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Podo’s so you want to spawn and survive raids template.

Podolak

Crazed Zealot
Professional
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Stratics Legend
Fact: The template/gear does not matter; a group of competent PKs are going to destroy a solo spawner, period. They will kill you, loot you and dance on your corpse. After that they will finish your champ and taunt you in GC about it. This fact needs to be accepted and then we can move on.

Fact: A sampire is insanely good for spawning. It’s true. The inherent setup of a sampire has awesome synergy. Vamp form and a good double axe and you are almost unstoppable, almost. Although you will see opinions to the contrary in GC, sampires are very vulnerable to raids. All a mystic has to do is purge you and guess what? There goes your life leech. No life leech = dead from not only the raider but the spawn too. Sure, you have evasion, confidence heals etc but it’s not going to be enough for the fast casting of the raider, sorry. Being raided by dexxers isn’t an issue right? Wrong again. Two words, disarm archer. You get disarmed you leech nothing, you parry nothing your DCI means nothing. So you say “OK shoot I’ll just run off and rearm”. Sure that may work except they switch over to their 1.5 or 1.25 swing speed comp bow with velocity and moving shot you to death or hit you with an AI if you get stam blocked momentarily. So again, we have a dead sampire.

Still reading? Good. So “back in the day” when champ spawns hit the scene they were dominated by the very popular necro/mage and necro/tamer templates. In fact a lot of the red mages you see today were probably a necro/mage at one point in their career. Those templates have fallen out of fashion but I have resurrected mine with modifications and seem to have success. When mysticism first arrived the power of the spells were affected by evaluating intelligence so you didn’t need focus (or imbuing). I tossed it on a necro mage and loved it. However the nerf stick came out (rightfully so all things considered) and they changed it so mysticism, magery and evaluating intelligence were not as happy a trio. I gave up on my necro mage mystic and moved on. Well, it has been a few years but I’ve finally done it. I now present:

Podo’s 55 LMC Necro/Mystic/Mage.

Template:
120 Magery
120 Evaluating Intelligence
120 Mysticism
120 Focus
120 Spirit Speak
106 Necromancy
100 Anatomy

But Podo, that is 806 skill points. Yes, yes it is. But Podo you sacrificed a ton of good mods to get that right? Not really as you will see.

Suit Totals:

100 LRC
55 Lower Mana Cost (40 item LMC, 5 pieces of studded)
52 Spell Damage Increase
12 Mana Regeneration
18 Hit Point Regeneration
9 Intelligence Bonus
8 Mana Increase
2 Faster Casting
6 Faster Cast Recovery
45 Defense Chance Increase
10 Hit Point Increase
5 Dexterity Bonus

71 Physical Resist
75 Fire Resist
71 Cold Resist
70 Poison Resist
90 Energy Resist (screw up in imbuing haven’t felt like remaking)

Artifacts:

Mark of Travesty – Necromancy
Scrapper’s Compendium (My non-slayer is 6 Intelligence Bonus and 1 Mana Regeneration which are not calculated in the suit totals. I also have a slayer set but you don’t necessarily need that).
Chaos Shield - Museum of Vesper Replica
Crimson Cincture
Conjurer’s garb
Mythical Detective of the Royal Guard Boots
Lieutenant of the Britannian Royal Guard Sash
Bloodwood Spirit with +5 Necro/+10 Spirit Speak
Earrings of Protection – Poison Resist
Ranger's Cloak of Augmentation

Reforged/Imbued Pieces

Ring – FCR3/10 DCI/12 SDI/15 Necro/7 Spirit Speak
Brace – 11 LRC/10 DCI/12 SDI/15 Necro/14 Spirit Speak
Studded Gorget – 8 LMC/20 LRC/3 HPR/4 DCI/20 Phys/15 Fire/9 Cold/8 Poison/13 Energy
Studded Leggings – 8 LMC/3 MR/2 HPR/4 DCI/11 Phys/10 Fire/21 Cold/10 Poison/13 Energy
Studded Arms – 8 LMC/20 LRC/2 MR/3 HPR/4 DCI/10 Phys/12 Fire/9 Cold/11 Poison/10 Energy
Studded Gloves – 8 LMC/20 LRC/3 HPR/4 DCI/11 Phys/12 Fire/10 Cold/9 Poison/25 Energy
Studded Tunic – 20 LRC/3 MR/2 HPR/4 DCI/11 Phys/21 Fire/11 Cold/10 Poison/14 Energy

The armor was made with a spined kit choosing Towering/Aegis and Vitality/Rejuvenation.

