Black Rock Elemental Question

[viper592]

Do these spawn when your mining with a regular pick axe?
or
Do you have to be using a Gargoyle pick axe?

If they spawn without the use of a Gargoyle pick axe, that is something that needs changed.

I am not going to train Mining twice, once (which took me 2.5 years) is enough.

Blacksmith requires mining, and arms lore, mining requires tinkering (or lots of trips to town for picks and shovels). Thats 4 required skills for a smith, which doesn't leave room for any kind of adequate defense against BREs.

So basically, if BREs spawn at any time, with any pic or shovel, then I guess I will pretty much be forced to buy ingots from scripters, since the reward (given the crazy spawn system now) is not worth the risk of BRE attack for someone who only mines on the rare occasion I need ingots.

 

[Trukx]

They can pretty much be mined up using anything; shovel, pickaxe. Just make sure you check your bag for pieces of blackrock, if you find one, dump it off. My understanding from some of the discussions on here is that if you have chunk of it, its likely to spawn on.

There frankly is NO defense for them outside of being at your computer to run like hell once they spawn.

 

[Lilac Crypt]

They spawn no matter what digging tool you use.

It is NOT game-stopping.. honestly. For a decently armored and attended miner, a black rock elemental is NOT an insta-kill, far from it.

Rule 1. Be attended. The instant a giant red elemental pops up, you'll be ready.

Rule 2. Wear real armor. Mining nekkid never was all that bright, cause of the stone chip crippling stab.. it's worse now.

Rule 3. If you're not speedy at running on foot, have a bonded ridable pet with you while mining. Keep the pet bar pulled out at all times, so you can double-click to hop on instantly.

Rule 4. Do not attempt to recall or sacred journey when one of these appears.. RUN! When you've achieved a safe enough distance from the elemental, then you can zap away.

Suggestion 5. (not a rule, cause it's a template tweak.) Have parry. It'll get you a moment of forgiveness every now and then when you screw up rules three and four.

Now about the skill set.. my miner is also a legendary smith. I keep arms lore stashed on a stone, because most of her creations go towards filling bods. I don't need tinkering, because I have shovels and picks aplenty from turning in exceptional iron bods. No honest miner NEEDS tinkering, because they can pick up more digging tools if they use up what they have on them.

Heck, have a box full of them in your bankbox. Or your house. They don't need to be made on the run.

No sane person fights Blackrock elementals. We run from them. It doesn't require a ton of skills to do so, either.

Fleeing swiftly - zero points.
Healing - eighty points.
Anatomy - 100 points.
Optional - parry - some amount of skill points. I have 80ish, and wear jewels for more.

If you're attended, have a mount ready for flight, and have some ability to heal if you're hit once.. it's almost silly how easy they are to escape.

Then it's all about where to leave the roaring thing.

I swear, I'm not a power-gamer, and my miner has never once been killed by a BRE. She's sporting a violet courage, for heaven's sake.. not exactly the be all and end all of armor pieces.

 

[Karyn XX]

BRE's should not stop anyone from mining, unless they do so unattended. Since I despise those that mine with their brain dislocated, I have actually used a BRE to kill those kinds of miners. As Lilac said, they really are not that difficult to flee from, that is if you are paying attention. Anyone that mines unattended should quit, since they violate the TOS anyway.

Other than we both mine and hate unattended macroers, Lilac and I are not alike. She is that buffed out miner that smacks things that annoy her. I use magery to zap things that annoy me. I'm not quite as strong as Lilac and have gotten killed by a BRE a couple of times. Big deal. If you are paying attention and you haven't trapped yourself then RUN. RUN and run. Don't stop to collect the $200 for passing GO. With a little effort, these things can be left at places for the fun and amusement of others.

I used to have tinkering but it really is a waste on my miner/smith. I get enough tools from bods to supply many miners.

Do be scared of the BRE.

 

[sorner]

Actually, you can be a smith without mining just fine.

I opted for the two character method. 1 is the crafter (formerly just smith/tinker - now smith, carpenter, tailor, bower/fletcher, tinker, and a smattering of magery). The other is the miner.

The crafter fills a chest full of shovels for the miner and does all the ... crafty things (like making arrows, see below)

The miner is basically an archer with GM mining and some healing. Archery worked out best for me so I could arm myself with a bow and kill (val) eles spawned from the gargoyle pickaxes. when a BRE does show up, run! I usually lead it far away, and just come back and resume mining.

I'm actually finding this method to be more enjoyable because my miner/archer is more than just a mule character - since I'm using only 1 crafting-type skill, I can devote the rest of the points to combat skills and have a decent character to use for more than just mining.

The only downside is that the crafter can no longer smelt.

 

[Iwilleatyoursoul]

Here is my smith:
120 Blacksmith
120 Tailoring
100 Mining
100 Armslore
100 Tinkering
100 Carpentry
30 Magery (75 with jewels and spellbook)
50 Music

And I get away 100% of the time. If you have uoassist set a macro for mounting and dismounting off your beetle. For the mount macro I would have the words "all stop" in there and then the mounting part. You can get on your beetle ultra fast and then just run like hell.

