Does GGS work as intended?

Thrakkar

In particular I'm talking about the time period table at:

https://uo.com/wiki/ultima-online-wiki/technical/skill-gain-systems/

I've got a toon with GM Alchemy and currently 86.0 poisoning. All other skills are down to zero. According to the table I should get a guaranteed gain every 3.8 hours for my poison skill. I tested that in the last few days with applying greater poison (Crystal ball of knowledge says, the gain is optimal), but the shortst waiting period between gains was about 6 hours. Sometimes it goes up to 8 or more hours. Sometimes I don't get a gain right away, but only on the second or third attempt. So what gives?

Am I missing here something?

Are the GGS time periods that unreliable? Or is this a bug?

Grimbeard

Why do we treat skill gain like science?  Go out and PLAY your character i promise they will gain in skill 

Thrakkar

Mostly because certain skills in certain ranges aren't fun to play or you can't even apply regular gameplay to gain. Best example for the latter is taming. At least when it comes to my maxed out tamer, regular gameplay consists of at least 99% of the time going hunting with the pet, where you can't even get a gain. An example for the former would be weapon skills below 70. All below 70 is flat out boring.

My current reason doing it, is to preserve resource consumption, since I'm on a shard, where I have barely any gold and having an economy, where lots of people are tossing around plats doesn't really help.

Grimbeard

Taming is easy mythic token then use mastery to 120

Thrakkar

Ah, yes, my bad. I completely forgot about mastery. (And about pay to win )

Grimbeard

Thrakkar said:

Ah, yes, my bad. I completely forgot about mastery. (And about pay to win )

Pay to win maybe but after multiple tamers done the old way whats the fun or even reward in torturing yourself 

Thrakkar

Grimbeard said:

Pay to win maybe but after multiple tamers done the old way whats the fun or even reward in torturing yourself 

Having trained two tamers the old way, I can't do anything else than to agree. (regardless of how much I dislike P2W)

keven2002

GGS does work but it might not work down to the hour as listed. I do think that total skill points also factors in when determining the time.

My advice here, if resources are really tight and you have the patience for GGS, is to go buy an alacrity scroll for poison, use it on your char, use the poison skill (get your boosted gain), log out, log back in the next day and rinse/repeat.

Arnold7

Long time since I took poisoning to 100.  Was perhaps the most boring thing I ever did in my life because of the long delay built in between attempts.  Skill gains for poisoning if you are not a fencer simply appear based on your probability of doing something successfully and how often you do it.  If your probability of success in applying poison to, let’s say a dagger, is between 45% and 75%  you should one or two gains of .1 per hour if you are not using a scroll.  Just set up a macro with an appropriate delay, of maybe 20 or 25 seconds between attempts, and just keep poisoning the same thing, does not matter what it is food or a weapon, over and over and over again while you watch tv or do something else that interests you.  Think I did a dagger or loaf of bread.  Never been so bored in my life as gaining in poisoning.

Thrakkar

keven2002 said:

GGS does work but it might not work down to the hour as listed. I do think that total skill points also factors in when determining the time.

My advice here, if resources are really tight and you have the patience for GGS, is to go buy an alacrity scroll for poison, use it on your char, use the poison skill (get your boosted gain), log out, log back in the next day and rinse/repeat.

Slightly off is an understatement they're sometimes more than twice as long...

But yeah, time is not an issue. I'm not in a hurry and I definitely forgot about alacrity scrolls. Thanks a lot for reminding me! Will definitely do it with such a scroll and just log in once per day.

Once I hit 90, can I then use mastery to get gains? Or do I have to stick with poisoning stuff?

Arnold7 said:

Never been so bored in my life as gaining in poisoning.

Yeah, also one of the reasons, to rely on GGS

Grimbeard

The worst part is poisoning totally useless in today's world 

Arnold7

Good question.  Gains based on probability of successfully performing a skill.  Don’t believe probabilities apply to mastery skills but could be wrong about that.

keven2002

I do think I remember @PlayerSkillFTW or someone saying that you can gain poisoning by using a weapon skill to poison a target (maybe he can confirm).