This suit does not have mana problems. 55 LMC, 120 focus and the MR seem more than enough. In wraith form you can either EQ, wither or nether cyclone to your heart’s content and leech/regen your mana back to full, constantly.

120 Eval and 100 Anatomy give you the 120 defensive wrestling you need. The template lacks resist spells of course but there are ways to get by without it. Like I said if a group of good PKs show up you are dead no matter what. This template is good against the more common raiders, the solo PK. If that disarm archer shows up his disarming isn’t going to do much good. You can out heal the damage he does and either chose to cast a RC and fight him or teleport away. If you are in wraith form switch over to stone form and watch him get really annoyed. When someone raids me on this template after a minute or two of me not dying I usually get “Stone form protection is weak sauce”. Well, I seem to still be alive so it isn’t that weak now is it? Shrug it off and either attempt to kill him or continue to spawn, he will get bored and go away. If you want to attempt a kill on him start with a RC. Usually he isn’t going to have much luck against the RC so cast it, para spam him, corpse skin him curse him, whatever. He’ll be dead soon enough from either you or you and the spawn. Don’t forget mass sleep and purge magic are your friends too. Removing his buffs and slowing his movements is going to go a long way. Revenants can be fun against stealthers, don’t forget the quantity of spells you have at your disposal.

***DISCLAIMER***

These are NOT tips on how to “PvP”. These are tips on how to help you survive longer and make yourself a less desirable target. You are not going to win any duels with this template or these tactics.

So now you are asking: “Podo why share this information?”

Simple! I see these postings about “wolves” and “lambs” and power scrolls needing to be in Trammel and Felucca needing to go away, etc. Well I am here to say Felucca can be just another interesting challenge if you play it right and here is one way to do it. Plus here is my little secret…

Yew gate PvP is…dull. (is that really a secret?) However, a good old fashioned spawn fight can be interesting and fun. So what I find myself doing is working up despise, surviving the miscellaneous raiders and then when the coon pops out we usually have a nice big fight to play in. At that point I switch to a more pvp oriented character and join! On the rare occasion where no one realizes Despise was being worked I’ll toss a “coon up” in GC. Very very rarely that goes unnoticed too. Surprisingly last night (yes a Friday night) on Atlantic I worked up Despise, survived a single raider who never returned and got the champ up. I switched characters but still no one showed up. I announced in GC and still no one showed up so I started working the champ and still no one showed up! I ended up finishing the champ and left with the scrolls. This is a rare occasion and not the result I desired but apparently people have lives other than UO on a Friday night, go figure.

If you find yourself raided by Mystics more often than not here is a tweak to the template that makes you a less effective spawner but will help with the mystics.

120 Magery
120 Evaluating Intelligence
120 Mysticism
120 Focus
120 Magic Resist
100 Anatomy

Swap the Mark of Travesty necro for a chiv/resist one. Swap the Bloodwood Spirit for a Slither. Take one of the studded pieces that only has 3 HPR and make a duplicate with 3 MR. Swap the Ranger’s Cloak of Augmentation for a Shadow Cloak of Rejuvenation. Remake the jewelry as follows:

Brace – FCR 3/Magic Resist 15/LRC 10/SDI 12/DCI 12
Ring – FCR 2/ FC 1/Magic Resist 9/SDI 12/Intelligence Bonus 6

You also ditch the shield so you can use heal stone, spell trigger and pots. The initial template is setup to not use consumables so if you die you lose nothing but a bit of insurance money.

This allows you to stay in protection and still have 120 resist. You could certainly forgo that and instead of adding all of the extra resist go with the magery/eval Mark of Travesty, imbue magery or eval or mysticism or focus or anatomy on the jewelry and have enough skill points to fit 60-70 spellweaving for pixie power.

These are my thoughts and opinions. Do with them what you will but regardless I hope to see you on the field.