My miners suit only high resist is physical at 70 and all the others are at 40ish resist (I would get better armor but used shadow black pigment dyes and it looks pimpin on him)

 

[Basara]

All of my crafters for skills other than inscription (my mage) and my Smith/Paladin are on my second account.

The Smith/Paladin may eventually retire his smithing to a soulstone, since he doesn't have room for arms lore (or I might stone off one of his combat skills to train it, and swap as needed). But he'll keep mining regardless of what occurs.

With equipment, he's
120 Smith
120 Macing (all real)
100 mining (all real)
102 Tactics (90 real for the special moves)
100 Anatomy (85 real)
100 Parry (70 real)
83 Chivalry (54 real)
81 Healing (all real - minimum to rez others)
His suit is medable, with the worst resist 66, with some moderate stat and regens, and he uses a blackthorn's kryss or a crafted mace, both ele slayers, depending on the hunt (more likely to use the kryss for life leech when hunting the "big blues")

He's the character "Lang" mentioned in my sig. I deliberately mine in Ilshenar for paragon ore elementals, and can kill anything other than a valorite paragon, copper paragon, or BRE without even stopping my mining (the copper & valorite paragons take a bit of manuevering, to heal ahead of the reflected damage drops).

I've jousted with BREs on a number of occasions - I can't beat one, because they recover HP too quick, but I've never died to one for any reason other than a lag spike at a really bad time.

 

[Silverbird]

One way, that hasnt been mentioned in this thread ...
Since latest mining changes (ore ramdomization) you dont need to run around much/concentrate to single mining spots (like using a val-mining-rune-book). While it has disadvantages, you can profit from, when dealing with bre's. If you dont want to run from them or getting bothered too much from them, simply stay in guards zones for mining. Those town guards can dispatch a bre really fast and easy.

As a mining character you should have high str and therefore a good bunch of hps. My miner usually wears a spined exc leather set with a polar bear mask and some resists on jewels. He uses chiv for traveling and a bre needs 3-4 hits to kill him. Thats plenty of time to call for the guards.

 

[Scarab]

well I just mined up my first BRE. since I just came back to UO two weeks ago after a three years break, I didn't even know they existed. so the BRE, coupled with UO's refusal to let me insta-log, resulted in my beetle's corpse decaying. the same beetle that held the few rares I had saved from the old days. why were they on a beetle? I dunno. it's not like I ever mine in Fel and I don't use gargoyle pickaxes so I never have to fight anything. I think this is the first time that this character has died since I rolled him

I barely got to my own corpse in time after using a different char to lure the BRE away from my corpse

good stuff

 

[Lilac Crypt]

You have my sympathies. No way you could have known, since miners don't talk between themselves often.

 

[imported_Eolix]

well I just mined up my first BRE. since I just came back to UO two weeks ago after a three years break,
__________________________________

Darn, I mined for several hours this weekend and didn't scare one up. I was starting to get my hopes up. I did notice that a few of my good ore spots haven't changed in a few weeks. Unfortunately, a scripter knows it too. He pops in about every 15 minutes or so, recalling to the same 3 spots in the mine, like clockwork. If I watch the clock, I can cycle through this mine and strip the good spots just before he gets there. I'm sure it doesn't really affect his overall productivity, but it makes me feel a little better. I was kinda hoping I COULD scare up a BRE for him.

 

[Karyn XX]

Those darn BRE's. They can be so shy sometimes. Personally, I have only coaxed out one in the last 2-3 weeks. So, I'm WAY overdue for a visit.

When they do show up, they are so aggressive. Pawing all over ya, so ungentlemanly.

Though, I admit that they can be fun and amusing when you get them around those unattended zombie miners.

 

[Guest]

I sure am glad I stopped in tonight and read this. I didn't know BRE's could be dredged out with any tool. I will be more watchful now when I mine and not overload my beetle as I have a tendency to do.

 

[Karyn XX]

Yep, the little rascals can pop at anytime using any tool. Some people have the misconception that you have to use a garg pickaxe. I bet the look on their face when a BRE pops is priceless.

I should have kept my mouth shut earlier. 5 BRE's in 2 days now. Plus I bumped into 2 others that belonged to other miners. I died once but that was due to my own inattentiveness. (let myself get overloaded like a newb) Now I'm getting Lilac's nervous twitch. I was mining with a garg pickaxe and spawned an ele, was 2 screens away before I realized in was only a shadow ele.

 

[dialtone]

<blockquote><hr>

BRE's should not stop anyone from mining, unless they do so unattended.

If you are paying attention and you haven't trapped yourself then RUN. RUN and run. Don't stop to collect the $200 for passing GO.

Do be scared of the BRE.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey Karyn,

The BRE stopped my mining after it killed me.

Have you ever tried running around ON a boat? It ain't easy.

Scared? Me scared of a BRE? I'm not scared, I'm just shaking cause I wasn't able to eat lunch today.

 

[Karyn XX]

BRE on a boat. Yeah, that does sound like a conundrum.

Are they good sailors?

 

[dialtone]

Not at all. They bounce all over the deck and make hurling noises. You'd think that they would stay off boats if they get so sea sick. The guards at Serpents Hold put him out of his misery.