Do mage weapons affect weapon skill?

Rock

I have a character with a huge disparity between his Swordsmanship (106) and Tactics (79).  Years ago I was told that he could lower his effective swordsmanship with a sword mage weapon at -25 skill.  I hope this is (still?) true so he can hunt foes optimal for his Tactics level to raise that efficiently. I searched at uo.com, uoguide.com and Stratics, but could not verify this.

If this is not true, how can he efficiently get his Tactics up?

Yes, I know the main reason mage weapons exist is to effectively give them a melee skill at so many points below their magery skill.  I was told the effect was also tied to weapon skill as well, so that fighters could get the same sort of training boost that mages do.

Petra_Fyde

I have never heard that a mage weapon will aid in gaining melee skill - using it as a weapon can gain magery skill, but that's a whole different thing.

It's been a while since I trained tactics, but if I remember right it gained best when taking on multiple mid level mobs rather than one high level one.  I'd try level 1 shame, earths and mud pies. 2 or 3 at a time. (double click on each of 3 mobs, don't just let them target you)

Mervyn

The mage weapon will take the skill of either magery, or the skill of the weapon, whichever is the GREATER. As for training tactics, this is not linked to weapon skill, you simply have to kill creatures that have tactics within a 20 skill point range of your tactics. In fact having higher weapon skill will assist you because you'll miss less.