Back into it?

[Fingers of Cats]

Ok so it's been quite a few years since I sold my original UO account and dumped many hours into WoW.

A friend of mine, John the *******, talked me into reactivating an old 24 month account that he stopped a long time ago.

I figured I would skill up another mage/thief to try out the PvP thief world and thought I would say "I'm back"

Lets see how UO holds up with PvP thieving

 

[Touzoko]

I remember your name. Welcome back.

 

[Fingers of Cats]

Thanks... it has been a long time since UO but I can still remember the fun we had!

I remember the pains of when AoS came out and caused major adaptations.

I remember the thrill of stealing major artifacts from people who would uninsure items to tempt thieves into their PvP houses in fel, and then getting their item stolen because they were that cocky!

I remember posting about how I was on my way to the gauntlet with my thief to do some DFs and saw an artifact on the wall and I stole it and posted what happened on here and got my butt flamed for it with stuff like "REAL THIEVES DON'T STEAL FROM DUNGEONS, WE STILL FROM PEOPLE"

I remember stealing silver from faction members in Skara Fel

I remember raiding Champs when SX, SoW, COW, and other PvP Guilds on Cats were in their prime...

So many memories from the music, people, and vast lands... no other game can match it!

 

[Fingers of Cats]

Alrighty got Fingers created, elf of course, and now working on what template I wish to use

Figured I would go with my original fingers template:

Magery
Eval
Med
Stealing
Snooping
Hiding
_________ - can't remember... trained up LP, resist, poisoning on this toon but SS most of them... not sure what I ran with as my last one though :/

I know a lot of people go with Alchy, Necro, fencing, Ninjitsu etc as variations but I just liked the Magery/Stealing combo

 

[Touzoko]

magery is never a bad choice

 

[Fingers of Cats]

Haha totally forgot Stealth as my other skill

 

[Fingers of Cats]

Well I've spent a couple days sitting in Luna waiting to cap my 48 hours, now I need to get out and steal some to get to 60 to join Thieves guild Ahhhh the memories!

 

[kaylun]

I played way back on Great Lakes the first year uo started and we had a guild leader name Fingers I guess it was a popular name

 

[Fingers of Cats]

I got "Fingers" from my fathers DnD thief so whenever I have the chance, I roll any thief like character on any game I am currently playing to keep tradition alive

 

[Touzoko]

sometimes that is all we have. Nice to see you honoring them.

 

[Fingers of Cats]

Well still working skills up, I forgot how much fun it is still steal gold from my personal pack horse over and over

So far I'm still gonna use my old school template:

110 magery
110 eval
100 med
120 stealing
100 hiding
100 snoop
100 stealth

Will use different gear to get maximum skills but I always loved the mage thief. I've also thought of making another thief, same name and all but ninja style... I need to make some gold first because poisoning is $$$ to level!

fencing
poison
ninja
stealing
hiding
snoop
stealth
chiv (just enough to travel)

 

[Touzoko]

which shard were you on?

 

[Fingers of Cats]

it's in my name.... Catskills

 

[Fingers of Cats]

Alrighty stealing is up to 98, gonna sit on it at that for awhile and train up something else... probably magery so I can have some offensive/defensive and to hunt with at champs or whatnot. Then to the stealth/hide grind :/

 

[Cruxshadow]

hide/stealth isnt too bad at all. Just do it inside your house, you will always successfully hide. Then once your hide is high enough, look at the chart on stratics about what to wear at what skill level. Also, someone had posted a good idea earlier about traiing stealth. If you have a customizable house, place 2 teleporters in a line about 5 spaces between each other, so you can walk like on a treadmill (last porter takes you to first again) that way you can do auto walk and just hit your hide macro to train stealth up. Anyways, sorry if this post is confusing. Try it out though

 

[Fingers of Cats]

Alrighty... I'm finding myself drawn to my old template but might spice it up with gear later on...

Current:

110/110 magery
100/110 med (need +10 ps still)
100/110 eval (need +10 ps still)

95/110 stealing (+15 ring)
85/100 stealth (leaving it there for now because I just use leather anyway...)
100/100 hididng
35/100 snooping (working on that now will GM it)

So that means it's 710/710 (26 month account)

With some gear I could drop some skills to bring on tracking (i.e. shadow dancers etc)

Watcha thinking...?

 

[Touzoko]

Tracking is always nice. Are you elf or human? Or, I guess now, gargoyle?

 

[Taylor]

In all leather armor, you can stealth 100% at 75 skill. That'd free up some more points for you.

Also, I don't want to cramp your style . . . but omg, ninja is incredible, for two reasons.

Reason 1) Shadowjump. The number one thief killer, in my mind, is passive reveal. If you stealth up to an elf, you have an over 50% chance to be passive revealed, and your outlook's not too bright against humans and gargoyles, either. As soon as you're revealed, you can expect an "all kill." However, with shadowjump, you never need risk passive reveal: just shadowjump next to your target. Also, shadowjumping doesn't count as movement, so it won't close the packs you've snooped. Once you get the hang of it, you can shadow jump to every player at a champ, open all their packs, and sit back and watch for the best scroll. Shadow jump is also a way to avoid being hit/revealed by earthquake/meteor strike, as shadowjump casts much faster than those two spells.

Reason 2) Wolf form. Besides giving you increased movement speed, wolf form gives you +20 hp. As soon as you make a steal, hit wolf form and run for it. Once you're in the clear, just hide and stealth away at mounted speed. Unless I get trapped in paralyze fields, I'm never, ever killed in wolf form.

