Skill Mastery Testing

[Fridgster]

Without magery you have no real way of getting controlled undead around or of healing them. Plus the other one with the candles requires spell channeling for some reason. I play necro melee and would love to use these masteries but it seems like I'm not "supposed" to. The swords ones are pretty underwhelming too so I dunno what I'll end up with.

Mmmm healing I could do with chiv. Honestly they would still be disposable. Curious if vet would heal them. Also will have to test to see if they bounce to you with log off/on technique. I suppose the true plus out of this publish thus far is that it is making people contemplate new builds. It will be nice to play something other than a sampire when doing high end hunts. Even if they end up not being better, at least it just adds one more thing to tinker with.

 

[Spock's Beard]

I'd love to see the Command Undead thing work on undead created with Animate Dead, turning them into blue commandable pets that take slots, and letting you animate more red ones.

 

[Uvtha]

It is not as "BORKED" as people think it is, it is still a viable skill.
And how funny that you liked this post and I have a Berserker's Maul listed witch means you do not know that it has %75 SSI (%60 useable) already on it but that is ok we understand.

While I agree macing isn't as bad as people make it out to be, it IS the least versitale, and I know what those weapons are and they are all less useful than either imbued or wgat you can find on monsters.

 

[Eärendil]

Thanks for the great work. 95% of my time I am playing spellcasters in PVM, so i am quite happy: Necro seems to have the best innovations - I will try that first!

 

[Lord Arm]

great job everyone. a lot of time was spent balancing pvp, but with this new masteries, may take long time to work out.
I cant believe how good some of the masteries are. u think some people wont be going to fel because they will be easier to kill? should the devs wait to put the masteries part out until a lot of real testing is done? which templates u think will be best/worst? how does classic client compare to the enhance when it comes to using of these masteries? how will this affect new players, too much to know? will this increase multi account use? at events? u think any of the masteries should be nerfed/enhanced?

 

[OREOGL]

great job everyone. a lot of time was spent balancing pvp, but with this new masteries, may take long time to work out.
I cant believe how good some of the masteries are. u think some people wont be going to fel because they will be easier to kill? should the devs wait to put the masteries part out until a lot of real testing is done? which templates u think will be best/worst? how does classic client compare to the enhance when it comes to using of these masteries? how will this affect new players, too much to know? will this increase multi account use? at events? u think any of the masteries should be nerfed/enhanced?

Easy killer, take a valium.

 

[Uvtha]

great job everyone. a lot of time was spent balancing pvp, but with this new masteries, may take long time to work out.
I cant believe how good some of the masteries are. u think some people wont be going to fel because they will be easier to kill? should the devs wait to put the masteries part out until a lot of real testing is done? which templates u think will be best/worst? how does classic client compare to the enhance when it comes to using of these masteries? how will this affect new players, too much to know? will this increase multi account use? at events? u think any of the masteries should be nerfed/enhanced?

The taming absorb damage and the stamina damaging fencing should probably be toned down. Many need a tone up, including all of wrestling.

 

[Spock's Beard]

Honestly with the necro masteries being mage-only, and the swords masteries being irrelevant to someone who has max HCI and chains Armor Ignore, I'm not even buying any until they become passe and cheap.

If Command Undead affected creatures created with Animate Dead then it would be possible for a non-mage necro to keep up a minion swarm. If we got that plus Conduit not bizarrely requiring spell channeling then I'd probably use the necro mastery, and I'll make sure to campaign a bit for that on the forum here.

But basically this whole mastery thing has been a big yawn so far.

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

Forgot to mention that Meditation can be actively used and maintained during "Combat Training" mastery.

 

[cobb]

POISONING
"Injected Strike" will prompt you to select a Poison Potion (any Poison, even Parasitic or Darkglow) to use on your currently equipped weapon (this works on any weapon, including Bows), granting it multiple Poison Charges (you still have to pass a Poisoning skill check though, which fails a lot).
Once your weapon is poisoned, using Injected Strike again will cause your next successful attack to poison the victim and reduce their Poison Resist by 30% (PvM) or 15% (PvP) for 4 seconds at GM Poisoning/120.0 Anatomy. You can even queue a Weapon Special at the same time, for example you can deliver an AI from a Composite Bow that will simultaneously DP your target.
Even without having Anatomy, Nox Mages can make use of Injecting Strike with a Mage Weapon.

Is this how it is intended to work? I don't think you should be able to proc 2 special moves in one hit. Seems way too strong.

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

Just updated to clarify that Mana Shield only works on self, and that "Combat Training: Consume Damage" doesn't seem to work in PvP.

