How to survive the heavy artillery?

[Thrakkar]

Now that I'm doing quite will with Titans and Cyclops, I thought I could try some new dungeon. Well, I slashed through the first two levels of covetus until I finally arived at level 3.
Then I met my nemesis. A lich, also called Mr. Rapid-Fire. Not a lich lord or ancient lich, just a plain old, measly lich.

After he targeted me, I wasn't even able to run up to him, as I dropped dead about 2 tiles away from him. I remembered a flamestrike, an energy bolt, a pain spike and something else.
Second try: I did hit him two times, until he blew me into oblivion.
Third try: A second lich joined in. Died about 4-5 tiles away.

Now my resists are in between 58-69 %. Since 70% is the cap (afaik), I thought this isn't that bad for the beginning.

So what's the trick? How does one survive heavy spellcasting, especially if the mob also hits very hard with melee?

 

[spectrum456]

peacing with ev's works well, wish i knew what your skill is, gl to u

 

[Thrakkar]

My skills are:

Parrying	110.0	(110 / up)	
Anatomy		100.0	(110 / locked)
Necromancy	100.0	(110 / locked)
Spirit Speak	100.0	(110 / locked)
Healing		 99.3	(110 / up)
Fencing		 93.9	(110 / up)
Focus		 66.8	(110 / down)
Tactics		 50.0	(110 / locked)

Str		 90	(locked)
Dex		119	(down)
Int		 31	(up)

 

[UO Relic]

Well without any magic resist he's going to be a tad harder. Your definitely going to want to be using a undead slayer sword or undead talisman then you should be able to drop him in 2 hits. Be quick on your bandage macro as just getting close should allow him to launch 1 spell at you

 

[Basara]

And remember that if you have a repond slayer in hand (or an orc, ogre or troll slayer), you'll take double damage from the liches, which can make you dead real quick.

 

[Arch Magus]

Undead slayers work well.

The secret to kill Lich and LL is to move in and inflict critical damage before they have a chance to target you and get off lot of spells.

*If for some reason you have Tactics locked at 50, you should start raising it to at least 90. and start losing your Focus. Might be a problem with low damage output.

 

[Arch Magus]

Like UO Relic said also, No Magic Resist is going to hurt, unless you have mid level Chivalry or magic apples.

Just get a silver weapon and go to town as quick as they pop up.

 

[Thrakkar]

I thought, magic resist only lowers the duration of the debuffs nowadays.

And as for my template, I'm quite unsure what exactly is useful and to which degree. I already had 100 Tactics, but I dropped it for focus, because I always ran out of mana.

And the lich was just my first try. I read about warriors, who soloed doom. I bet down there are monsters, which I can't kill within 1-3 hits and also are heavy casters. I guess, move in, do burst damage and move out won't help down there. Or is this exactly the thing, people are doing?
In this case it probably would be better to equip a slow and heavy 2-hand weapon. Run in, land a swing and run out. But then also my parry is completely useless...

I'm confused...

 

[RichDC]

Im probs gna get flamed here, necro/ss seems to be slightly pointless unless you can max your damage output (vamp form or wraith for for either HPleech or mana leech) to do this you either have to get 300%ish from your suit or use chivalry/bushido to help.

I would suggest (this is were ill probs get flamed) dropping SS and focus and picking up Bushido and at least 90tactics. Also as time progresses get your swords/bush/parry/anat to 120/115

You are correct (for the most part) magic resist mainly shortens debuff time/poisoning ability. However, it does reduce the damage and duration of Pain spike.

 

[Basara]

Resist effects the duration of some debuffs, the effect of others.

For example, the various mage curses are based on a comparison of the caster's eval vs. the target's resist spells.

As a result, a character with no resist spells is paralyzed longer, and loses a greater percentage of their stats, when cursed.

 

[hen]

A mage slayer talisman also works on liches. They hit really hard and fast so you have to hit faster and harder. Double up the talisman with a slayer weapon and you'll take them down in one hit.