Going this route - you can supplement the weapon ability as much as you can mana wise while also using the skill to poison items.

Once you get to 90 you would use the mastery (Tolerance) while still supplementing the use of the skill to gain as fast as possible. Or if you are sticking with the GGS; then you just log in / hit the mastery for your gain / log out. It becomes your GGS using zero resources at that point.

Lord_Frodo

keven2002 said:

GGS does work but it might not work down to the hour as listed. I do think that total skill points also factors in when determining the time.

My advice here, if resources are really tight and you have the patience for GGS, is to go buy an alacrity scroll for poison, use it on your char, use the poison skill (get your boosted gain), log out, log back in the next day and rinse/repeat.

Thrakkar said:

keven2002 said:

GGS does work but it might not work down to the hour as listed. I do think that total skill points also factors in when determining the time.

My advice here, if resources are really tight and you have the patience for GGS, is to go buy an alacrity scroll for poison, use it on your char, use the poison skill (get your boosted gain), log out, log back in the next day and rinse/repeat.

Slightly off is an understatement they're sometimes more than twice as long...

But yeah, time is not an issue. I'm not in a hurry and I definitely forgot about alacrity scrolls. Thanks a lot for reminding me! Will definitely do it with such a scroll and just log in once per day.

Once I hit 90, can I then use mastery to get gains? Or do I have to stick with poisoning stuff?

Arnold7 said:

Never been so bored in my life as gaining in poisoning.

Yeah, also one of the reasons, to rely on GGS

Use the GGS gain before you eat the blue.
Also do not forget about pinks.

Arnold7

You can use a weapon skill to gain but don’t remember skill levels required.  A fencer using a poisoned weapon can gain poisoning from fighting.  But a mage is stuck just applying poison to something.  Using poisoning spells does not generate gains.  Yes, wish I had known about the scrolls.  Was early in my career and probably did not have the gold to buy any anyway.

PlayerSkillFTW

keven2002 said:

I do think I remember @ PlayerSkillFTW or someone saying that you can gain poisoning by using a weapon skill to poison a target (maybe he can confirm).

Going this route - you can supplement the weapon ability as much as you can mana wise while also using the skill to poison items.

Once you get to 90 you would use the mastery (Tolerance) while still supplementing the use of the skill to gain as fast as possible. Or if you are sticking with the GGS; then you just log in / hit the mastery for your gain / log out. It becomes your GGS using zero resources at that point.

Yes, you can gain Poisoning skill by using the Infectious Strike weapon ability on targets and applying Poison to them. However, you must use an appropriate level of poison for your skill level. At 90+ skill, Deadly Poison is still "Too Challenging" to gain skill from applying with Infectious Strike (even though you're able to actually inflict DP and bump it to Lethal at that point), while Greater Poison will be considered "Easy" (you can still gain from it though). The Serpent Arrow ability for Archers is also able to gain Poisoning skill, but it is "Too Easy" for gains at 90+ Poisoning, unless you apply Greater Poison or DP to the bow via Injected Strike mastery ability.

Once you hit 90+ Poisoning though, you gain access to the Poison Mastery abilities, Tolerance and Injecting Strike. Spamming Tolerance is the best way to level Poisoning skill at that point.

If you're going to be spamming Infectious Strike/Injecting Strike on a target for Poisoning gains, i'd recommend the Crazed Mage while using a high HML wep and Mage Slayer Talisman, possibly even Wraith Form as well if you want. Your constant poisoning of him will keep him spamming Cure on himself, which will force him on the defensive rather than spamming offensive spells on you, and he has plenty of Mana to feed from with Wraith Form, and lots of HP to survive a good Poison spam fest.

Thrakkar

That's some very good and detailed insight. Thanks a lot, @PlayerSkillFTW