Masteries

[Etherdrifter 2,518]

Something I've seen batted around a bit is the notion of specialisation so I thought I'd share my take on it.  It's based on some of the older RPGS (Might and Magic) which had Novice, Expert and Master ranks.  This is a fairly generic idea but...

Skills are not altered in any way without having a "Rank" in it.  That is someone with 100 carpentry is not going to lose anything.  You can level any skill up to 100, this is NOT a limiting system.  All the ranks give is a bonus to using the skill.

The idea is that players, upon reaching a certain skill level (I would say 40, 80), can specialise in that skill.  An expert gains a 10% bonus (their skill acts as if 10% higher when calculating success rates/stamina reductions/speed reductions etc, not too sure if it should also increase item QL from harvesting, leaving that open to discussion) and a master a 25% bonus.  Each player gets 3 free expert certifications (used to make one skill an expert rank, cannot be used on mastered skills) when the level their first 3 skills to 50 and one free master certification (used to make a skill a master rank, if used on an expert rank refunds the expert certification) when they level their first skill to 90 (just a note, it is deliberately higher than the level needed to use it, this is not an error).  Certifications are non-drop and 0 weight (like writs).  Certifications have no effect when a player is non-premium (this is not my personal belief but I think it reflects the ideas of the community more).

The idea is specialists will have an easier time of more complicated operations in their chosen skill.  Some skills (forestry, forage etc) might need some additional buffs from ranks to make them desirable to specialise in but that's a little outside my scope of skills.

Monetization Option : Additional expert certifications can be bought for 25 silver each, master certifications for 50 silver each from merchants.  Expensive but tradable, also expensive to prevent overuse.

[Xor 684]

hm, not sure I can +1 this.

 

I don't like the idea at all of say 50 skill being equal to 55, or an 80 being equal to 100 based on those numbers.

 

That is what epic is for, it has a curve.

 

If all it did was reduce times and increase success rate, i might +1 it, but there are a lot of things that would make a huge difference, IE ropemaking.

 

So overall, i think i'm just going to -1 this. We have epic instead. We also have affinities which offer a way to get a bonus in a skill. Getting that bonus shouldn't be easy at all, and getting affinities in a chosen skill is extremely hard.

[rosedragon 2,282]

Actually the title system already allows you to grind easier.. not skillgain benefit tho.

[King 110]

-1 sounds like pay to win to me

[whereami 564]

-1 From me, but +1 for the Might and Magic reference. Mandate of Heaven FTW!

 

All in all I don't think this system is needed. The current titles already sort of do this, and well.. It just seems unneeded to me, people already skill up crazy fast. That's also what affinities are for, if you want more skillgain, buy some affinities, or PVP for them. More Pay2Win is a no for me.

[Alec 730]

-1 p2w

[Elen 1,013]

-1

[Rathgar 959]

-1  as in, no.

[Martynas5 435]

-1. 

[leaf 283]

-1.

 

Usually in a game if you are a master at a skill it is at a cost of not being able to raise other skills to high levels.  I like the wurm system. (most days)

[Druidnature 1,118]

-1 currently if you use the skill a lot, it will (in most cases) be higher then the other skills. That's enough for me to be happy with, I don't ever want to see a advantage for "specializing" in a few skills. "Hybrids" that do it all should have the exact same benefit and more of those that only do certain skills if the hybrid levels them to the same level.