Skills

Contents:

Archery
Bloodlust (BL)
Junction (Jct)
Phantom Link (PL)
Unarmed Combat (UC)
Evasion
See also

Skills are trained on a minion to augment the minion's primary function. Effects derived from a skill are intrinsic to the minion training the skill, as opposed to enchantments that affect multiple targets outside of the caster. Skills cannot be directly dispelled, although they typically have some counter or inherent sacrifice to create a balance of power. All skills are affected by Armor Dexterity modifiers. The Dexterity (DX) bonus on a pair of Elven Gloves, for instance, will increase the wearer's skill level by the same percentage by which it increases DX. Further, DX penalties from armor result in corresponding penalties applied to the skill.

Archery

Initial training cost: 84 exp.
Archery increases the chance to hit for all normal bows (not crossbows or slings).
The Archery effect ranges from 0.0 to 1.0
Archery has reduced effect when its level is low relative to ST.
To reach 1.0, train it to 1/5th of the minion's strength (including Giant Strength). Beyond this is wasted.

All bows will fire in all five ranged rounds. However, without Archery trained, bows receive a significant penalty to their base chance to hit (CTH) -- 80% penalty, or a total of 20% CTH. This CTH is where you start before calculating effects from dexterity or plus to hit (PTH). With an Archery trained up to an effect of 1.00, you can minimize this penalty and maximize your base CTH. For all bows other than the Elven Long Bow (ELB), this will maximize at 90% CTH (10% penalty) at an Archery of 1.00. The ELB is the only bow that can achieve a full 100% CTH (no penalty) with full Archery trained. The CTH is interpolated linearly when Archery is somewhere between 0.00 and 1.00:

   (Archery * 0.8) + 0.2.

Bloodlust (BL)

Initial training cost: 840 exp.
Bloodlusted Minions inflict tremendous damage with physical attacks during melee rounds.
BL has reduced effect when its level is low relative to ST.
The maximum effect of BL can be achieved when the BL level is trained to 1/5 of the minion's strength (including strength from Giant Strength).
The maximum BL effect is (0.6).
The effect gives an extra (BL effect * 100)% to your physical damage in melee only e.g. 0.3 means you will do (0.3 * 100)% = 30% more melee damage.
Often used along with Vampiric Aura (VA).

Junction (Jct)

Initial training cost: 312 exp.
Links items' effects to familiar
Weapons don't do anything that would qualify for Junction. (Ex. MH's HP leech)
Junction transfers both positive and negative effects (such as armor dx penalties) but as junction gets higher it can block out the negative. At 1.0 you get 100% of the positive effect for most things, and 150% for ST and DX. At 1.0 you get 0% of the negative effect.
To get 1.0 you need to have 1/5 of your tattoo's effective lvl in Junction.
Effects apply to minion and familiar, but only the familiar's end are modified by junction .
Invisibility does transfer, but remember both familiar and minion will be invisible so if nobody else is left it will be the same as if neither was. However the chance it transfers is based on the number in the (xx). IE, (0.4) means that there is a 40% chance in that battle the invisibility transfers. Of course at (1.0), the Invisibility will transfer all the time.
Helm of Clearsight does transfer but at the same % as Invisibility does.

Phantom Link (PL)

Initial training cost: 84 exp.
Minion with PL trained takes damage intended for other minions on your team.
Only one minion with PL can be active at once; if that minion dies, the minion with the next-largest PL becomes the new active damage receiver. If two minions trains equally large PL the minion closest to the front absorbs damage first.
PL does not absorb Guardian Angel (GA) or Antimagic Field (AMF) damage, only direct damage spells and direct physical attacks.
Damage absorbed with PL will not return any GA damage.
PL will redirect the effects of stat-draining weapons (Assassin's Crossbow, Enforcer's Crossbow) to the linked minion, but only if the PL would absorb more than 1/2 of the damage dealt and the absorbing minion has positive DX or ST (depending on axbow or exbow).
A minion training PL will get no benefit either from VA or Morgul-Hammer (MH) / Blade of Thuringwethil (BoTH).
Damage absorbed by the minion training PL will not count towards damage an attacker's VA/MH/BoTH uses to calculate life drain.
For each level a minion has trained in PL, he can absorb 1.8 points of damage per hit done to a teammate. "Reduced rate" means that for each 10 points of damage absorbed, he only loses 9 HP.
PL will not absorb any damage if it is unable to absorb enough to keep the original target alive.
Correct uses of PL can be found here. [1]

