Sampire armour and wep update

[Odin of Europa]

I haven't played much in the last year and I'm looking to upgrade my weps and armour.

Template is the old:
Anatomy 100
Bushido 120
Chiv 61 +20 from jewels
Necro 99
Parry 120
Swords 120
Tactics 100 +10 from tali

Studded reforged gorget, tunic, arms, gloves and legs
Imbued jewels - 20 chiv, 25 EP, 30 HCI, 30 DCI, 30 DI
Mace & shield blackthorn norse helm
Despicable quiver
Crimson
Conjurer's garb
Corgul's sash
Boots of escaping
Soldier's medal

Which gives me, in vamp form with pots and no weps equipped:
70/70/70/70/75
150 str / 150 hp
150 dex / 191 stam
19 int / 79 mana
45 HCI & DCI
55 LMC
50 DI

I use bladed staffs, broadswords and double axes; some 100% elemental damage, most phys - with these mods:
HSL, HML, hit lower attack, SSI, DI
HML, HSL, slayer, SSI, DI

I'd like to move the SSI off the weps and onto the suit (jewels, ranger cloak, cameo and town buff).

And now, finally, the questions
1. Studded or metal? The studded suit held up against Medusa and Paroxysmus the other day, but I'm wanting to get back into champ spawns; would metal be better for the stamina protection with multiple enemies?

2. Are champ spawns still soloable with sampires? What about Primevil lich and Abyssal infernal? I never tried those.

3. AI or double strike? I remember a post that one was favoured over the other depending on how high resists were .. but I can't find it or remember the cut off. I've been AI'ing everything apart from Paroxysmus.

4. Hit fatigue or 100% elemental damage .. or both, can I really have it all?? Hit fatigue is new to me I've never used it. Is there any point to 100% elemental on an AI wep?
I was thinking of these mods on the new weps
Spawn - whirlwind wep with HML, HSL, hit area, DI, hit fatigue
Boss - AI / DS wep with HML, HSL, DI, hit lower attack, hit fatigue
4.1 100% elemental damage needed on a spawn wep?
4.2 Is Hit fatigue any use on a spawn wep?

I think that's it, for now; thanks for reading that essay

Any help appreciated

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

I'd like to move the SSI off the weps and onto the suit (jewels, ranger cloak, cameo and town buff).

1. Personally I go Bone/Studded for the look with 55 LMC. No matter what people say I highly doubt stam protection is as complete or reliable as would be useful, where 55 LMC is always abundantly obvious what it does, to me.

2. Yes. Spawns are soloable with pretty much every template.

3. The 'new thing' is to use 100% weapons Onslaught (which lowers the element the weapon is hitting for on the targets resist by 20) then Double Strike. There are probably a few exceptions. I have a newly rebuilt character trying this out and found it not particularly effective at Barracoon, while I know AI can go much hhigher, I haven't finished making weapons for everything yet. But there still seems to be some things you will want to Double Strike, and some you will want to AI. Apart from the addition of Onslaught nothing has really changed.

4. There is no point having 100% elemental damage on an AI weapon providing you can always AI. I haven't bothered using Hit Fatigue because there doesn't seem much point when everything was done before it existed.
4.1. It can be helpful. The way I look at it is make it for the element that the strongest monster on level 3 and 4 is weak too, and include the Hit Area for the same type. For the majority you only need fire and cold.
4.2. Not really, no. As with a spawn the goal is to kill it quickly. Fatigue is more for long fights. However, I still don't agree it is worthwhile at all, based on IF all monsters melee is based on Wresting at the same settings as players the slowest they're going to hit is 2.5s, is it worth a property on your weapon for a 1.25s difference? To me it is not.

5. Other stuff.
Fey Slayer is Imbuable.

Essentially you don't need anything more than the SSI to swing Double Axes as they have Double Strike/Whirlwind, this also covers Bladed Staff for AI. So you only need 20 SSI, 180 Stamina. This can be covered with jewellery/Augmentation without needing to rely on Divine/Town Buff and other things that wear off. Some people like a Stam buffer but a fight rarely hinges on it as you can remove curses a number of ways and have HSL/pots/Divine if needed.

Many people are currently running 20 DCI and all 75's resists with Armour Refinements. Below is my last rebuild, it's not a Sampire obviously, but has a lot of skill points on the jewellery.

 

[Odin of Europa]

Thanks for the help Lord GOD

I've been looking into it more, but I'm still not sure if I should go metal or studded.
I found a nice pair of gloves that I could build either round
8/18/19/17/19 - dex 4, int 2, stam 8, mana 8, MR1, LMC 8

Arties I've been thinking of using are
Mace & shield blackthorn norse helm
Rangers cloak
Crimson
Hawkwinds robe
Corguls sash
Shantys waders
Cameo

I found the info I was looking for on AI vs DS, it's in CorwinXX's Warrior's Guide for New and Returning Players

'Since most of mobs have lowest resistance under 50 DS in combination with Concentrate Weapon usually does more damage than AI. But in some mobs have 70-80 in their lowest resists. In this cases AI does twice more damage. AI does the same damage to all mobs so it's more universal move.'

And a link for more info, Bushido Paladin: AI vs DS

'Min-max (average) damage with AI (Bladed Staff) is: 165-201 (183)
Damage with DS (Double Axe) depends on monster's lowest resist (thanks to Consecrate Weapon). Here is a small table:
20: 276-332 (304)
40: 207-249 (228)
52: 166-199 (182,5)
60: 138-166 (152)
80: 69-83 (76)
90: 34.5-41.5 (38)

So you'd better use AI when a monster has 53+ in all resists.'

