Weapon Mastery
Every weapon type keeps its own record of what you have done with it. Where talents are chosen, mastery is simply earned — you cannot buy it, respec it or skip it.
Win a fight with a weapon in hand and that weapon type gains mastery XP. Every path counts: expeditions, dungeons and live raid rooms. A weapon far below your level pays less. There are 21 separate tracks — one per weapon type, starter weapons included — and they never share progress: switching from a gladius to a mace starts the mace at nothing.
The ranks
| Rank | Title | Requires |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tiro | 25 XP |
| 2 | Miles | 100 XP |
| 3 | Veteranus | 300 XP |
| 4 | Evocatus | 700 XP |
| 5 | Primus Pilus | 1,500 XP |
| 6 | Praefectus | 4,000 XP |
| 7 | Tribunus | 10,000 XP |
| 8 | Legatus | 25,000 XP |
| 9 | Dux | 80,000 XP |
| 10 | Magister Militum | 200,000 XP |
What each rank grants depends on the weapon's character — a balanced weapon, a precise one and a heavy one climb different channels. A balanced weapon at rank 10 is carrying +1% critical chance, +1 to hit, +3 damage on every strike, +2% damage. The bonuses are deliberately small: mastery is meant to be a key, not a power curve.
What it unlocks
- Sockets. Reach rank 3 with a weapon type and the Ossuary will fit a socket to that weapon for 180 Crypt Marks. Prying a stone back out costs 60.
- The Opus recipes. 18 master weapons, one per type, at item level 50 and never worse than rare. Each needs profession skill 80 and mastery rank 5 with that exact weapon. You cannot forge a master's bow until you have been a master with a bow.
- The Magnum recipes. 21 named uniques above the Opus tier — profession skill 90, mastery rank 5, and a pattern that only the Avernal Throne or Ladon drops. Never worse than legendary, and bound on craft: it can never be sold or listed. Carrying one says where you have been.
The Magnum tier
Skill and mastery you can train alone. The pattern you cannot — it drops from a boss, and it arrives already pointed at what you are carrying: the raid reads your weapon, Ladon reads your armour class. There is no wrong-weapon pattern to be disappointed by. What is uncertain is whether it comes, not which one.
Two rolls per kill, and they are independent, so you never know which lands first. The Avernal Throne pays a pattern 25% of clears and catalysts 60%; Ladon pays 15% and 60%. A second copy of a pattern you already know is not wasted — it becomes 2 catalysts.
The raid's two rolls scale with the same daily lockout that governs experience and loot, so the figures above are a first clear of the day. Ladon's do not: he is a once-a-day server event, so there are no repeat kills for a lockout to scale down. Either way the pace works out at roughly a week and a half for a weapon and three weeks for a full armour set. Full drop tables live on Ladon and each raid's own page.
A magnum weapon shares its base weapon's mastery track. Forging Emberedge does not send you back to rank 0 with a gladius in hand.
The stones
Sockets are bought with dungeon marks; the stones that fill them drop in raids, one per raid. They sit on different channels, so the best stone is the one your build wants rather than the newest one.
| Stone | Effect |
|---|---|
| Legion Garnet Cut from the standard of a century that never broke. |
+3 damage on every strike |
| Drowned Sapphire Pressure-clear, from where the black water keeps its dead. |
+3% critical chance |
| Avernal Onyx Shade-fire cooled to stone at the throne itself. |
Ignores a further 4% of enemy armor |
| Moonstone of Mona Cut from the grove floor, where the ash still refuses to settle. |
+3 to hit |
| Eye of Sobek Cut from the flooded hall floor, still wet in the socket a thousand years after the river left. |
+2% damage |
Mastery, the weapon's own character and a fitted stone all push the same combat channels, and those channels are capped. Stacking all three is worth it — but it will not take you past the ceiling described in Combat.