"Damage: Weapon/Spell damage + Strength/Power * Attack Delay + Attack Skill * Attack Delay - Target's Armor * Attack Delay
All the modifications are divided by values that I'm not going to reveal at this time, but as stated originally, Strength/Power is 50% more valued than Skill, and Armor is slightly more valued than Strength/Power.
The above result is then put through a Gaussian randomizer to give greater variety. "
This is the formula I was complaining about in my clarity post.
Given this scenario: A Primal spell has a delay of 2, 3-5 damage, the player has 14 power and 12 attack skill*. The opposing enemy has 10 armor/resistance. Using the traditional PEMDAS method that calculators follow (unless they're broken or made wrong), this comes out to 35-37 damage which is then 'randomized'. The parameters for this are unclear. Again, the post DIRECTLY STATES that all of the values are also divided by values that are not revealed in the post.
Honestly, I may not be coming away with everything the post has to say, but I couldn't draw any hard numbers from it- only 'guesstimates'. Thanks to the end randomization of damage after all other calculations, this isn't exactly something that any one player could clear up without an impressive array of stat-modifying gear (big numbers on specified sets for big differences (theoretically) in damage points) and/or unlimited Buy Back points, along with a huge amount of time. And luck.
What does this post say? It says Power>Primal>Focus, if I'm reading it correctly. The above formula is useless for practical application, however. I can pretty firmly say that 1 point of armor =/= 1 point of damage reduction from Son of Gigaroth, for example. Merely while investigating the potential strength of an Armor stacking Lunus versus a Strength stacking Lunus versus a Power/Primal stacking Helian dragon, solid ratios for the 'basis' damage and damage reduction would prove massively helpful. This is what I was asking for in the 'Suggestions' forum.
TLR the post here about stats gives the comparative effectiveness of all stats in relation to one another, but not the 'base' effectiveness. This means some of us are left to wonder.. "Do Caster dragons work? Or does the RNG just hate/love me until I try it with SoG?" Just a couple clarifications on scaling make theorycrafting much easier, even if it's just 'the scaling is per-spell so you'll never really know for certain.'
*which I don't believe is a 1:1 ratio from Focus, or a direct 1/2 ratio- the example stat used is Dexterity, and the exact bonus ratio is not given, and it is stated in the post that it isn't being given 'right now'. It is also not made clear what the Primal ratio is, or if the 'attack skill' stat boost from some techs is a universal 1:1 or acts as a universal x number of points in the given stat for any given attack... I'm setting the value at 12.