Shields work like you'd think they do. While equipping a shield, you have a percent chance to block an attack. When you block an attack, it'll make a *bonk* sound, your character will make a shield animation, and your text box will say you have blocked the attack.

     When you train in shields, you'll get access to the nifty shield combat styles, and your chance to block will increase. Please note that training in shield increases your skill in every shield you can possibly equip. You can't train in small shields, or large shields, just "Shields." Each time you train in shields, you get an additional .5% chance to block, meaning at a skill of 50, you will have 25% chance to block, plus whatever the base chance to block for your shield is.

     Bigger shields can block more opponents at a time than smaller shields. Also, when using Shield Combat Styles, the different shields have different attack speeds. In general, the smaller shields are faster.

     First off, you must have the shield skill in order to use these abilities:

Skill Level 5: Guard:
When you are Guarding someone, you are using your shield to block blows originally meant for them. You must stand very close to the player you are guarding. Like Engage, once you turn on Guard, it is active until you turn it off.

Skill Level 7: Engage:
When you engage an enemy, you are foregoing all attacking to concentrate on using your shield to block them. Your blocking percentage rises significantly; I've been told the figure is around 90% chance to block. Engage is not a one-time-use ability - you will continue to Engage until you turn it off or attack the monster, and every time you block you will lose a bit of endurance.

Skill Level 10: Guard II:
A higher chance to block hits for your target than Guard.

Skill Level 15: Guard III:
A higher chance to block hits for your target than Guard II.

     No! Archery is awesome for the classes who are 'sposed to be archers (Rangers, Hunters, Scouts). Archery is very damaging, even more so if you train in it.

     Please visit the trade skills section for this info.

     The drawback is, in general, the same as with a caster - if something gets to you, that bow isn't going to do you very much good, and you'll have to fall back on melee weapons, which you're (probably) not all that good with.

     Archery no longer involves physical arrows - you don't have to buy them, you don't have to carry them, and you don't shoot them.

This is odd, certainly, but it was part of a revamp made to archery that pretty much turns the skill into another type of spell. (Which is why Archery is listed under the list of spells here.)

     That "non-active" targets are easier to hit than "active" ones. Non-active targets are ones that are either standing still or walking around; active targets are ones that are fighting, running, or casting. Also, the Critical Shot skill can only be used against "non-active" targets. And finally, you can hit stuff from farther away if you use elevation to your advantage.

     Depends on whether or not you are willing to commit yourself to it. A melee class who has respectable skill in Dual Wield and a Weapon Skill will be something to fear. Dual Wielding allows you to equip and attack with a second weapon, while still maintaining the ability to parry attacks.

     Well, not every round, unless you are speaking of Left Axe in Midgard. This is entirely dependant on your Dual Wield skill - the higher your skill, the more often you will use your second weapon. The formula for Dual Wield/Celtic Dual is: [ 25% + .68 * CD/DW spec ]

So, the best way to increase your chance to use both weapons in a given round is to increase skill in Dual Wield/Celtic Dual.

     The advantages are that you will do more damage in combat than someone who only uses one weapon, and you are granted special dual-wield only combat styles. The disadvantages are that it will take extra training to get dual wield to an acceptable level, and you'll have to purchase a second weapon, plus you cannot use a shield while dual wielding.

     Oddly enough, although you must be wielding two weapons to use dual wield styles, only the weapon that hits is actually used when you perform the style. The good news is that your other weapon still has it's normal chance of swinging or not swinging, exactly the same as if you were not using a style.

     You can dual wield any one-handed weapons that your class can use, and that are allowed to be equipped in your left hand. I would highly suggest dual-wielding the same type of weapon so that you only need one weapon skill rather than two.

     Yes!

     Please refer to the section where I say no race gets any special abilities. *Sigh*

     Left Axe is what Dual Wield is in Midgard. It works a little differently - you swing both axes every round, but neither axe does its full damage potential. Unlike with Dual Wield, your attack speed with both weapons is determined by an average of the two axes you are using. The equation to figure out the damage each axe will do is this:

base damage * (.625 + .0034 * LA spec)

     Stealth works as follows: Imagine a huge bubble around your character. Everywhere outside the bubble, you are invisible to everyone. Everywhere inside the bubble, you are visible (but transparent) to people from your realm, and people from other realms have only a chance of seeing you at all. As you become better at Stealth, the bubble gets smaller.

