New Player - New Mage - Where to begin?

[shadow4166]

First off, let me start by apologizing if this post is in the wrong place. I know there is a "new players corner" forum, however since this question was specifically related to mages, I figured it should go here.

I've been playing UO for about a week now, I guess, and I've learned a lot about the game. Ok, truth is, I'm totally addicted

I already have a paladin character and a crafter/miner character, but what I really wanted to make was a mage. I've read that mages were prohibitively difficult and costly, but I'm a glutton for punishment. I've read many articles/faqs about the different mage skills and what they do, but my lack of experience makes it difficult for me to know where to begin.

What I want to play is a "pure mage". Call me old fashioned, but mages should not be running around in plate armor and wielding a Golden Mace of Skull Crushing +20. I want a mage that uses no weapon, or perhaps one that wields a mage-like weapon, such as a staff or dagger, but only for the stats/magical properties. Having gotten all of that out of the way, this is the preliminary template I'm planning on:

120 magery
100 evaluate intelligence
100 resist spells
100 meditation
100 inscription

After that, Im kind of at a loss. Unless is strongly ill-advised, I don't want to take wrestling/tactics. I was thinking MAYBE taming, but for that it looks like I'll need taming/vet/animal lore, and I don't have enough skill points for that. I was also considering necromancy, but I read that there arent many useful spells, plus the mage has so many spells already, I don't want to overwhelm myself. I'm at a loss here for where to go. I was thinking of adding tailoring somewhere in there to make armor/money for myself. I have 180 skill points left with this template, and I don't know where to put them.

And finally, how should I start this char? Should I just use the mage template button at char creation or should I create an advanced char? What skills/stats should I do at what levels?

I'm sorry for bombarding you guys with all these noob questions, but if there's a friendly veteran player or two out there who wouldn't mind steering me in the right direction, I'd really appreciate it!

By the way, I'm not sure if it makes any difference, but I want to be an elf.

Thanks so much in advance!

Mordikai

EDIT: I'm looking for strictly PVM, mostly solo, since I don't really know too many people right now. I'd like to be able to solo so high-end stuff later on in my career. Thanks!

 

[imported_Farsight]

I'm assuming that being only a week old, you don't have the unlimited budget that most people use to make their mage. I'm also assuming that you cannot currently afford a 100% LRC suit, which you NEED to buy as soon as humanly possible. A cheap one (prices vary per shard or time of day. My first one last year cost 25k, which isn't much) won't have much in terms of defensive value or benifits, but at least it will keep you in the ability to cast spells over and over again, which is extremely valuable.

When creating the character, I always pick advanced. I also choose magery 50, inscription 49 and a random skill for one point. This makes the inscription quest very easy, giving me a cheap undead slayer spellbook, which is a great thing to own no matter what skill level you have.

The second thing I do is train resisting spells on spectral spellbinders in Haven. You do this by attacking as many as you can find while keeping one step ahead of them. After an hour, if you're lucky, you have high 90's resist and stats which are right where you want them (high strength, high intelligence, low dexterity) as well as respectable levels of focus and meditation. As a new player, you probably want to cast protection on yourself, which makes your spells uninteruptable, and bring a few extra heal reagents (either greater or low level heal would do).

After that, go inscribe recalls or paralyze spells for 5 minutes to finish off the inscription quest (obtainable in the Haven magic shop) and get your undead slayer spellbook.

Now that you have a slayer spellbook and high resist, you can start working on your bread and butter, magery and evaluate intelligence. To gain a small amount of gold reserves, you could hang around in Haven casting lightning bolts at zombies and spellbinders (great for the 10 reagents per binder) until you have a decent level of skill and your LRC suit, then you could branch out to the dungeons. Despise is easy and you'll always have the company of other people who are training. Upper levels of Deceit are faster since you have a nice slayer spellbook suited to the undead which are there. Besides, there is a nice mummy spawn right near the entrance, with explosion spells and flame strikes in addition to your spellbooks, they drop very quickly. As your evaluate intelligence gets up to the high 90s, you could drop liches with one flame strike. The disadvantage of Deceit is that I rarely see other people there.

