tl;dr – It takes 5 minutes of doing nothing to 'reset' your 'skill exhaustion' for a skill. And I mean NOTHING [edit** that would gain you xp for THAT skill]. And by reset I mean 70% of potential. Details below.

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Here is a screenshot of the tests I ran: https://i.imgur.com/JvCQWON.png

The tests were done with 50-round MP5 mags. I would dump mags, look at my [current] recoil control XP, take note of the time, and try out different variations of mag dumping between intervals. Based off of the tests, these look to be the universal truths for ALL skills (did small tests on other skills, same results):

• Skill exhaustion takes 5 minutes to 'reset'
• You only reset to 70% of your original potential
• You can only gain ~4.5 skill xp points before entering full blown skill exhaustion: All mag dumps at that point would get me a minimum of 0.1xp
• ANY skill xp you gain will reset the 5 minute skill exhaustion wait. (See Test#1, where I shot once a minute for 5 minutes, then mag dumped at minute 6

The last point there is what breaks this entire system. See this part from Test#2:

29.6 [+0.2] | 21:00 [-00:20]

29.7 [+0.1] | 17:00 [-04:00]

I waited 4 minutes, then dumped a mag… And only got 0.1 skill xp. But, if I wait just over 5 minutes:

29.7 [+0.1] | 17:00 [-04:00]

31.3 [+1.6] | 11:50 [-05:10]

I get 1.6 skill xp for the mag dump.

Why is this a problem?

RIP your play style.

Skills like Covert Movement and Endurance especially suffer from this system. Ever notice how you sometimes level up in Covert Movement, even though you are running around? And endurance, even though you're walking? That's because you get passive Covert Movement/Endurance/Strength XP from any movement you make.

If two players on Shoreline play the entire match, with Player A running around like a madman and Player B being slow and stealthy, they will potentially get the same amount of Strength, Endurance, and Covert Movement skill, despite their play styles. That's because all skill xp gained resets the 5 minute 'exhaustion' timer and is cumulative to the 4.5xp wall.

Edit-Note: There is no true "wall". Even at max skill xp exhaustion, you will still get SOME XP, but we're talking like 1/200th's of the potential. People who cheese skills for advantage over other players actually BENEFIT from this system, as while you're gaining 1/200th of your potential, they just wait 5 minutes, grind, wait 5, grind.

Edit-Note #2: People are a bit confused here. Updated the tl;dr at top. No, the debuff is not a GLOBAL debuff. It is per-skill. So if you are raising your sniper skill and hit the debuff, you CAN switch to a different non-sniper weapon, run around and shoot things, etc. You have to wait 5 minutes before the debuff on the SNIPER skill resets before you can get non-debuffed sniper skill points again.