Talk:Useless Skill

It's all well and good to say Forensic Eval is used by "some quests", but which ones? The council massacre is no longer running, and didn't actually require you to have any points in the skill anyway. - Bomb Bloke 06:51, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

I think it should be moved back to Useless, temporary quests and such shouldn't count, the page is meant to addresse overall everday gameplay. Additionally, I still have my reservations about Herding. *Can* it be used as an offensive, useful skill? Perhaps... but one could also use that stretch of logic to say Cooking is not useless because you can bake 20 loaves of bread in a pinch to obscure a doorway in a dungeon or hide the skull candle status of a champion altar. --Tancred RedStar 13:55, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

Request for Comments on Removal

After some consideration spurred by seeing a lot of talk on UOForums about Herding recently, I think we should get rid of this page and all links to it. I have multiple reasons in mind for this:

Part of discovering UO and the ensuing fun is figuring out what a player "needs" and not be directed.
UOGuide is supposed to be a (mostly) objective information resource
Creating such a topic or classification is purely subjective and even the few skills included have varying degrees of acceptance of such a classification
Game mechanics can and do change over time.
There are loads of other places for advice and opinion(sometimes downright zealous) whereas UOGuide is the facts, sometimes seasoned with a sprinkling of insight or tips.

On the other hand, some of the accrued information here should be kept, perhaps elsewhere on the topic pages they reference. Knowing Arms Lore used to be a waste but is all but required now for a dedicated smith should be kept in the historical record somewhere/how.

If there is no alternative consensus or comment after 1 week's time, I will make changes to the effect of the above.

--Tancred RedStar 20:57, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

There was some discussion as to whether the link should be removed from the primary Skills page, but apparently no one felt strongly enough to actually make any changes.

Can't work out whether we should keep it or not though. I get the impression people are a lot more likely to explain the purpose of a given skill if we do; after all, this page is probably what sparked all that herding discussion you mentioned (in fact that skill only lasted a single day here before being removed).

The "learn for yourself" line hardly applies in that we also, for example, tell people with the Swordsmanship skill to take up Tactics.

Wait... no we don't... I should really go fix that...

- Bomb Bloke 01:34, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

I consider UOGuide more of a collection of all UO information, not just the facts. So this will allow guides, screenshots and other stuff to be posted on here without debating whether it is important enough to be here. If it is UO information, then it is allowed. As for `Useless Skills`, this is certainly a topic about UO and a lot of people view certain skills as being useless. Since this is not the section of another page but a separate one entirely, I don't see a reason it should not exist. Just make sure you have the proper wording such as "There are some skills in the game that players consider worthless, they are...". - JC the Builder 03:09, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps this page should be an exposition on what players' views have historically been concerning the utility and efficacy of certain skills?

--Cogniac 08:44, 28 December 2008 (UTC)