When you get to the point where you can cast energy vortexes reliably, you could do worse than move to Doom (bone collecting), but that's way down the road for a new player.

As for your template, you could also try spellweaving. This adds a couple of extremely powerful weapons to your arsenal.

My favorite mage template which I've used since I was new 8 months ago is:
Magery: 110
EI: 115
Meditation: 110
Wrestling: 110
Spellweaving: 110
Resisting spells: 120 (got that on a lucky champ spawn)

The rest of my points are currently in inscription, but focus is a nice choice for leftover points.

 

[imported_IgotWood]

not that im one to really tell ya, but FYI even though very expensive you might wanna take eval to 120 since that's what determines how much KAPOW your spells have. Also since you are soloing alot you might think about Spellweaving for Gift of Life (you can self rezz) which can help you out and there are other spells that help out as well Gift of renewal, Attunment...Also necro is very very powerful but you will need Spirit speak to accompany that skill since Spirit speak is like Eval but for necro. Im sure there's alot more that people can help you out with like i said i am not a good mage in pvp but i can survive most in pvm so if your on napa i could help you out...im sure someone else will chim in soon and help you more along the way

 

[shadow4166]

My goodness, I didn't expect such a detailed guide! Thank you SO much, I truly appreciate the help, alot!!!

Mordikai

 

[imported_GFY]

My compliments Farsight.

Now as for Mordiki:

You really need to add wrestling to your template to start with. This is your defensive weapon skill and you really need it to survive in the wild. What this means it will make it harder for monsters to hit you. The monsters weapon skill is compared to your weapon skill to calculate a hit. If you have none... well you'll be hit almost ALL THE DANG TIME!

Now you mentioned 120 magery. Do you have the scroll already? If not you can find a 110 fairly in expensive so start there. 110 is a good point to fight almost all creatures in game with a good chance of sucess.

The rest of the skills you mentioned are fine also. Take then to 120 as soon as convenient, however make sure your in at least the 90's or so before you start going anywhere too dangerous.

The Wrestle Mage template is a good start of your first mage template. You get a lot of offensive and defensive spells and as you learn to use them effectively things will go better.

Start slow, if possible play with a group to learn the basics and for support as you learn. Always nice to have a friend around if you need a rez!

If you have any specific questions send me a PM.

 

[shadow4166]

I see, thank you for that explanation, it's the simplest I've come across

So if Im to take wrestling, do I need tactics to go with it or is just wrestling ok?

Thanks,

Mordok - The Newest Atlantic Mage

 

[imported_xStrikerx]

Wrestling has no need for the tactics skill.

 

[imported_GFY]

A good way for a neophite mage to make a UO living is with the inscription skill.

You'll need to buy regs, (LRC doesn't help in crafting potions or scrolls) scrolls, and quills. You make scrolls that are 2 levels below your skill point total, (such as 4 the circle scrolls at 60 inscribe) then sell the scrolls back to te NPC's for more supplies or to players for gold. Players will usually buy recall scrolls (and a few others) in large numbers so it's a pretty good source of gold. Once your skill reaches 80 you can switch to making spellbooks. These will not cost you regs but you'll need a large amount of scrolls. Buy up scrolls at an NPC. Buy all he has then wait a while and buy them all again. He will have double the previous amount respawn each time you buy him out.

As you make spellbooks you'll be looking for books with specials. (slayer books, LRC, LMC, etc.) As you produce better books you can sell them or keep them for your own use. Eventually you'll need at least 4 types of slayer books. The Super Slayers are books that work against a group of monster. (Reptile vs everything from frogs to dragons, Repond vs everything that walks like a man, ie Ratmen to Ogre Lords, Undead vs well... undead! and finally Demon vs Imps to Ice Fiends) These slayers will cause doule damage vs their group but 1/2 damage and monster will inflict double damage vs YOU on their opposite! (such as undead vs repond) Make sure you use slayers wisely!

