Arms Lore
Arms Lore
Arms Lore is one of UO's combat-craft skills — historically used to assess weapon and armor condition, now repurposed (since Publish 44, April 2007) as a passive bonus to exceptionally crafted weapons and armor. A grandmaster Arms Lore character grants their crafted weapons +5% Damage Increase and their crafted armor +5% in a random resistance, applied alongside Runic Tool bonuses. On Siege Perilous the bonus scales harder — +8% at GM. The skill is passively trained by every weapon-or-armor crafter and actively useful by any smith / tailor / fletcher / carpenter / tinker who wants their exceptional crafts to carry meaningful PvP / PvE upgrades.
Until Age of Shadows (2003), Arms Lore was also required to perform the Wrestling special moves Stun and Disarm; that requirement was dropped, and the skill drifted into "Useless" status until Pub44 restored its relevance.
Professional details
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Maximum skill | 100.0 |
| Professional Title | Warrior |
| NPC Trainers | Armorer, Blacksmith, Blacksmith Guildmaster, Weaponsmith, Weapons Trainer, Fighter, Warrior, Mercenary, Paladin, Merchant Guildmaster, Warrior Guildmaster |
The crafting bonuses (Publish 44, April 2007)
The modern role of Arms Lore is +1% per 20 skill points to either Damage Increase (on exceptionally-crafted weapons) or a random resistance (on exceptionally-crafted armor):
| Skill | Standard Shard bonus | Siege Perilous bonus |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0% | 0% |
| 20 | +1% | +1.6% |
| 40 | +2% | +3.2% |
| 60 | +3% | +4.8% |
| 80 | +4% | +6.4% |
| 100 (GM) | +5% | +8% |
Standard shards: +1% per 20 skill, capped at +5% at GM. Siege Perilous: +1% per 12.5 skill, capped at +8% at GM.
Scope
- Bonus applies to all crafted weapons (metal, wood, ranged) and all crafted armor (leather, metal, wood).
- Bonus stacks with Runic Tool properties — a Valorite-Runic exceptional weapon crafted by a GM Arms Lore smith carries the Runic properties plus the +5% DI.
- Bonus does NOT apply to:
- Shields (they are not weapons)
- Ammunition (arrows, bolts)
- Imbued items (Imbuing is a separate property pool)
The +5% DI is comparable to a Slayer property in damage value — making Arms Lore a serious skill for weapon crafters.
Active use — assessing items
To use Arms Lore: macro, gump-icon, or click the blue button next to the skill in the Skill Gump. Cursor and prompt: "What item do you wish to get information about?" — target a weapon or piece of armor.
| Outcome | Message |
|---|---|
| Failure | "You are not certain..." |
| Success | "You study the item in an attempt to learn more about its craftsmanship and use." |
In modern UO, the skill check provides a chance to gain — the actual durability/effectiveness information is now visible on the item tooltip, making the active-use display redundant. Pre-AoS, Arms Lore was the only way to read these values.
Pre-AoS condition assessments (historical record)
These tables show what Arms Lore used to display before Age of Shadows replaced the system with item-tooltip percentages.
Durability
| Condition | Assessment |
|---|---|
| 100% | Brand new |
| 90% | Almost new |
| 80% | Barely used, with a few nicks and scrapes |
| 70% | Fairly good condition |
| 60% | Suffered some wear and tear |
| 50% | Well used |
| 40% | Rather battered |
| 30% | Somewhat badly damaged |
| 20% | Flimsy and not trustworthy |
| 10% | Falling apart |
Armor effectiveness
| Armor Rating | Assessment |
|---|---|
| 31+ | "Is superbly crafted to provide maximum protection" |
| 26–30 | "Offers excellent protection" |
| 21–25 | "Is a superior defense against attack" |
| 16–20 | "Serves as sturdy protection" |
| 11–15 | "Offers some protection against blows" |
| 6–10 | "Provides very little protection" |
| 1–5 | "Provides almost no protection" |
| 0 | "Offers no defense against attackers" |
Weapon effectiveness
| Average Damage | Assessment |
|---|---|
| 26+ | "Would be extraordinarily deadly" |
| 21–25 | "Would be a superior weapon" |
| 16–20 | "Would inflict serious damage and pain" |
| 11–15 | "Likely hurt opponent a fair amount" |
| 6–10 | "Would do some damage" |
| 3–5 | "Would do minimal damage" |
| 0–2 | "Might scratch their opponent slightly" |
Training
Active method
There is no accelerated skillgain quest for Arms Lore.
| Range | Method |
|---|---|
| 0 → 30 | NPC Blacksmith, Armorer, or Warrior Guildmaster. |
| 30 → 100 | Active use. Roughly 25 hours wall-time to reach 100.0 if untrained otherwise. The skill check has a chance to gain on every use — you do not need to switch your target or move around (no anti-macro lockout on Arms Lore active-use). |
Acceleration: - Scroll of Alacrity (any vendor / Britannia event-store) cuts training time substantially. - Satyr Discordance in Twisted Weald (-30% lower skills, -30% increased gain rate) speeds gain further.
Practical Razor / Pinco's macro: create ~200 daggers (Blacksmithy/Tinkering output), secure them in your house, drag them out near you, and create a macro that uses Arms Lore on a dagger by type (right-click "Absolute Target" → "Target by Type"). The macro picks any dagger from the stack each cycle.
Passive method
Arms Lore passively gains when constructing weapons or armor with one of these crafting skills:
Not eligible for passive gain: - Shields (they're armor, but not weapons-or-armor in the Arms Lore sense — the skill explicitly excludes them) - Ammunition (arrows, bolts)
A Blacksmith / Tailor / Bowyer training their craft from 50 → GM will passively bring Arms Lore up alongside the craft skill, with no extra inputs required. Many craft trainers reach GM Arms Lore "for free" by the time their primary skill is GM.
History
Arms Lore was a launch skill. Its original role:
- Pre-AoS: revealed weapon/armor properties (durability text, AR text, damage text). Required for Wrestling Stun and Wrestling Disarm special moves.
- Age of Shadows (2003): Wrestling-special-move requirement dropped. Properties became visible via tooltip. Skill became "Useless."
- Publish 44 (April 2007): Crafting bonus introduced (+1%/20 skill DI on weapons, +1%/20 skill random resist on armor). Skill rejoined active templates.
- Time Lord events (2008–2009): the Time Lord could grant permanent skill increases in Arms Lore (and Blacksmithy) at Blackrock Detector rifts during the Mad Mage event — the only documented case of NPC-granted permanent skill outside of standard quest rewards.
See also
- Blacksmithy · Tailoring · Carpentry · Tinkering · Bowcraft — passive-gain partners
- Item_Identification — paired Useless Skill, both made obsolete by AoS tooltips
- Imbuing — alternative weapon-property path
- Time_Lord — granted permanent Arms Lore at Blackrock rifts
- Twisted_Weald — Satyr Discordance training site
- Siege_Perilous — increased Arms Lore bonus shard
- Power_Scrolls — does NOT apply to Arms Lore (caps at 100)