Unarmed Combat (UC)

Initial training cost: 84 exp.
The ability to use bare hands as deadly weapons.
Some armor will reduce Unarmed Combat effectiveness; other rare types can enhance it.
The higher the level, the more effective you are in melee when not using a melee weapon.
Training this skill also confers an effective Evasion level equal to 33% of trained UC level. (50% when used with the Combat GI.)
Sometimes used with Enforcer's crossbow (Exbow) or an Assassin's crossbow (Axbow).
UC, like other one-handed weapons, does not suffer the one round melee penalty for simultaneously using a ranged weapon.
OB's Explanation of UC:

1) Effect Stacking. The effects of UC items that increase it percentage-wise, such as Elven gears and the Amulet of Focus, will be applied first. Afterwards the items that increase UC's static effect, such as Helm's Gauntlets and the Combat Gi, will apply their effects on top of any % effects that came first.

2) UC's effect. Unarmed Combat acts as a melee weapon that increases the X and the + as the UC effect increases. The effect number in parentheses, such as Unarmed Combat: 1,893,975/1,200,000 (113), represents the Point-To-Hit of the UC weapon. The 'X' value is currently unknown, as well as the hidden base multiplier.

3) UC's Inherent Evasion. A portion of the Unarmed Combat level trained acts as though it were Evasion levels - this amount changes between Ranged and Melee rounds, and is affected by the Combat Gi. This portion is pre-item-bonus [2], so adding equipment that increase the UC level/effect doesn't affect the inherent Evasion level - only the Gi affects it, and it does so by increasing it by 50%. (Testing has suggested the contrary that the evasion level is effected by any UC boosting items. [3]) Without the Combat Gi, the 1/3 of the trained UC level acts as though it is Evasion. With the Combat Gi, this increases to 50% of the trained UC level during Melee. There do not seem to be any ranged multipliers as of April 10th with the new changes [4].

   Minimum Level per Effect
   ------------------------
   Initial effect/level:
   (0  ) 27

