Swimming dwarves??

[Thunderthyze]

<p>I have a level 39 Dwarf Necro (I know! How cool is THAT? <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />)</p><p>Anyway...level 39 and his swimming skill is still only 22. TWENTY BLOODY TWO!!</p><p>It's not as if he hasn't been anywhere near the water. What is it with my vertically challenged little buddy? Has SOE built in a negative modifier for dwarves to learn to swim? Other characters in the past....swim them around the fence island in EFP docks and they would ding about 10 skill points....Dwarfie?....Nada! Not a single one!!</p><p>Which leads me to the question are other races more or less suited to particular skills?</p>

[Yarginis]

Swimming has always seemed to skill up much faster under water, especially for certain races. Speculation has been that it has something to do with the character models for each race. If you are having difficulty skilling up, completely submerge your character and then swim around with the highest run speed modifier possible to increase the rate. with a 60% run speed, I was able to skill my Fae about 50 points or so in the time a water breathing totem lasts. (Hit auto-run and lock on of your left or right buttons down so you swim in circles, then take an afk or read forums until totem is out - repeat as necessary)

[Alienor]

dwarves are made from stone. They cannot swim.

[doctorbow]

Holymoly@Runnyeye wrote: <blockquote><p>I have a level 39 Dwarf Necro (I know! How cool is THAT? <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />)</p><p>Anyway...level 39 and his swimming skill is still only 22. TWENTY BLOODY TWO!!</p><p>It's not as if he hasn't been anywhere near the water. What is it with my vertically challenged little buddy? Has SOE built in a negative modifier for dwarves to learn to swim? Other characters in the past....swim them around the fence island in EFP docks and they would ding about 10 skill points....Dwarfie?....Nada! Not a single one!!</p><p>Which leads me to the question are other races more or less suited to particular skills?</p></blockquote> I'd blame a bad go at the RNG myself.  I have an iksar and don't have great swimming skills either.  It's all in how much time you invest in swimming. Now, maybe for some fun stuff to try (and this goes with my thought about skill raising vs. 'grey' skills), you are level 39, with an unmodified 'max' swim skill of 195.  Which would make your current skill of 22 'obsolete' compared to your level.  Ergo, like a level 39 trying to raise a 'slashing' skill from 22 to their current-max of 195 by swinging away at yellow mobs or white (39 or 40, say).  They'd swing away, but don't really learn anything until they 'connect' a blow or two.  And really, their 'ability' is only 11% of what their 'max' would be.  The idea is, you should always train at 'skill appropriate levels' and not necessarily 'level appropriate'.  RL analogy: Your IQ is 158, a genius, but you've never played chess before, for example.  You learn the game (skill level 20), and are a REAL smart guy (theoretical 'max' chess skill of 300, right? hehe).  Well, you wouldn't play Kasparov and expect to learn anything.  Atleast not as quickly as you would if you played someone of skill level '30', who would beat you sometimes, but you'd learn easier due to less disparity among skill level. Perhaps the same holds true, and you are kinda gimping your own skillups?  Try swimming while mentored to a level 8 or so.  (would make you essentially swimming at 55% of your 'max ability', which will give you room to learn, without the learning 'process' being too difficult).  I say this b/c I notice that any of my skillups have always seemed to happen quicker per-point when they are already near to their max (skillup on 2 swings in a row, for example near max: when if I was skill 50 with max of 200, might be 2-3 min between points).  So it might be worth a shot to see if the same holds true for mentoring near your current skill but slightly above.  And yeah, it wouldn't really be 'logical' if this WERE true, but it's just a guess on my part, and skillups are pretty inter-related in how they happen.  So I guess it'd work.  If you try it for abit, let me know, I would be interested if my idea is correct at all *shrug* Thanks <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> good luck. And yeah, dwarf necro is pretty cool.  But it could also be that your little legs just don't kick as well as you'd like <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Thunderthyze]

Drakhammor@Everfrost wrote: <blockquote>And yeah, dwarf necro is pretty cool.  But it could also be that your little legs just don't kick as well as you'd like <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> </blockquote><p> Hey! You being sizeist? Come over here and I'll bite your legs off!!</p><p> <img src="/smilies/e8a506dc4ad763aca51bec4ca7dc8560.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Miele]

Just for reference, when having a mount (even if it disappear in the water) skillups for swimming on the surface are non-existant, while removing the mount buff makes them happen again from time to time.

