Active and Passive Skills
Active skills are manually triggered by the player and placed on the hotkey bar. They include attacks, buffs, debuffs, heals, and toggles (skills that remain active while costing mana per tick). Passive skills are always in effect once learned and do not need to be activated — they provide constant bonuses such as increased physical attack, improved evasion, or reduced cast speed. Some skills can be downgraded to a lower level before use to reduce their mana cost per activation, useful when mana resources are limited.
Learning and Leveling Skills
To learn a skill for the first time, the character must meet the minimum Job Level requirement listed on that skill, then spend the JP cost shown. Each skill can be leveled up to Lv 20 by spending additional JP on subsequent levels. Skills often have prerequisites — a lower-level skill in the same tree that must already be learned and usually raised to at least Lv 11 before the next skill in the chain becomes available. This creates natural progression paths within each job's skill tree. The JP cost per skill level grows significantly at higher levels, making decisions about which skills to prioritize an important part of character development.
Basic Skills Shared by All Characters
Every character in Rappelz has access to a set of basic skills regardless of race or job. These include fundamental combat actions and utility skills that remain usable throughout the entire game. Basic skills do not require Job Points to unlock; they are available from the start. Some advanced skills from later job tiers carry the same name as a basic skill but have higher maximum levels, requiring JP investment to surpass the basic version.
Hotkeys and Skill Cards
Active skills must be assigned to hotkey slots to use them quickly in combat. This is done through the skill window (Alt+S) by dragging the skill to the desired hotkey bar slot. Each skill can also benefit from a Skill Cards — a dropped item placed in the inventory that provides a passive bonus to that specific skill when equipped (double-clicking to activate the E mark). Skills can have their active level set lower than the learned maximum through the skill window, reducing mana cost at the expense of reduced effectiveness — a useful technique for mana management on long grinding sessions.