Players Guide/Skills

Skills

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Learning Skills

PlaneShift implements a system of character progression though skills, training and progression points.

There are basically four stages of learning a new skill, or improving upon an existing one:

Experience

Experience Points are awarded for doing certain tasks. You can think of this as being like XP in other games, but with some important additional features. At the most fundamental level, Experience Points are awarded to players each time they successfully kill monsters, execute skills, explore the world and complete quests. Every new character will begin the game with 0% experience.

Progression Points

Progression Points can be used by the player to purchase training, special maneuvers, stat increases and so on. It's nothing more than a reflection of the experience you have gained. As you gain Experience Points, you will also accumulate Progression Points. Every new character will begin the game with five Progression Points to allocate. Progression Points are used each time you train.

Theoretical Knowledge

This represents the "book learning" in a certain skill. For example, in the first rank of sword skill you can have the "left to right slash" only. At the second rank, you can have "jump forward and dive" and so on. Every skill has a balance of knowledge and practice required to master it. Some skills may require more practice than knowledge and some might require more knowledge than practice. For example, we can say that herbalism requires more knowledge than practice, so it could be "80% knowledge and 20% practice", while unarmed fighting could be "30% knowledge and 70% practice".

You spend your Progression Points by going to a trainer or some other NPC. and paying the Progression Points and money required for training. This will give you theoretical knowledge. For each Progression Point you spend with a trainer, you will gain theoretical knowledge in a certain skill.

Practical Knowledge

Represents the player's real-world expertise. For a given rank, you cannot start collecting practical knowledge before accumulating all the theoretical knowledge for that rank. When a player has learned all the theory and all the practice necessary, he or she will gain a new skill rank. This means that the player will have to use the skill in game for a certain amount of time (or number of times) before the skill is fully developed.

Training Skills

Once you have gained some Progression Points through experience, you can use trainers to improve your skills.

To train, walk close to an NPC, right-click on them, and click the Train icon that appears. Alternatively, target them and enter the /train command in the Chat Window or click the Train button in your Shortcuts. If the NPC is a trainer, a training window skill appear with all the skills listed that the NPC can train.

When this window appears, click on the skill you wish to improve and click the Buy Skill button at the top of the training window. If you have sufficient Progression Points and capacity for more theoretical knowledge, you will advance in that skill's theory.

Weapons Skills

A character can choose to learn one or more "groups" of weapons. Having access to the group gives the same skill also to all weapons contained in that group. This skill is used in combat when fighting with a weapon of the selected group. There's no limit in the number of groups a character can learn.

Every weapon type has a different efficency based on the armor (skin, clothes, chain, plate, etc.) that it hits. So a falchion can be more effective on a certain monster or opponent than a mace, even if the mace has an higher base damage.

Swords

Used for: bastard sword, broad sword, claymore, falchion, galkard, long sword, rapier, saber / scimitar, short sword, two-handed sword and venk. Description: The all-round group of bladed weapons. A basic combat skill. Advantages: None Disadvantages: None

Knives & Daggers

Used for: Dagger, knife, net, stiletto and whip. Description: The primary skill for those who prefer stealth over brute strength. These weapons are easy to use and easy to learn. Advantages: easy to learn and swift to use (more attacks per second). Disadvantages: Little damage per attack.

Axes

Used for: axe, chainblade, cleaver, double axe, poleaxe, small axe and two-handed axe. Description: For those brutal and bloody fights. Advantages: Massive destruction and high damage. Disadvantages: Slow to use (less attacks per second) and harder to learn.

Maces & Hammers

Used for: blackjack, club, flail, hammer, mace, morning star, two-handed mace, war hammer and zarwush. Description: The all-round group of blunt weapons. A basic combat skill. Advantages: None Disadvantages: None

Melee

Used for: iron fist, slayer armor, spiked shield, steel claws, thorn helm and unarmed combat. Description: The close combat skill. When no weapons are available, this is your fighting skill. Advantages: Easy to learn and fast to use. Disadvantages: Less effective for defense and more expensive equipment.

Polearms & Spear

Used for: halberd, partisan, pike / spear, polearm, rake, trident and voulge. Description: Almost any weapon as long as a person or longer requires this skill. Advantages: Excellent for defense. Disadvantages: Slower weapons and harder to learn.

Ranged

Used for: burning oil vial, heavy crossbow, jalood (throwing axe), light crossbow, long bow, short bow, sling, throwing daggers and throwing knives. Description: The skill used for any weapon used at a distance. Advantages: You stay away from close combat. Disadvantages: Slower to use.

Armor Skills

A character can choose to learn one or more "groups" of armor. Having access to the group gives the same skill also to all armors contained in that group. This skill is used in combat when fighting with armor of the selected group. There's no limit in the number of groups a character can learn.

Each armor has a base penalty to agility. Increasing your skill in using armor you can drop the penalty. You can get the penalty to zero only with light armor. Other types of armors will always give you some hindrance.

Groups are: Light armor, medium armor, heavy armor and shield handling.

Arcane Lore Skills

Arcane Lore skills express the knowledge in manipulating the glyphs to cast spells and to discover new ones. There is one skill for each Way.

There is much more information on these skills in the Magic section.

Each skill represents proficiency in one of the Ways of magic.

Physical Abilities

Body Development

Determines the health of your body and provides you with more Hit Points. Whenever you train this skill you spend time to work out and to enhance your health.

Miscellaneous skills

Mining

Your ability to find natural resources by mining the land.

Inactive Skills

You will see many skills listed in your skills windows than are listed above. The reason for this is that many of the skills are not yet active.

• Assassin Weapon
• Backstab
• Climb
• Find Traps
• Hide in Shadows
• Lockpicking
• Pickpockets
• Set Traps
• Riding
• Swimming
• Alchemy
• Anti-Magic
• Empathy
• Herbal
• Repair Armors
• Repair Weapons
• Argan
• Esteria
• Lah'ar
• Baking
• Cooking
• Blacksmith
• Knife Making
• Sword Making
• Axe Making
• Mace Making
• Shield Making

This list may be outdated, since new skills enter the game fairly often.
Some skills might not be fully usable, even if they is everything for it ingame

Crafting

Crafting allows you to use your character's skills in combination with the appropriate raw materials to create new items in the game. These items could then be used, traded or sold.

In addition, the corpses of dead opponents can be looted for valuable items and artifacts that can be traded for money.

LAST: Character Statistics

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NEXT: Combat