[Thunderthyze]

Interesting comments about swimming underwater etc (must remember to cast me an aqueous stone and get scuba diving!). Strangely enough I have always thought that swimming while invis'd had a tendency to reduce the frequency of the skillups too.

[deKoven]

Hmmm, what's funny to me? Seeing my Guardian in full plate armor blithely swimming along in the surf. What's strange about that, you ask? Just think, he's carrying somewhere around 400 pounds of armor and extra gear and he's <u>FLOATING</u>? ??? <img src="/smilies/2786c5c8e1a8be796fb2f726cca5a0fe.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  <img src="/smilies/385970365b8ed7503b4294502a458efa.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Thunderthyze]

Argonne@Mistmoore wrote: <blockquote>Hmmm, what's funny to me? Seeing my Guardian in full plate armor blithely swimming along in the surf. What's strange about that, you ask? Just think, he's carrying somewhere around 400 pounds of armor and extra gear and he's <u>FLOATING</u>? ??? <img src="/smilies/2786c5c8e1a8be796fb2f726cca5a0fe.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  <img src="/smilies/385970365b8ed7503b4294502a458efa.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></blockquote> Maybe he's a witch??

[Karlen]

My dwarf has had no problem getting skillups.   They tend to come more often if I swim underwater.   I've spent a few sessions doing laps of the mage tower in SQ and usually get 1 skillup per lap as long as I hold down the "end" key (to hold me underwater).   The moat of the mage tower gets shallow in a few places, so there is never a danger of running out of breath.

[Willias]

Yeah, they tweaked it at some point.  You have to completely submerge your character and swim around underwater to get skill ups. Used to be that running through deep water could get you swimming skill ups.

[Rijacki]

<cite>Willias wrote:</cite><blockquote>Yeah, they tweaked it at some point.  You have to completely submerge your character and swim around underwater to get skill ups. Used to be that running through deep water could get you swimming skill ups. </blockquote> Running through deep water can completely submerge the short races <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> But yeah, there was a change to swimming skill-ups either before or with EoF.  There was also a change to the skill-ups for safe fall.  They've admitted the changes, but not how hard it is now to raise either.

[Korpo]

<p>I have the same problem, all my toons that aren't at the cap seem to be lagging far behind on their skills. My dirge is sad every time he dies from falling damage, since his safe fall is like 30/160.</p><p>For swimming, I just grab an otter totem and swim laps (underwater) back and forth between the cave and the tent in Everfrost. The other option is to make the full circle around EL. I just hit NumLock to have my toon keep swimming in whatever direction he's going, and flame the forums on my other monitor. Now that's multitasking.</p>

[pootski]

What is with everyone and the otter totem?  Doesnt everyone over about lvl 40 have Hadden's earing?  Good for a day of underwater swimming.

[Raveller]

<p>This has been brought up a number of times, and I used to think it only had to do with your character being underwater as opposed to swimming on the surface. </p><p>I experimented with playing a Ratonga, and I swear all he has to do is enter a zone with a few drops of morning dew still on the grass and he gains swimming skill. I also noticed that when swimming on the surface, when he stops, he does this wierd bobbing animation. I wonder if there is a correlation.</p>

[Bloodfa]

<p>Pfffft.  Everybody knows dwarves don't bathe.  They have no interest in bathing.  If they did, they'd be halflings.  And everybody knows how dwarves feel about halfers....</p><p>Wait a minute ... you don't have halfer envy, do you?  Because one thing you can always count on is having a dwarf's natural scent, much like that of a wet musk ox, not only clear the way through a crowd in a brawl, but to guarantee an open seat at the bar.  Assuming there's a booster seat available, that is.</p>