     Yes. At a Stealth skill of 1, you will move at half your normal walking speed. As your skill increases, so will your movement speed, but it will never equal normal, unstealthed speeds. The Realm Ability "Mastery of Stealth" which is available to the assassin classes (Nightshade, Shadowblade, Infiltrator) will also give an increase to movement speed while stealthed.

     You can move, draw weapons, and line up archery shots, etc. but as soon as you attack or cast a spell, your stealth will drop. Also - when nocking your arrows, you have a chance to fall out of stealth. This chance is based on your Stealth Skill. If you are fully trained in stealth, you will never lose stealth when nocking an arrow, if you are 50% trained, you have a 50% chance to become visible, etc. When using critical shot while stealthed, take your normal visibility chance and subtract 20%.

     Nope. As long as you are not uncovered, don't attack, and don't hit the stealth button a second time, you will stay stealthed.

     Not at the present, but I wouldn't recommend turning your torch on either =) And all good rogues know, even with Stealth, nothing compares to the cover of darkness or landscape features.

     If someone inside your bubble sees you (you will be transparent to them) they can either attack or cast a spell on you to end your Stealth and make you visible to anyone inside or outside your bubble. You cannot re-stealth for 10 seconds after breaking stealth.

     When your character trains in Stealth, new abilities are opened to him, much like combat styles are granted as you train in a weapon skill. They are as follows:

Skill Level 5 - Distractions - (Rogues and Thieves) In order to be able to hide better, thieves learn how to use "Distractions". You can greatly increase your hiding chances if you approach a monster from behind - and distractions give you the opportunity to do this. You can use distractions by targeting an area you want the monster to face. The higher you train in Stealth, the better your distracting will be.

Skill Level 8 - Danger Sense - (Rogues and Thieves) Danger Sense lets you know when a scout monster has noticed your party. It is always on.

Skill Level 10 - Safe Fall - (Thief Only) Safe Fall lets you take less damage than you normally would from falling, and increases the distance at which you can fall and take no damage. Safe Fall gets upgraded at skill level 20, 30, 40 and 50.

Skill Level 16 - Detect Hidden - (Thief Only) - Detect Hidden increases range at which you can see hidden enemy players.

Skill Level 25 - Climb - (Thief Only) - Allows the thief to scale certain parts of fort and keep walls.

     The primary factors affecting your chance to hit are your level versus your opponent's level and the bonus of your weapon versus the bonus of your opponent's armor. Ability scores, e.g.Dexterity, quickness, etc, do not affect the base chance to hit or miss an opponent.

     Well, that really depends on your weapon type. Right now, all bows and staves are entirely dependant upon your dexterity. Aimed pointy weapons like daggers, rapiers, and spears are generally based on 50% dexterity and 50% strength. For blunt weapons like clubs, maces, and hammers, your damage is entirely based upon strength. For slashing weapons like swords and axes, your damage is again, entirely based on strength.

     DPS stands for Damage Per Second. You can see the DPS of your weapon by right clicking on it. If you take the DPS of your weapon, and multiply it by the weapon speed, you will get the optimal damage of your weapon. If you have no training in your weapon skill, you will do between 50% and 100% of the optimal damage when attacking an even-con monster. With full training, you will do near 100% every time. There is also a DPS cap dependant on your level. Your DPS cap is your level divided by 3. You can see your current DPS by click on the Character Panel and looking at 'WeapDam.' WeapDam lists your modified DPS. Be wary though, WeapDam sometimes changes the period to a 0, so it can say 1000 instead of 10.0 because of a delay problem.

     In this game - everything has strengths and weaknesses. Recently, Mythic re-arranged the resistance tables to make all of the weapons have balanced strengths and weaknesses. These are the new tables for resistances, as provided by the Camelot Herald:

	Plate	Chain	Norse Chain	Scale	Reinf.	Norse Stud.	Stud.	Leathr	Norse Leath	Hib. Leath
Thrust	Resist	Vuln	Vuln	Neut	Neut	Resist	Vuln	Resist	Resist	Neut
Crush	Vuln	Resist	Neut	Resist	Vuln	Neut	Resist	Vuln	Neut	Vuln
Slash	Neut	Neut	Resist	Vuln	Resist	Vuln	Neut	Neut	Vuln	Resist

There's a very nicely-formatted Resistance Info page here:
Camelot Seer's Weapon Effectiveness Chart

But, in case that doesn't float your boat, here's another in a different prespective:
Steve's Class/Armor/Damage Type Comparison

     Advanced weapons are Polearms and Two-Handed weapons from Albion that require a base proficiency. Because Polearms and Two-Handed weapons encompass all three damage types - piercing, slashing, and crushing, you need to be proficient in one of the base weapon types to become better at an Advanced Weapon.

