Wow this game is packed with content. I'm barely 4 hours in (due to all the intro stuff and stupidly trying out to levelup Asuna's relationship level before leaving town) but I already have a ton of questions!
- What does a skill mean when it says +20% STR or +40% AGI? Does this mean that it buffs that stat when you cast it or does it mean that it uses a portion of that Stat as bonus damage?
- If Skill Points are limited, should I even be purchasing low level attack skills? Shouldn't I be focused on getting passives and important Buffs/debuffs instead and just saving skill points for the later attack skill?
- Is it recommended to have buffs occupy all my skill palette slots?
Basically the % skill depends on your stats of your equipment. If you have a weapon that forged with STR bonus then the skill that uses +20& STR will scale off that weapon STR. So the higher the stat of the weapon/equipment the stronger the skill attacks.
Skill points are not exactly limited, just level up a few weapon class and you will see a shitload of skill points. All attack skills are equally important especially if you gonna use the OSS implement which is super essential if you to destroy high level bosses so yes, low level attacks skills is needed.
But I suggest to fill most of your slots with skill attacks if you want to do a long string OSS combos, the buffs skill page can be easily access by pressing L+R and selecting if you rearranged it.