When you buy commodities from a gnome trading ship (i.e. diamonuts, rock, glass, silk, etc.), do they decay in your aetherhold like dust does?

No, but unlike dust or particles, if you implode they can't be recovered.

Someone mentioned in another thread that strength doesn't affect warrior bashing damage much at all. Is this true? I'm tossing up whether to go for Strength in Athletics or Wheedling in Influence.

Don't think that's true. If I flex and and bond bear it definately takes less blows to down a kephera.

Speaking of bashing damage, I often wonder why it took me four uses of MinorSecond to kill a Glomdorian ooze at character level 50 with 300 lessons in Music/Shadowbeat and 0 in Dramatics (as well as fewer buffs overall), and why it still takes me four uses to kill one at character level 70 with trans Music/Shadowbeat and 1,000 lessons in Dramatics. Critical rate has improved, naturally, but that's been the only noticeable difference.

Perhaps I was just barely killing them with four uses back then, and now I can almost-but-not-quite kill them in three? Perhaps trans Dramatics and maybe a stat increase or two would tip the balance?

It's impossible to be sure.

Yeah, tests with mobs aren't really accurate enough to really see. You'd have to test on a player, then the same player with the same buffs to really see the difference.

Yeah strength definitely plays a factor. Whoever said that is insane.

Is your instrument maestro'd and bonded?

You also shouldn't greatly overestimate the damage bonus from lessons. Even if it's 25% (<-- this number is a lie and probably too high for bards), you only get an extra 8% for trans dramatics.

What cures "clamped on the left arm by a hound's jaws."?
EDIT: Nevermind, found the problem!

Writhe.

WRITHE

Writhe my good friend, you must shake off the shackles that bind you!

It's long ago been mastered and bonded, yes, even before I hit level 50.

If you have a hack down slithtroat maneuver for example, is there a chance of the hack down hitting the chest (and therefore doing nothing?)

Oh very much so.

So maneuvers give you a boost to wounding... why don't you just make a hack down maneuver that has every wound in it? Or does the boost decrease as you add more wounds? Or are maneuvers slower?

Maneuvers don't actually boost wounding. It's a poorly worded skill entry.

No no and no. Maneuvers simply let you say 'I want to ignore these afflictions on my attack.' Whenever you attack, a dice is rolled to determine what level of wound affliction is applied. So, let us say I have a sweep maneuver with knockdown and amputateleg. The person in target is at critical wounds, when I attack, the dice are rolled. If my dice get anything below the critical needed for amputate, it gives me knockdown instead of kneecap or whatever. Maneuvers just let you remove afflictions you don't want from your attacks.

Aaah, good to know. So since I'm not using furrowbrow much at the moment, I could make a really big maneuver for both head and chest wounds that takes that single one out?