Low level skill gain still broken

[wayshaper]

Per this thread....

http://mboards.eqtraders.com/eq/showthread.php?t=21429

several others have noticed skill ups in the lower end are wacky

Over past 3 nights, ive made 5 newbs (not twinked), and played them approx 2 hours each, got to lv 4, gaining skill in ANYTHING is horrid, melee, tradeskills, spell casting skills ect.

Park bot cleric, root mob, cast symbol on the newb (hp only, no ac), have mob beat on it, last night took 2 hours for my newb to go from defense 3 to a defense 20 (cap at lv 4) and mob was non stop beating on him, at once point , i had 5 mobs rooted around him beating on him non stop, the seer volumn of attacks made aginst him should have given him skillups and max'd him out in reletivly short time.

Please post only what you can personaly confirm, or done to prove/disprove this.

[Sukrasisx]

Per this thread....
http://mboards.eqtraders.com/eq/showthread.php?t=21429
several others have noticed skill ups in the lower end are wacky

I've been trying to skillup a lowbie (SK level 15, been trying to catch up on neglected melee skills like Piercing and 2HS), and it definitely feels a lot slower than it was for previous alts, and his DEX and INT (whichever is relevant) are decent enough for his level (around 140 each). Meditation is also going up quite slowly. Bind Wound is doing okay, maybe, and his casting skills seem to train up reasonably quickly.

On the tradeskill side, I've already posted a Pottery thread griping about skillups in the 122-170 range consistently requiring more than twice the number of combines that would've been expected under the old formula. Since that range is supposed to have gotten easier, I'm pretty sure something's still broken, and really wish a visiting developer would acknowledge it so I'll have some reason to hope it'll get fixed. I was hoping to make another push at Tailoring, but no way I want to use up my accumulated hopper hides on a busted skillup rate!

[UruzMagnuson]

yea, i think this is only sort of fixed.

my 20 mage did the first set of abysmal sea freebie quest for smithing. trivialed the first one in 6 stack. seems about right compaired to what it was before.

but my 22 paladin only got 7 skill ups for double attack on 24 mobs. had him MTing for my 3 box crew. the mobs were dark blue to yellow. and while it has been a long time since my SK got that skill, i'm pretty sure he had a much better skill up rate than my pally

[Eggszecutor]

I've noticed skilling up my 2H Blunt (currently 127) has been atrocious the past week as well.

[Lickity]

In the new formula 120-180 is not supposed to have gotten easier, in fact, it is supposed to have gotten harder. They made 190-220 easier, at the expense of the other skill levels.

[Phantron]

It's not unusual to not have your skill maxed out as you level, even without powerleveling, since with today's gear leveling is much faster than what it used to be.

[Eggszecutor]

In the new formula 120-180 is not supposed to have gotten easier, in fact, it is supposed to have gotten harder. They made 190-220 easier, at the expense of the other skill levels.

I don't think that is right. Do you have a source for this? They smoothed out "tradeskills". What that means is if you plot it graphically, the amount of combines increases at a steadier rate as your skill increases. Basically a line on a graph that starts at (0,0) and increases linearly. The following is an example of what the post patch proggession is similar too.

*************NOTE: The following graphs are intended to show the basic idea I'm trying to present, not an acutal formula for skilling up. Sorry for the crud graphs, but formating on the message boards is a pain. It automatically deletes what it thinks is unneeded space.

60 |........................***
50 |....................***.... Average number of
40 |................***........ attempts per
30 |............***............ skill up.
20 |........***................
10 |....***....................
01 |***______________
....0....100....200....300
...............Skill..............
Previously, there was a spike at 160 to 190 that made it difficult. But once you hit the top of that spike, you had reached the maximum attempts per skillup point.

60 |...........................
50 |...............********** Average number of
40 |.............*............. attempts per
30 |............*.............. skill up.
20 |........***...............
10 |....***...................
01 |***_____________
....0....100....200....300
................Skill...........

