Weapon Mastery and Evolution
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Stances
Maximum Rank: 7
A stance is an ongoing combat selection. Depending upon the stance, successful attacks may produce defensive wards, bleeding, stamina pressure, mana recovery, or area damage.
Rank costs: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 points.
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Active Abilities
Maximum Rank: 5
Abilities use the mastery meter. Once the meter reaches 100%, the selected ability can be primed and released through the next valid strike.
Rank costs: 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 points.
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Finishers
Maximum Rank: 3
Finishers are automatic low-health attacks against creatures. A discipline must reach Mastery Rank 5 before its finishers can be trained.
Rank costs: 8, 12, and 16 points.
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The Reset Selections button only clears your currently selected stance, ability, and finisher. It does not remove trained ranks or refund any mastery points.
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1
Select the discipline matching your equipped weapon.
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2
Train and select one of that discipline's active abilities.
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3
Land valid attacks until the meter reaches 100%.
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4
Choose Prime Ability or use the compact Ability Gump.
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5
Land a valid hit within 20 seconds to release the ability.
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The amount added to the meter is influenced by the damage of each successful strike. Arms Lore also increases the amount of meter gained.
After a primed ability is released:
• the meter returns to 0%
• the ability enters an 18-second cooldown
• the meter can begin filling again through later valid attacks
Priming does not release the ability immediately. The effect is attached to your next qualifying weapon hit.
| Stance | Combat Effect |
|---|---|
| Vanguard | A general-purpose stance. It does not currently add a separate triggered combat effect. |
| Guardian | Successful attacks provide a short increase to physical, fire, cold, poison, and energy resistance. |
| Cleaver | Grants a rank-scaled chance for a clean strike to splash part of its damage into as many as two nearby valid enemies. |
| Bloodletter | Grants a rank-scaled chance for a successful attack to begin or refresh bleeding on the target. |
| Skirmisher | Represents fast and mobile weapon play. It does not currently add a separate triggered combat effect. |
| Breaker | Grants a rank-scaled chance for crushing attacks to drain the target's stamina. |
| Bulwark | Provides the same short all-resistance ward used by Guardian, as part of the Parrying discipline. |
| Arcane Channel | Magical weapon strikes can restore mana. Higher ranks increase both the activation chance and the mana restored, while Meditation provides additional support. |
| Spellward | Magical weapon strikes can create a short ward that raises all five resistances. |
• Warpath — adds direct physical damage to the primed strike.
• Rend — deals bonus damage and opens a bleeding wound.
• Cleaving Strike — damages as many as three additional valid enemies standing near the primary target.
• Duelist's Gambit — delivers a precise bonus-damage strike.
• Venom Rush — poisons the target. Ranks 4 and 5 apply Greater Poison instead of Regular Poison.
• Swift Barrage — deals bonus damage and immediately restores stamina to the attacker.
• Pummel — deals bonus damage while draining a significant amount of enemy stamina.
• Crippling Blow — briefly paralyzes the target.
• Skullcrack — delivers a particularly heavy physical strike, but briefly roots the attacker after impact.
• Skirmisher Shot — adds focused physical damage to the primed ranged attack.
• Full Draw — adds focused physical damage to the primed ranged attack.
• Repeater — follows the original shot with a second reduced-damage strike shortly afterward, provided the target remains alive and within range.
• Brawler's Rhythm — adds physical force to the primed unarmed strike.
• Haymaker — delivers a heavier bonus-damage attack.
• Takedown — briefly paralyzes the target, with duration increasing by ability rank.
• Shield Wall — raises all five resistances for ten seconds.
• Counter Bash — drains enemy stamina.
• Last Stand — raises all five resistances for ten seconds.
• Arcane Surge — releases energy damage and restores mana to the attacker.
• Mana Rend — removes mana from the target while dealing energy damage.
• Spellblade Ward — raises all five resistances for ten seconds and restores a small amount of mana.
Arcane Surge and Mana Rend gain additional strength from Evaluating Intelligence, Inscription, and Spellweaving. Arcane Channel also benefits from Meditation.
Once a trained finisher is selected, successful attacks can activate it automatically when an eligible creature has 20% or less of its maximum health remaining.
