The number thrown around most often, insofar as softcaps go, is 130k.
Now, at level 60, that sounds like utter insanity. Unbuffed, of course, it is.
"Softcap" roughly translated, means "the amount you need to have before you stop seeing your hits get harder when you stack even more on." So, people test this by popping every buff they can get their hands on (and there are a lot of mattack buffs running around out there) and they see what they hit a beastie for. I don't remember if they usually use a level 70 critter or a level 70 instance boss (which, since bosses are always 3 levels higher than the instance, would actually be level 73). At any rate, they see what they hit for with what amount of mattack, and then just add and subtract til they figure out where they start seeing adding more not helping. Diminishing returns, as they say. That's a softcap, and 130k is the number we all try and buff to.
So, now that we know that it's an insanely high number, how does that help at all?
Well, I have 55k unbuffed. This is passably okish. I know my mattack is low, and I routinely get outdps'd by my mage guildies who have more. That 55k translates to about 95k once I get all my party buffs, housekeeper buffs, pet buff, hero pot, mattack food etc on. My guildie friend who easily buffs to 120k mattack outdps's me by like a third.
However- I do more than enough dps to do GCH easily. I want to do more, but I can hold my own. 55k is at the low end (maybe even the extreme low end) of acceptable "endgame" mattack, but it gets the job done.
More is always always better though, and to do that you have to be really picky about how you stat. I wasn't picky in Chapter 3, and my unpickiness is showing now in Chapter 4, because I haven't finished restatting. I still have icky Int/Def stats running around on my gear, and even a few Int/Mdef and Int/MP stats (ewwww). Once I get those all cleared away and replaced with new stats, I should be able to get another 10k of mattack out of my gear, which will translate to almost double that amount buffed.
Long story short, don't stat anything that isn't int, mattack, stam and hp. You can stat stuff you'll be replacing soon (like the Flame set or the Flower God set) with cheapo stats, but when you really start getting serious, be picky picky.
