Skill Categories

Six categories

Every skill belongs to one category: four schools of magic and two of arms. Every category starts at level 0 and grows only through use, up to level 100. Your character level is all of that experience together.

The attribute columns show what one level in that category adds. Parts of a point add up as you gain experience, so a point arrives the moment its share is earned.

Earning experience

Every hit earns experience for what dealt it:

• A spell's hit goes to the spell's category: a Fireball trains Elemental Magic.
• A weapon's hit goes to Melee, or to Ranged for a bow.
• When Modifiers shaped the hit, the spell (or the weapon) keeps half the experience and the Modifiers' categories share the other half. A Modifier that adds hits, such as Split, earns the experience of the hits it adds.
• A Modifier that shapes nothing earns nothing.

Killing quickly, one enemy after another, adds bonus experience on top: see Kill Streaks.

So a mage who socketed Pierce (Ranged) learns a little archery, and a warrior with Ignite (Elemental Magic) in a sword learns a little fire.

What the attributes do

• Strength: more life, and more damage with melee weapons.
• Dexterity: better aim (your chance to hit), and more damage with bows.
• Intelligence: more mana, and every point adds 1% to your spell damage.

Your Melee level (or Ranged, with a bow in hand) also raises your weapon damage and your chance to hit. Gaining a character level refills your health and mana.

Socketing requirements

A skill needs a level in its own category before it can go into a slot: "Requires Elemental Magic 8". The first skills of every school need nothing, so any school can be started. The requirement rises with the skill's level and its tier, so a skill tends to become usable about when it starts to drop. Each skill's page lists its requirements.

Only socketing is gated: any skill can wait in your spellbook until you are ready. A Modifier has a category too, so a caster who wants Split or Fork needs a few levels of Ranged.

Spell power

A spell grows stronger with your level in its category, by 10% per level, and its mana cost grows with it. That growth stops about 20 levels after the level where the skill starts to drop: an early spell keeps up for a while, then needs replacing with a stronger one or a higher tier. The spell's tooltip says when it no longer grows.

Intelligence and spell damage on your gear (most wands and staves carry some) add on top. A Modifier's own elemental damage, such as Ignite's burn, grows with the Modifier's category and your Intelligence, in a spell or a weapon alike.

Skill tiers

Every skill drops in three tiers. The higher tiers turn up later and need higher category levels. A Greater or Grand Modifier also weakens its copies, jumps and fork pieces less. Its mana surcharge stays the same.

Skills drop from enemies (their names show in violet on the ground), and some traders sell them. Drops favour skills from around your enemies' level, and skills you don't have yet.