New Skill Chain GuideFollow

Ok, I am not looking for a guide, I am building one, but before I can finish I need some really high level complex questions answered. I will explain more about my guide below. Note, I don't use the term Renkei, I have no idea what exactly it means, and it seems people use it to refer to both Skill Chains, and the actual effects that result. Since my guide will be highly intellectual, percision will be essential, thus I use the terms Skill Chain and Effect.

1) First, I need confirmation when combining multi-elemental weapon skills, there is a order of priority to the elements, like this:
- Fire/Ice > Water > Light/Dark > Earth > Wind > Lightning
For example in Red Lotus Blade, Fire will combine before Wind so that you get a Liquefication Effect rather then a Impaction effect when it follows a Fast Blade.

2) Assuming that, does this order also apply to the effects?

Example: Daring Arrow (Fire/Light) -> Sturmwind(Water/Earth)
Since the highest priority elements, Fire into Water, do not create an effect, one of the lower priority elements must combine with a higher priority element to create an effect, but which one:
- Fire -> Earth = Scission effect
- Light -> Water = Reverberation effect
I am guessing it is the first, since it is an earth based effect, and earth takes priority over water. I highly doubt it is: Light -> Earth = Distortion effect, since that is two low priority elements, even though that is a Level 2 Effect.

3) If a dual element weapon skill has the same element as the initiating element, does this have any effect on the skill chain? As in this example were the Frost Bite's Ice element combines with the Shadow of Death's Water element:
- Frost Bite (Ice) -> Shadow of Death (Ice/Water) = Fragmentation (Lightning/Wind)?

4) With Level 2 Skill Chains, is a level 2 effect always the end of a chain unless progressing to level 3, or can you chain from a level 2 skill to create yet another Level 2 effect? As in this example where the Fragementation's Wind element and the Once Inch Punch's Dark element would create another level 2 effect:
- Frost Bite (Ice) -> Shadow of Death (Ice/Water) = Fragmentation (Lightning/Wind) -> One Inch Punch (Dark) = Gravitation (Dark/Earth)

5) Next a question for Triple Elemental Weapon Skills, I pretty sure of the answer on, the only three I know of are:
- Spinning Axe (Fire/Earth/Lightning)
- Sidewinder (Water/Light/Wind)
- Slug Shot (Water/Light/Wind)
Can these tri-elemental skills be used for just two elements to create Level 3 effects, say like Sidewinder and Spining Axe to make a Light Effect?

Finally, some questions on research data:
6) Where can I find a list of all the weapon skills WITH their elements. I went through the chart and got most of the elements, but some are either not included, or seem to have some form of other element, specifically the highest level skills.

7) I also can't find Star Light and Moon Light, do these not have elements at all?

The Guide
My guide will be focused toward the theory of skill-chains and their effect, rather then using clunky lists or confusing charts, by understanding the theory one only needs to know what elements are being used to set up any skill chain. Some people may find it far to confusing, but I myself find the charts to be difficult and cumbersome. It will be a detailed tutorial based on the information I have gleaned from the Recent Vana'diel Tribune Article and augmented/confirmed by various charts I have found.

2) -- The hierarchy model is 1/1 > 1/2 > 2/1 > 2/2.
In your example, the execution of Daring Arrow would attempt to first find a link from the "Fire box" to the second executed Weapon Skill; in this case, Sturmwind in the "Earth box", creating the Scission effect. Had you executed a Weapon skill like Blade: Teki, the first check (for Scission or Fusion) would have failed, and the hierarchy would then continue to check from the "Light box" to create Reverberation (a 2/1 combination).

3) Frost Bite - Shadow of Death does indeed execute Fragmentation; once a Weapon Skill is activated, it checks along the link paths to see if the second Weapon Skill belongs to any of the adjacent "boxes".

4) The only way to continue a level 2 Skillchain is to use Weapon Skills with level 2 Attributes, ie 225 Weapon Skills.

5) Spinning Axe, Sidewinder, and Slug Shot cannot be used to create level 3 effects.

Arctyc: To expand on your answer to question 4, is the result of the Level 2 Effect and one of these higher level weapon skills a level 3 effect, or are they special in some way producing Level 2 Effects? I did notice these 225+ skills on this chart here, but there was no clear indication of their elements. From what I saw it appears that a Distortion Effect followed by Swift Blade will create a Gravitation effect?, or is this chart misinformaed and Swift Blade is Dark/Earth and following the Distortion Effect (Ice/Water) creates a Level 3 Dark Effect?

LYSOLwarrior: Thanks, but I have already seen that chart, it was the one I got most of my elemental notes from.

Edited, Fri Jan 16 20:23:46 2004 by Ralluwen

Just clarifying that it is not "my" chart. Someone else made it.



Edited, Fri Jan 16 20:38:20 2004 by Ralluwen

thanks notcoach, actually the link you provided wasn't what helped, but the link on that website to a chart of weapon skills.

I have a further question, can Level 3 skills only be made by those higher level weapon skills that have Level 2 Skills built into them, or can you use say Shadow of Death (Ice/Water) after a Gravitation (Dark/Earth) effect to get a Level 3 Dark Effect.

Edited, Fri Jan 16 22:16:40 2004 by Ralluwen