Game Mechanics: Swimming wasn't level capped in the classic era.

[Dolalin]

Iksar had some special coding for stamina and breath-holding too. They could always hold their breath for the max-stamina-equivalent amount of time:

9/13/02

> I think it was proven that how long you can hold your breath is
> determined entirely by STA not by swim skill. And I've swum for
> ages with my sta down around 0 and not gone "Glub Glub Glub" [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Except for Iksar. They always last as long as anyone else does with Max
Stamina. All other races tested Stamina does change how long you last
before you drown. So, get the friendly Iksar, he has 130 seconds before he
starts to drown, regardless of his stamina.

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt....k/x4oTuDw67aUJ

And from that same discussion, people are still saying swimming is capped by level in 2002:

9/13/02

Nobody drowns in EQ unless you go too deep or leave the keyboard. No
matter how bad your swim skill is. At level 17 you can get your skill up
to around 85 which should be fine. I'd suggest, if you are going to get
it yourself, that you just go swim around in a safe area until you max
it out, then ride the boat to near the zone, jump off, swim after the
boat until you hit the zone line and dive. You'll find it. I've swum all
over OoT and you'll be surprised at how shallow the water is. Just make
sure you have a /corpse hotkey set up.

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt....k/bf6WJtPydy4J

[nilbog]

Well if it's wrong, I'd like to see it corrected.

OP mentions alcohol tolerance, begging, fishing, sense heading, and swimming.

[Kich867]

Originally Posted by nilbog [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Well if it's wrong, I'd like to see it corrected.

OP mentions alcohol tolerance, begging, fishing, sense heading, and swimming.

Swimming and Sense Heading were definitely able to be raised to cap without level restriction.

When Kunark came out I would regularly leave my pc on overnight on a new character, swimming into a corner all night to max it out. Sense Heading you could macro to use it over and over and I would do that until it was high enough to consistently succeed in the past.

Unfortunately the others I never raised much on live. Begging I think I had raised pretty high once btu don't recall my actual level.

For some context, this is a fairly recent post on the EQ forum from 2015:
https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/...-skill.229230/

A relevant quote:
"Oh hm. This is a good one. It used to be done a lot, especially in Erudin at one of the fountains."

And:

"[...] though I remember being afk'd out doing it on Ragefire, so that shouldn't be a problem even if they did have to turn the afk kick back on. I just want to make sure I'm not going to get banned for overnight swimming is all =)"