Noob Question On Improving

[Artaniss 3]

Hey guys I have a question on improving. Ok I have say a pick axe that I made and it is of low qlty. Now I can improve it. It is taking forever to improve. And it is going much higher then my level. I thought items stay around your level, and is it worth improving? I mean it is taking forever lol. Also if I mine or cut wood to make something does my low skill effect the qlty of the item I am gathering and does the same hold true for when I make it?

Oh and how far do I go as far as improving? Will it say that it can not be improved anymore when it hits a certain level?

Edited January 11, 2013 by Artaniss

[Aetherwalker 1,863]

You can theoretically imp to skill + 10, but it takes a while when it's higher than your skill. And yes, at low skill you will gather and make lowql items

[Artaniss 3]

My Carpentry skill is 9.43 and I am improving a mallet that is like 24.35 how is this possible to go +14 above skill and when I use it to make something will the item qlty be same as mallet qlty?

[Laiwyn 188]

No, it will be capped at your skill. The mallet being higher quality than your skill level will just mean whatever you make will be capped equal to your skill level. This works for any creation tool iirc.

Of course you can imp an item to higher than your skill level, though. And having a tool that's higher ql than your skill, especially at lower levels, will make improving/creating things easier.

Edited January 11, 2013 by Laiwyn

[Pollo 146]

For gathering skills, some like mining and wood cutting, the results are linear, capped by your skill in them. Other skills, like butchering or foraging, the results are more along a QL curve, you can get much higher QL than your skill, but will normally be around your skill.

Imping is also on a curve, at very low levels you can imp much higher than your skill (people use the +10 as rule of thumb), somewhere around ~50 skill it is very difficult to imp above skill. You will not get "stop msg" from imping, you will get to the point where you will receive multiple failures for every very slight gain (sort of a soft wall). Having high QL tools and materials will make imping easier and allow you to make higher QL than your level would normally allow.

[Artaniss 3]

Ok thanks, I understand... I think lol

Edited January 11, 2013 by Artaniss

[Pollo 146]

It is difficult because no 2 skills behave exactly alike.

Higher QL will make Higher QL and make it easier/faster, although you are generally capped at the lowest level of QL or skill involved (at low levels there is a imping "bonus" with the rule of thumb being +10)

For instance, you cut down a tree, max log QL will be your woodcutting skill, it can be less. You can improve your chances of max QL by having high QL tools that give you greater chance of full success when cutting (full success = max QL).

You then make a wooden tool from this log, its max QL will likely be the lower of either your carpentry or the log QL, it can be lower than these based on level of success making it. Again higher QL tools improve chance of success or max QL.

You now attempt to imp the item. At low levels you get an "imp bonus", skill 1-5 might be +15 or so, 6-20 around +10imping. Imping will result in basically 3 results, full success with max QL gain, partial success with less than max, or failure resulting in damage to tool. You will never be told you have reached max improvement (maybe at 100?). The closer you get to your max imp capability (skill level + bonus imp) the more failures you will have. Using higher QL tools and materials will improve your chances of success, thus help you reach a higher level of imping faster.

For instance, a player with carpentry lv1 makes a tool, the tool will be 1ql because of skill level. He begins to imp it (with ql1 tools he made himself), that low he might imp to about 15-17, and might gain 2-3 points of skill while imping and it will take him a while. If he was given an awesome tool set (and raw materials), say 80ql, he should be able to imp to ~20 and do it much faster. By level 50 or so the bonus imping is essentially gone and you can only imp to your skill level or raw material QL.

The rules for every skill are a little different than each other, the QL or imp curve may be changed or the effect of tools (or raw material QL) may vary.

Edited January 11, 2013 by Pollo

[Lynxaria 10]

lol It's a bit confusing for sure, and took me a bit to understand aswell.

I am a mason, so I I imp things often, such as my deeds forge/stove/altar, and even though I am nearly 50 Masonly, I couldn't understand why I couldn't imp past 35 with my rock shards. Well my rock shard quality was at 35, so I couldn't go any higher. I would need to get my mining up passed 35 in order to mine 35 quality shards. I can use my chisel though as it is directly related to my masonly skill, but alas my items requiring imping all are asking for rock shards, so at 35 quality they will sit.

So basically in your case you will likely get tired of failing at improving your pickaxes as your skill will become too low to do so, can always make another pickaxe and start the process over again to raise your skill, as imping is a great opportunity for skill gains!

Easiest way to understand is to experiment with all the skills, once you see for yourself based on the materials required for imping, and when you start getting error messages telling you your item quality is too low to go any further, or when you get 10x fails in a row, you'll have an epiphany

[yarnevk 257]

Since imping failures result in slight QL damage, you reach a point at which the QL starts regressing because you start failing so much. 1 step forward 2 steps back.