Talent level vs. effective talent level

[Shaidyn]

Hi there,

I have a character with the Heightened Senses talent.

I put two talent points into it, giving it a talent level of 2 and an effective talent level of 2.

I just finished an escort quest that improved it. It now has a talent level of 2 and an effective talent level of 3.

The talent text says "At level 3, you learn to disarm known traps." But, with an effective talent level of 3, I didn't get an activatable ability to disarm traps. My dumb question is, what does effective talent level three do for me, when my talent functions effectively as if it were level 2. >.>

[Danton]

Effective talent level is raw talent level * category multiplier. The game doesn't usually distinguish between points you put in yourself and points you get from an escort.

As for Heightened Senses itself, talent level improves the effectiveness of both trap detection and disarming (once you're at 3+). I think the disarming happens automatically when you walk over a trap, but it's been age since I've actually used the thing so I'm not 100% sure of that.

[QuovTsin]

Danton is correct. The disarming does happen automatically when you step on traps.

[Radon26]

and i am going to ask how did that happen?
i don't think escorts can upgrade your categories, and certainly the don't improve it by 0.5
and if you pick a point from them, that also should increase base, rather than just effective, so how?

[Shaidyn]

and i am going to ask how did that happen?
i don't think escorts can upgrade your categories, and certainly the don't improve it by 0.5
and if you pick a point from them, that also should increase base, rather than just effective, so how?

http://imgur.com/eGVJv8g

Maybe I'm misinterpretting the text, but this is what's displayed on my character.

Thanks for the replies, it didn't even occur to me that disarming would be automatic.

[Radon26]

... the "lvl2 [>3]", means that your current base talent lvl requires lvl 2 (which you have), and and to put next point you need to be lvl 3.

under the icon of the talent, you have "3/5" meaning you have invested 3 point, out of possible 5.
the "effective talent level: 3[>4]" means that your current effective talent lvl is 3, and if you invest another point, it will be 4.

whenever you see number-openssquarebracket-arrow-number-closesquarebracket (x[>y]), it means the current value (x), will change when you invest another point (to y).

[Lichtbringer]

So what I got from the answers is that effective talentlevel 5 should have the effects from talent level 5?

But when I have my Trap on level 4, with x1.30 which makes it 5,2 I didn't seem to get the level 5 Trap. Does it not work for active abilitys?

[Radon26]

certain talents works of "points invested", but there is no "active talents" rule like that, and they are bit rare i believe.
if its a "new" effect, you may expect it to be off points invested, but if its just an upgrade to already existing one, its should be effective talent lvl

[Danton]

So what I got from the answers is that effective talentlevel 5 should have the effects from talent level 5?

But when I have my Trap on level 4, with x1.30 which makes it 5,2 I didn't seem to get the level 5 Trap. Does it not work for active abilitys?

Yeah, trap mastery's trap type section calls getTalentLevelRaw, which ignores the multiplier. This is very rare (the only other talent I'm aware of that works this way is stone alchemy's extract/attach gem ones). The vast majority of talents (including how difficult those traps are to detect/disarm) will include the multiplier in their math.