Passive Armor & Weapon Masteries Review

[Methiur]

I'd like to see the passive skills for mercenaries expanded a bit on the weapon and armor front. One issue I have today is that the skill gains are too high and they leapfrog other abilities. For example, within the first week of playing Clok my armor hit 300 due to these masteries and I have barely earned a handful of points since as my weapons were significantly behind. Evening out the skill gain curve while adding more abilities and something to keep shooting for is what I am hoping to accomplish with these suggestions.


Armor
Novice - Encumbrance benefit: 5%; Gained ranks: 25; Bonus learning rate: 1%
Apprentice - Prerequisite: 100; Encumbrance benefit: 10%; Gained ranks: 50; Bonus learning rate: 2%
Journeyman - Prerequisite: 250; Encumbrance benefit: 20%; Gained ranks: 75; Bonus learning rate: 4%
Master - Prerequisite: 500; Encumbrance benefit: 30%; Gained ranks: 100; Bonus learning rate: 6%
Grand Master - Prerequisite: 1000; Encumbrance benefit: 40%; Gained ranks: None; Bonus learning rate: 10%

Net Effect - 2 Added skills; Encumbrance benefit curve slowed but longer term gain to 40% from 30%; Total gains ranks reduced to 250 from 300; Bonus learning rate slowed but longer term gives larger benefit at 10% from 5%; Prerequisites now scale to 1000


Weapons
Basic Training - Gained ranks: 25
Martial Weapons - Daggers, Chained Weapons, Hafted Weapons, Polearms, Swords, Staffs
Exotic Weapons - Brawling, Fencing, Whips, Nets :)
Ranged Weapons - Archery, Firearms, Hurl Weapon, Slings

Advanced Training - Prerequisite: 100; Gained ranks: 50
Same grouping as above
New benefit; 5% bonus to accuracy; Bonus learning rate: 2%

Specialized Training - prerequisite: 300; Gained ranks: 50
Same grouping as above; Can only choose 1
Same benefits as before; 15% bonus to accuracy; increased chance to land strikes; potentially increased minimum and maximum damage
Added benefit; Bonus learning rate: 5%

Auxiliary Training
Combat - Melee, Dodge, Marksmanship; Two-weapon Combat; Shield Usage - Gained ranks: 50; Bonus learning rate: 5%
Multi-Opponent Combat - The ability to combat 1 additional opponent without surround mechanic penalties.
Mounted Combat - Gained ranks: 50 (riding); Bonus learning rate (riding): 5%

Net Effect - 10 skills (12 with all Specializations) which is an increase from 4 skills (7 with all specializations)

This is a total reorganization of weapons. It provides a greater flexibility for the Mercenary to choose a weapon specialization group which is appealing; however, it can also easily be changed to a bladed, blunt, piercing weapon categorization system or even breaking it apart further and moving polearms into reach weapons with something else if that fits better.