Weapon & armor penalties, and benefits of equipment lore skills

[FrootInMyBoot 1]

Done some proper reading of the wiki, finding some points I'm not sure I understand, and some points that just aren't there. I'll go ahead and write a list of questions and statements, which I would like some help verifying, correcting and answering.

1. "Dual Wield" and weapon type lore skills do not benefit from each other. If I'm holding two swords, they will only benefit from the bonuses provided by Dual Wield.
2. The penalty from lacking Weapon lore only reduces attack speed, and only affects weapons above your character level (I.e. I can wield whatever the hell I want as long as it's not above my level)
3. The penalty from lacking Armor Lore only reduces movement speed in the same fashion.
4. Speaking of too high item levels: Only played on Silver up to level 36 so far and haven't encountered any equips that had level requirements above my own level. When does this 2high4me-loot kick in?
5. I don't even have any guesses on this one: What's the difference between an armor piece that says "Modifier: Armor Lore" as opposed to modifiers "Warding Energy Lore", "Alchemy", "Perception" etc.
6. Can these modifiers be found on all armor pieces? I've yet to find a "Modifier: Warding Energy lore" chestpiece for my Temple Guard (for the sake of "+x% absorption warding energy" and "+x block warding energy" mods).
7. Is it even remotely possible to play a character without Armor Lore and/or Toughness all the way through Niob? (mostly thinking about 100% energy shield absorb TG with a stupid amount of ES block)
8. Who attacks faster (for the sake of CA regen)? A dual wielder, or a Temple Guard with his Battle Extension?

Edited February 24, 2017 by FrootInMyBoot

[Flix 5,116]

Hello and welcome! Here's a shot:

 

1. Correct. I should add that if there's a modifier unlocked by Sword Weapons it will still be unlocked.

 

2. Correct. But you will still be faster with a weapon lore. Example: With Sword Lore, a level 100 sword would be faster than a level 100 axe. You wouldn't have a penalty on the axe but you would lack the +% speed bonus that the sword would have.

 

3. Correct

 

4. Typically this kicks in when your Survival Bonus gets high enough to boost enemy levels above yours. If you get your Survival Bonus nice and high (>70%,) enemies will easily be 5-10 levels higher than you. Therefore the loot they drop would be higher level as well.

 

5. This text just lets you know what skill will unlock the bonuses. For armor, it will typically just be "Armor Lore" (doesn't necessarily unlock anything, just controls the penalties), unless there's some other special unlockable modifier, in which case that skill is displayed as the Modifier. Armor Lore still applies its effects as normal though no matter what.

 

6. I'm not sure which you're looking for: Warding Energy Lore +X (the skill), or modifiers unlocked by the skill, like Absorption Warding Energy +X% or Shield Regeneration +X% Looking at the scripts, the skill bonus can show up on Chest, Shoulder, Arm, and Leg armor.

 

7. Yes and yes. You would have to make other sacrifices to compensate for lacking Armor Lore though. I personally don't make builds without Armor Lore but it's been done. Toughness is even easier to give up. It isn't even available to some of the characters. There are ways to get around not having high damage mitigation. High evade chance, high spell resistance, high block and reflect values, etc.

 

8. Dual Wield. Battle Extension has a very slow execution speed.

[Augmint 109]

Armour Lore modifier unlocks alot of different bonuses. Armour Lore mastery (75 hard points) will unlock damage mitigation % and reduce detrimental effects %.

Flix covered Warding energy lore modifiers, Enhanced perception unlocks XP bonus per kill %, and chance to find valuables. Might lock a couple more bonuses, but at a geuss non armour lore modifiers unlock only 3 - 4 specific things.

The modifiers are good but you really wanna go for +skill bonuses and + combat art bonuses so you get less regen penalty.

[chattius 2,520]

Yes, wanted to say something similiar. It is like this Ouroboros snake. Cut a piece away and it looses its magic. The unlocked damage mitigation modifiers having armour lore allow to create a damage mitigation build which would be a possible build not needing armour lore if it weren't for the unlocks...

[lujate 574]

Welcome aboard!

 

#4. A lot depends on how you play. Rushing ahead on difficulty is the quickest way.

[gogoblender 3,068]

 

Done some proper reading of the wiki, finding some points I'm not sure I understand, and some points that just aren't there. I'll go ahead and write a list of questions and statements, which I would like some help verifying, correcting and answering.

1. "Dual Wield" and weapon type lore skills do not benefit from each other. If I'm holding two swords, they will only benefit from the bonuses provided by Dual Wield.
2. The penalty from lacking Weapon lore only reduces attack speed, and only affects weapons above your character level (I.e. I can wield whatever the hell I want as long as it's not above my level)
3. The penalty from lacking Armor Lore only reduces movement speed in the same fashion.
4. Speaking of too high item levels: Only played on Silver up to level 36 so far and haven't encountered any equips that had level requirements above my own level. When does this 2high4me-loot kick in?
5. I don't even have any guesses on this one: What's the difference between an armor piece that says "Modifier: Armor Lore" as opposed to modifiers "Warding Energy Lore", "Alchemy", "Perception" etc.
6. Can these modifiers be found on all armor pieces? I've yet to find a "Modifier: Warding Energy lore" chestpiece for my Temple Guard (for the sake of "+x% absorption warding energy" and "+x block warding energy" mods).
7. Is it even remotely possible to play a character without Armor Lore and/or Toughness all the way through Niob? (mostly thinking about 100% energy shield absorb TG with a stupid amount of ES block)
8. Who attacks faster (for the sake of CA regen)? A dual wielder, or a Temple Guard with his Battle Extension?

Thanks for registering and posting your questions, Froot. Loved reading an old school style post about game mechanics and seeing all the answers coming back was just as good a read

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