Need help understanding skills

Discussion in 'Tips, Tricks, FAQs, and New Player Discussion' started by Fjolde, May 14, 2022.

  1. Fjolde New Member

    I play a berserker and I noticed my maul skill has a duplicate but it doesn't make sense to me.

    Maul II (Apprentice) 119-198 dmg
    Maul (Expert) 92-152 dmg

    Should I focus of one? Or how do I level up the expert skill? I'm also an alchemist but everything I make seems to be underleveled and not worth it, can I upgrade those?
  2. 7thRankedNoob New Member

    Hi Fjolde,

    "Maul" is the skill and the number ( II as example ) is its level. You can't use both skills at the same time.... Put them both on your bar and use one ... you will see they both grey out until the refresh is over. Unlike a heal lets say, its always best to use your highest level skill when doing damage.

    "Expert" is the skill's 'type'. As an Alchemist, I assume you created (or looted) that Expert ... You can make Expert and Master level skills (when you get the books to create them). They are always better then the default level you get once you initially unlock the skill while skilling up the Tradeskill.

    There is no "leveling" of skills like Maul... Using it will level the Weapon skill (Blunt/Slashing/Piercing) you have in hand. As a Berserker, I suggest you buy one of each weapon you can use and swap them once you cap their skills, going back to whatever weapon you like most once the skill is capped.

    Hope that spelled things out more clearly for you.
    KauaiJim, Hartsmith and Riverbear like this.
  3. Hartsmith Well-Known Member

    Unless you are going to spend more time mentoring for quests at lower levels, focus on upgrading the newest version of the spell, Maul II. Even if the lower tier would do more damage, it has a higher resistance factor making it more likely to actually do damage. Whether or not it would be worth it to go back to upgrade the lower level spells will be up to your playstyle, but if you finish upgrading current spells, then there is no real reason not to research the lower levels.
    Riverbear and Breanna like this.
  4. Riverbear Active Member

    That was a very kind, thoughtful and even handed response. You addressed that very well in my estimation.
    Hartsmith likes this.
  5. Fjolde New Member

    That helps a lot thanks.

    I'll stick with alchemy then, I wasn't sure if it would be worth it.

    They're just different types and I research one or the other. With the alchemy ones being better in the long run, which I upgrade through the upgrade screen.

    I should only research the expert level ones? Avoid the journeyman?
  6. Hartsmith Well-Known Member

    Alternatively, Fjolde, you can buy the upgrades from the broker, or if you are in a guild, the guild might have surplus you can get the upgrade for free (if your guild has that amenity). Those options are your best bet to do before you begin researching (tabbed as Upgrade) your abilities to reduce time it takes to upgrade/research.

    Just for clarification, 7thRankedNoob referred to Maul as a skill. You will often see it also referred to as a combat art, spell, or even as an ability. S/He also refer to "expert" as the skill's type. I had not heard it referred to like that so I looked up what it says on wiki. I'd always thought apprentice, journeyman expert, etc. were considered tiers, and after looking at wiki, I found it confusing when I noticed "tiers" can also refer to groupings of spells by levels, i.e. T-1 levels 1-10, T-2 levels 11-19, etc. Though it is worth noting that on the Upgrade tab, you have the ability to sort the list by "Progress" which sorts them according to journeyman, expert, master, and so forth.

    7th, I had totally forgotten about all the points that get added to blunt, slashing, or piercing depending on weapon type being used during combat. This could quite possibly be why some battles have been taking me FOREVER when doing current content. Makes me wonder how many times I tried killing skeletons with piercing weapons, LOL. Thank you for the reminder.

    Fjolde, if you haven't seen it already, on your Character Sheet, you will find a Skills tab where you can see if you have maxed a weapon's skill type. While I had not thought about the different types in a long time, I do know that different enemies are more susceptible to different types versus others. i.e. your best weapon against skeletons would be blunt weapons, iirc. So if a battle seems to be taking way too long, try using a different weapon type.
  7. Fuhraal New Member

    Good info already given - here's my take.
    Basically, you start out with the 'Apprentice' that is granted when you level (spells or combat arts mostly - all your damage & class stuff).
    The old, basic pattern, which I always heard referred to as quality, goes:
    Apprentice - Journeyman - Adept - Expert - Master - Grandmaster - etc, etc
    After Apprentice, they are crafted - dropped - crafted - dropped - crafted - idk
    ie, Journeyman, Expert, Grandmaster are crafted quality while the Adepts & Masters are chest drops.
    As others have said, I would always try to at least upgrade immediately to Expert when you get a new spell/combat art after leveling up. You can also sometimes find the Master quality for sale on the broker. The caveat here is that you must have a Master scroll/essence/rune (mage-priest/fighter/scout) NOT scribed as a raw material to craft a Grandmaster (yourself or by someone else). If you scribe it, you can still use research to get to the Grandmaster quality if you are a paying member account.

    Alchemy is the right tradeskill to make your own Expert quality upgrades for a fighter (Essences). Jeweler makes upgrades for scout classes (Runes), and Sage makes mage & priest upgrades (Scrolls). Another caveat - if you aquire a Tradeskill Research Apprentice you can get all of the Grandmaster recipes to make those yourself, for ALL adventure classes with ANY tradeskill class character. ie, you can get all fighter, scout, mage and priest Grandmaster upgrade recipes with a carpenter if you want to. Grandmaster recipes can also drop in chests, and they are the same as those you get from a Research Apprentice (hired in Qeynos or Freeport - three avatars to choose from just for the look you prefer. they all give the same recipes, but not thru the latest expacs).
    Twyla likes this.