Armor-damaging suffixes

[Ebon]

What does "damages target's armor" do in Diablo (not Hellfire)? Does it really lower monster's AC progressively? or it simply adds a random to-hit value to the attack (like "of puncturing" = "chance to hit +4% to +12%")? I'm not sure whether a "sword of bashing" is worth keeping.

[Nystul]

What does "damages target's armor" do in Diablo (not Hellfire)? Does it really lower monster's AC progressively? or it simply adds a random to-hit value to the attack (like "of puncturing" = "chance to hit +4% to +12%")? I'm not sure whether a "sword of bashing" is worth keeping.
[right][snapback]71976[/snapback][/right]

Originally it did nothing. Currently (since version 1.07, I think) it simply adds a hidden bonus to your chance to hit. It does not progressively lower monster AC. I believe the chance to hit bonus is actually a fixed bonus within the range. That is, a specific sword of puncturing might always give a +6% bonus, while another one might always give +10%. At any rate, these suffixes are not especially powerful in Diablo, but they are better than nothing.

[Attika]

Jarulf's says (for Diablo):

Damage / Penetrate Armor1

piercing 2 - 6
puncturing 4 - 12
bashing 8 - 24

1In Diablo these suffixes lower the AC of the target by a specific random amount in the range shown in the table. In Hellfire they reduce the AC of the target by a certain percentage shown in the table. It does not work against players. The exact value (in Diablo) is determined at the time of creation of the item and the extra To Hit is never shown on the character screen.

So, if piercing lowers an opponents AC by 2-6, then you'll be hitting him 2-6% more often in most cases. (Not at each extreme though: for Wizards in Normal Difficulty they'll have AC 0 anyway; some monsters can have such a high AC a reduction of 2-6 or in that range will have no effect on improving your ability to hit them.)

Thus,

piercing = bronze/iron
puncturing = bronze/iron/steel
bashing = iron/steel/silver/gold

Once you've found a better prefix than those listed, you've got a better sword.

Attika

[Ebon]

Originally it did nothing.  Currently (since version 1.07, I think) it simply adds a hidden bonus to your chance to hit.  It does not progressively lower monster AC.  I believe the chance to hit bonus is actually a fixed bonus within the range.  That is, a specific sword of puncturing might always give a +6% bonus, while another one might always give +10%.  At any rate, these suffixes are not especially powerful in Diablo, but they are better than nothing.
[right][snapback]71988[/snapback][/right]

Lame... :(

[weirwood]

Hope you don't mind my thread necro, but I have a question on the subject:

Is there an easy way to find out the exact value one of these items gives, with some kind of savegame editor, for example? I've got a couple of Rings of Engagement and I'd like to know which one to keep for my collection.

[[vL]Kp]

The exact value is stored in the item structure. A savegame editor most likely could not retrieve it. You would need to extract the information from a live session. However, as noted above, the bonus is generally so tiny that it is hardly worth the effort to find which is more powerful.