Combat Skills

The skills of fighting: the ones that hold the weapon, land the blow, block the hit and bind the wound. The general rules (gain window, total cap, NPC trainers) are on the Skills page.

The warrior's career itself — hunting contracts, dungeons, champion altars — is on the Warrior page.

The shared road: how to open up weapon skills

The four weapon skills (Swordsmanship, Fencing, Mace Fighting, Archery) and Wrestling follow the same road:

Skill	What to do
0–25	Training dummy. Hit the dummy; it gives gains up to 25, then stops. Dummies are bought from a carpenter or set up in your house.
25–45	Weak creatures: rabbits, birds, rats, deer. They will not kill you and you keep hitting.
45–70	Orcs, skeletons, giant spiders, trolls. Carry armor and bandages.
70–100	Dungeon creatures, gargoyles, drakes; run it together with hunting contracts.

A dummy only trains the weapon skill you are using: whatever you hold rises. With empty hands, Wrestling rises.

In the same fight Tactics, Anatomy, Parrying and Resisting Spells also develop; combat skills rise together, not one at a time.

Swordsmanship

Swords, axes and scythes. Heavy damage, a wide choice of weapons; axes also chop trees (see Gathering Skills).

How it rises: by hitting. The shared road above applies.

Fencing

Short swords, kryss, spears and staves. Fast blows, low damage; the branch that pairs best with poisoned weapons (see Poisoning).

Mace Fighting

Maces, clubs, war hammers. Wears down the opponent's armor and lowers their stamina — the best branch for catching a fleeing enemy.

Archery

Bows and crossbows; hits from a distance. Arrows and bolts keep running out: make them yourself with Bowcraft/Fletching, or carry quivers full of arrows.

You cannot shoot while walking: you stop and aim. When your arrows run out the character stays locked on the target but does nothing; the warning "You are out of arrows." appears. A dummy does not train archery — from 0 to 25 the target has to be alive too.

Wrestling

Unarmed fighting. The defensive branch for mages and thieves who carry no weapon; every blow with empty hands trains it.

Tactics

Raises the damage you deal. It rises by itself on every hit; no separate training is needed. As your weapon skill rises, Tactics comes along with it.

Anatomy

Raises your damage and the strength of Healing. Open the Skills button on your paperdoll, press the blue button to the left of Anatomy, then click the creature you want to examine; every examination is a chance to gain. It also rises while fighting.

It goes together with Healing: both thresholds below need the two together.

Healing

Binds wounds with bandages. Thresholds:

How it rises: use bandages on yourself or someone else. Bandaging without having taken damage gives nothing — get hurt first. The fastest way: fight a creature and bandage yourself in between.

Scenario — training Healing with a hireling: hire a fighter, give them Command: Guard and let them fight nearby creatures. As the fighter gets hurt, bandage them: both Healing and Anatomy rise without you taking damage. Gains keep coming as long as the fighter's health is low; do not let them die, a hireling who dies is gone. How to hire → Hireling NPCs

If you use a second bandage while one is still being applied, the running one is not interrupted: the warning "You are still applying a bandage; wait for it to finish." appears and the bandage is not used up.

Bandages are cut from cloth (with scissors); bloody bandages are washed in a water trough or a river. Details: Death and Recovery.

Parrying

Blocks incoming blows with a shield (and, at high levels, with two-handed weapons). It does not rise without a shield equipped.

How it rises: hold a shield and take a beating. Waiting with bandages in front of a creature that will not kill you but keeps hitting (e.g. an orc, a zombie) is the most efficient way.

Resisting Spells

Reduces the effect of spells cast on you: lowers damage, shortens paralysis and poison.

How it rises: by taking spells. It does not rise on its own. At low levels you need a friend casting weak spells on you, or fights with spellcasting creatures (liches, gargoyles, elementals). Each circle only gives gains up to a certain point: small spells teach at low levels, 6th–8th circle spells at high levels.

Focus

Speeds up your stamina and mana regeneration — adds stamina points equal to a tenth of the skill value and mana points equal to a twentieth.

How it rises: by itself, while you are not full. Run, hit, cast; as your stamina or mana drops, it rises during regeneration. No separate "training" is needed.

Arms Lore

Shows the real strength, durability and material of a weapon or armor. Useful to crafters: you can tell which piece is exceptional.

Effect on crafting: it only matters on pieces that come out at exceptional quality. An exceptional weapon gets +1% damage increase for every 20 points of Arms Lore (on top of the exceptional weapon's own 35%; 100 Arms Lore = 40%), and exceptional armor gets 1 resistance point per 20 points (not shields). It does not affect crafting at normal quality.

How it rises: press Arms Lore's blue button in the Skills window, then click a weapon or armor. Examining the pieces in your backpack one by one is the fastest way; switch to different pieces instead of examining the same one repeatedly. Arms Lore can also rise when you craft an exceptional weapon or armor (not shields); crafting at normal quality does not raise it.

Bushido (the Way of the Samurai)

Not usable at the moment. The Book of Bushido is only sold by the samurai merchants in Tokuno; since the Tokuno map is closed in this era, you cannot get the book. The same goes for Ninjitsu → Bard and Shadow.

Throwing

Not in this era. Throwing is the gargoyle skill of the Stygian Abyss era; since our server is in the Mondain's Legacy era, it has no working weapon even though it shows in the skill list. Do not put points into it.

Other guides: Magic Skills · Crafting · Gathering · Nature · Bard and Shadow · Other