for example.

[viion]

Its common for SE to do this. It also happens in existing gearz.