For 110 ninja, you'd have to drop med or eval (probably med), but it's totally worth it in my view. But of course, this all depends on your personal play style.

 

[Fingers of Cats]

Gonna have to ponder on that one a bit... do you have to have weapon skill for shadowjump? or is it not an attack so it doesn't matter?

 

[Taylor]

Nope, not an attack. Basically the same as the teleport spell, but it only works while stealthed and you remain stealthed.

 

[Fingers of Cats]

so you're talking 100+ Nin?

 

[Taylor]

I use 110 ninja on my Europa and Siege thieves, which lets you cast wolf form with relative few fizzles.

 

[Fingers of Cats]

Lol... you must be online all the time! I posted last night and went to bed and posted when I got to work this morning

So do you know the rough % of success rate at 100 vs 110 ninja for wolf form?

 

[Fingers of Cats]

Was thinking of a few things and forgot about the wonderful artifacts that could free up 70 points plus jewelry could ideally free up 100 points...

B.B.

+10 Snooping
+10 Stealing
+10 Stealth

Shadow dancers:

+20 stealing
+20 stealth

Ring:

+15 stealing

bracelet:

+15 random need

So I could easily keep what I have and add ninjitsu!

 

[Pazuzu]

B.B.

+10 Snooping
+10 Stealing
+10 Stealth

Shadow dancers:

+20 stealing
+20 stealth

Ring:

+15 stealing

bracelet:

+15 random need

Wow.

I have a lot to learn! Especially, what these items are and how to obtain them.

Being gone a long time is a bad thing!

 

[Fingers of Cats]

Ok I did some minor calculations and figuring to factor in those two artifacts to make a template that has been suggested:

Here is what I came up with... I'll try to explain as best as possible... REAL/CAP (+Gear) = Skill

65/110 (+15 ring, +10 BB, +20 SD) = 110/110 Stealing
90/100 (+10 BB) = 100/100 Snoop
100/100 = 100/100 Hiding
45/75 (+10 BB, +20 SD) = 75/75 Stealth
95/110 (+15 bracelet) = 110/110 Ninja
110/110 = 110/110 Magery
110/110 = 110/110 Med
110/110 = 110/110 Eval

Total 725/825

Which means I need to find a jewel with +15 and another +10 higher skill like a +15 steal/+10 magery and +15 ninja/+10 med which would give me a "little" more room since my account is only 26 months and has a cap of 710 skills!

 

[Chad Sexington]

Use a Crystalline Ring instead of a stealing ring. MR3/HP Regen 3. Good stuff. HP Regen will save you from multiple EQs.

 

[Fingers of Cats]

Yeah but then I loose +15 stealing and would be just +95 stealing Trying to use jewels to give me the skill space for ninjitsu and STILL keep my full magery template...

 

[Chad Sexington]

Yeah but then I loose +15 stealing and would be just +95 stealing Trying to use jewels to give me the skill space for ninjitsu and STILL keep my full magery template...

?

You still get +20 Magery. You won't be able to get 20+ skill if you find a nice +15 stealing / +15 magery / +15 stealth ring, but you can still fit ninja, I think. If anything, you get the SDI. Drop Eval a couple points. The SDI will make up for it.

 

[Taylor]

The only skill increasing items I use are the burglar's bandanna, shadow dancer legs, and cloak of silence. My suit looks like this:

Burglar's, nocture earrings, pendant of the magi, ornament of the magician, totem of the void, quiver of infinity, and cloak of silence. I also use custom arms, gloves, and tunic, as well as an imbued ring: 15 hci, 3 fcr, 20 lrc, 15 fire, 7 cold. When I need extra hci, I exchange conjurer's trinket for totem of the void. When I need extra mage for gates/EVs, I throw on Tome of Lost Knowledge (+15 mage).

Overall, the suit is 100 lrc, 8 mr, 30 lmc (40 w/ Tome of Lost Knowledge), 2/6, 61/65/61/60/68. Not the best suit, in other words, but serviceable. It's hard to build suits on Europa, as no one seems to make verite/valorite runic armor - only barbed runic.

Chad's suit on Napa is also very good, but is a bit more expensive. He used (if I'm not mistaken):

Burglar's bandanna, shadow dancer legs, inquisitor's resolution, crystalline ring, ornament of the magician, oak leaf shroud, pendant of the magi, totem of the void, and custom tunic and arms. When he'd cast wraith form, he'd use the obsidian grimoire (+ necro skill).

It seems that shadow dancers, burglar's, cloak of silence, and crystalline ring would enable to you reach your skill goal, if you have the resources. However, this might require you to use an orny and inquis for 2/6. Good options, but expensive.

 

[Taylor]

Wow.

I have a lot to learn! Especially, what these items are and how to obtain them.

Being gone a long time is a bad thing!

The burglar's bandana is a minor artifact. It can be obtained from killing paragon creatures in Ilshenar, from a level 6 treasure chest, or from killing leviathan.

The shadow dancer leggings are a major artifact. They can be obtained from killing creatures in the Doom Gauntlet.

 

[Fingers of Cats]

Yeah BB is pretty easy to obtain by farming or buying (pretty cheap and common) but the SD will take longer because I don't have any toons to farm DOOM with yet and have only about 250k right now since I'm training up my toons to actually hunt.

I'll check out the crystaline ring and that cloak of silence (where's that come from?)

 

[Taylor]

Crystalline ring is from the peerless Shimmering Effusion. Cloak of Silence is an EM event item, but they're pretty common atm.

 

[Fingers of Cats]

Thanks for the info Syrus!