First off, I want to start with Light levels. It's very simple, you do less damage and take more damage from monsters that are higher level than you. That is why it's important that you're at least lvl 28 when doing the raid, since the mobs are lvl 28, you will do less damage to them if you are below lvl 28. Here's a very simple test I conducted. 1.Buy or obtain white/green/blues so you can change your light level (in this case I had gear where I could change my level to 21, 23, 24, and 28) 2.Do any story mode at lvl 24 heroic (note, the mobs are lvl 24) 3.equip your gear so you're lvl 28, take ONE shot at a mob and note the dmg (383 with a legendary lvl 20 hand cannon in my case to an acolyte) 4.equip gear so you're lvl 21, take ONE shot at the same type of mob with the same weapon (I did 184) 5.equip gear so you're lvl 23, take ONE shot at the same type of mob with the same weapon (I did 261) 6.equip gear so you're lvl 24 (same lvl as the mob) take ONE shot at the same type of mob with the same weapon (I did 383) final results doing damage with the same EXACT weapon at the same TYPE OF MOB (lvl 24 acolyte) by just changing my light level •Light 21: 184 dmg •Light 23: 261 dmg •Light 24: 383 dmg •Light 26: 383 dmg •Light 28: 383 dmg Next, I will start on weapon attack damage. This stat is misunderstood and here is why! What the Attack value does in Destiny is provide a rating that determines how much of the potential damage from the Impact rating of the weapon you can do as a percentage when compared to your enemies defense value. The higher an enemies defense value is above your attack rating the less damage you can cause per hit. Essentially, it means you need a bigger attack number to ensure that your impact value has full effect. Sure, skill has a lot to do with downing content, but at the same time some stats are necessary in order to get the full affect of the loot you worked so hard to obtain. Here are just a few stats and explanations, I hope this was informative. Thanks! :3