Weapon Skills

skatobot · 02-05-2007, 04:03 PM

Hi all,

I was wondering about weapon skills. Say for instance my warrior has a greatsword. So using the sword increases my skill in greatsword and 2 handed weapons. Then I switch to a Great Ax, does my skill in 2 hand weapons or great ax affect the dps i do or is it both.

Also, lets say I want to use and ax sometimes and a sword sometimes, do I have to choose a weapon specialization, or is my specialization based on how long ive used my weapon?

BigGino · 02-06-2007, 09:32 AM

I think your skill in weapon type (2hs, etc...) effects accuracy while the specific weapon skill (longsword, etc...) effects damage, you can see it by hovering your mouse over the skill and reading the tool tip.

skatobot · 02-06-2007, 11:26 AM

Ahh ok thanks, I didnt even think of doing that

ellestil · 02-07-2007, 03:13 AM

What I haven't figured out yet is, what does the + and - do next to the lock icon? I noticed when skilling up on a 2hnd sword, that if I locked the skill, it didn't go up. When I put the + on, it did. I assume - would somehow take skill away, but I don't know how.

I also noticed that by default, all my current weapon skills were set to +. Anytime I switched between weapons, they would skill up. The mouseover on the weapon specialization says "you have 346points out of 800ish points". However, unlike attribute points, I can't "spend" any points to raise the skill. Is this just a passive way of saying that if all my weapon skills were max'd I'd have 800ish points, but currently, since all weapons are not max'd im sitting at 346 weapon skills combined?

I also notice that my dodge, block, and parry skills level up very quickly. A weapon is slower to max though.

LupercalHorus · 02-07-2007, 07:44 AM

To answer both more specifically.....

Your weapon type skill (1hs, 1hb, 2hs, 2hb, etc) effect accuracy. If it's maxed for level, you have a 95% chance to hit an equal level mob (though the mobs parry/block/dodge is figured after that 95% figure, as far as I can tell) so basically you have a 5% miss rate. If it's NOT maxed for your level, you have some lesser figure from there. Not sure exactly how that's calculated but I imagine it's some percentage of total skill. So if you have 180/200 skill, you'd lose 10% to your chance to hit, or something similar.

Specific weapon skill is a dmg bonus. If it's maxed, that weapon receives a 10% bonus to dmg *when* it hits. Again if it's lower, some reduction of that.

As to the + and - buttons next to weapon skills..... You only have a certain number of points that you can learn in *all* of your weapon specific skills total. So somewhere by or before level 50, if you've been swinging a lot of impliments of destruction, you will use up those points and no longer gain any points in any of the skills. So at that point, you have to choose a couple weapons that you will not be using, click the - button next to that skill and you'll start losing skill in that weapon and therefore freeing up points to learn in another weapon skill. Hence the entire idea of Weapon Specialization. You basically focus on a certain handful of weapons and keep those maxed, at the expense of others. One thing to note, if you click the - button next to a skill, it will ONLY make you lose those points when you have no other points to learn and you are learning another weapon. So if you have say 200 points in Axe, and you want to learn Swords, which you currently have at say 195/200. If you have points still available in the overall pool, it will take them from there, regardless of what buttons you have clicked. But if you don't have leftover points in the pool, you will only lose 5 points from Axe to learn in sword. I probably explained that in an overly obtuse way, but all of that was meant to say if you have the - button selected on a weapon, you won't just randomly lose skill in it, unless it needs the points for something else.

Hope all of that answers the questions and doesn't just confuse the matter more.

skatobot · 02-07-2007, 04:06 PM

Wow Great info man! I think that post needs a sticky.

Thanks alot!

ellestil · 02-07-2007, 08:43 PM

Yea that finally makes sense to me, thanks for clearing it up bro. So I guess its better to stick with a handful of weapon types that you prefer, than to try and max out all weapon types.

BigGino · 02-07-2007, 09:10 PM

Im guessing the best strategy is to try and max out all of the generic weapon types. That way you will actualy be able to hit whith whatever your using. And if a really nice axe drops and you dont have that particular skill maxed you can get your damage up as you go. I curently have a great sword, great maul, and a dw combo of an axe and hammer, as well as shield that i am alternating as I level.