I tried to figure out how to improve this skill as it might help in not getting hurt in battles. Somehow it has increased by 3points (2 from lvling skill gain and 1 random gain).

In the mean time I have mastered Dodge, Parry, Shield Block, and few other skills and Evade would not increase. Is it one of those skills I should worry about or forget about it like I do to "pen"? Is there a way to improve it (I do not want to be spoon-fed)?




What is the use of "Armor Use" skill? I have seen mages use plate/bone armor.




I have heard that many people not practice both the skills as they seem useless. Is there any truth to this?

On my present character (int build warrior), which I had advanced beyond evade prior to the new code, my defenses and armor use have gone up normally but Evade, Aim, and Precise Aim have gone up a collective 5 points since those skills went in despite a lot of pk and attempts to specifically practice those skills on appropriate mobs. Two of the 5 points came through level increases.

I've put in about 80 hours since Evade went in, and although I see it trigger occasionally, I too would love to see these skills actually improve to 80 before my con runs out.

I've seen a number of even low int-ish warriors with good skills in these, especially aim/p-aim. Are you sure you're not wearing -20 int gear? :)

I suspect it's Nep who hates me. *sniff*

Easier to tune these now that I have data from various characters and don't have to guesstimate based on other defensive skills.

1) Evade looked a little slow based on skill levels and hours/etc. I tuned up the rates specifically vs. tougher opponents.

2) The various Armor Use skill improvement rates were given a similar tune-up, though I also de-emphasized their improvement rate due to a relatively minor role in Shield Block. If you're trying to improve Metal Armor Use, for example, wearing a metal shield is still helpful but not as much as lots of metal armor. Overall, probably a wash for most characters.

3) Aim and cousins looked fine as-is.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

nt

>
>I have heard that many people not practice both the skills as
>they seem useless. Is there any truth to this?

My gut feeling on this is that they don't do much under normal circumstances but are far from useless.

First, they are all automatic skills so the benefit is completely passive, like parry, dodge, etc so it would make sense to practice them because they will confer their benefit without any player effort.

Second, a skill like evade does not need to work very often for it to be a benefit, it only needs to fire once to let you escape a bash down or whatever. I don't think you can rely on it because of it's low % of actually working but I'd practice it with every class that has it available just for the random chance it might save me at some point.

>In the mean time I have mastered Dodge, Parry, Shield Block,
>and few other skills and Evade would not increase. Is it one
>of those skills I should worry about or forget about it like I
>do to "pen"? Is there a way to improve it (I do not want to
>be spoon-fed)?

Depends a lot on what you're fighting. Are you being targetted by dirt kicks, kicks, disarms, etc? Then you're probably having chances to improve evade. If you're fighting "dumber" mobs you might not have chances to improve evade.

Just kidding dude. I was wondering the same thing, I was thinking evade was just a weaker form of parry or dodge. Got it now, thanks. =)

As far as I can tell they're two separate things entirely. Evade is triggerd when people use skills/spells/communes at you. So if a mob tries to trip, bash or dirt kick you then you'd get a chance to learn evade.

Armor use gets checked on normal melee hits. Every time someone tries to strikc you in melee, the game selects a "target" for that hit. So chest, arms, legs, etc. If the armor at that location is of a material that corresponds to a "armor use" skill (e.g. leather and "light armor use") then you get a chance to improve at that "armor use" skill. If the material of the armor at that location does *not* correspond to an "armor use" skill that you have then you still may have a chance to deflect the melee hit, but there's nothing for you to improve at.

.

Maybe not. I just assumed it did.

Its pretty much obvious for the metal/bone/stone skills and mystic covers all the fancy things but what about light?
Everything else?

I think light is primarily leather and similar material. Stuff like wood I think falls outside the current armor use skills. This might be completely wrong just what I thought I read.

From the helpfile:

"cloth, leather, hides, and similar materials"

For what it's worth, I've noticed light armor use going up exponentiallly quicker while using shield/shield block. It perfected on a high-dex/int assassin almost exclusively while wearing a shield. And I believe only a couple times without the shield. Like, I'd throw the shield on, and bam-bam-bam like three improves vs one mob. This was perfected within a couple levels from getting the skill. Not sure if that's buggy or not. Should this really be firing on shield block? Maybe I was using a "light armor" shield? Not that I'm complaining...

Aim improves fairly well versus armored mobs.

Evade- not a clue how to get this one going.

I'm standing by this one. I've noticed similar things. I'll add though that aim improves at a decent rate against dragons that have armor (e.g. sea serpent, red dragon, midnight dragon, red-gold dragon, etc.).

As a high-intelligence, high-dexterity race, I've had -1- evade improvement from a level gain in roughly 200 hours of gameplay. I am the one tanking 90% of the time too. 90% of all my other skills are 90%-100%, so that goes to show that I am frequently fighting. My verdict is that evade has improve problems. But I don't have access to the code, so it's probably working as intended (even if "as intended" is sort slow and crappy :P)