 

[Sir Mastermind]

Thank you for doing this! I don't really understand why the descriptions from the Devs are so vague. They don't even mention the cool downs for a lot of these things. You shouldn't have to do all this testing, but thank you so much for it. These things look really interesting, and might even get me to re-activate my account to play around with them.

 

[Vor]

Thank you for doing this! I don't really understand why the descriptions from the Devs are so vague. They don't even mention the cool downs for a lot of these things. You shouldn't have to do all this testing, but thank you so much for it. These things look really interesting, and might even get me to re-activate my account to play around with them.

Patch notes for most games are fairly vague to be fair. Isn't just a UO thing.

World of Warships patch notes today for example. Doesn't say what Defensive Fire actually is.

US Navy specific changes:

• Beginning from Tier VI, we introduced the Defensive Fire consumable

 

[Sir Mastermind]

So how does it work, exactly? I have to use the context menu, and I pick one of my skills to use. Or can I pick an ability from one and another one? For instance if I wanted one ability from Ninjitsu and one from Mace fighting? Could I do that?

 

[Lord Frodo]

Patch notes for most games are fairly vague to be fair. Isn't just a UO thing.

World of Warships patch notes today for example. Doesn't say what Defensive Fire actually is.

US Navy specific changes:

• Beginning from Tier VI, we introduced the Defensive Fire consumable

Mines, torpedoes/depth charges, anti-aircraft support, anti-ship support and maybe anti-missile support. Basically some type of ammo to protect ship/fleet. Just a guess from my time at the Naval War College and Naval service. I need to look into this game TYVM.

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

So how does it work, exactly? I have to use the context menu, and I pick one of my skills to use. Or can I pick an ability from one and another one? For instance if I wanted one ability from Ninjitsu and one from Mace fighting? Could I do that?

You can only have one Mastery selected at a time, and can only use the Mastery Abilities from the Mastery you currently have selected. In order to pick or switch your Mastery, you must single click on the Book of Masteries, and a context menu will pop up, allowing you to switch between your available Masteries.

 

[Bleak]

Thank you for your feedback thus far. There will be more balance changes to come.

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

Just updated "Combat Training: Berserk" after a bit more testing with it.

 

[Tanivar]

Can you take the Taming mastery for the extra three stable slots, soulstone off the Taming skills, and still have the extra three stable slots for a total of nine? That would be enough to let me grab a pack horse out of the stables and be able to then put it back in the stables without having to do twelve soulstone skill swaps to get the Taming skill stable slots and then return to the skill set I originally had. It would avoid a lot of hassle and irritation.

 

[Sir_Bolo]

Minor display issue with Skill Masteries: if you die, the passive abilities granted by your Skill Mastery are incorrectly removed from your buff bar.
This seems to be just a display issue, since the passive bonus still seems to work (e.g. with Magery mastery, my EVs still had the +15% HPs granted by Enchanted Summoning).

 

[Sir_Bolo]

Can you take the Taming mastery for the extra three stable slots, soulstone off the Taming skills, and still have the extra three stable slots for a total of nine? That would be enough to let me grab a pack horse out of the stables and be able to then put it back in the stables without having to do twelve soulstone skill swaps to get the Taming skill stable slots and then return to the skill set I originally had. It would avoid a lot of hassle and irritation.

Yes, that seems to work currently on Test Center. I was able to stable 9 pets with Taming Mastery active and 0 Taming/Lore/Vet skill.
Warning: it might be a TC bug. All Mastery abilties - including passive abilities like Boarding - say 'Min. Skill 90'.
If you drop your skill below 90, you cannot use your active abilities anymore, but it seems that your passive abilities are not deactivated.
So maybe it's not working as intended and it could be changed before release.

 

[Tanivar]

Yes, that seems to work currently on Test Center. I was able to stable 9 pets with Taming Mastery active and 0 Taming/Lore/Vet skill.
Warning: it might be a TC bug. All Mastery abilties - including passive abilities like Boarding - say 'Min. Skill 90'.
If you drop your skill below 90, you cannot use your active abilities anymore, but it seems that your passive abilities are not deactivated.
So maybe it's not working as intended and it could be changed before release.

Thanks for checking on it. Leaves me hope.

 

[Lord Taliesin]

I may have missed it but has anyone tested the mastery summon buff combined with arcane empowerment? I'm assuming they stack?

 

[Sir_Bolo]

Not sure if this is working as intended: on Test Center, you can switch to any Mastery you learned, even if you don't have 90 skill points in the required skill.
In production, you can only switch to a bardic Mastery if you have 90 points in the required skill.

