So, I'm confused. I'm a beginner that started 5days ago. Im already lvl 60. I forgot to check my skill tree and my SP has been piling up. I didn't take any +stat increase skills coz i prefer the percentage type. Ratios are better than base dmg in late game.. then i saw this "SWITCH STRIKE" skill that says it makes jetboots deal Melee dmg rather than the default Tec dmg.

Now, my question is, when it says "Deal melee dmg", will it just convert all the dmg dealt to MELEE dmg, or will it MAKE THE DMG SCALING of jetboots rely on melee rather than Tec? If its the second Choice, then will the jetboots additional TEC dmg be wasted or will it also be converted to Melee dmg?

Jet Boots will always cause Melee Damage with their Attacks and PAs. What Switch Strike does is make them use MEL-Pwr instead of TEC-Pwr for Damage Calculations. None of the TEC-Pwr gets converted into MEL-Pwr.

Basically, it is used when you have higher total MEL-Pwr than total TEC-Pwr (as seen in your Character Stats screen). The real benefit to it is if you are using both Jet Boots and Soaring Blades since that means that you can focus on adding MEL-Pwr Augments to your Units instead of trying to have both MEL- and TEC-Pwr Augments.

If you are only using Jet Boots and are using TEC-Pwr Augments, you don't need Switch Strike.

@AndrlCh I've been wondering about that skill myself. Is it of any use to a build focusing as exclusively as possible on DEX rather than MEL or TEC? Just as a hypothetical example (no idea what the actual stats on the character are right now), say I have 700 MEL, 500 TEC, and 1200 Dex: As I understand it the Jet Boots would be getting 1700 PWR. Would Strike Switch drop that down to just 700 (relying solely on MEL) or would it swap out just the TEC stat, still use DEX, and bring it up to 1900 overall PWR?

As with many the examples the in-game description isn't very detailed. It gave me the impression that it would pull solely from the MEL PWR stat to the exclusion of any other, which may would probably be beneficial for those with a melee subclass like Hunter or Fighter but I've been going pure DEX with a Bouncer-Braver build at the moment, mostly because I want to level up Bouncer for the title stat bonus but will likely switch the main to Braver after, although I have been enjoying the versatility of swapping between Jet Boots and Bows.

@zaffy2005 DEX conversion only applies to your Mag, not any other DEX you have.

Basically in your scenario, you have 1200 of a mostly pointless stat, and 700MEL and 500TEC; because you have higher MEL, Switch Strike would be the way to go.

@AndrlCh Heh, and this really emphasizes my point on in-game descriptions being confusing. I thought Bouncer and Braver - and eventually Phantom - converted ALL of a character's DEX stat into the associated PWR type, whether from Mags, skills, augments, leveling, or any other source.

This is going to call for a rather extensive overhaul of my approach, particularly to augments. Stigma and all the "Soul" types with high DEX I've been hoarding are effectively worthless if it's only the Mag's DEX that gets converted. Kinda makes me upset that DEX is so prevalent when it seems to be all but useless for everything except equipment requirements.