Why is Guarding skill so hard to improve? Could we maybe get some small revisions in how skill ups are given to help this?
Okay. This subject has probably come up a million times before, but searching keywords is not turning up anything for me, so here goes. I just started to level guard seriously. Mine was always "high," as it was in the low 90's (I'm level 71 Monk now), but I've always wanted to raise it and have seen some people get pretty amazing results with high Guarding levels. I've read how to do it, and I understand that it is going to be time-consuming. I have no problem with spending time working it up, but I do have a problem with seeing my guard time after time with no skill ups. I really need to tally some numbers, but it seems like I've seen him guard hits 30-50 times during one stretch, and not get a single skill up! I've found monsters of the right level for my guard skill, I checked them using Somepage's Mob Database. Right now I'm doing Maze Lizards & Caveberries in Crawler's Nest. I've gotten skill ups, but so infrequently as to make it prohibitive to up this skill. And sadly, I'm not even halfway to cap yet! I should cap at 249, yet despite the disparity I am still making painstakingly slow progress and am stuck at 106 guard. Perhaps this is meant as a test to see who really wants to become good with this skill, to become one of the "elite". But then, don't they have relic weapons for stuff like that? And I don't mind some challenge, but this just seems far too difficult. I know guarding procs after every other possibilty is exhausted; it's only that I see it proc so many times with no skill up that frustrates me. So here are my suggestions:
1) I believe that skill ups should occur more frequently (almost automatically) when your skill level is less than half of cap. Why should it be that a bard using her 91 staff skill against Greater Colibri gets no skill ups when she actually manages to connect? This is backward. You should be rewarded for working up skills you aren't strong in. And I cap this improvement at half of cap because of course it isn't fair to become awesome at something because someone is there helping you. 50% of cap will get you decent, but we all know how good that'll be against xp/merit mobs at level 75.
2) I'd like to see a slight improvement in skill ups overall. Perhaps at the very least a floor, a minimum level that you can't go under. Who wants to train a skill for an hour and see only on skill up? Maybe they can make a minimum. If you've guarded (or whatever) 100 times with no skill up, it gives you one the next time it procs. We're not talking major here, but SOMETHING to keep from wasting your time and discouraging you from working on a weaker skill.
3) It's Christmas time! I know it's late, but maybe a special event item could be available. We had Anniversary rings, which had ten charges and can't be refilled; maybe we could have a ring with ten charges that improves chances of skillups for an hour? It'd make me more interested in some of these events, and I'm sure people wanting to work up Parry and shield would be happy as well.
There's one other thing I'd like to see discussed of the SE guys won't disclose it, and that is what role does moon phase/day of the week play in attaining skill ups? I've heard New moon, I've heard Full moon, and I've had people think I'm nuts for even asking. Can we reach some kind of consensus? Better yet, anyone at SE willing to divulge this? Thanks. Hope some of you agree with some of what I'm saying, I'll be interested in hearing from you.
Okay. This subject has probably come up a million times before, but searching keywords is not turning up anything for me, so here goes. I just started to level guard seriously. Mine was always "high," as it was in the low 90's (I'm level 71 Monk now), but I've always wanted to raise it and have seen some people get pretty amazing results with high Guarding levels. I've read how to do it, and I understand that it is going to be time-consuming. I have no problem with spending time working it up, but I do have a problem with seeing my guard time after time with no skill ups. I really need to tally some numbers, but it seems like I've seen him guard hits 30-50 times during one stretch, and not get a single skill up! I've found monsters of the right level for my guard skill, I checked them using Somepage's Mob Database. Right now I'm doing Maze Lizards & Caveberries in Crawler's Nest. I've gotten skill ups, but so infrequently as to make it prohibitive to up this skill. And sadly, I'm not even halfway to cap yet! I should cap at 249, yet despite the disparity I am still making painstakingly slow progress and am stuck at 106 guard. Perhaps this is meant as a test to see who really wants to become good with this skill, to become one of the "elite". But then, don't they have relic weapons for stuff like that? And I don't mind some challenge, but this just seems far too difficult. I know guarding procs after every other possibilty is exhausted; it's only that I see it proc so many times with no skill up that frustrates me. So here are my suggestions:
1) I believe that skill ups should occur more frequently (almost automatically) when your skill level is less than half of cap. Why should it be that a bard using her 91 staff skill against Greater Colibri gets no skill ups when she actually manages to connect? This is backward. You should be rewarded for working up skills you aren't strong in. And I cap this improvement at half of cap because of course it isn't fair to become awesome at something because someone is there helping you. 50% of cap will get you decent, but we all know how good that'll be against xp/merit mobs at level 75.
2) I'd like to see a slight improvement in skill ups overall. Perhaps at the very least a floor, a minimum level that you can't go under. Who wants to train a skill for an hour and see only on skill up? Maybe they can make a minimum. If you've guarded (or whatever) 100 times with no skill up, it gives you one the next time it procs. We're not talking major here, but SOMETHING to keep from wasting your time and discouraging you from working on a weaker skill.
3) It's Christmas time! I know it's late, but maybe a special event item could be available. We had Anniversary rings, which had ten charges and can't be refilled; maybe we could have a ring with ten charges that improves chances of skillups for an hour? It'd make me more interested in some of these events, and I'm sure people wanting to work up Parry and shield would be happy as well.
There's one other thing I'd like to see discussed of the SE guys won't disclose it, and that is what role does moon phase/day of the week play in attaining skill ups? I've heard New moon, I've heard Full moon, and I've had people think I'm nuts for even asking. Can we reach some kind of consensus? Better yet, anyone at SE willing to divulge this? Thanks. Hope some of you agree with some of what I'm saying, I'll be interested in hearing from you.
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