Hello. Sorry for all the questions.. I'll probably have a lot more later, when I can remember them.

I recently reactivated my account (along with my wife) after about 2 years. Well, technically I cancelled a year and 3 months ago... :grin: I stopped playing shortly after AoS, and began playing SWG. I logged in rarely because of that and quit around the time they turned house decay back on. (Lost two nice houses and a ton of good stuff, but no big deal really).

So, I'm familiar with everything up until that point.. although a bit rusty on some stuff. I know about powerscrolls and the changes to combat and items that AoS brought... What I'm not familiar with are changes brought about by patches (It seems archers are useful again!), and the SE and ML expansions... and soulstones and other general stuff.

I'll probably have to post more questions later when I can think of them, but a few that come to mind right now have to do with skills:
1)Wrestling - have there been any changes? I've looked around on this board and stratics, and I don't see it listed in many people's templates. Is it still useful for mages? I vaguely remember some AoS changes... something about anatomy taking the place of wrestling.. or needing anatomy with wrestling if you didn't want your spells interrupted.

2)Stat gaining - Can someone remind me of the changes to stat gain post AoS? I know we can't see-saw skill gain to quickly gain stats anymore. But, how did this change exactly? Weren't there limits to the amount of stats we could gain per day when GGS came in and powerhour removed?
My wife created an elf mage with one of those starter templates, but it gives really low starting strength. (barely enought to carry a bag of reagents, much less wear any armor). I tried to help her figure out how to gain strength, but she only gained 2 points in one hour. She may just delete that character and restart. :grin:

3)Housing - I found a spot to place a two-story villa on my second day. I could've sworn that we could change the house signs on classic homes. In fact I've seen them on others, and I once did it on a sm. marble workshop. However, that option is greyed out on the housing menu for my owner. Any ideas, or is this a current bug?

4)Talismans, etc -- Besides putting them on your paperdoll, how do these work? I've gotten a few with charges and "owned by no one", and others don't list charges and don't have "owner" text. Do some need to be charged, and others not? Or do all need charges to work properly. How is recharging done?

5)Soulstone fragments --
-- These only work for characters of the same account, right? (ie. I couldn't give GM tailoring to the stone and have my wife (seperate account) take it, right?).
-- Will it accept up to 120 skill? If I give, say 120 magery to the stone and want another character to take it, that character would have to have used a +20 ps for magery first, right?

6)Jack of all trades "skill" --
Is this quest related, or just something that all humans get now? I read that it gives you the equivalent of 20 points in all skills. Is that just something that's calculated, or are we supposed to see an actual "20" in our skill sheet for all skills that have <20 real points? (if so, I'm not seeing that) :grin:

I guess that's all for now.. Any info is appreciated! Thanks!

You still need some sort of evade skill on a mage. Many mages dropped wrestling for melee skill in order to equip a spell channel weapon and get different specials. Personally I still use wrestle on my main mage.
The story with anat as evasion is Eval + anat = evade + 10 (or something like that) So 120 eval + 80 anat is the equiv of 110 wrestle but you get NO special moves. Its only good to do that if you are tight on skill points.
1 stat gain every 15 minutes.
Right its account specific.
correct.
its calculated at 20 without being shown on the paperdoll.

