Offense/Defense/Specialties Description Question

So, friends and I were playing (and enjoying!) and discussing the game. On the Skills screen, it says "Offense", "Defense", and the "Specialties" bars on the right side. Does upgrading your skills actually reflect an increase in damage, reduction in damage being received, and increase in affects of specialties, or is it just saying that you can do more offensively, you can do more defensively, and you can do more special things?

The upgrades don't do anything other than what their tip in the upgrade screen indicates. The meters and increases to meters are just to give a quick idea of what capabilities you would be affecting by your choices, as well as a basic side-by-side comparison of what each class is capable of.

tl;dr: No, the upgrade don't affect things like damage unless they explicitly state they do.