Skill is the most important factor in combat.
In Black Desert, the more you level up the more skills you can learn. Through defeating monsters and completing quests you’ll get enough skill experience to obtain all the skill points you require to learn all available skills.
However, keep in mind that when you’ve acquired a certain amount of skill points, it’ll become more difficult to earn additional points. The maximum number of skill points obtainable from defeating monsters and training at a dummy is 3,000 points. That said, one may exceed this number with the skill points acquired from quests and adventure journals.

Skill points needed for obtaining skills can be basically earned through battle.
You can also earn a small amount of skill experience through life skills, and some quests will reward you with skill experience, or directly with skill points.

There are several ways to learn skill points.

Note that, if you are able to learn skills, the crossed knife and shield icon will appear.
The number of skills that you can learn will be displayed.

Remember that all the locations of the skill instructors you’ve met will be displayed on the World Map screen (hotkey: M) with the same icon as the new skill available icon in the bottom part of the UI (below).

After level 56, when you complete the Awakening, Ascension (Archer), or Talent (Shai) quests through the Black Spirit, you will be able to learn skills that allow you to use a different weapon for stronger attacks.

If you want to continue with the same combat style you’ve been using up to Lv. 56, you can empower your previously existing skills after completing the Succession quests.

Awakening skills can only be acquired by completing the Awakening quests, and Succession skills can only be acquired by completing the Succession quests. Please note that, depending on the class, the order in which you complete these quests might be different.

If the phrase 'Can be added to a Quick Slot' isn’t there, it means the skill can be only used through command. In the example above, by pressing the walk backwards key (S) and the right mouse button (RMB) at the same time.

You can also use most of the skills on horseback.
In order to enable horseback combat, you must equip your horse with stirrups.
The commands for skills on horseback might be a little bit different from those on the ground, so it is useful to read the skill description.

Therefore, you need to check what kind of skills your character has and learn them more effectively. Through skill descriptions and videos you can learn which skill you need to focus on and finish your own skill tree.

In this window, you can view skill demos on the left, and the skills themselves on the right. 
Succession, Awakening, Talent, or Ascension skills can be accessed from the top-right of the screen once you’ve completed the respective classes’ corresponding quests. However, you can still view the main, awakening, and skill enhancement categories through ② regardless of whether or not you completed the quests.

On the skill demo screen, you can select the skill icon or press the playback button at the bottom of the skill demo screen to view a video demonstration of the skill.
You can also read the detailed skill description of the skill of your choice through the skill demo screen. Of course, you can also hover over the skill icon with your cursor to see the skill description.

If you don’t want to see the skill demo screen, you can toggle it on/off with the “Toggle Skill Demo Screen” button.

You can also playback the skill demos or reset the camera viewpoint with the “Play Skill Demo” and “Reset Camera” button at the bottom of the skill demo screen.

The skill window’s main weapon skills are divided into main, secondary, and passive skills. You can press each categories’ title bar to view or hide the skills in them.

Left-click a skill icon to learn the skill, and press Shift + Left-click on a skill icon to continuously learn up to the skill’s max level available.
Characters under lv. 56 can freely reset all learned skills, and you can reset an individual skill by right-clicking the skill icon or Shift + Right click it to reset the skill to level 1.

The “Black Spirit’s Rage” and “Skill Cooldown Slot” buttons on the lower-right part of the Skill window allow you to disable the application of black spirit’s rage for individual skills and set a skill to appear in the cooldown slots on your combat UI.

➤ Please check the [Black Spirit’s Rage] page for more information about this feature.

There’s a 10 minute cooldown time if you load a skill preset with a skill instructor, and a 1 hour cooldown time if you use a Secret Book of Old Moon. In addition, you can only load a skill preset at a safe zone when using a Secret Book of Old Moon.

Lastly, your character will perform an animation when loading a saved skill preset.

If you read the skill description, you can see that many skills have notations of additional effects. These effects enable you to continue the combat in a more convenient and stable manner.
For example, a skill with a 'Down Attack' can cause additional damage if you use it after knocking down the enemy. This is the same theory with damage increasing when you make a 'Back Attack' at the back of the enemy. So if you know what skill has which effect, you can cause even more damage using it in the best moment.

In addition to the effects increasing damage in certain situations, there is also a way to neutralize the enemy in various forms. You can stun your enemy so that it can’t do anything for a short period of time, or you can knock them down with the objective to apply a down attack on them. By combining these effects, you can defeat your enemies more efficiently.

The following indicates the skill effects available in Black Desert.

Note that, in the case of certain enemies, their basic state is being in the air or on the ground.
If you are aware of the nature of the enemy, you can be more effective when battling them.

Next is a list of the defensive effects skills can apply.

Effects	Descriptions
Invincibility	The target will not receive any damage, effects, buffs or heals by both enemies and allies.
Super Armor	The target receives damage, but it will not have CC applied  (However, grabs and debuffs get applied through this effect).
Forward Guard	The target blocks all damage and effects from the front.  (However, grabs get applied through this effect).  The target is still vulnerable to attacks and effects from behind. The Forward Guard also has a Guard Gauge that can be broken.

Finally, certain skills may also possess a damage increase modifier in the right situations. These are called special damage types.

Skill add-ons require you to be Lv. 50 or higher.

➤ Please check the [Skill Add-ons] page for more information about this feature.

Through the main menu (hotkey: Esc), when you go into Edit UI, you can turn on and off the action combo guide.

When you turn on the action combo guide, you can see the commands of the skills currently available in real time.

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* The content of the game guide may differ from the actual game content, depending on the update and content changes.