 

[Sir_Bolo]

I may have missed it but has anyone tested the mastery summon buff combined with arcane empowerment? I'm assuming they stack?

Just tested. Yes, they stack. AFAICT they even stack multiplicatively instead of additively, so it's slightly better: +10% from Arcane Empowerment +15% from Enchanted Summoning equals +26% instead of +25%...

 

[Lord Taliesin]

they even stack multiplicatively instead of additively

That's awesome.

 

[Cetric]

Is this how it is intended to work? I don't think you should be able to proc 2 special moves in one hit. Seems way too strong.

If they made it so you couldn't itd be damn near worthless... Just infectious strike then

 

[Lord Arm]

You can only have one Mastery selected at a time, and can only use the Mastery Abilities from the Mastery you currently have selected. In order to pick or switch your Mastery, you must single click on the Book of Masteries, and a context menu will pop up, allowing you to switch between your available Masteries.

I was wondering the difference between ec and classic, will ec have one button (recorded or other) switch masteries, easily done while classic client users don't have and are at disadvantage?

 

[Ender]

I was wondering the difference between ec and classic, will ec have one button (recorded or other) switch masteries, easily done while classic client users don't have and are at disadvantage?

There's almost definitely a cooldown on switching. The bard masteries already have it.

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

I was wondering the difference between ec and classic, will ec have one button (recorded or other) switch masteries, easily done while classic client users don't have and are at disadvantage?

I haven't tested it much in EC yet, went out of town to the Seahawks game in Seattle, so been gone a few days. Although, i did start EC up with Pinco's before, and trying to select Mastery abilities in the Book of Masteries seems to have been broken. I couldn't switch the page over to show the abilities for other masteries. Maybe it was just a problem with Pinco's.

 

[Sir_Bolo]

Although, i did start EC up with Pinco's before, and trying to select Mastery abilities in the Book of Masteries seems to have been broken. I couldn't switch the page over to show the abilities for other masteries. Maybe it was just a problem with Pinco's.

I tested Masteries with the EC Default UI and they work fine.
You'll have to disable Pinco's UI for now - it doesn't support the new expansion features yet, and some old stuff in Pinco also stopped working when the EC client was patched.
Hopefully Pinco will be able to update the UI to support the new version of the EC...

 

[Thrakkar]

There's almost definitely a cooldown on switching. The bard masteries already have it.

Exactly, it is mentioned in the patch notes:

There is a 10 minute cooldown between switching masteries.

 

[Max Blackoak]

Does the tactics skill influence the masteries at all or do you only need 120 in the weaponskill (or magery etc.)? I ask because my templates usually have only gm tactics and I would have to switch stuff around if you'd need 120 tactics as well for the masteries to work.

 

[Uvtha]

Does the tactics skill influence the masteries at all or do you only need 120 in the weaponskill (or magery etc.)? I ask because my templates usually have only gm tactics and I would have to switch stuff around if you'd need 120 tactics as well for the masteries to work.

It says on the mastery explanation what skills it takes into account, but yeah.

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

Skill Mastery Testing Part 2 is now in the works.

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

So, since i've been seeing a massive amount of questions about Masteries, both in game and on Stratics, i thought that i'd bump this post so others can see it, and hopefully have it answer their questions.

 

[Mervyn]

Silly question but....
How do you use the masteries? I ate a volume 2 and i acquired a mastery book.
I get a message saying:
you are not on the correct path for using this mastery ability.

 

[Mervyn]

Also i have another question, how do you know what masteries you have swallowed?

 

[Bleak]

Silly question but....
How do you use the masteries? I ate a volume 2 and i acquired a mastery book.
I get a message saying:
you are not on the correct path for using this mastery ability.

Also i have another question, how do you know what masteries you have swallowed?

http://stratics.com/threads/little-confused-about-a-couple-things.352253/#post-2604835

 

[Leprechaun]

Death Ray: needs some tweaking, the only way for this to work is if you stand still and let it go the full length. the problem is the other person has to stay in range and thats never going to happen. If you move to keep them in range it breaks the spell.

I cant think of any instance this would be useful. Maybe pvm?

When a T-map is at the edge of the water and the spawn is " you can not see target" this works while other spells don't.
It is a very handy way to kill the spawn that is standing in the water, so that one can get on with the job of looting the chest.

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

I'm still seeing a lot of people in game having a lot of questions about Masteries. @Larisa offered to make this thread stickied awhile back, think i'll take her up on that now. Will make it a lot easier for people to find the info. I'd like to have this and Part 2 (Skill Mastery Testing Part 2) stickied.

 

[arthassp]

hmmm have no ideia