All depends on what your going to use the skill for.
If your a grinder and love grinding and not so much into pvp I'd say go w/ the attack bird.
Reason: Killing mobs will be alot faster and the bird doesn't do much dmg on players.
On the other hand, if your a pvper, and still like grinding I'd say go w/ the attack rating bird.
Reason: The higher the attack rating the more likely you will hit at your maximum damage.
Here is an example; If you have a low attack rating and you hit lets say, "7-10k per mob" your going to have a fluctuating attack and will be more around the 7k mark. However, when you have a higher attack rating you will hit around the 10k mark more often than the 7k mark. I also believe that it might help having higher dmg against ppl w/ high parry ratios I am not 100% sure though.
Atleast this is what I was told.
Here is an example of attack rating and parry ratio.
Quote:
By:AciDiCx
Attack rating is the offensive version of parry ratio. If you have a higher attack rating, your more likely to do your higher damage, more often.
Parry ratio: Its defensive. You know how when you press "C", and it shows your magical/physical attack? Lets say your magical attack is like 2500 ~ 3000. If the opponent your attacking has a high parry ratio, you will do closer to 2500 damage. If he has a low parry ratio, your more likely to do your highest. It's basically about chances.
PS: Sry for kinda modifying your original post AciDiCx.
I stole it from SRA forums doing a Google search. :p