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I've seen many different opinions on whether or not you can gain access to a weapon skill by using +skill items.
First, people said that you couldn't do it at all; if you didn't have the natural combat skill required to use the WS, you couldn't use it, period. This objection was easily refuted:
Note that a 56THF has a Marksmanship cap of 170, and Slug Shot is a 175 skill.
But then the claims became a little more complicated. People said that you could gain access to a WS by using +skill items, but only if you had already reached that natural skill already and "learned" the WS, like so.
Other people also said that you could use a WS without "learning" it naturally first, but that you had to use the WS menu (or maybe it was that you couldn't use the menu and that you had to use a macro; I don't recall). One person claimed that you simply had to zone (after equipping the +skill gear) in order to get full, normal access to the WS; this person claimed to have tested this (but didn't provide screenshots). I pretty much accepted the latter claim as fact, as I am generally loathe to call someone else's test a lie without hard evidence (as it leads down a slippery slope).
Obviously, these new claims are a little harder to refute. You'd have to attempt the test before you reach the natural skill, which is pretty difficult for any skill that you would use while exping, as you'd tend to cap it soon after leveling.
Luckily, I found a solution: Hand-to-Hand skill for THF. My THF has a true, natural H2H skill level of 149:
The H2H WS "Spinning Attack" is learned at skill 150.
According to somepage.com, there are only two +H2H skill items in the game: Faith Torque and Cestus Belt. I don't have a Faith Torque yet, and I've never owned a Cestus Belt (until now). So my H2H skill has never been above 149 under any circumstances.
So as you can see, my THF is at 149 skill. Just as a control, you can see that to start off (@149 skill), I didn't have access to Spinning Attack through the menu:
Nor did I have access to the WS by using a macro:
Now, I'll equip the Cestus Belt and verify the +H2H Skill bonus:
Note that I did not get any message about "learning" Spinning Attack upon equipping the belt.
Now, let's check the WS menu:
As you can see, I immediately gained access to Spinning Attack. So let's see if it works.
Yes, the menu allows me to select a target for it:
Yes, I can use it with a macro:
--
This test is as simple as it gets; it couldn't be any more straightforward. No "learning" required, no zoning required, no menu/macro tapdancing. +Combat skill items allow you access to a WS EXACTLY as if you had gained the skill naturally. Period, point blank, end of story.
P.S. The thing that annoys me about this test is... how the hell did the rumor get started to begin with that you needed to "learn" the WS? Or that you needed to specifically use menu/macro? This is the worst type of superstition; the kind that doesn't even have a tiny basis in fact. There was no reason to ever believe that you needed to "learn" the WS in order to use it, and that's doubly true now.
First, people said that you couldn't do it at all; if you didn't have the natural combat skill required to use the WS, you couldn't use it, period. This objection was easily refuted:
Note that a 56THF has a Marksmanship cap of 170, and Slug Shot is a 175 skill.
But then the claims became a little more complicated. People said that you could gain access to a WS by using +skill items, but only if you had already reached that natural skill already and "learned" the WS, like so.
Other people also said that you could use a WS without "learning" it naturally first, but that you had to use the WS menu (or maybe it was that you couldn't use the menu and that you had to use a macro; I don't recall). One person claimed that you simply had to zone (after equipping the +skill gear) in order to get full, normal access to the WS; this person claimed to have tested this (but didn't provide screenshots). I pretty much accepted the latter claim as fact, as I am generally loathe to call someone else's test a lie without hard evidence (as it leads down a slippery slope).
Obviously, these new claims are a little harder to refute. You'd have to attempt the test before you reach the natural skill, which is pretty difficult for any skill that you would use while exping, as you'd tend to cap it soon after leveling.
Luckily, I found a solution: Hand-to-Hand skill for THF. My THF has a true, natural H2H skill level of 149:
The H2H WS "Spinning Attack" is learned at skill 150.
According to somepage.com, there are only two +H2H skill items in the game: Faith Torque and Cestus Belt. I don't have a Faith Torque yet, and I've never owned a Cestus Belt (until now). So my H2H skill has never been above 149 under any circumstances.
So as you can see, my THF is at 149 skill. Just as a control, you can see that to start off (@149 skill), I didn't have access to Spinning Attack through the menu:
Nor did I have access to the WS by using a macro:
Now, I'll equip the Cestus Belt and verify the +H2H Skill bonus:
Note that I did not get any message about "learning" Spinning Attack upon equipping the belt.
Now, let's check the WS menu:
As you can see, I immediately gained access to Spinning Attack. So let's see if it works.
Yes, the menu allows me to select a target for it:
Yes, I can use it with a macro:
--
This test is as simple as it gets; it couldn't be any more straightforward. No "learning" required, no zoning required, no menu/macro tapdancing. +Combat skill items allow you access to a WS EXACTLY as if you had gained the skill naturally. Period, point blank, end of story.
P.S. The thing that annoys me about this test is... how the hell did the rumor get started to begin with that you needed to "learn" the WS? Or that you needed to specifically use menu/macro? This is the worst type of superstition; the kind that doesn't even have a tiny basis in fact. There was no reason to ever believe that you needed to "learn" the WS in order to use it, and that's doubly true now.
, etc....
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