JALIA - i took a lot of the updated info from her. thanks for keeping the post accurate Jalia!

- Jalia's blurb on pike condition -

(even 495/495 is good enough for the life of a DOT weapon. its fthe DAMAGE PIKES that need high condition for weeks of battles)

In general, people remain quite unsure of just how effective different repair methods, tricks, superstitions, and skill mods are at helping a successful repair.  One would assume naturally that a 99% tool would help but again, no solid, conclusive, reinforced evidence has been given and cofirmed regarding this. Personally, my own technique involves waiting til the weapon is below 25% condition...To me it is a GIANT WASTE to repair a pike which is at 400/750 condition.   I firmly believe that I have had the same approximate degree of luck as anyone else, and I get to use my pikes far longer than people who jump to repair at 50%

(I have had numerous 'Minor Blemishes' 712/712 and getting 600/600 condition seems to be the norm, occasionally I get a 495/495 but as yet I have only failed once in months)  There almost seems to be a 'random number seed' each character might be given at login, I have had days where many reapirs go very well, and days where they all went badly.  (I have been known to practice-repair some junk items first on any given day to see if 'my luck' for the day was good or bad....there do seem to be trends)

Mostly those are just my tricks/superstitions.....but there are some things that many people have found helpfull as well...

Some SHARED/COMMON TRICKS to try:

1) BATTLE FATIGUE SHOULD BE 0 (who knows how badly health mods affect repair rolls, heal wounds too, just to be safe)

2) SIT DOWN (again, nothing conclusive, but you heal faster sitting, it CAN affect other variables to be safe, besides, immersion-wise it makes sense)

3) GET DRUNK (Ok that sounds odd, but any food/drink combos that boost your MIND, FOCUS, AND WILLPOWER, may potentially have an effect)

BOTTOM LINES : Condition is critical on looted pikes BUT differently depending on usage. Low condition is OK for DOT but not for DAMAGE.

Repair remains mysterious but with some simple and general precautions such as BF and posture (sitting) you should have decent success

People dont like buying weapons they have to GAMBLE ON (ie: repair themselves), if the condition is low enough, repair it PRE-SALE.

Mods ONLY MATTER IF the weapon is useful for fighting with with the notable exception of decent nerrain negotiation (10+). Even if the mods are great but the stats on the weapon are terrible, then the weapon is junk because no one would use it just for the mods (except terrain negotiation). Mods are icing on the cake. and i will eat that cake if i ever see a +crafting mod on a looted weapon

WORK

Block - this is used by pikemen, obviously the higher the better

Polearm Accuracy/Polearm Speed - obviously the meat and potato's of the pikeman profession. Also keep in mind that +accuracy and +speed mods will help balance out any poor potency/weapon speed/uses. a master pikeman speed maxes at approx 90 with a 5.0 LVA.

Def VS *whatever* - until they find out a mod that no one has ever heard of (Def Vs. DiscoDancing for example) all these are valid. if you have a great lance with def vs dizzy or def vs knockdown you are likely to get much much more due to the fact these two DefVs. are critical in PvP

DO NOT WORK

Polearm Counterattack - does not have any obvious working properties. if it does help you defend against other pikemen its unknown at this time.

Polearm Damage - does not work, only TKA's have a +damage mod that works. for argument sakes lets assume it works. the only +polearm damage that would be worth your time would be a +15 to a +25 (since it caps at +25 for clothing/armor/weapon mods)

As far as I know ANY looted ITEM with multiple mods will have all mods functional.