Strength and Armor Penetration

[Adoede]

I've been suspecting for a while now that there is a link between strength and armor penetration - so blade/exotic wielding builds with higher strength are better at punching through armor with less deflections and more damage. Anybody have similar observations?

[Kreegan]

There isn't. The AP power is a property of each weapon and can be increased by skills but not so much by attributes. Extra Strength just gives extra damage to Strength-based weapons just like extra Agility boosts the damage of Agility-based weapons. Also, the Bash attack is better against heavy armour than Slash and Lunge, so weapons which can bash are naturally better vs. heavy armour.

[Prinny]

Actually Kreegan it's Lunge vs heavy and bash vs medium :p

Don't believe me, argue with Nate: http://forum.pitofwar.com/showthread.php?1684-New-Update-1-12-2013!-New-Skill-Trees!&highlight=lunge

* Slashing vs light armour
* Bashing vs medium armour
* Lunging vs Heavy armour

You can find that at the bottom part of the first post

[Dainoji]

It wouldn't surprise me at all. There is an entire level of secret stuff in this game that Nate doesn't talk about but has alluded to in the past. Luck is the poster child for these types of things. In another thread I mentioned how I think Urks get some kind of natural defense against knockouts but it isn't written down anywhere.

[Kreegan]

Actually Kreegan it's Lunge vs heavy and bash vs medium :pAh, well, it's been a while. :p
As for Strength and AP - I recently changed part of Vaargus' (exotics) armour pieces and now he has 14 Strength more than before. There has been no visible impact on his AP capabilities at all.

[Adoede]

I started suspecting the armor penetration factor when I noticed theatrics with str of 100+ would beat my defensive wars fairly regularly while those with less strength often seemed to have a lot more trouble landing solid hits. My own theatrics with 100+ strength and claws beats defensive wars quite regularly while my other theatrics with less strength and Blades barely take half of their opponents health before dropping from exhaustion.

[Kreegan]

Check the races. Nearly all speed Theatrics in Blood Gods are Elaars, they have no problems punching through heavy armour. Skills are also important, those who have invested in the Rage tree more heavily should be expected to deal more damage per hit than those who haven't. Activity levels and bloodlust play a big role and you can only deduce them. And finally, I'd compare their Agility stats too. Strength is probably the last thing that affects their performance.

Also, exotics are suspected (maybe even confirmed but I don't know about it) to have greater AP power than blades.

[Adoede]

I tried boosting some of my other theatrics strength with blades and seemingly no effect on armor penetration even at near 110 str. You might be right about exotics having better AP power though.