Random questions

18. I have several spells I'm trying to level up, like Reveal Hidden, Strength of Earth, Stone Arrow and Ice Arrow. Usually I can just stand there and cast them over and over and over they keep levelling up, but it seems like it gets to a point where it doesn't want to level up any further, but if I wait just a few minutes or go to a different scene it levels up a few levels and then gets "stuck" again. Also, the offensive spells (stone and ice arrow) don't seem to level up at all when I just stand there and cast them, though I swear that's how I got them to level 16. Is there an algorithm to figure out when casting a spell will advance it to the next level?

 

When you press k and then select the Adventure tab, what value do you see for Pooled Experience?

Also some basics here: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...nd-crafting-xp-and-maintaining-skills.161294/

 

18. Hmm. For one, most (if not all) offensive spells won't level without a target. Either a mob, or a training dummy. As for the leveling getting stuck, I'm not sure. They do level slower the higher you go, as each level requires more xp than the previous. And the amount of xp a single use pulls from your pool is a minimum amount plus a mysterious hidden percentage of your total pool, so you could be noticing things slow down as your pool decreases, since a lower pool means that percent extra will be a percentage of a smaller number.

 

Correction: A skill use may not draw a "minimum amount plus a percentage of your pool." We know for sure there is a percentage of your pool drawn, but on thinking about it more, I don't know for certain there is a minimum amount that percentage is added to. Chris did once say there is a cap to the maximum amount for the percentage of your pool, to prevent people from having massive pools and leveling skills stupidly fast. But we don't know what that cap is, and since it was something from a livestream I can't really go back and cite, it should be taken with at least one grain of salt.

 

Also if you are training everything it will be even slower at higher levels. Set some things to maintain and work one or 2 at a time if you have any xp available. If you don't you'll have to build the number back up by turning off training for a little. As mentioned check your k key for pooled xp amount. Don't forget to get some focus from the focus tree. Higher levels especially will burn more focus. It is a lot of planning and strategizing to get it all organized.

 

I think that is only partially true. (But I could easily be proven wrong.)

"Skills train slower the more you have set to train" is one of those things people like to spread around, and I don't think it is entirely true. It IS true if using a skill can increase multiple skills at once. The amount of xp drawn from the pool remains the same, but is divided between the skills that can increase. For example, if you set a Tactics skill to train and a Focus skill set to train, they will increase more slowly, because anything that would cause one of those skills to increase would cause both of them to increase. The XP draw from the pool remains the same, but gets split between both skills.

However, if I set only Aimed Shot and Dodge to train, I believe they will both increase at the normal rate. Using Aimed Shot will not increase any skills except Aimed Shot* (and possibly the base Ranged skill, but I'm not sure about that**) and so would only draw xp from the pool into Aimed Shot.

Now, where I might be wrong, is that it is possible that the amount of xp drawn is reduced by some factor, based on how many skills you've set to train. However, unless a dev once specifically said this in a stream (entirely possible) it is not necessarily true. All the Player Guide seems to say about it is:

There are limits to how fast a mind can assimilate new knowledge. Avatars attempting to train in a large number of skills at once will find advancement slow, especially in passive skills. Training in a skill can be toggled in the upper-left of every skill icon in the skill tree. Focusing on only a few skills at once can help ensure regular progress.

Which neither confirms nor denies the idea that setting more than one skill specifically causes them to level up more slowly. It is entirely possible that this is a simplified explanation to get the basic idea across.

Personally, when training skills, I will often gather xp until I get to a point where I can raise several at once to a desired level, like "+5 levels to all of my ranged skills." Then I go into my basement with the practice dummy (get your mind out of the gutter!) and raise them all at once. I find this a bit easier, as I can use Chaotic Feedback and an unlocked deck to blow through skills quickly. However, when I do passives, I only turn the passive on. Using a Guidance Potion, it's easy to see how much using a skill affects the level, as you can often see the bar jump a significant amount. I have set four or five active skills to train at once, noted how much the bar jumps with using a skill, then set all but that skill to train, and I have not seen a difference. However, I am training a Tactics skill, or any passives, the drop in skill advancement becomes pretty noticeable trying to train more than one at a time.

Now, it might just be because passives increase more slowly anyway, so trying to do a bunch at once makes the effect more obvious. But I don't think so. Training Aimed Shot alone or with other active skills doesn't seem to affect how quickly the skill raises.

I think the idea of training multiple skills at once is slower has been repeated so many times without the specifics of why it can happen, that the specifics have been forgotten and the idea has become dogma.


* And, of course, any Tactics, Subterfuge, or Focus skills, as any skill use causes those to advance.
**Interestingly, when I went to grab that bit of text from the player guide, it specifically used the example of Aimed Shot causing not only Aimed Shot to advance, but base Ranged as well.

 

Still waits for a response. I’m sure what is going on....

 

Yeah I agree it has been said for years not to train too many skills at once or watch your xp pool disappear. I trained all my skills this way. At first you can train more until the skills get to xp expensive, but if it has changed recently then I'm just out of touch . It is good to consider and watch if your pool is disappearing too fast after getting skills to over 40 and training a lot of them at once. I'm sure someone can attest to this or say it is no longer the case.

