Weapon skill makes up almost half of the Attack Rating Total. If attack rating is supposed to effect mitigation, then I don't see why weapon skill wouldn't be used for it. We don't need to emulate live, but I think if we wanted to, we would have to use the new attack formula. Then just dividing by 2 would get it very close to what it currently is. I am going to test it on my server a bit and see if it seems about the same or not. I don't mind leaving out of any combat calculations, but I am not really sure of any reason not to use it. Many MMO players care about the stats of their characters and can be pretty particular about them. I just think it might be nice if the server was using what their client says it is
As it is, you could switch between a 1hb that you have 300 skill in, and a 1hs that you have 1 skill in and you will hit for the same average hit on both (even though you will miss alot more with the 1hs with 1 skill).
I don't see any caps being used for attack currently. At least none that I could find or see in any of my testing. Using the newly adjusted #showstats command, it is easy to see what the servers sees your attack as, what the actual total attack is, what your worn attack is and what the worn attack cap is if you are being capped.
I am not trying to push the formula on anyone. Just trying to figure out why the current formula is better.