Lastly as you start fighting more monsters, study your opponents. A young mage can have a good chance of killing a Hiryu by casting poison and mind blast, their 2 weaker resists. But if he cast energy bolts and fire spells (fireball, explosion, flamestrike) he will struggle because his resists here are higher. Always try to cast spells that will effect your targets weakest resists.

 

[Guest]

In the new player forum you will find a sticky that will list people who help on different shards, shouldnt be hard to request a 100 LRC suit and a full spellbook to help with training (the suit would probably have jewels to get the 100 and the resists would be awfull but atleast then you wouldnt need regs to train with). Definitly start in New Haven and do atleast the inscription quest to get the undead slayer spellbook. To do any of the quests your skill has to still be under 50.

Might want to test some of the templates mentioned above on test shard personally i tried and dropped wrestling from my mage years ago, I know some people like it but I found better uses for the points. Even when fighting alone you probably will uses Earth els to tackle monster and be standing back to cast spells, if you like to get right into the fray can use protection spell to always cast yur spells even while being hit - u loose fc/fcr with this spell but early on your suit probably wont have this anyhow.

Would say take a look at adding necromancy + SS even if just for training in the beginning, shadow wisp and some of the forms can help get mana back and wraith form is great - boosts Phy resist and any attack spells you get part of your mana back. corpseskin adds punch to any fire damage spells. And the SS gives you another form of healing.

As you progress and make money in the game you will find it better to use slayer spellbooks or scrappers spellbook instead of any weps.

Magic Resist is a must in PvP but in PvM you really can get along just fine without it. MR nowadays just determines how long you would be under the effect of curse type spells cast at you, it no longer reduces damage from attack spells with the exception of poison and a couple of necro spells as it lowers time you take damage (not the damage taken each time itself though)

My pure mage template now
120 Magery
120 EI
120 Med
120 Necro
120 SS
100 inscription
think i stashed last 20 in focus


Elf is good choice for a mage with the bonuses Elves bring

 

[Guest]

You have a chance at an EI gain every time you cast a magery spell, so if you have a slow moving monster and want EI gains your better off shooting him with lots of magic arrows instead of killing him with higher level spells.

Some lazy work around tricks to gain EI - if you have a house you can place a vendor and shoot at them with magic arrows, same works for a tillerman on a boat

 

[imported_Farsight]

For my EI, when I finally got to a decent level of magery in addition to having an LRC/LMC suit, I started casting clumsy on myself repeatedly. In addition to being a low circled spell, it had two effects. My EI shot up like wildfire and my resist shot up as well. It wasn't as quick as the spellbinders, but I like having a high evaluate skill.

The only problem with that method is it was boring as heck.

 

[imported_GFY]

When raising EI or Magery, do then one at a time. Lock down the other skill your not trying to raise. EI and Magery both have the same check for gains. If one is locked down you'll gain the other one faster because the game won't be checking the other skill when you have a chance to gain.

 

[aarons6]

EI can also be used directly, just go to the bank and sit and click on ppl.

 

[frodofeet]

<blockquote><hr>


My favorite mage template which I've used since I was new 8 months ago is:
Magery: 110
EI: 115
Meditation: 110
Wrestling: 110
Spellweaving: 110
Resisting spells: 120 (got that on a lucky champ spawn)

The rest of my points are currently in inscription, but focus is a nice choice for leftover points.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's exactly my Mage template also, just slightly different distribution of points:

110 Magery
110 EI
110 Med
100 Resist
100 Wrestling
100 Inscription
90 Spellweaving

100 str
20 dex
120 int

I'm an elf so the extra mana is a big bonus. With full med/LRC suit, and MR/LMC items, regs or mana are never a problem. Between my summons &amp; sslayer spellbooks I put out huge amounts of PvM damage. Great fun to play

 

[Guest]

Youll love the mage! My template (which ive had for 127 months now,hehe) is:

110 magery
110 eval int
110 meditation
100 inscription
100 Hiding
100 Magic Resistance
90 Stealth

The hiding and stealth really come in handy for corpse runs.

There are many good templates so pick the skills that look fun to you.

Welcome to the Mage family!