Question about the tradeskill mastery AAs

[Codeguru]

Well I finally got the notion to continue my tailoring training now that I have my grandmaster task almost complete so I went back to the velium farming. Anyway I already had tailoring mastery 3 right when it came out but I decided to pop on blacksmithing mastery 1 just to help with velium combines. But now I find that I have not failed one combine making 84 velium studs flawlessly. Do these AAs actually augment the success rate to make the 95% combines that always used to have some small percent of failure to now be no fail such as silk swatches?...

Liveye (lvl 65 Wizard)

[Maevenniia]

Velium conversion has a low trivial, you sure that your smithing skill isnt simply 200 more than that trivial? because 200pts of raw skill > trivial makes said recipe effectively no-fail.

Not sure if the Mastery AAs would affect that

[Codeguru]

Velium conversion has a low trivial, you sure that your smithing skill isnt simply 200 more than that trivial? because 200pts of raw skill > trivial makes said recipe effectively no-fail.

Not sure if the Mastery AAs would affect that

Hrm, well the timeline of my training is tailoring to 186, at which point I stopped wasting arctic wyvern hide combines and got my akheva shears. Then I got my blacksmithing up to 243 base, and then I did the ethereal swatches and tempest robes to get tailoring to 223 base so I guess I did skip velium bits and studs until now that they are 200 skill over. So that explains that but I'd sure like to know how the 10% is added to the success rate of all the other annoying tiny fail rate things such as the cobalt cod oils I will soon have to make again...

Liveye (lvl 65 Wizard)

[Clamford]

...but I'd sure like to know how the 10% is added to the success rate of all the other annoying tiny fail rate things such as the cobalt cod oils I will soon have to make again...

If I am not mistaken, the process goes something like this:

1) Calculate chance to fail combine based on MODIFIED skill
2) Reduce that chance to fail based on any Tradeskill AAs you have
3) Cap minimum chance to fail at 5%, if above calc is under 5% chance to fail.
4) Remove 1% of that cap for each full 40 your UNMODIFIED skill is over combine trivial, down to 0% chance to fail for combines trivial 200+ points below your unmodified skill.

This would mean your AA can help you minimize the chance to fail to 5%, but can never lower the chance to fail below 5%. The only thing that lowers the failure chance below 5% is your unmodified skill.

I hope someone will correct me if I am wrong. This was discussed here about a month or two ago as well, somewhere

[Maevenniia]

If I am not mistaken, the process goes something like this:

1) Calculate chance to fail combine based on MODIFIED skill
2) Reduce that chance to fail based on any Tradeskill AAs you have
3) Cap minimum chance to fail at 5%, if above calc is under 5% chance to fail.
4) Remove 1% of that cap for each full 40 your UNMODIFIED skill is over combine trivial, down to 0% chance to fail for combines trivial 200+ points below your unmodified skill.

This would mean your AA can help you minimize the chance to fail to 5%, but can never lower the chance to fail below 5%. The only thing that lowers the failure chance below 5% is your unmodified skill.

I hope someone will correct me if I am wrong. This was discussed here about a month or two ago as well, somewhere

I have no idea if you are right, I gave up trying to figure it out, I'm just a mod, not a genius

But if you are right, that's the single best explanation I've ever seen, cuz even non-genious me can understand that!

If it's correct, it belongs in the FAQ

[Ixiola]

That is my understanding as well. I recall seeing a post that clearly stated that mastery AAs provide no benefit once you've reached the cap (typically 95%), which is why Salvage was viewed to be >>>>>>>>>> than Mastery AAs.

[Neebat]

I have no idea if you are right, I gave up trying to figure it out, I'm just a mod, not a genius

But if you are right, that's the single best explanation I've ever seen, cuz even non-genious me can understand that!

If it's correct, it belongs in the FAQ

That explanation is near enough to accurate that only a programmer would complain. Of course, it doesn't take minimum failure rates into account. Heck, I'm a programmer and I'd say it gets the right idea across.

To make that complete and technically accurate, find 3 numbers:
1. Your chance to fail based on your actual, modified skill, minus your mastery AA.
2. Your minimum chance to fail based on your unmodified skill. (5% minus 1 for every 40 points of raw skill beyond the trivial.)
3. The minimum failure rate for the recipe. (This is rumored to be as high as 15% for some recipes.)
Take the largest of those 3. That's your chance to fail.

Mastery AA ONLY affects #1 and it is frequently not the largest of the three. In that case, your mastery AA makes NO difference.

[KyrosKrane]

Almost correct. It leaves out one step in the calculations, as best as I can tell.

1) Calculate chance to fail combine based on MODIFIED skill.
2) Reduce that chance to fail based on any Tradeskill AAs you have.
3) Cap minimum chance to fail at 5%, if above calc is under 5% chance to fail. If the item you are making has a minimum chance to fail, use that instead.
4) Remove 1% of that cap for each full 40 points your UNMODIFIED skill is over combine trivial, down to 0% chance to fail for combines trivial 200+ points below your unmodified skill.

That looks about right. The per-item chance to fail applies to stuff like master and GM armors and Omens augment combines.

[KyrosKrane]

Hum. I forgot to reply to this thread yesterday and kept the post open, and it seems Neebat beat me to posting by a full day. =/ Anywho, we both say the same thing in our posts. =)

[Codeguru]

That's kinda pathetic then. It says it reduces the chance to fail by 50% and it doesn't affect anything really but the high end combines I'll maybe do once ever. I guess this now saves me a lot of AA trying to perfect my combining, screw getting the rest...

Liveye (lvl 65 Wizard)

[Astroshak]

Well, the high end combines (where the triv is well over your skill) is where the tradeskill Mastery AA's help the most.

Lets say that you have, due to your skill, at best a 10 percent chance of succeeding. Thats a 90 percent chance of failure. 100-10 = 90, after all. Now, with the Mastery at level 3, thats a 50 percent redux in fail chance. 50% of 90 is 45. That brings your success chance up that 45 percent, from 10 to 55 percent. That is huge!

On the other hand, from what I've gathered (and no, not gonna bother to dig up the posts) the 5 percent minimum chance to succeed is a cap on the fail rate. That cap is applied after the fail rate is reduced by the Mastery AA. If you have a skill of, say, 16, and the recipe is triv at 335, the fail chance is going to be over 200 (number made up, no clue if its right; its going to be up there though), capped to 95 percent. The Mastery AA will bring the fail chance down 50 percent, but its still going to be over 100 (again, number made up, but based on the idea that the pre-AA fail chance is likely gonna be over 200); this is then capped at that 95 percent due to the 5 percent minimum success cap. In this case the Mastery AA is doing you a huge favor, and effectively doing nothing at all, because you don't see any of its work.