Skills are unique abilities granted by Stances. Each Stance has it's own set of 3 to 5 skills, all of which are capable of "leveling" individually, but in a different way from Character Levels and Stance Levels (see below). Each skill has a maximum level of 10 (displayed as "Master" when reached), but can be pushed past this limit using Rings and certain Weapons, making the maximum level technically 13 or 14.
Some skills gain additional benefits from being raised above 10, like Insistendo, which begins increasing ATK Rating at level 11, in addition to a longer duration and a higher ATK bonus.
Types[]
There are many different types of skills, even just Area of Effect skills.
- AoE (self): "Self" doesn't mean the user is affected, it means they are the center of the AoE. No targeting necessary.
- AoE (selected): Selected AoEs mean when you activate the skill, you always get to choose where to use it.
- AoE (targeted): Targeted AoEs are tricky. If the caster has a target when you activate the skill, that target will be the center of the AoE. If the caster does NOT have a target, it acts like a Selected AoE. Additionally, if the caster had a target and began casting the skill, but the target died before the casting was finished, the AoE skill will not be cast.
Leveling Skills[]
Every time you level up your Stance, you gain a certain number of skill points to spend on that Stance's skills. The amount of points you receive increases as you reach higher levels. At Stance Level 25 (max), you will have earned a total of 79 skill points to spend. For most stances, this will be enough to Master all skills. The only time this will not be enough is if the Stance has 5 skills, which will leave you at least 2 points shy of Mastering all of them.
Skills are learned at different Stance Levels. Typically, the first skill is learned immediately (there are exceptions), and the last skill is learned at Stance Level 16. The amount of skill points required to level a skill depends on a few things, though. It usually breaks down like below:
- Stance Level 1 skill requires 1 skill point per level
- Stance Level 4 skill requires 1 skill point per level
- Stance Level 8 skill requires 2 skill points per level
- Stance Level 12 skill requires 2 skill points per level
- Stance Level 16 skill requires 3 skill points per level
Stances with 3 skills will normally have one skill that requires 1 point, one skill that requires 2 points, and one skill that requires 3 points, making the required Skill Points for Mastering all of them an easily attainable 54 points.
Stances with 4 skills will normally have one skill that requires 1 point, two skills that require 2 points, and one skill that requires 3 points, making the required Skill Points for Mastering all of them an attainable 72 points.
One thing to keep in mind is that if you have two Stances that share a skill, leveling that skill in one stance will level the skill in the other stance, freeing up extra Skill Points in the latter. The best example of this is 
Freestyle Shot and 
Double-Gun Shot, both of which can be learned by the Fighter and Musketeer classes. Freestyle Shot's first skill is 
Westraid, one of three skills total. Double-Gun Shot's first skill is also Westraid, one of four skills total. Since learning Double-Gun Shot requires a few levels in Freestyle Shot anyways, there's no reason not to Master the skill in Freestyle Shot first, then quickly Master the remaining three skills in Double-Gun Shot.