Consider what a dummy load does. Turns all your transmit RF into heat, but fools it into thinking an antenna with a low SWR is attached.
Now consider a "partial" dummy load. This is the attenuator they're talking about. All low-drive amplifiers are not created equal. Same goes for 'high drive' radios.
40 years ago we saw a lot of 2-transistor amplifiers that would overdrive at around 9 or 10 Watts PEP. Adding resistors to cut the drive power reaching the transistors in half made them sound a lot better with the single-final radios of the day. Tweren't no radios with two final transistors yet.
Without knowing what kind of transistors the amplifier uses, it's hard to say what the peak power needed to drive it will be.
Equally important to know the peak output of the radio, as well. The attenuator will need to soak up the difference between the two, however much this is.
73