Seeking an experianced opinion!!

[Dreadmage]

I am an old UO player, from shortly after the samurai expansion. I hadn't played much before having to move, and losing my pc. Even the one I have now is too weak for UO (lol at myself)! So basically, I am a noob all over again. I will be getting a new pc in about 3 weeks, and plan on getting UO, all of it, upto KR. Anyways, I have been researching UO Stratics, and have developed this template concept, could I get the opinion of some experienced players please.

This is my idea of a Mercenary Knight. Note: intentionally w/o chivalry, thats the merc part, and with healing done via magery, as opposed to healing, I hate bandages, and get frusterated trying to travel w/o magery for recall, and mark.

Strength-100; Dexterity-75; Intelligence-50
Swordsmanship, Tactics, Anatomy, Battle Focus, Parrying-120; and
Magery -100

I appreciate any thoughts, or suggestions.
Thank you.

 

[Guest]

Your not planning on pvp with this template are you? Cause if you are, you going to be losing lots of gold.

PvM it might be okay, but not for the harder magic spamming monsters. your going to be hurting trying to cure and heal with just magery.

I had a similar set up on my warrior years ago, I resisted using chivarly for a long time.

the old non-chivarly, non-bushido warriors time has past, useless your just happy killed ettins and earth elementals in shame. They not that worthless but its close.

I finally broke down and removed magery and replaced it with chivarly. The only thing I can not do with my paladin is mark runes. But I do have a mage that marks for all my characters, so I was not really hurting to mark.

Why are you opposed to healing? Bandages work well, and if you have uoassist you can keep track of them, so you do not run out.

When I am asked about a new template, I usually recommend the following:

chivarly 100
tactics 100
anatomy 100
healing 100
focus 100
fighting skill 100

1 open skill 100

start there then play around with it. Now I know its not super elite, tweaked pally,sammy,necro kill them all everything template. But once I worked it up and learned the in and outs of chivarly the only things I had trouble with were liche lords, succubus, other high level maigc using monsters. So I just went it and started to tweak the build.

I would also suggest doing the new player quests in new haven, you get some blessed items for completing them. They are not the best items but they are blessed (stay with you when you die) so you do not lose gold for insurance, while you are re-learning the game.

Also there are 10 anniversary drops in the legacy dungeons (the original 8) you can get a blessed set of armor that give you all 70s in all your resists. But you also have to get the last piece (a cloak) through a quest and you can only get it once per character.

What shard are you going to be playing on? You might want to ask for help over in that shard forum also.

but thats just my to cents. Welcome back!

 

[Dreadmage]

Well, I live in Ohio, and I don't know if the shards are regionally sync'd or anything. If so, Great Lakes, if not I'm open to suggestion.

I suppose the main reasons I am against chivalry are tithes, I hate the thought of using gold to pay for spells; and I try to roleplay my char a lil bit to keep the fun feel of a char, and I like the merc idea. It leaves me open to doing anything, without violating a rp'd ethics code.

In regards to the bandages, well, I always lost track of them before, and they cluttered my pack. I also am not the fastest button pusher, so it was easier to click an icon, than some bandages burried in my pack. Plus, at early levels, the magery healing far outhealed the bandage healing.

Also, I will only be running one char. I'm a slow gainer as it is, without dividing my time between multiple char's.

I guess I had figured that I would have enough mana to go around if I wasn't using any of the attack side of magery. Ya know, if I only used it for healing, my battle focus would help enough to keep me ok. Maybe even some strategic equipment bonuses to resists, mana, or magery as needed. And, since I wasn't medding, or going for great LRC, I could get the armor that really defends well, with bonuses to whatever it seemed I would need at that point.

Wow! I really am rambling, sorry. Thank you for helping, do you think there's anyway to really make this work?

BTW, this would be strictly for PVM, I don't plan on PVP untill I have learned the game. I remember being lunchmeat for everyone in Fel, and it wasn't fun at all.

Thanks again,

 

[imported_ParadoxUO]

Mage Necro Spellweaver.

Lower Reagent Cost suit.
(start with inscription 49, do the inscription quest and get a undead slayer spellbook)

You will have a character able to destroy anything... a DreadMage.

(also needs a fast mount)

 

[Dreadmage]

Thanks for the input, but what all would this template need? Wasn't really planning on a Necro, however I do have an Undead fetish of sorts, most of my D&D chars, are either Necro Wizs, Necro Clers, or Dread Necros, and I usually work towards the True Necro Prestige Class. Still, I was kinda wanting to go the warrior route, with only a little magic.

Thanks again,

 

[Guest]

The character you laid out in your original post will work.

