Why rank up attacks?

[Ravenlute]

The attacks in-game already list all their keywords so what is the benefit of ranking them up?

[Drakhan Valane]

Apparently you get access to the keywords in order. You only get the first at rank 1, the first two at rank 2, etc. I didn't understand it either at first.

[Caldeathe Baequiannia]

The tooltips are a crude implementation thrown together by someone manually pasting the info in. As Drakhane noted, even though your level one attack shows all keywords, it doesn't actually get anything but the first until you level the attack.

[Illililili]

However, unless your equipment has the same keywords, there is no point ranking them up. So let your gear availability limit how much you spend in any given attack (or defense).

[Duffy]

I was under the (possibly misguided) impression that each rank allowed another keyword to match but the order was unimportant. Maybe it was utilities that were giving me the impression that order didn't matter. Much more confusing than the Armor and Implement keywords either way.

[Caldeathe Baequiannia]

Duffy wrote:

I was under the (possibly misguided) impression that each rank allowed another keyword to match but the order was unimportant. Much more confusing than the Armor and Implement keywords.

Matching is all that matters, the order is unimportant. Level three in a feat might provide three keywords, but they might not be the same three that are on your armour or weapon.

A cleric slotting a "healer" armour feat above level 1 will not get the same result from +3 military chain as they will from +3 Novitiate's chain.

[Nihimon]

Nihimon's Formatted Feats Data shows which Keywoards are gained for each Rank of any Attack.

For example, the Physical Attack 'Round' shows:

Piercing
Precise
Light
Masterwork
Penetrating
Hasted, Artifact

This should be read to show:

Rank 1: Piercing
Rank 2: Precise
Rank 3: Light
Rank 4: Masterwork
Rank 5: Penetrating
Rank 6: Hasted and Artifact

The Weapon Category for 'Round' is 'Light Knife'. Looking at the Weapons (Standard) tab from Copy of PFO Wiki - Official Data, you can see that all Daggers provide the exact same Keywords at each Upgrade:

+0: Piercing
+1: Precise
+2: Light
+3: Penetrating

You can also see that all Tier 2 Daggers add the Masterwork Keyword inherently (doesn't matter what upgrade it is), and all Tier 3 Daggers add both the Hasted and Masterwork Keywords inherently.

When you train Rank 2 of 'Round', your Attack now has both the Piercing and Precise Keywords. If both of those Keywords are also on your Weapon, then you get Base Damage +10 (+5 per Matched Keyword).

This is why we keep repeating the general rule of thumb: Train Rank 2 when you have access to a +1 Weapon, Train Rank 3 when you get a +2 Weapon.

Oh, and read the New Player Guide!

[Neadenil Edam]

Well - more correctly:

Nihimon wrote:

(Modified)

This should be read to show:

Rank 1: Piercing
Rank 2: Piercing + Precise
Rank 3: Piercing + Precise + Light
Rank 4: Piercing + Precise + Light + Masterwork
Rank 5: Piercing + Precise + Light + Masterwork + Penetrating
Rank 6: Piercing + Precise + Light + Masterwork + Penetrating
+ Hasted and Artifact

The Weapon Category for 'Round' is 'Light Knife'. Looking at the Weapons (Standard) tab from Copy of PFO Wiki - Official Data, you can see that all Daggers provide the exact same Keywords at each Upgrade:

+0: Piercing
+1: Piercing + Precise
+2: Piercing + Precise + Light
+3: Piercing + Precise + Light + Penetrating

You can also see that all Tier 2 Daggers add the Masterwork Keyword inherently (doesn't matter what upgrade it is), and all Tier 3 Daggers add both the Hasted and Masterwork Keywords inherently.

[Ravenlute]

Okay, I know the deal with the weapon, it was the listing of all the keywords for rank 1 attacks that was throwing me. I hope that gets changed soon.

Thanks for clearing up that each rank adds the next keyword listed.