Melee Weapon Skill, how does it really work?

[Cataphract]

As we all probably know you cannot deal much damage in melee with low weapon skill even if your strength and powerstrike are high, at least not constantly. What im wondering is how does this exactly work, as we know a low weapon skill often makes the weapon stop at the opponent when swung instead of cutting through him, dealing low to no damage, this is seen even more often against armored opponents. So does weapon skill increase the chance for the swing to deal its damage or does make up for bad aiming of a strike? Im pretty positive it is NOT a boost to damage output as a low weapon skill can deal its full damage with luck against an unarmored opponent. But what is interesting is that low weapon skill gets even more pronounced when you strike at an heavily armored opponent, 20 weapon skill in weapons almost NEVER deals damage on a plated opponent even if the Weapon DMG+Powerstrike would be higher than the opponents armor. Then again im not sure but high weapon skill with a lowdmg+no powerstrike does some damage to armored opponents. This all just feels complicated..

Ive thought about this for long and havent figured it out.

BTW, wheres armagan these days, i heard he's back from his vacation but he seems to have a break from the forums now, anyone know how he is doing and why he aint here etc..

 

[Stonewall382]

It probably works like in Diablo II, with a weapon damage range (based on base weapon damage points in conjuction with player strength and powerstrike), and high proficiency increasing the chances of getting higher in the range.  So, the range is determined by the weapon damage modified by strength and powerstrike, then the proficiency comes into play and ups the chances of getting higher damage in the range.
To put it graphically, assume that a base weapon proficiency of one hundred allows a linear graph (powerstrike*strength*weapon damage (all weighted in whatever way armagan has decided), and anything above that forces the line to become a curve that gets steeper and steeper as proficiency gets higher.
*sigh*
****.
Fine.

Weapon proficiency of 100:

|            /
|        /
|    /
|/
|_________

Weapon proficiency of 200:

|     --------/
|    /
|  /
|/
|_________

Weapon Proficiency of 50:

|               /
|             /
|           /
|--------/
|__________


Does that make sense?  Just my thoughts.



Edit:  Obviously, the game chooses (in each example) one random point on the x-axis to determine what damage it deals.