Finishers:
• only activate against creatures
• do not activate against player characters
• deal an additional low-health strike
• have a separate 45-second cooldown
• become more likely to activate as their rank increases
Most finishers use Anatomy as a supporting skill when calculating their activation chance. The Arcane Weaponry finisher, Spellburst, uses Evaluating Intelligence and gains additional arcane scaling.
| Discipline | Available Finisher |
|---|---|
| Swordsmanship | Execute or Bleedout |
| Fencing | Flurry |
| Macing | Pulverize |
| Archery | Pincushion |
| Wrestling | Takedown Finish |
| Parrying | Barrier |
| Arcane Weaponry | Spellburst |
The active Weapon Mastery Codex is separate from the passive bonuses provided by Evolved Skills.
As Swords, Fencing, Macing, Archery, Throwing, Wrestling, or Parry gains Evolution Levels, eligible weapons and shields can occasionally produce automatic mastery effects.
These passive effects:
• do not require mastery points
• do not use the ability meter
• do not need to be selected or primed
• operate only against valid non-player creatures
• do not activate against players, controlled pets, or summoned creatures
| Evolved Skill Level | Passive Mastery Tier |
|---|---|
| Levels 1–3 | Tier 1 |
| Levels 4–6 | Tier 2 |
| Levels 7–9 | Tier 3 |
| Level 10 | Tier 4 |
When a passive weapon mastery activates, it adds bonus damage based upon the weapon family, Evolution Tier, combat skill, Tactics, Anatomy, Strength, and Dexterity.
Different weapon families also gain additional traits at higher tiers:
• Tier 2 stamina pressure can appear on maces, hammers, clubs, staffs, axes, battle axes, polearms, spears, and crossbows.
• Tier 3 bleeding can appear on katanas, daggers, rapiers, scimitars, curved swords, axes, battle axes, and spears.
• Tier 4 control can briefly paralyze targets when using spears, polearms, crossbows, hammers, clubs, or claw-style weapons.
• Tier 4 martial arts restores a small amount of health and stamina when its passive effect activates.
Large and heavy weapons tend to activate slightly less often but can receive a higher bonus-damage limit. Faster weapons such as daggers, rapiers, and martial-arts weapons tend to activate slightly more often.
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Parry Chance
Higher Parry Evolution Tiers add a small bonus to the normal chance of successfully parrying with a shield.
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Damage Reduction
A successful shield defense can reduce incoming damage. Metal shields provide the stronger direct reduction.
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Wooden Shields
Wooden shields provide less direct reduction but can help preserve stamina, particularly when defending against bashing weapons.
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Stances
Train stance ranks and choose the stance used by the selected discipline.
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Abilities
Train active ability ranks and select the ability that will use your mastery meter.
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Finishers
Train and select the automatic low-health finisher used by the discipline.
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History
View saved progression information, recent use, total mastery experience, and recent eligible combat.
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Help
View the weapon family, requirements, supporting skills, and intended role of the selected discipline.
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The Ability Gump button opens a compact movable window showing:
• your selected ability
• the current mastery meter percentage
• whether the ability is ready
• whether an ability is currently primed
• a button for priming the ability without reopening the full Codex
The following are saved with your character:
• mastery experience and rank for each discipline
• earned and spent mastery points
• trained stance, ability, and finisher ranks
• selected options for each discipline
• the current mastery meter
• finisher cooldown information
A currently primed ability is temporary and is cleared when the character dies or reconnects. Long-term mastery progress is not lost.
Switching disciplines restores the stance, ability, and finisher previously selected for that discipline. The equipped weapon and base skills must still meet the requirements before those effects can operate.
• Weapon Mastery progress belongs to your character, not to a specific weapon.
• Each discipline has separate experience, ranks, and points.
• You need 80.0 base Tactics and 80.0 base discipline skill to use a mastery.
• Mastery experience comes from valid creature kills with an eligible equipped weapon.
• Repeatedly farming the same creature type in a short period reduces the experience gained.
• Stances, abilities, and finishers must be trained before they can be selected.
• Only one stance, one ability, and one finisher can be selected for a discipline at one time.
• Reset Selections does not refund mastery points.
• Finishers require Mastery Rank 5 and only activate against low-health creatures.
• Active abilities require a full mastery meter and must be primed before the next valid strike.
• Passive Evolved Skill weapon effects are separate from the active Codex system.
• Fusion Wielding requires an active fused weapon pair.
• Arcane Weaponry benefits from several supporting magical skills.