Is your slashing average .214?
How to avoid the embarrassing miss miss combo.
by Oligo San
08/21/98

Intro

Please take into account that am primarily a tank player. What little I do know about theives is very sketchy. More sections will be updated when I can remember what I used to do or if I get any suggestions.

Basic Principles
There are a few basic principles that should be kept in mind when training various skills. The higher the level of the mob, the greater the increase in learning. Serro bestowed this knowledge upon me when I was training Ofilok's disarm, but it holds true for almost any skill. Another little tidbit that holds true is training a skill with someone that you're grouped with does not work. Always degroup if you're trying to train a skill with a partner. Training with other players in general does not work effectively if at all. There are some exceptions though.

Messages
Training messages happen to be one of the more deceiving part of the game. In general, a few (2~3) enlighteneds = 1 especially skillful. Therefore do not get over excited if you recieved an enlightened message and run to the guild, only to find out that the guildmaster cannot teach you anything more. Usually, when you receive an especially skillful, then the guildmaster will teach you something.

Equipment
For some reason or another, I have always believed in training without +skill items. When training disarm, I don't train with a +disarm weapon. I don't know the exact logic in this, it's just something I've always done. I think I believe the +skill attribute cheats you somehow when training skills. I might just have it all backwards.

Statistics
    The higher the intelligence, the greater the increase of learning, that relatively obvious. Wisdom determines the maximum ability of your skill. In general, 13 wis is the minimum for (superb) skills. Wis can also determine when you are able to achieve a certain skill level I believe. For example, if you have 20 wis, you may be able to receive (superb) skills at an earlier level than someone with 15 wis. This however is just my personal hypothesis. I think any dumbo can get (excellent) skills. Suppose you have 9 wis naturally, and with eq, you get up to 13 wis, and train your skills up to (superb). Then you fight Lloth and she frags all your +wis eq, and you're back down to 9 wis. Although your skills may show up as (superb) when you type skills, they will only function as (excellent) so do not be deceived by what your skill screen says.
    A lot of skills are dependent on dexterity. So if your character has something like a natural 9 dexterity, she/he may be doomed to less effective skills.

Track
    The easiest skill to train in the game. There's no excuse for not having superb track at level 20 if not sooner. Training track relies soley on the premise of getting an active track. Getting an active track when your skill level is (awful) is very hard to do. Basically, when someone leaves the room you're in, try to track them. Although you may not receive a direction, move a room opposite of where he went, and if your character automatically tracks upon entering the room without having to type anything, that means that you have a working active track. However, if you do not, repeat the process again.
    Tracking a person in the same room as you does no good. Tracking someone in your group also does nothing. Make sure the person you're trying to track is online, he/she may have rented at the last second. Assuming you have an active track, go over your tracks. What I mean by that is, once you're sure that the track is functioning actively and automatically, but not neccessarily with directions, go back and forth over them by spamming e w e w e w e w e w e w , or n s n s n s n s n s. This is a lot easier with Zmud by using .ewewewew, or .nsnsnsnsns. Hopefully during this process of endless room movement screen spam, you should notice a few enlightened messages or especially skillful messages. Once you receive about two or so especially skillful messages, you can go to your guild and train. You can use this method all the way up to (superb). If you just received two or more especially skillful messages, and the guildmaster refuses to train track, that means that you've probably maxxed track out for the level that you're currently on, when you gain next level, go back to the guildmaster and see if he doesn't train you.
    However, not everyone has the time online to train track as devotionally as the above prescribed method. Most folks have bills to cover while online and must zone actively to make cash or recover decayed eq, etc. Therefore, if you're grouped, follow someone in your group, and make sure you're not the leader. Track someone outside of your group, and if you receive an active track, and if the group must travel a lot, you may receive some enlightened or especially skillfuls along the way.
    For those who are truly devoted to track, and want to become hound dogs as quick as possible, get a druid with refresh and speedwalks, and track someone not in your group, and have him speedwalk all over Krynn. Once you run out of moves, have him/her refresh you and speedwalk all over the continent again.

Bash
    Training bash usually depends on what type of tank you are. If you have 18+ con, you may find yourself maining more than bashing and therefore spending less time working bash. Make sure you use a shield when training bash, a shield increases the chances of landing a successful bash immensely.

