Bard Dual Wield Skill (Velious)
 

It appears as if every in-era reference to bard dual wield shows a cap of 245 at 60. (Rather than halting at 210 as we have currently.)

I tried searching these forums but I didn't find anything mentioned about this. Apologies if I missed something.

I tried to dig up archives close to where Blue is in the timeline. (But 245 appears in much older archives of these sites as well.)

1. http://web.archive.org/web/200110292...com/skills.asp EQDIVA Oct 29 2001 Archive shows 245 Dual Wield
2. http://web.archive.org/web/200110210...BardSkills.htm EQSONGS Oct 21 2001 Archive shows 245 Dual Wield.

Have tried to determine when it might have been boosted to 245, but I haven't been completely, 100% successful.

I did dig up a few more things:

1. http://web.archive.org/web/200004110...per/skills.htmThe Concert Hall Skills Page (Pre Kunark) shows many of the combat skills at 200, with a caveat that they're assumptions/unproven.
2. http://web.archive.org/web/200008221...per/skills.htmThe Concert Hall Skills Page (Mid Kunark) mostly matches our wiki Pre Feb 2001, except it shows Dual Wield at 225, suggesting it was a Kunark feature or close-to-Kunark patch change to boost Dual Wield to 225 at 60
3. http://web.archive.org/web/200208200...99047220677943 Allakhazam comment from May 2001 suggesting 225 Dual Wield Cap, however, this comment is undermined by having an incorrect value for Defense, which we know was boosted in Feb 2001.
4. http://web.archive.org/web/200103310...:80/skills.asp The earliest EQ Diva Skill Page Archive from March 2001 matches our wiki's Feb 2001 values, except it shows Dual Wield at 245 and Piercing at 225 (also, if you peruse the later archives, it seems like this higher Dual Wield is achieved pretty early in level, rather than taking until 60 to max). The EQ Diva's listed skill caps for Piercing, 1hb, etc also seem to boost appropriately in line with the Oct 2001 patch, making this information look more credible.

I think -- and would welcome more help if anyone has it -- that dual wield is boosted at Kunark to 225 -- and 245 at Velious. I'm unsure at what level these caps were hit, but they may have capped before 60.

Only the upstairs Freeport trainer should teach dual wield for bards.

Source: i’m 60% sure from memory.

I think there may have been a misunderstanding haha.

I think I found the answer in the eq-bards email list:

https://github.com/dbsanfte/eq-archi...tml/24314.html

The patch he is referring to is the Feb 21st 2001 melee rebalancing patch that tinkered with skill levels.

nice find!

I couldn't find anything else related to whether the skill went to 225 before the 245 bump.

Seems like a reasonable compromise until/unless something better were to come along would be:

• 210 Dual Wield Skill until Feb 21st 2001 Patch
• 245 Dual Wield Skill after Feb 21st 2001 Patch

Bump.

I realize that this issue is pretty minor all things considered (it affects bard melee dps, slightly, which isn't exactly remarkable).

But I feel kind of attached to this issue since it is the first obvious inconsistency that I've ever found via wayback pages.

So if anyone has anything else, feel free to add. I'd love to know for sure the exact timeline, but seems like the only thing we're mostly sure of is the jump to 245 date.

Bard Dual Wield cap will increase to 245 with the February 2001 patch.

Fixed, pending update.