Skills

Skills are a player's trainable abilities that may be leveled throughout their game play. Any given skill can be trained by various actions, called leveling weights that relate to the skill. Performing any of these various actions grants the player experience in that skill with some actions granting more than others. The combination of the skills you choose to practice determines your Class or Role. While all the combative skills generally compliment other combat skills, some compliment artisan and gathering skills. For example, Subtlety will make it easier to achieve a high level in Thievery, Hunting will make it easier to find and procure food and ingredients for Cooking, and Strength will allow you to chop down bigger trees at a much faster pace for Woodcutting and Woodworking.

Skills are divided into Tiers with each Tier consisting of 99 levels. All skills start out on the first level of Tier 1. While reaching the next tier is the most important part to leveling your skills, there are still Milestones within each tier that enhance your ability. Every 10 levels within any tier of any combative skill, 1 level is added to your Combat Level with the maximum being level 100. Combat level does not provide any statistical benefits to the player but is simply a number calculated from their skill levels to show other players and monsters roughly how difficult they might be to defeat.

Skill levels are not permanent. Once you have reached your maximum combat level, your experience can deteriorate when you perform actions that contradict what you usually do. In other words, you can't have every skill maxed out at the same time. For example, you can master Strength and bring Agility to a high level as well, but if you also want to level your Defense, one of your skills will have to be sacrificed and begin deteriorating as your new skill begins to level up instead. The positive side to this mechanic is that it will allow you to easily transition between different play-styles and change your class whenever you feel like trying something new, rather than making a new character.

However, this doesn't mean you should be afraid to joke around and disrespect other players by killing them with low-level weapons and play-styles you have no experience with from time to time as there's a decent grace period before a high level skill will begin to deteriorate. There's nothing that hurts a player's pride more than fighting a master archer only to have him kill you with his crude bronze great-axe and I support this unpleasant behavior 100%.

Skills
These skills most heavily influence your combat and play-style.

Sorcery
Elemental magic is unique in that it can be enchanted to armor and/or weapons to enhance their capabilities.

Fire > Wind

Wind > Earth

Earth > Lightning

Lightning > Water

Water > Fire

Advanced magic that goes beyond the basics of the elements and calls forth powers that are less understood.