   (1  ) 12,064    (26 ) 263,195   (51 ) 582,771   (76 ) 1,014,955   (101) 1,574,207   (126) 2,285,433
   (2  ) 22,774    (27 ) 274,262   (52 ) 597,445   (77 ) 1,035,263   (102) 1,614,395   (127) 2,317,704
   (3  ) 32,633    (28 ) 285,528   (53 ) 612,323   (78 ) 1,055,818   (103) 1,624,758   (128) 2,350,298
   (4  ) 42,559    (29 ) 296,880   (54 ) 627,407   (79 ) 1,076,622   (104) 1,573,894   (129) 2,382,970
   (5  ) 52,600    (30 ) 308,597   (55 ) 642,698   (80 ) 1,097,677   (105) 1,688,906   (130) 2,415,717
   (6  ) 62,449    (31 ) 320,742   (56 ) 658,198   (81 ) 1,119,000   (106) 1,702,325   (131) 2,449,192
   (7  ) 71,800    (32 ) 332,040   (57 ) 673,910   (82 ) 1,140,545   (107) 1,728,818   (132) 2,483,014
   (8  ) 81,294    (33 ) 344,597   (58 ) 689,835   (83 ) 1,162,361   (108) 1,755,583   (133) 2,516,797
   (9  ) 90,740    (34 ) 356,340   (59 ) 705,975   (84 ) 1,184,434   (109) 1,782,621   (134) 2,551,239
   (10 ) 100,302   (35 ) 368,755   (60 ) 722,332   (85 ) 1,206,489   (110) 1,809,940   (135) 2,585,545
   (11 ) 110,025   (36 ) 381,351   (61 ) 738,907   (86 ) 1,227,574   (111) 1,837,834   (136) 2,620,670
   (12 ) 119,850   (37 ) 394,137   (62 ) 755,702   (87 ) 1,248,903   (112) 1,865,724   (137)
   (13 ) 129,800   (38 ) 407,113   (63 ) 772,720   (88 ) 1,270,477   (113) 1,893,543   (138) 2,691,067
   (14 ) 139,875   (39 ) 420,246   (64 ) 789,962   (89 ) 1,292,298   (114) 1,922,006   (139)
   (15 ) 149,632   (40 ) 433,596   (65 ) 807,429   (90 ) 1,314,367   (115) 1,950,877   (140)
   (16 ) 160,425   (41 ) 446,787   (66 ) 825,124   (91 ) 1,336,686   (116) 1,979,876   (141) 2,799,898
   (17 ) 170,675   (42 ) 459,536   (67 ) 843,048   (92 ) 1,359,256   (117) 2,009,219   (142)
   (18 ) 180,675   (43 ) 472,468   (68 ) 861,203   (93 ) 1,382,078   (118) 2,038,846   (143)
   (19 ) 190,175   (44 ) 485,585   (69 ) 879,590   (94 ) 1,405,153   (119) 2,068,590   (144)
   (20 ) 199,949   (45 ) 498,890   (70 ) 898,212   (95 ) 1,428,483   (120) 2,098,735   (145)
   (21 ) 210,130   (46 ) 512,384   (71 ) 917,212   (96 ) 1,452,070   (121) 2,129,037   (146)
   (22 ) 220,448   (47 ) 526,070   (72 ) 936,165   (97 ) 1,475,914   (122) 2,159,858   (147)
   (23 ) 230,911   (48 ) 539,950   (73 ) 955,500   (98 ) 1,500,017   (123) 2,190,970   (148)
   (24 ) 241,521   (49 ) 554,025   (74 ) 975,075   (99 ) 1,524,381   (124) 2,222,272   (149)
   (25 ) 252,283   (50 ) 568,298   (75 ) 994,893   (100) 1,549,006   (125) 2,253,444   (150)

* These are off by either one or zero. ** These are off by unknown numbers but closer then the former value was.

Evasion

Initial training cost: 84 exp. Note that you must train this to level 87 for 720 more exp to achieve an effect of 1.
Reduces the effectiveness of enemy plus-to-hit enchantments. e.g. An evasion effect of (20) would cause the plus-to-hit enchantment of a Dagger [4x1] (+20) to be reduced back down to (+0).
Evasion above an opponents' plus-to-hit (from weapon enchantments or Tattoo of Augmentation) will reduce dexterity-based chance-to-hit.
Gives a bonus to effective DX on defense equal to the evasion level.
Evasion is more effective during ranged combat: x1.5 during the first ranged round, x1.4 during the 2nd, x1.3 during the 3rd, x1.2 during the fourth round, and 1.1 during the last round.
With the Helm of Clearsight, these multipliers become: x1.5 during the first ranged round, x1.4 during the 2nd, x1.3 during the 3rd, x1.2 during the fourth round, 1.1 during the fifth round, and 1.1 during the last round.

