I did do this when I got to gm and it did seem to speed it up tho i am not sure

Actually I bet Morgawr is onto something here. The reason I said to hold a weapon in your hand for training parry (non-bushido) is because it is harder to succeed than with a shield, meaning better chance to gain. Generally I think the lower your chances the faster gains you get.

Not sure about it though.

I was always told (and tried) that you wither hold a weapon that you dont have skill in (a mace if you have swords or fencing for instance) and a shield. It increases the amount of hits you take while giving you the maximum chance to parry the hits coming at you.

If having a shield in your hand with 100 Parry and 100 Bushido give you a 5% chance to parry a hit you will only block about 5 times for every 100 times you are hit. Thats only 5 chances to gain per 100 hits.

Drop the shield and keep the wep, lets say you have a 30% chance to parry. now you have 30 chances to gain out of 100 hits...

OK so I think I want to give Bushido a try finally. I haven't played with any new skills since AOS.

Can y'all give me a clue what to drop for Bushido, and how much Bushido do I need?

My current template:
110 Chivalry (86 real-I use lots of jewelry)
110 Fencing
110 Parry
110 Tactics
108.3 Focus
97.4 Healing
94.2 Anatomy
715.9 of 720 used (I haven't played this cat in ages.)

100 Str/90 Dex/60 Int
And unfortunately he is an Elf and can't kill the critters to become human again. Maybe Bushido can help? (Elves suck for fighters)

Pretty close to what Im running. You can follow this thread to see what I end up dropping and changing, etc.

Ill probably be deducing the final piecestomorrow with any luck...

I think I will play with lowering Tactics. Now to find someone to train me in Bushido

Homare-Jima Gate and look for anyone with "the Samurai" after their name. Pretty sure you can buy the book off of them too...

But do you only gain with successes? I've seen many times that I have failed to Discord my target but have still got the .1 gain (not GGS either).

And about what to hold, a candle, fishing pole, or any item in your hand to parry with works. The reason why they tell you to use a weapon that you're not skilled with is because of the eval + anatomy / 2 = defensive wrestling formula. If you have any anatomy or evaluating intelligence, you have some defensive wrestling, making it harder for them to hit you and harder to make it to the parry check. In this case, hold a weapon you're not skilled with (non UBWS).

If you were meaning to direct him towards the Samurai in the city of Zento, it's the Makoto-Jima gate (I live there ). You can kill Ronin in the Homare-Jima area for a Bushido book.

I always thought that all skills held to the "after 70 kill you will only gain with successful attempts to use" thing. Course, I never opened that GM Tinkd box while gaining in LP with the Satyr trick. I didnt pay thorough attention but Im 99% sure that all the crafting skills Ive trained were only gain on success after around 70-ish.

D'oh! So it is. My bad Tuka...