Hope this helps, and anyone can add to, or correct as necessary.
1. Wrestling is still viable for mages. Here was the forumla. A mage with Anatomy & Eval Intel, could skip Wrestle for the disruption benifit. Thus a "Mystic" (Healer Mage) could use bandages (Anat & Healing) and with the Anat + Eval Intel (both at GM) would have same benifits as GM Wrestle.
2. Stat gains are 1 per every 15 minutes, with total (I think) of 11 per day. You can see-saw the skills still, but won't get the Stat gain until your 15 minutes are up.
3. I think due to some exploits, "classic" houses are not longer modifiable, unless you convert it to custom.
*Edit* You can change the house sign on Classic houses if you make the house PUBLIC, as in a Vendor house.
4. Some of those "owned" are use and throw away (I think). Tailsmans just need to be worn to get the benifits. Unless its a "summon" tailsman, then you just double click it (while worn on paperdoll) to summon its creature.
5. Yes, SoulStone Fragments are just like soulstones. And are account specific. You can transfer 120 skill points, but the receiving character must have that ability or the points will be lost. IE: If you move 120 Tailoring to stone, and desire to move it to new charactger, if that character has not used a +20 tailor scroll, when you transfer the skills, they will get 100, and the soulstone will be flushed. Meaning you loose the 20 pts.
6. Jack of all. Humans. Hidden ability. Basically, Humans can do it all. Even with zero skill you have a chance at it, due to the 20 hidden skill points. Try it. Go out with a character with no hidding, and try. May take awhile, but you eventually will. I think my biggest count/try was 18-20 attempts before successful. But remember Stats still play into it. With 110 Dex, my warrior is more successful then the mage with 40 Dex.
Hope this helps.

Oh, I forgot to add... Does lumberjacking add any bonus to swords anymore? Is it useful? Here's one character I have:

Old PvP character
110ish swords
GM lumberjack
GM anatomy
GM tactics
GM healing
resist
Hiding
Magery

I play on Pacific with one account and my other characters are:
Paladin
GM Chivalry
GM Focus
GM Swords
GM Anatomy
GM Tactics
GM Healing
98ish Resist

Fisherman Bard
GM Fishing
GM Magery
GM Eval
GM Meditation
GM Music
GM Peace
GM Provoke
(I've got some scrolls on the music/peace/provoke and use rings to take it higher)

Crafter
GM Tinker
GM Blacksmith
GM Mining
GM Carpenter
GM Tailor
GM Cook
Magery (70ish with a ring)
Music 45 (so I can make instruments)
With enough veteran bonus sp for 120 smith if I ever get a scroll.

Tamer Mage
99.7 Animal Lore
96.2 Taming
90ish vet
GM magery
GM meditation
GM eval
112ish Tailoring (Don't ask! :grin: Thinking of replacing this with resist after putting it on a soulstone. I have scrolls on the taming stuff, but don't use rings as I want to have the real skill points. I'll probably bring eval down if I need to)

I'm almost positive that I'll keep all these templates the same, even if they're not the most powerful. But, I'm still curious to know what others think. I've read that gm chivalry is a waste, and that 80-90 will do. Does GM chivalry at least reduce the delay of casting?

If you're fighting with with an axe it does, if you're using a different kind of swordsmanship weapon then no, it doesn't- I don't know if that was how it was before or whether thats a change. Either way it still adds a bonus if you use an axe

doesnt matter tho since damage increase is capped at 100%. You can easily reach that with just items. LJ as a pvp bonus is a thing of the past.

Thanks for the replies everyone. That clears a lot up.

As for the house sign, I had temporarily set it to private so that's definitely why I wasn't able to change it on my two-story villa.

Also, thanks for clearing up the info about wrestling and anatomy. That's exactly the answer I was looking for with the eval+anatomy formula. It looks like wrestling is still useful, but I guess a lot of people want to hold luck and other items that give bonuses, so they don't take up wrestling. I'm guessing "use best weapon skill" weapons don't include wrestling? (only swords, fencing, maces?)

One other thing, while I'm thinking of it:
I've seen spellbooks with mods on them. Some look like loot or artifacts, I guess. But others sell cheaply on vendors... Can scribes craft these with bonuses now? If so, are the mods random when crafted, or are they enhanced with items after the crafting process? I haven't found much info on this.

I'm guessing "use best weapon skill" weapons don't include wrestling? (only swords, fencing, maces?)

correct. UBW does not calculate for wrestling or archery.


Scribes can craft slayer books and other books with FC/MR/LMC/LRC and a few skil bonus's. It also does a check on your magery skill to calculate the intensities for those mods.

Best bet is 120 magery and gm scribe to get the better ones. The mods are random and they can not be enhanced.