He just will not be very effective against the harder spell using monsters.

I understand your wanting to rp your character, but if you think about it, tithing for your spells is really not any different than buying your spell components (bloodmoss, black pearl, etc). Its just a different set of spells.

As for bandages, you can make a macro in game to bandage self, then lock it to one button, bam when you hit the button of your choice you start using the bandage. But its your choice.

As far as picking a shard to play on. Well you should pick one that is fastest for you. Example in the 2D client just before you enter there is a button labelled connection hit it a few times to get the fastest connection to your computer. It will rearrange the list of shards to show you the fastest to the slow in the list.

you need a fast connection to have less lag. Then depending on your list, I would pick one of the top 3 from it. I would not play any of the asia named shards or europa/drenchanfels because of the time difference. You will see very few players on these shards since you will be playing (on eastern time) overnight for most of those players on the other side of the world.

So you mostly looking at any of the US named shards.

 

[Dreadmage]

Ok, well I have researched the healing vs. magery thing a little more, and I see where healing will be more effective than magery once my skill is around 65-70. So healing may be better long term, and I never realized bandages alowwed you to res. Like I said, I'm way too noob. lol My main concern would be recalling without magery or chivalry; and setting up the bandage macro, I don't remember how to do that.

BTW: I was looking at some of the eye-candy for KR, and noticed they have completely revamped the inventory, you get organized slots now, that is awsome, I was always losing things in my own backpack before! lol

Thank you Warsong, your opinions have been invaluable.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

I am an old UO player, from shortly after the samurai expansion. I hadn't played much before having to move, and losing my pc. Even the one I have now is too weak for UO (lol at myself)! So basically, I am a noob all over again. I will be getting a new pc in about 3 weeks, and plan on getting UO, all of it, upto KR. Anyways, I have been researching UO Stratics, and have developed this template concept, could I get the opinion of some experienced players please.

This is my idea of a Mercenary Knight. Note: intentionally w/o chivalry, thats the merc part, and with healing done via magery, as opposed to healing, I hate bandages, and get frusterated trying to travel w/o magery for recall, and mark.

Strength-100; Dexterity-75; Intelligence-50
Swordsmanship, Tactics, Anatomy, Battle Focus, Parrying-120; and
Magery -100

I appreciate any thoughts, or suggestions.
Thank you.

[/ QUOTE ]

Any template is viable, which is the beauty of UO. My guildmates and I have created numerous accounts to have fun with different templates. My advice is just to go for it and don't let the naysayers hold you back. They might not be skilled as a given template and so will try and tell the world it sucks, when in reality others might find it to be an excellent template. There are pros and cons to the different combinations of skills. The real key is just to gain experience at playing a given template.

 

[Dreadmage]

You are completely correct, and although I am interested in as much sound advice as I can acquire; I suppose in the end I will be playing the char I feel most comfortable with.

Thank you for your advice, it is appreciated.

 

[Cat Crimson]

A couple of thoughts :

You don't have resist on your template - that's a bit worrying

I know you can get 70's resist suits ( ie the Virtue set ) but it would help if you perhaps had resist skill.

You could also chug potions to heal/cure etc.

Also, alas but, no spells of any kind are " free " from some kind of cost...

But, why don't you make an " instant " character on the test centre shard ( haven't looked but there's usually one up and running ) with the various templates to see how you like them and how they work out before comitting to a build ? Also, these days, with soulstones you have a lot more flexibility in how to build a character and templates etc

 

[Basara]

If you don't think tithing fits into your RP view, consider that if you put only 100 gold into tithing, then wear a 100% LRC suit, you never have to tithe again, so long as you wear that suit. It also deals with that pesky reagent issue with magery and necromancy (which is, indirectly, also paying to cast spells). The only requirement for using LRC with Chivalry is that you have to have at least the amount of the spell you cast in the tithing points, even if LRC keeps it from actually being used.

Another neat trick involves Spellweaving, and the Human trait of "Jack of all Trades" that was added with Mondain's Legacy.

If you complete the spellweaving quest with a human, they get access to their phantom "20 points in every skill" for spellweaving. This means that they can cast arcane circle, nature's fury, gift of renewal, and a couple other spells from spellweaving, provided they have them in their book.

The "JoaT" bonus also means that you can get up to 4 other people with no spellweaving into a circle, pentagram or abbatoir, and cast Arcane Circle for a higher focus. With a level 4 focus (caster and 3 other people in circle), the gift of renewal spell becomes a force to be reckoned with, allowing the target to regenerate about 9 HP every 2 seconds, for nearly 2 minutes. The power and duration of the other spells also goes up with the focus. And, the focus lasts 1 hour per level of the focus (i.e. 1 hour per valid person in the circle, up to 5 - and a circle in the safe area of the prism of light dungeon gives a +1 level bonus when used).