That spike was removed by the smoothing method and the way it works is that the steady increase of attmepts per skillup gets to the "before-patch-maximum" (i.e. about 40 to 50 combines per attempt) around 250. That's when it gets harder as the progression of the smoothing goes past the previous methods maximum and the number of attempts per skill up increases.

[Twistagain]

Sorry, Egg...but I have to nitpick just a bit.

Smoothing wouldn't necessarily be linear. It could be an exponential curve, logarithmic curve, or one of many other types of curves. Also, it is most certainly going to be a piecewise function in this case...so it won't be a singular formula, but rather a set of formulas, which to use dependant on your current skill.

[Zuko Takegami]

Well, smoothing or not, doing almost 750 combines for the last 5 skill pts to 300 in baking was pretty harsh. Only flaw i see for all tradeskills is that all the combines should NOT follow the same %chance to skill up. Doing this through Misty thicket Picnics isn't expensive; but try doing 750 combines of velium blue diamond tiaras to do the same feat and then think how much your piggybank and collection needs will be to try this would make you feel?

Not sure if they would implement some kind of %enhancer skillup depending on rarity of combine. Nice of SoE to totally shut down anyone that isn't Karana or Tunare follower to finish off 300 fletching, but the other combines you could do aren't with common components, why I'm hoping they do.

[Oona Wynterbreeze]

...but try doing 750 combines of velium blue diamond tiaras to do the same feat and then think how much your piggybank and collection needs will be to try this would make you feel?

It makes you feel like bashing your head into your montior and shoving your Grandmaster Jeweler's Eyeglass somewhere soe wouldn't like.
I've almost done that many combines of platinum blue diamond trying to get it triv'd at 295. Stuck at 293. Notable stretches included 133 combines for 288, 187 for 291, 117 for 292 and sitting at 106 combines trying to get 294. I'm gonna be a grinning, babbling zombie by the time this is done... . Plus I'm only level 52 so no JCM or Salvage.

[Vel]

I too seem to be unexpectedly stalled doing alchemy skillups. Lev 53; 255WIS with a 117 alch. skill made 65 attempts (at kilva's skin of flame (136 triv)) received only 2 skill ups with approx. 65% success rate. Seems pretty stingy for such a low level if this is what the new formula yields (1700pp for 2 skillups at <120) . All attempts made post 4/20 patch.

[Gareen]

In the new formula 120-180 is not supposed to have gotten easier, in fact, it is supposed to have gotten harder. They made 190-220 easier, at the expense of the other skill levels.

Actually, they were supposed to have made 160-190 easier. See Absor's post at http://mboards.eqtraders.com/eq/showthread.php?t=21027

[Mesaa]

In the new formula 120-180 is not supposed to have gotten easier, in fact, it is supposed to have gotten harder. They made 190-220 easier, at the expense of the other skill levels.

Um nice fact checking..

Skill ups pre 250 were supposed to be made 20% easier.
Skill ups post 250 were supposed to be made 15% harder.

Read Absors post. Not that I believe any of it..

[Eggszecutor]

Smoothing wouldn't necessarily be linear.

yes yes. you are correct. but if the Dev's made it exponential, I would have to kill someone.

[UruzMagnuson]

In the new formula 120-180 is not supposed to have gotten easier, in fact, it is supposed to have gotten harder. They made 190-220 easier, at the expense of the other skill levels.

i didn't mention, he went from 24 skill to 31 skill for double attack. so even if they have made 120 to 180 harder, and lord help us if they did, that shouldn't have effected his skill up. that averaged out to one skill up every 3 mobs. now i don't remeber have that bad a skill up rate for any combat skill pre 50 except when i was 2 or 3 shot killing mobs. one mob i did just melee kill with my pally and an 8 point damage shield. got 0 skill ups that mob. sorry, i really think this is not totally fixed. and the developers really need to look into this.