Skill cap increasesFollow

With all the talk about the new regen system, new zones, and new race, there was another part of this patch/expansion that I haven't seen much talk about yet. Weapon and defensive skills caps went up quite a bit.
On my 59 Paladin, my weapon skills went from 225 to 258, and my defensive skills, dodge, parry, and riposte, all gained between 20 and 40 points. My spells casting spells recieved the biggest boost, they went up to 280+ from 235, I don't remember the exact number. They even raised Hand to Hand and Begging, of all things, by over 50 points.
I am curious about why they raised the skill caps so much. I'm not sure how much other people's characters might have gained, but I recieved the equivalent of 10 levels worth of skills, sometimes more, for free. I'm not complaining, but it does worry me a bit. Is the new content going to be so hard that higher skills are a neccesity?
I would also be interested to see how much the caps were raised for other classes and at other levels.

I noticed it the other day too, but it was with safe fall. Bards don't get safefall, but Vah Shir got it as a racial ability that capped at 50. It now caps at 143. Talk about a boost. Also, I was able to raise it from 50 to 143 in less then 15 minutes on the bridge to the firetails in Arcstone, getting 3 or 4 skill ups per run across it at times.

Bards DO get safe fall whether they are Vah Shir or not.

Man, it's so frustrating to read about other's skills going up rapidly. Before I took a 4 month hiatus from the game, this was one area that drove me crazy. My skills took forever to level cap. Now with my return, I find my skills 8-12 levels behind AND still with extremely slow skill ups..... Can someone suggest what I may be doing wrong? I fought for several hours yesterday, and only received 3 wep skill ups....... AAAARRRRGGGGHHH!!!! LOL!

KEC, to get a skillup check, you need to succeed with your skill (at least most skills work this way). If you are fighting even con mobs (within a few levels of your own level) and your skills are 8-12 levels below par, your chance of hitting them are very poor => very few skillups.

Get some haste and healing potions (or bribe a friendly cleric to keep you upright), go find yourself a zone full of green con mobs, aggro a bunch and get to work.

Moral of the story: MMs are evil. Just don't do it.

Wis/int buffs have no effect on weapon skillups. Dex is primarily for offensive skillups like (1hb, offense, dual wield etc) while agility is for defensive skillups (defense, dodge maybe riposte).

Int/wis are for tradeskill and spell casting skillups.

That being said, get the fastest weapon you can find, best stat buffs and go to town on LB mobs or better.

Something else that also works is dueling a pet class and fighting their pet so long as it is at least LB to you.

Edited, Nov 1st 2006 at 6:17am PST by Cilrail

It's not just wep skillups, it's also spell casting and other skills. for example, I left an alt swimming all night (7 hours). It started with a skill of 200. This morning, 6 skill ups only.....

To get ALT skill up on one char alone, I had to cast for 4 1/2 hours straight. INT is maxed on that char as well. At this rate, just as all my alt's skills cap, my 3 month game card will expire, LOL!

On green mobs, skill ups are almost non-existant. I have seen 2 or 3 only so far. Light blues are better and dark blues seem to produce the best results, but all come very slowly.