The skew time is used to add a time period to the master down interval. This is not a configurable parameter. It is determined from the current local priority of the virtual router’s VRID. To calculate the skew time, the virtual router evaluates the following formula:
For IPv4: Skew Time = ((256 - priority) / 256) seconds
For IPv6: Skew Time = (((256 - priority) * Master_Adver_Interval) / 256) centiseconds
The higher the priority value, the shorter the skew time is. This means that virtual routers with a lower priority transition to master slower than virtual routers with a higher priority.