     O.K. Here's how they work: First you need to choose a base proficiency - piercing, slashing, or crushing. Second, you need to commit yourself to being almost completely offensive in combat.

Remember how I said training in Weapon Skills decreased your damage variance? If not, well, they do. That's not true for Polearms and Two Handed weapons. When you train in these Advanced Weapons, your variance is determined by the highest base proficiency you have - be it piercing, slashing or crushing. If you only train in an advanced weapon, you will get access to all of the combat styles for the advanced weaponry, but your damage variance will never decrease. Also, unlike any other weapon skill, training in advanced weapons increases your maximum damage!

So, pick a base proficiency, train in it to decrease your variance, and then train in the advanced weapon to open up your combat styles and increase your maximum damage.

     You're right, it does. But you'll out damage all other weapon types (at least, that's what's supposed to happen.) This is why I say you must commit yourself to being completely offensive - you will not have enough skill points left over after training in a base and an advanced weapon to try for shields or something else of that nature, although I would highly recommend you do not slack off too much in your parry ability.

     Sure thing. The pros of advanced weaponry are that you will be a beast in melee combat and do hordes of damage and have really cool advanced weapon styles. The cons are that it takes a lot of skill points, so you will be very focused, and you will need to train in a base proficiency to reduce your damage variance.

     When you protect someone in your group, you cause a percentage of their agro to be transferred to you. As you level, this percentage increases. This is very useful for when you don't want your caster to be taking very many hits from the monster. To activate protect, target a player in your group and click on your protect key. You do not need a shield to use the Protect ability.

     Intercept is used to take a blow for someone in your group. You literally throw yourself in front of them to block the blow, so armor is not considered when determining how much damage you take. To activate Intercept, target a player in your group and click on your intercept key. You do not need a shield to use the Intercept ability. Also - Intercept is set on a timer, so you can only Intercept a blow once every 30 seconds.

     Parry is when you use your weapon to block someone else's attack. Every skill point you invest in parry grants an extra 0.5% chance to block, although we do not know what the base chance to block is. (My guess is somewhere around 5%).

     Here's a fairly complete example of how Quickness works with your damage, styled and unstyled:

Many people believe that overall damage is decreased when their quickness is increased. This is because damage done each hit from styles DOES decrease. However, increased quickness has a positive effect on overall damage, and no negative effect on style damage over time. For an example, let’s assume that unbuffed Bob has a sword with a delay of 5 seconds, and that he does an average of 100 normal damage per swing, and 50 from styles. Over 20 seconds, his damage would look like:
100 + 50
100 + 50
100 + 50
100 + 50
100 + 50
For a total of 750 damage. Remember that the first attack is at 0 seconds, so he gets one more attack within the 20 seconds than the simple 20/5.

Now, some friendly caster casts a haste spell, or a buffer casts a Quickness buff, on Bob. Bob now has a delay of 4 seconds between attacks. Bob’s damage will now look like this:
100 + 40
100 + 40
100 + 40
100 + 40
100 + 40
100 + 40
The styled damage dropped because styles do a set DPS, and with increased speed comes decreased damage per hit. However, despite the fact that each of Bob’s attacks is doing 10 less damage, his total damage is now 840.

Your base damage will remain unchanged, while your styled damage per hit will decrease. However, over any significant length of time, you will be able to attack more with a Quickness or Haste buff. (Conversely, a Quickness/attack speed debuff will cause your styles to do more damage per hit, but less often - which is why some classes not only don't mind but welcome such debuffs.) Clearly, then, over time a Quickness or Haste buff will help you. If you are attempting to one-shot someone, then yes, a stronger first hit will be most important to you; however, in other cases, you may as well get that buff, if someone is willing to give it.

     We covered this before, but there's always some confusion about it, so it's worth going over again.

Unlike Midgard and Hibernia, Albion has what is called "double speccing" - both Polearms and Two-Handed require that you train both a damage type (slash/crush/thrust) and the weapon type (polearm/2H). The weapon type will increase your max damage, while the damage type will decrease your variance (i.e. increase average damage).

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