Also, I prefer a human character for JOAT. I get a LVL6 Arcane Focus and use Gift of Renewal often.
 
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Rikimaru_Vegeta

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Thanks for this post, feel free to give us more tips. I have been gone a while and find myself rusty with my Mage and found this useful.
 

Rikimaru_Vegeta

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I have a spare account and thought about doing the early parts of the spawn with a char of this type, however, I do not have SA on him. Wither in wraith form. Since I do not have SA; thought about using hiding and ninja? anyway of making that work?

What do you recommend?

106 necro
120 ss
120 mage
120 eval
100 hiding
? ninja; use smoke bombs when needed
100 anat
100 focus (for stam regen)
use same gear you listed.
 

Podolak

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Stratics Legend
You will need stealth for smoke bombs but I think you would be better served not going ninja at all and going hiding/stealth instead. If attacked you can cast invis and then stealth away while in wraith form. Stealthing in wraith form is very convenient I used to have a necro/mage/stealther prior to SA coming out. I used a scrapper's with +skill points to get the rest of the skill room I needed. You only need 100 necro for wither so you can drop that a bit too. You can take the rest of the room you need out of focus. Without mysticism you don't need near 120 focus. even 60-80 focus would be fine.

Be prepared o get slammed for having hiding on a mage. They love to pick on stealth mages for some reason so just thick skin to take the heat!
 
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EIEIO

Visitor
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Stratics Legend
Thanks for the post! Returning player…. When you run your original template with 71 physical resist, do you cast protection?
 

Arcades

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
You can also use the Obi De Ense for +10 focus but takes the place of Tangle/CC.
 

Dennis Mitchell

Visitor
Stratics Veteran
Hello I am new to crafting. I really like the insight and details of this post.

Just a quick question why did you make the armor out of studded and not say plate since it is non-meddable anyways?
 

DJAd

Stratics Legend
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Just a quick question why did you make the armor out of studded and not say plate since it is non-meddable anyways?
You can reach 55lmc with studded / bone. 3% bonus per part up to 5 parts.

I think metal only gives 1% bonus but I can't remember.
 

TimberWolf

Babbling Loonie
Alumni
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Stratics Legend
My stats/ Econ professor would say that the difference from 45% to 55% of anything is a 22% increase. He doesn't play UO but I do and I think a change of 22% in anything is a noticeable one. I will take a 22% reduction in cost of anything.
 

Podolak

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Sorry I hadn't noticed replies in this thread.

DJAd is correct about the use of studded. Yes I believe there is a difference between 45 and 55% LMC as a casting template. This template does not run meditation so studded armor made sense. As he doesn't need to swing a weapon the stam protection wasn't all that important to me.

Yes, there is 71 physical resist on the suit. Protection subtracts 14 physical resistance (or 15 as an elf) and wraith from adds 15 physical resist so they cancel each other out. This is a pvp spawn survival template first, which is why it was designed more for wraith form than rock form.

**Also note that I use heal stone way too much these days and don't actually use this suit anymore. When I eventually get the time to redo the suit for this template I will post it.
 
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TimberWolf

Babbling Loonie
Alumni
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Stratics Legend
Podo I have a question...
when I go on knuckleheads to calculate weight of armor it says you cant put dci on studded. Can you confirm you are right and they are wrong?
 

DJAd

Stratics Legend
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Podo I have a question...
when I go on knuckleheads to calculate weight of armor it says you cant put dci on studded. Can you confirm you are right and they are wrong?
What I do in cases like this is use a jewel (which can have DCI imbued) to check the weight of the property. In this case 5 DCI has a weight of 36. Then I can workout what other mods will fit.

With 5 DCI / HCI on armour you can then have the other 4 mods maxed out.
 

Peekay

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
It's only fair to inform people who don't already know, how to deal with stone form protection and no resist. (Or even just stone form protection)

Stone Form + Protection + No Resist:
1. Purge (Ward Removal Tali if not mystic)
2. Mana Vamp
3. Kill

Stone Form + Protection + Resist:
1. Mana Vamp (While still in protection)
2. Purge (Ward Removal Tali if not mystic)
3. Kill
 
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