UO Second Age

So I'm at 100.0 Archery and 95.1 Tactics.

I figure, why waste arrows? So I start training Wrestling, figuring I'll hit more and more as my skill rises, and I'll begin to gain Tactics.

I gate a polar bear to fight, and beat on it for about 5 hours. Wrestling skill goes from 0.0 real to 51.0 real (55.5 displayed). Tactics doesn't budge at all.

Now I know the polar bear needs to be at somewhere near my character in Tactics, in order to gain skill. But the bear should be close, as it too was fighting another bear for 5 hours or so.

Anyone know why I wouldn't gain tactics like this?

The bear doesn't need the same amount of tactics. You won't gain any tactics until you get to around 85 wrestling on your character. Tactics will only gain when the weapon skill you are using is (roughly) as high as your tactics.

Nightshark is correct.

Interesting, never realized that, thanks!

Actually, gained my first .1 of Tactics at 63.9 Wrestling.

Not that it's going quickly... it's the only one I've seen so far... but sounds like it just has to be within 35 or so.

EDIT: starting to shoot up now, a full 1.0 gain at around 68 Wrestling. So it seems like the "sweet spot" for gains starts when they're within about 30 points of each other. Might still depend on the skill of the person/thing being attacked too, I dunno.