 

[Dreadmage]

In response to both Cat Crimson, and Basara; you make interesting points. I am very unfamiliar with spellweaving, and test shards. I will have to research spellweaving, but my first question is how frequently do you come across these arcane circles, and is spellweaving a potent healing skill w/o the circle at a skill of 20.0? In regards to the chivalry use even with the LRC suit, it still would be a difficult thing for me to do. A: it still violates the rp aspect, and B: I still am not sure the healing offered through chiv is sufficient when compared to magery, or even healing.

The idea of the test shard is an exciting one to me. I have never used a test shard before, how does it work? Just make temp chars, and playtest I presume. I look forward to making good use of this if it is available.

Thank you both, sincerely...

 

[Guest]

The TC is quite different. You can set stats and skills to whatever value you want to try out. Resources, arties and more are available for the entry of a command.

be sure to read your journal as soon as you have entered ... the commands are there. CTRL=J brings up the journal, sonce it is no longer on the paperdoll.

 

[Dreadmage]

Thank you T'Amon, I think I'll try my template there and tweak as needed. That seems like the best way to figure it out.

Thanks to all of you, from here I think I can try out my template, see how it plays, tweak it by your suggestions as needed, and come up with something I will enjoy.

I have played a couple of different mmorpg's over the years, and in my experiance the UO community is the best, by far.

Thank you all!!

 

[Guest]

welcome,

please let us know here which shard you decided to play on. There are quite a few of us willing to help out in game.

If you decide to call Lake Superior home...well if you ever see Warsong running by give me a shout. Always willing to talk and help out.

Safe travels!

 

[Dreadmage]

Will do, as soon as I'm on ( and spent a couple of hours soaking in the joy od UO ) I will come back here, and post my shard of choice. LS is currently one of my top guesstimates as to which shard will work. That and GL. But I'll let you all know.

Thanks Warsong, well, all of you really...

 

[Good_Ole_Lefty]

Chiv would be better than the magery. It benefits warriors in many aspects. Like magery it has curring,healing,recalling and resurection abilities. With the bonus of warrior buffs. Magery on the template would require you to use spellchanneling weapons, then of course you would have to decide on weather to wear mage jewelry for casting speed or warrior jewls.

UO is quite different now as compaired to the old days.

If your concern is the RP aspect, you shouldn't worry alot of this is reflected by your fame and karma as well as your RP expertise. Think of your char as a fallen Knight, or Death Knight :] As for tithing, this is donating, not buying. With mages you buy reagents :]

 

[Guest]

120 wepskill
100 tactics
110anatomy
100 healing
110 parry
100 medi
70 chiv

medable amour!... parry is cool, and then get some fc/fcr jewel/shield with hci/dci. This be pretty cool. Also use a life leech wep then!

 

[Dreadmage]

Ok, that was actually something I had forgot to consider, spell channeling weapons, I don't mind having to use one, but that would prolly keep the arty &amp; rare weapons unavailable to me. I mean really, how often will I come across a high HML, HCI , Spell Channeling sword? Not too often is my guess, or pretty expensive. So that is something I will have to consider on the test shard. It kinda sucks, but it's beginning to sound like chiv is unavoidable.

Ok, let me revamp my original question a little.

If you were running a char with skill like I listed in the beginning ( I realize most of you wouldn't) what equipment that you have seen in game would you choose to use on that char to achieve the best workable outcome? And, how do you think that turn out?

Thanks to Lefty for pointing this out!
Thanks to you all...

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

Ok, that was actually something I had forgot to consider, spell channeling weapons, I don't mind having to use one, but that would prolly keep the arty &amp; rare weapons unavailable to me. I mean really, how often will I come across a high HML, HCI , Spell Channeling sword? Not too often is my guess, or pretty expensive. So that is something I will have to consider on the test shard. It kinda sucks, but it's beginning to sound like chiv is unavoidable.

Ok, let me revamp my original question a little.

If you were running a char with skill like I listed in the beginning ( I realize most of you wouldn't) what equipment that you have seen in game would you choose to use on that char to achieve the best workable outcome? And, how do you think that turn out?

Thanks to Lefty for pointing this out!
Thanks to you all...

[/ QUOTE ]

With new runic changes its easy to get some cool SC weapons pretty easy!

BUT, you can get alot better weps without it. So yes for warriors chiv is alot better these days. Also with 4 FC/4 fcr you can heal faster with chiv spells then magery!