Weapon Skills - What do they do?

[Bomb Bloke]

I know that you want to get your weapon skills as high as possible, and that you need them to pull off special moves. 120 Swordsmanship scrolls, for example, are worth a lot of gold; so the skills must certainly be worth having.

But, to be honest, that's all I know. And that's pretty much all I can find online, too - the official UO site seems to indicate they give you a HCI bonus of some sort (or something like one, at least), and many posts around the boards here suggest they give you a DCI bonus as well, but I've never found anything specific.

Presumably a character has a minimum chance of hitting a given opponent (and a maximum chance of being hit), and raising a weapon skill increases the attack chance (while at the same time lowering the chance of getting hit yourself). What are the minimum/maximum values in the offense/defense ranges, and do those chances increase according to linear progressions? If not, are the formulas known?

Do stats have any effect?

Everything I've read suggests weapon skills have nothing to do with damage dealt, is this also the case?

 

[ZidjiN]

Im cant really answer all your questions.
I do however know that a weaponskill just as wrestling or anat/Eval do give you a passive chanse to hit/defend your self.

I dont know the exact numbers but but here is how it works.
With 120 Weapon skill you will have ~50% chanse to hit you target if your enemy allso has 120 weapon skill. If your target only have 100 or even less weapon skill your chanse to hit will greatly increase.
Above this HCI/DCI applies to increase the values.

I hope that made sens in some way. Im sure someone ellse will give you a more accurate description when they have time.

 

[Malkes]

Weapon skill has nothing to do with the damage a weapon deals.

They do determine your base chance to hit (and be hit by) an opponent, based on their weapon skill (or wrestling).

I believe that at 120 in a given weapon skill, you have a base chance to hit an opponent with 120 skill of 50%. This is NOT taking DCI, HCI, HLD, and HLA into account.

Basically, the more weapon skill you can rack up, the better off you will be in the long run. To fully maximize you attack and defensive capability, you will need to stack HCI and DCI, though.

If I'm wrong on any of this, anyone can feel free to correct me.

 

[Connor_Graham]

I believe that at 120 in a given weapon skill, you have a base chance to hit an opponent with 120 skill of 50%. This is NOT taking DCI, HCI, HLD, and HLA into account.

This is correct, and the reverse is true. If an opponent with 120 wep skill attempts to hit you, and you have 120 wep skill yourself, then their chance to hit you is 50%, not taking other factors into account. Parry chance is checked after this initial check which is why having 120 Parry is so strongly stressed upon here in this forum.