Skill gain - Coc vs Woa and Coc

[Fraeya 341]

I'm curious if anyone has done any solid testing on whether over a sustained period of grinding you get better gains with just coc or woa and coc.

 

In my small tests I seem to get much more frequent skill ticks using woa and coc. Though the gains are smaller they seem to add up to more over time.

 

While just using coc I seem to get very rare skill gains but they are slightly larger.

Edited May 8, 2014 by Fraeya

[Heboric 808]

It probably depends on what you are doing. Some skills benefit from as long a timer as possible, which WoA could never help.

[Ayes 3,715]

Here is an informative post discussion on your questions made not long ago in this section:

http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/100074-question-about-woa-skillgains/

Cleared up a few questions about it for myself as well.

 

=Ayes=

[Fraeya 341]

Thanks Ayes, that cleared it up perfectly. High woa and coc on a high ql tool for imping, high woa and coc on a low ql tool for gathering

[Druidnature 1,118]

Thanks Ayes, that cleared it up perfectly. High woa and coc on a high ql tool for imping, high woa and coc on a low ql tool for gathering

Also remember that's only if your paying full attention - and have lots of materials on hand.

[Klaa 4,872]

Aye mining is a good example of a longer timer giving more skill; however, that's in Mining skill.

If you are more interested in the raising the characteristics associated with Mining, then a shorter timer is best.

[Joemog 732]

I can't think of any skill where a longer time gives better skill/time.

 

EDIT: Longer timers are only good when you're limited in materials.

Edited May 8, 2014 by Joemog

[Shrimpiie 3,665]

Repairing.

[Ayes 3,715]

Repairing.

 

Trumped em, you did! I remember turning on SB and repairing certain slow to repair items. With the skill interface opened it was quite apparent to see the Repair skill slowly tick up over time. These then were the items I always sought out to raise this skill.

 

=Ayes=

[Hailene 362]

I can't think of any skill where a longer time gives better skill/time.

 

How did you come to that conclusion? I always thought skill gain was directly porportionate with timer.  For example, a 30 second timer will yield twice as much skill as a 15 second one and 3 times as much as a ten second one.

 

Or is this not the case?

 

And if this is such the case, wouldn't one super long timer come out ahead due to natural inefficiencies of us humans?

Compare a skill that has an hour long timer (that doesn't drain of us all our fatigue) versus doing, say, 60 1-minute timers.  You're going to miss the exact moment that the 1-minute timer finishes, so you'll lose maybe half a second to a second between attempts.  In short, you'll probably end up doing 58, maybe 59, minutes worth of action timers versus the one super long hour timer.

 

A hyperbole, I know, but it's used to prove my point.

[san_tropez 394]

People seem to forget there's only like a 20% chance for an action to reward a skill tick

[McGarnicle 1,463]

A 30 second timer will give 3 times the skill gain as a 10s time...but you can fit three 10s actions in the same time as a single 30s timer. It is true, that so long as you can keep it up, the skill gains will be the same. There are other factors to consider though. For example, if you are chopping trees for skill gain, you may want longer times since you have to move from tree to tree. The longer you stay at one tree, the better. Similar when mining rocks, but on veins that have lots of actions left on it, there isn't much difference. 

 

As well, something came to mind after i posted in the other thread...back when I played EQ, everyone knew that when it came to deciding between two weapons with equal dos, it was much better to have a weapon that was faster compared to a weapon that was slower and hard hitting. This was because, lets suppose due to the RNG you miss twice in a row with the slow weapon, the other weapon would have twice as many chances to hit in that same time. Technically, over a long period of time, however, this would even out eventually and both weapons would do the same in the long run. In Wurm, this might apply to short sessions of skill grinding rather than long ones, but I thought it was worth noting.

 

It might end up coming down to personal preference, but I have skilled up mining to above 92 and blacksmithing to 99.3 and my preference is for mining, low ql with only coc on it is best, and for imping for blacksmithing, I like having high ql tools and both woa and coc.

 

On a side note, I use the same tools to get Weaponsmithing up as I do Blacksmithing and, while I am only at 57, it seems to do the trick.