Original stacking Changelog: [5]

Ranged rounds: The factors for the ranged rounds multiply the effect. For example, a level 1.5 million Evasion has an effect of 131. That translates into 305 in round one of ranged (These numbers will likely be different as multipliers have changed as of March 08). The defensive dexterity, long thought to NOT multiply by the factors, in fact, DOES (according to Jonathan). So, in round one, this equates to an effective defensive dexterity of 3.5 million plus any pre-existing dexterity.
Displacement Boots and Stacking: Think of the + on DB as being a certain Evasion effect. Since each effect has a certain level, DB at +131 have an Evasion "level" of 1.5 million, as stated above. That is the level that stacks with your learned Evasion, yielding some new effect. It can all be mapped out iteratively, it is just tedious. +192 DB (largest DB at the time of this writing) probably have an evasion level around 4 million or so. Adding that to the trained Evasion in the previous example would yield an evasion level of 1.5 million plus 4 million = 5.5 million. The resulting effect would be very roughly around 225. Note that the evasion level afforded by the boots does not confer any defensive DX, as you only get that from the real, trained evasion.

This is a spreadsheet Nightstrike has been so nice to put together: [6]

   Minimum Level per Effect
   ------------------------
   Initial effect/level:
   (0  ) 27

   (1  ) 41       (26 ) 36,157    (51 ) 166,733   (76 ) 414,916   (101) 793,937
   (2  ) 100      (27 ) 39,356    (52 ) 173,968   (77 ) 427,954   (102) 812,396
   (3  ) 209      (28 ) 42,735    (53 ) 181,415   (78 ) 441,248   (103) 831,127
   (4  ) 721      (29 ) 46,297    (54 ) 189,072   (79 ) 453,915   (104) 850,132
   (5  ) 1,121    (30 ) 50,044    (55 ) 196,944   (80 ) 466,736   (105) 869,411
   (6  ) 1,582    (31 ) 53,980    (56 ) 205,030   (81 ) 479,799   (106) 888,967
   (7  ) 2,163    (32 ) 58,109    (57 ) 213,335   (82 ) 493,105   (107) 908,800
   (8  ) 2,872    (33 ) 62,221    (58 ) 221,859   (83 ) 506,654   (108) 928,911
   (9  ) 3,639    (34 ) 66,365    (59 ) 230,604   (84 ) 520,450   (109) 949,303
   (10 ) 3,168**  (35 ) 70,694    (60 ) 239,572   (85 ) 534,492   (110) 969,976
   (11 ) 5,537    (36 ) 75,209    (61 ) 248,766   (86 ) 548,783   (111) 990,931
   (12 ) 6,696    (37 ) 79,914    (62 ) 258,187   (87 ) 563,324   (112) 1,012,170
   (13 ) 8,002    (38 ) 84,811    (63 ) 267,836   (88 ) 578,116   (113) 1,033,695
   (14 ) 9,328    (39 ) 89,903    (64 ) 277,717   (89 ) 593,161   (114) 1,055,505*
   (15 ) 10,786   (40 ) 95,192    (65 ) 287,829   (90 ) 608,460   (115) 1,077,604
   (16 ) 12,391   (41 ) 100,680   (66 ) 298,176   (91 ) 624,016   (116) 1,099,991
   (17 ) 14,150   (42 ) 106,370   (67 ) 308,759   (92 ) 639,828   (117) 1,122,668
   (18 ) 16,065   (43 ) 112,265   (68 ) 319,580   (93 ) 655,899   (118) 1,145,637
   (19 ) 18,143   (44 ) 118,366   (69 ) 330,640   (94 ) 672,229   (119) 1,168,898
   (20 ) 20,387   (45 ) 117,175** (70 ) 341,942   (95 ) 688,821   (120) 1,192,453
   (21 ) 22,732   (46 ) 131,199   (71 ) 353,487   (96 ) 705,676   (121) 1,215,391
   (22 ) 25,086   (47 ) 137,935   (72 ) 365,276   (97 ) 722,794   (122) 1,237,928
   (23 ) 27,601   (48 ) 144,887   (73 ) 377,312   (98 ) 740,178   (123) 1,260,743*
   (24 ) 30,283   (49 ) 152,058   (74 ) 389,596   (99 ) 757,829   (124) 1,283,835
   (25 ) 33,133   (50 ) 159,449   (75 ) 402,130   (100) 775,748   (125) 1,307,208