Experience points and skills

Just want to make sure I'm not missing anything - I have a bunch of experience points as can be seen here, but I basically have no skills I can actually develop. Is there supposed to be a way I can use those pooled experience points to accelerate the learning of specific skills?

The other question I have is, when I hover over Reach I see "This skill will increase when a relevant skill is used", but when I hover over Puncture or Push it says "This skill will increase when *it* is used." Is there a way to know what a "relevant" skill is? And in the cases where the skill itself is used, will the skill literally never increase unless the avatar uses it frequently?

Hope the questions made sense.

Thanks
DalTXColtsFan Dragon

(I hope you can actually see the picture - this is my first time linking from Facebook).

 

@DalTXColtsFan yes - you need to 'unlock' those skills at an Adventurer Training NPC - there should be one in most places you find yourself, such as Solace Bridge Outskirts, Soltown, etc. Some skills have prerequisite requirements of getting the connected skill above it to a certain level, usually 40. It will cost 100 gold (the 100 'badge' on the dimmed out skills)

 

You can also type in Universal chat, by typing in the chat/dialog box, and ask folks questions in game.
/u text goes here

 

Once skills are unlocked, active skills (puncture, pull, etc) have points allocated from xp pool only when that particular skill is used. Innate skills (polearm combat, reach, etc) have points allocated whenever an active skill from the same tree is used. Weapon innates also have points allocated whenever you auto attack or free attack. Some innates from the more general schools like tactics and focus can trigger point allocation from just about anything.

 

Player Basics - Understanding Adventure XP and Crafting XP and Maintaining Skills

Player Basics - Basic Skills that will be helpful to every New Player

 

I highly suggest, that you lock your main polearm skill right now ( the one at the top, at 81 in picture ). Raising that skill from 0-80 takes 180k experience but taking it to 100 from there, takes 1M experience and damage gained is nothing compared if you use that experience to get all the other skills to 80 in that tree first.

 

Thank you. By "lock" you mean "Set to not training", right?

 

Yes.

You should definitely checkout some of the guides, that explain the way skills level here.
Simply put:
Killing gives you xp, that is placed on your pooled experience.
Using skill, takes xp from the pool and puts it in the skill.

From there, one can make few assumptions.
1: Skill levels faster if you have less skills actively gaining (Green up arrow)
2: Locking all skills (Orange arrow or a - sign ) and killing stuff raises your pooled experience.

So, gaining skill and getting xp are two different actions in this game. Most games have tied those together.

PS: Usable skills, normally, take about 180k xp to get to 80 and 1.2M to 100. Passive skills take 4x that. Some skills take 2x. Specialization skills take 20x.

 

Also if you lock all and unlock only 1 skill to level up, it will receive more xp from your pool and you will level it faster.

 

I am happy to report that my skills are now advancing famously. Thanks!