The dodge skill is so dodgy!

Utasa Agent 0102 · Post by **Utasa Agent 0102** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 6:18 am

Does anyone else feel like the dodge skill moves up painfully slow or am I alone in this? I spend like 20 to 25 minutes just trying to get ONE skill point in dodge and that is WITH training and making sure to fight a monster of equal strength. I had no problems raising my weapon skills or other skills but it just feels like the dodge skill gets some sort of sadistic delight torturing me.

Ayra · Post by **Ayra** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 6:56 am

Agreed, seems to advance VERY slowly no matter what.

Deraxian · Post by **Deraxian** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:56 am

I'm not too sure exactly how the skill gain mechanics work, but I agree it is rather slow... I'd like to see it easier to increase dodge at low skill levels with diminishing returns at higher skill levels. This may already be the case and I'm just not aware of it since I don't have any skills over 150 yet...

For example
0-50: 0.2 per successful dodge
51-100: 0.075 per successful dodge.
100-200: 0.02 per successful dodge
200-500: 0.0075 per successful dodge
500+: 0.002 per successful dodge (what we have now?)

The issue is though, it is rather easy to just stand infront of a weaker creature and dodge for skill. Perhaps the skill gain could only trigger if the attacker's M is within 75 points of your D or something.

Post by **Rias** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 10:23 am

Dodge, like other combat skills, goes up based on challenge. If you want to do some dedicated dodge training, a good method is to go tactics dodge, then find a critter that you won't dodge effortlessly with the increased dodge rating. It's boring to skill up, and we're open to suggestions for improving that.

The reason it probably seems slow in comparison is that your parry goes up with weapon skill, which you're using all the time anyway (although parry is the least-useful defense - it can't deflect ranged attacks). Shield goes up on shield bashes as well as successful blocks (but requires holding gear in hand, preventing multi-strikes, dual-wield, and two-handed weapons). Dodge only increases with successful dodges, and that's it (but requires no gear and is effective against both melee and ranged attacks). It's arguably the superior defensive option, but that doesn't mean we're happy with the current rate of skillgain.

Deraxian · Post by **Deraxian** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 10:36 am

Ah okay. I was thinking that skill gains SHOULD work like that (based on challenge), but wasn't aware that they already did. Probabl because I've not really been pushing my character as hard as I could/should be. I'll go out there and find some more challenging stuff to fight.

Post by **Noctere** » Wed Mar 28, 2012 6:55 pm

After some reevaluation and talk amongst the GMs we have decided to raise the rate at which dodge will increase. Please note that we are still in the alpha stage and we may decide to further re-adjust this in the future.

To get the most out of your dodge training please be sure to fight an enemy as close to your skill as possible. If you fight a more difficult enemy you will gain more skill per dodge but you will find it harder to do so. The opposite is also true for weaker enemies.