 

Well, as I said, I believe it's dependent on which skills you're training. As a general rule, especially if you're leveling by playing rather than by practice dummy, it's probably best to train only one or two at a time.

 

I have well over 200,000 XP left. I'll post a screenshot when I get a chance.

I'll try casting stone arrow and ice arrow at a practice dummy to see if they level up, if not, I'll find an adventuring area with a lot of monsters and try levelling them up there.

EDIT: Casting those spells in actual combat definitely seemed to help level them up. And casting the passive spells levelled up immediately this morning after being out since last night.

 

19. This has happened to me a couple times, once in Owl's Nest and now in the Kobold camp north of Norgard. I have Immolation on, accidentally provoke a monster and get into fights. Does that hurt me virtuewise? I know I have to be careful to avoid killing a character who has an item crucial to a quest, but like in the bandit cave or the Kobold camp, as long as I don't kill "important" characters is it okay to use those monsters to "build up"?

 

20. I have a task "find out why there is no ale in Owl's Head" where someone asked me to go to Kingsport and find out why there is no ale. I seem to remember someone saying that it was due to the bandits, but that was before I got the quest. Suggestions for how to close this quest will be appreciated.
21. How do I kill a ghost???? They seem to have a trillion hit points to begin with and even when I do damage one they just cast a healing spell and I'm right back where I started. I have Banish Undead but I'm still only at level 1 and it doesn't even scratch them. Suggestions will be appreciated!
22. I've been doing quite a bit of mining. I usually find just fragments, but every now and then I find whole gems. Are the gems good for anything other than selling them for gold? And what are the fragments good for - can they be combined into a full gem that's worth more than the sum of the fragments?
23. Is it now, or will it be at any point, possible to bind to more than 1 town crier or other location and then pick a location? I play offline if that makes a difference - just thinking it would make it a lot quicker to move around the world.
24. If I have a rusty item, I can salvage the item into a metal scrap. Is there a way to just remove the rust and keep the item, i.e. convert a rusty plate helm into a plate helm?

 

20. Sorry got no answers here, @Anpu maybe?

21. Ghosts have very high resistances, and use Death Field to heal themselves up. Use skills that have a -Healing modifier (Rend, Puncture, some fire spells), make sure your companion/pet are as far as possible away from the fight or dismiss them, use Celestial Blessing (moon) and Purify (life) before the fight to raise your death resistance, and ultimately try to train 10 death skills up (active or innate, just need 10). Their average is your death attunement, and each point of attunement is the equivalent to 0.5 points of resistance, so the higher your attunement, the better your resistance. Fire or Spears are usually my top 2 to kill Ghosts easily.

22. Gems can be infused to their element and then socketed into pieces of gear, to give you resistance or attunement, and if you enchant that gear after socketing it with a Gem, you can get special enchantments specific to that Gems element. For fragments, there are several recipes to make with them. For me, I just sell my gems but I gather more than I can use. Just go to Desolis, the alchemist there will buy them at 200g per.

23. You can craft Teleport to Zone scrolls (recipe from alchemists) which will allow you to teleport to any previously visited scene, at an entrance usually.

24. Rusty items are just for sale ot salvage, no you cannot clean them to make them normal. Anyways, you will want to create weapons yourself from basic materials to at least receive the material bonus!

 

Thanks Violet!

21. I've been avoiding the Death tree entirely because I want to achieve Life Magic Specialization. Can I do what you suggested without affecting my life attunement?
22. I've just started getting into crafting/smelting/blacksmithing etc. I can barely create a backpack let alone a dagger. are socketing and enchanting more advanced crafting topics? If so, where could I read about them?
23. Awesome!!!!! That will make life SO much easier, can't wait to play around with that!

 

21. Yes. Just don't level Life Warding, that one will affect your life attunement.
22. Also, fragments can be combined into gems. I think maybe the recipes come from alchemists, it's been a while.

 

You aren’t pressing J and reading the journal entries. Press J and read them. Do not rely on the task and hover over text that is on your screen.

 

22. I'm making progress on crafting - I happened to be in Owl's Head so I went to Owl's Nest and mined a bunch of copper and iron ore and was able to built ingots, daggers (which automatically showed +2 and +3 - noice!) and halberd heads. Are there more bountiful/plentiful supplies of copper or iron ore anywhere? Seems a bit timeconsuming to mine them over and over.

 

Is this the journal entry you're referring to? I don't see anything helpful in it...

 

25. I just now notice that the whole time I've been playing the game I've never raised my dexterity - ever. I'm about at level 60 and I still have a Dexterity of 10. I have about level 15 of distract so I can start turning on "train dexterity" finally. The question, what effect does dexterity have on the game? It's usually probability to hit but I never seem to miss - what will I start to notice as my dexterity goes up?

 

Dexterity will affect the following (that I know of)

Hit chance (the higher your dex, less chances to hit a glancing blow, parried blow, dodged blow, etc.)

Dodge chance

Crit chance


Those are the ones I know about.

Just to reassure you, if you are a melee fighter, dex is really not as impressive as you would think, I tested a 400 Str 250 Dex build and a 150 Dex 500 Strength build, and my 500Str build works far better than any other builds I tried up until now. Dex is more important for archers and Air mages.