I have long been laboring under the misconception that every point of pierce is effectively a 1% att bonus. So, with my raw att of 4400, an equipment item with 10 pierce would provide a stunning +440 att. I think I knew the true factor and then wishful thinking or plain old interference kicked in. It is not 1% per point of pierce. That would mean that 100 pierce, which is not a particularly lofty goal, would give a +100% att boost. Consider just one item, Warbringer Longblade with one silver pierce ingot forged on, for a total of 85 pierce. +85% att bonus just for equipping that one item is game-breaking. It would assure that any time you can catch an opponent of similar build and level without their corresponding resist gear build, you would win. More than that, it would ensure someone without their resist gear on would lose even if they exceeded your level by "almost" 85%.

I repeat... game-breaking. But the factor is not 1% per point of pierce. It is 1% per TEN points (i.e. 0.1% per point) of pierce. Ergo, my full pierce gear build, with 317 pierce, provides a 31.7% att boost, not 317%. 31.7% is a nice extended reach, but it does not let me reach thousands of levels above me like 317% would.

This reality of .1% instead of 1% per point recasts the value of pierce/resist. Consider the booby prize magic-slot item from Arena IX, Succubus Kiss: 2 att / 11 def and +5 fire offense, which is equivalent to +5 pierce or half a percent of att. Based on my 5300 effective att (eAtt), that's only 26.5 bonus att. Compare with my previous go-to PvP offense build magic, Lava Inferno, 35 att / 19 def. My base eAtt would have to exceed 200 times the difference between each item's eAtt, for Succubus Kiss to be the preferable piece. In this case, that's 38.6, so my eAtt would have to exceed 7720. Every level I'm adding 8.4 eAtt, so in "only" 290 levels I might be there.

Comparing the eAtt of best-in-slot magic, Death's Embrace, the requirement to make Succubus Kiss preferable is 13360 base eAtt. Again at my current stat investment rate, I'll be there in about 960 levels. Keeping in mind it's taken me 5 years to get to L775, I'm not real interested in thinking that far ahead.

The caveat is, I don't care about chasing Aspects of Death either, because by the very act of leveling up on the 40+ Deaths I'd have to kill to alchemy a Death's Embrace, I'd build stats far in excess of the 45 att (76.5 eAtt). And gear inflation will inevitably bring forth some magic-slot gear that does make pierce preferable to raw att at my level.