 

[Farsight]

A few things to bear in mind when fighting liches:
1. They have abysmally bad wrestling skill. That means you don't need to carry a shield with your usual weapon. Since you can drop your shield, a good heal potion will counter the effects of pain spike.
2. Don't be afraid to use spirit speak for an emergency heal. Since you don't have bushido (confidence is great in this situation) and running doesn't help since liches deal in ranged attacks, there's only two things you can do. Heal yourself or close in on the lich.
3. If multiple liches attack you at once, odds are you're not going to make it in any case. This makes Covetous liches dangerous.
4. Learn how to tell if blood oath is being cast. If they blood oath you, you either have to kill them in one shot or run away.

 

[Rotgut Willy]

And remember that if you have a repond slayer in hand (or an orc, ogre or troll slayer), you'll take double damage from the liches, which can make you dead real quick.

I thought the extra damage taken from an opposing slayer class was only applicable when wielding a super slayer? I'm not sure where or why I thought that though.

 

[Ravahan]

Well, my first thought was that he was using a Soulseeker like many people are these days, that would explain it... Particularly since he has been fighting reponds! but I see that he's fencing, so that's not the case. Just make sure you're not using a repond slayer on undead!

Resisting spells is all but useless in PvM. Don't bother with it. I have about GM on one character and I barely notice it... the only handy difference is that I seems to get less mp taken from mana drain/vamp.

Yes, you will want tactics to 90 at least. Its damage increase that isn't bound by the cap like slayers, EoO, DI gear... Its seperate. not to mention weapon specials.

If you want to increase your survivability.. Make sure your fire resist is at least in the 60's. Some of the hardest hitting spells are fire based. I would prioritize these resists in this order; Phys, fire, energy. Capping those will vastly improve how long you keep kickin'. If that doesn't do the trick for you, you might try riding an armored swampy. The armor is expensive, but grants an extra 20% damage reduction if exceptional (color does not matter).

 

[Basara]

Remember, the Night's Kiss (a minor artifact dagger) is repond slayer, and a LOT cheaper to buy than a SS.

 

[Thrakkar]

Yes, you will want tactics to 90 at least. Its damage increase that isn't bound by the cap like slayers, EoO, DI gear... Its seperate. not to mention weapon specials.

Ok, but I'm still quite unsure, what to drop...

If you want to increase your survivability.. Make sure your fire resist is at least in the 60's. Some of the hardest hitting spells are fire based. I would prioritize these resists in this order; Phys, fire, energy. Capping those will vastly improve how long you keep kickin'. If that doesn't do the trick for you, you might try riding an armored swampy. The armor is expensive, but grants an extra 20% damage reduction if exceptional (color does not matter).

Yeah, I already have 69% fire, about 64% phys, the rest is between 58 and 66.
Didn't know about the swampy. Will try that

Remember, the Night's Kiss (a minor artifact dagger) is repond slayer, and a LOT cheaper to buy than a SS.

Aye, I bought Night's Kiss for about 9000gp. But when fighting undead I'm using a rather plain kryss with some SSI, DI & +Hit.

 

[GFY]

Drop focus and look for better weapons before you go back.

What you want when you hunt big game, is a slayer weapon with mana leech property. Any other properties would be a bonus but these 2 are pretty much a must.

As a dexer type tactics gives you your damage increase bonus, just like magery and eval, and necro and spirit speak. You don't want one with out the other.

As long as you use mana leech weapons you'll have much fewer problems with mana. You could also use wraith form if you want a little bit bigger boost in mana.

As a dexer you want your dex maxed out, don't lower it. Remember you want to swing as fast as ppossible at all time to deal the max amount of damage. You may want to switch to elf for the mana bonnus to help with your mana problems.

 

[Thrakkar]

Thanks, GFY, that sounds good. Will do that.