Weapon skills
    I've seen all kinds of ways to train weapon skills. Generally if you're a tank, you will find yourself having to train in three to four different weapon skill areas. Some purists train in more or all, such as Paco Loco. One technique that's usually used is to rotate your training. Suppose you just received an especially skillful while using a bludgeon, then you switch to a different weapon. Others switch when receiving an enlightened message. I personally switch weapons whenever I receive an especially skillful message. Of course the higher the level the mob you fight against, the greater the increase of skills. One of THE most useless weapon skills is (two-handed). Only train those if you can wield a 2-hander in one hand, or if you have decappers. The reason why is because you cannot parry effectively with a 2-handed weapon. Also training a 2-hander will degenerate your bashing skill because you will not be able to effectively train bash without a shield.
    Having +hit eq will help you train your weapon skill because it'll increase the probability of contact or hitting. Contacting with the opponent/enemy will help your training. Beware of -hitroll eq when training skills.

Parry
    Parry is the lifeblood of a main tank. When parrying, you should dual wield in 99.9% of all cases. If you want to train parry, you should request to main. Parry will seemingly carry on automatically in some cases. When you receive an message of "Tanyc goes back on the offensive" or whatever it is, type parry again. If you start getting more messages of "You attempt to block your opponent's attack" or whatever it is, that means your parry is working or about to work. If you receive a message a message of "You failed a parry attempt", then you need to type parry again.
    Parry effectively works in differentw ways if you're fighting a dual attack mob. You may parry one blow, but the other blow gets through. You can _never_ parry both attacks of a mob that is using attacks from both hands/claws/etc.  If you get the double "dazzled by your dexterity" message, it means the mob had a haste flag on it and you are simply parrying both of his primary hand attacks.  A good example of this would be Lord Kaltigath. Thanx go to Pelmen for this correction.

Disarm
    Disarm is the hardest tank skill to train. It's also kinda worthless in a lot of cases, in general it's mainly for show. 1st off, disarm works very well against mobs, but it's very ineffective against other players. I've disarmed nearly every notorious weapon wielding mob in the game, Tero, Faldainen, demi-lich, Aegis, Sanction blacksmith, etc, but this works about 20% of the time against another player. Keep this in mind when training it.
    Training disarm requires that your remember the basic principles. You cannot train disarm by fighting a friend and both you guyz trying to disarm each other. Looking around for every long sword wielding mercenary or gateguard can help you get up to about (below average) in skill, but then it basically stops there. Disarming a mob or person using a 2-handed weapon is near impossible. Disarm is dependent on your weapon skill, and your dexterity.
    For advanced disarm training, you need a cleric. This cleric must be willing to spend a LOT of his/her time to train your disarm. This cleric should ideally possess animate dead and heal. If you've found this cleric you're lucky. I was lucky that Merk lived right across the hall in my dorm so he was doomed to be my cleric. You can kinda get the idea now, kill some high level mob, animate it, and train away. Have the cleric make some triggers to order the mob to get the weapon and wield it after it is disarmed. Also have the cleric " order all 'cast prism' ", and spam it or have it ordered by triggers, therefore the mob does not hit you but instead focuses on trying to cast some spell that it doesn't have, it's a corpse after all. You can use this method all the way up to (superb).

Sneak
    The greater the number of non-grouped folks in the room, the better. To train sneak, buy 10 horses and tether them up. Then sneak back and forth over them. Simple as that.

Hide
    This skill is based on the same premise as sneak. You need a partner however to train effectively. Make sure you're hidden, have your partner spam (tell you ".") until he's unable to tell you that, which will be a signal that you're hidden. Realize that whenever you type anything, that you become unhidden, even something as harmless as eq, score, skills, or look. Therefore, don't touch a thing once you're sure you're hidden. Get your partner to buy 10 horses, and once he's in the room with you have him spam e w e w e w e w e w , or n s n s n s n s. Just by sitting there and hiding with all those horses coming in and out of the room, you should start to receive enlightens and especially skillfuls.

Reader Feedback
    Thanx go to Ogrim for some tips. "I think the gods recently changed your sneak and hide method with horses. Personally I like using sneak in palanthas or so, type in sneak every 20 or so rooms and run around like a chicken :).  Hide is really easy, use the solace guild and have a friend grouped with you or something.  Keep trying hide, if you're successful you're not visible on the who list so just have the other group member check the who list and use a gt when you're hidden.  Then you can just sit back and do something else.  Might be good to take off actions in case."
    "Skillfuls/enlights:  I think enlights are better than skillfuls since when training stuff skillful messages always come first before enlights but most of the time you're able to learn once you get the enlight message.  I know for getting superb skills the last message MUST be enlight since you cant get superb immediately after learning from the guild."

Please note I don't agree with his skillful and enlighten. I think skillfuls are better. One of us has it backwards, probably me since I've been away.