Why are skills capped at 80% below rank 15? I have played over the years, and I always wondered why that was. It can't be because of any balance issues, 100% parry is more beneficial fighting at 50 than it is at 5. Ferals start with their skills mastered. Maybe this could be removed? My reason is because traveling in a hunting party is so rare now that you often do most of your leveling alone through guild quests below level 40, making levels 1-15 troubling, espescially for casters. Removing that cap lets you master some skills (weapon skills, and defenses) while you go through those solo levels. It would also save you the hassle of trying to level them by just sitting in combat waiting for weapon skills to go up.
80% skill cap
I believe it was originally for those that were PK'ing as soon as you got out of the 1-10 PK shield. To prevent those waiting for descriptions to master their skills and whomp on the newbies.
I'm not sure if's needed anymore, especially with the advent of Dcheck which allows you to hit 30 while waiting for approval.
Oh. That makes more sense.
The original intent was to give newbies a level 1-10 buffer where you could not be killed by other players. Then from 10-15 you could be killed but could not be looted by other players. However, your skills were capped at 80% to prevent more experienced players from becoming fully trained without the fear of PK (1-10) and without the fear of being looted (10-15).
This had a more significant impact back when training took a lot longer but still applies in my opinion. This is what I was told a very, very long time ago.
Edited
Echo..
I did not say anything about descriptions...
Wait, what, someone deciding to stop and not power rank to 50?
Ridiculous, I say. Ridiculous.
:D
Considering the fact that you learn skills/spells faster the higher your level, I don't see why it's still necessary to have that cap on it. We have 7 characters online at peak times unless an event is going on and it's posted about, then it's 14. I would place the player base size at probably 25-35 people depending on how many people go on break. Take into account some people who play 3+ characters for 23 hours a day, and you're looking at 3 highly impactful characters, 10 influential, and around 40 random other characters in the game not including Imms. Maybe 1 in 30 attempt to go for a qrace/qclass which was really the only reason it was capped. It doesn't do much more than hinder people prior to 14 from being murdered brutally by a level 15 who decided to take the time to master their skills/spells for that rank so they could benefit from stat changes earlier on. Before you had 30+ people online at any given time. That buffer made sense and still makes sense. The cap made sense slightly more at the beginning, but not now. We have Adventurers who can hit 30, master everything, revert, and just basically rape everyone without using pets just to get the required kill for those qclasses/races (which is why I highly suggest that stipulation is removed and it can be merely 'suggested' as a possible requirement rather than an actual requirement within the help file).
So why can't you go passed 80% now outside of going Adventurer? I don't see a good reason why it should remain other than for nostalgia. I often have asked the same question of late because as a mage you may kill the same MOBs as a melee class, but you're going to be doing it a lot more slowly than them too. Quests offer very little EXP at those ranks from your guild quests which makes it a huge slap in the face too. Once you hit lvl 9 you're on better terms as long as you're doing it from Maelbrim because the quests are centrally located in the game. The PK guards are nice to have for the reason you can have some protection like not being full looted, but honestly if someone wants my padded vest at that level, go for it. Still no real point for capping the 80% though, as no one really spends much time below 15, and I've seen many people just submit a dcheck without an actual description just to be able to go passed level 15 without having to be stopped. But that's my opinion and observation.
Just level past 15 it takes like an hour.
alot of it was a concession that I don't know the optimal way to level, or get gold, or where the best pets are. For a veteran player I am sure it is now big deal. It would just give incremental help at low levels, alone, espescially as a mage.