Looking through monster resists on Stratics and UOGuide, that I can find; it looks like most of the monsters that I want to hunt, DS would be the better special.
Apart from:

• DreadHorn - lowest resist = phys 40-55
• Medusa - lowest resists = phys, fire and cold 55-65
• Lord Oaks - lowest resists = fire and cold 60-70

But if onslaught lowers the element the weapon is hitting for on the targets resist by 20, then their resists would be lower then 53 in CorwinXX's guide.

Hit fatigue I had seen mentioned in other posts and I picked it to replace SSI as I couldn't think of anything else .. if I ever get my hands on any cameo's I would have two mods to replace. I was thinking of something like this for new weps

• Spawn - HML, HSL, hit energy area, hit fatigue, DI
• Boss - HML, HSL, hit lower attack, hit fatigue, DI

But I'm open to other ideas, maybe hit mana drain?

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

Personally I think Cameo's are the single biggest waste of money in UO. You're talking about AN (read: single) item, that costs 150-200m, and doesn't actually speed up the process of killing anything. Then you're talking about having 6 of them (or more if there's one for Fey etc.), the only area they are practically beneficial is spawn where you need an extra mod for Hit Area, but, was anyone actually struggling with spawn before Cameo's made a ...well, cameo? I can't say I ever have. You could feasibly argue that you could speed up a long fight by adding a Hit Spell, and even if it's weakish at say 10-20 damage that it could equate to several thousand by the end of the fight. Most boss fights the boss has Counter Attacks, so additional low damage ticks actually prolong the fight by triggering these. Try doing a Medusa with and without Hit Spell and see how many lenses you use each time. Was it worth it?

Do you actually NEED Hit Fatigue or Hit Mana Drain to do a Dreadhorn, Medusa or Oaks without dying? Or would it be just for the sake of it?

If you couldn't think of anything else to add to a weapon, you've kind of reached the same conclusion I have, that none of these things are actually making any difference to the fight, just costing time/effort/money trying to obtain them. There's a lot to be said for the old ways and keeping it simple.

 

[Odin of Europa]

No clue for Oaks, never tried to solo him. For DH and Medusa, nope don't need them, but if there's room on the weapon why not use it? Not saying Hit Fatigue or Hit Mana Drain are the best properties to use, they're just options.

 

[BeaIank]

Hit fatigue is worthless on your spawn weapon.
Most things will die way too soon for it to make a difference.
I don't see much point in it on the boss weapon either. It is hard to reforge hit fatigue and 100% elemental on a weapon. And some bosses like Semidar can be wrecked by using onslaught and double strike.
I only use hit fatigue on DH with my macer, and even then I am thinking to replace it with hit mana leech because I have stagger available now.

 

[Odin of Europa]

It is hard to reforge hit fatigue and 100% elemental on a weapon.

Hehe, I've found that out.
I tried on test and was able to make some with 50 hit fatigue + 70 elemental damage. I made 1 out of every 10 weapons I reforged, and then successfully enhanced them all.
On Europa I've only managed to make one .. then broke it when trying to enhance

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

If there's room on the weapon why not use it?

Because it costs a significant amount of time/effort/money. There's only room on the weapon because you put it on the suit, if there's not really anything you can add to the weapon that makes a difference, then why not make a simpler and cheaper suit? Just perspective I suppose, I don't see a need for it, but each to their own.

 

[Merus]

Because it costs a significant amount of time/effort/money. There's only room on the weapon because you put it on the suit, if there's not really anything you can add to the weapon that makes a difference, then why not make a simpler and cheaper suit? Just perspective I suppose, I don't see a need for it, but each to their own.

The cameos allow you to reforge 1 of each element type and use it for any spawn, instead of 6 of each.

 

[Odin of Europa]

I've decided to use studded not metal, its been working for me so far.

The hit fatigue and hit mana drain idea has been dropped, it was fun to try get the mods at first but it soon got boring
Not sure what mod I'll use, may leave the slot spare.

I've seen posts where people don't put EP on their main jewels set, they swap them out when they need to use pots; can this be done in CC without using Assist?

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

The cameos allow you to reforge 1 of each element type and use it for any spawn, instead of 6 of each.

Maybe, but you can cast Consecrate Weapon, for the same effect. Plus you only really need fire/cold for any of the difficult levels of any spawns, barely even need Slayer with WW/Hit Area/Momentum at your disposal. I'd rather reforge 2-3 different elements per spawn than spend a billion plus on Cameos.

 

[Duncan Drake]

I think Lord GOD is right. Cameos are way too expensive for the benefit you get.
You can achieve the same performance with far more cheaper equipment.

 

[Merus]

Accept that you don't have to buy cameos to get them...

 

[King Greg]

Don't forget to factor that you don't hit 100% of the time with double strike as well. I mean its pretty damn close, but you do whiff I don't really start using double strike unless the monsters resists are closer to the 40 range.

100% Elemental weapons are a must for onslaught.

Studded vs Metal I wouldn't worry too much about. Any mix/combination of the two works well enough.

Andddd Cameos are way too expensive right now to try and build your suit around unless you just want to go all out. You can build an entire suit for less than the cost of one cameo, much less an entire set.

 

[Odin of Europa]

Thanks for all the advice everyone

At those high high prices I wont be buying the cameo's, and if I'm lucky enough to get any as drops I may just sell them for that much gold .. think I've found the mod for spare slot on weapons, slayers