Some newbie questions..

[Rasah]

Background: I just returned to UO, and decided to go back to my barding roots. I have a guild that helps me out with PS and gave me some gold to get things started. I do not intend to mooch off them so I'm making a character to start farming mid level monsters/gear to progress into end game. I'll have some opportunities to do Peerless/Champ spawns but for the most part I'll be self-gearing and grinding solo. I am open to changing the template as I become better established.

Gear: 100 LRC 40 LMC 2 FC 3 FCR , and some +int/mana regen. +Jaana's Staff

The current template: 100 mage med focus mysticism music disco provoke
The planned template: 120 music disc focus mage myst and 120 med or voke


I've been browsing the forums and got the impression my planned template should work but I have some questions about.

1) Can't decide on Med or Provoke: with this template and a newbie suit which will be the best? 55 LMC + Provoke versus 40 LMC + Med versus 40 LMC + Provoke? Other?

2) The reason I want to take provoke is because I can't get anything to stay aggroed on my RC. I precast it and drop it and then everything aggros me so I have to stay invis the entire time. I was attempting to do some air eles in Shame level 3 yesterday and couldn't get them under control. I can sit there heal tanking while my RC does work but that isn't what I want to be doing, and sometimes RC got dispelled which forced me to run.

3) With the current template where would you recommend farming so I can start establishing myself? Seems like everyone has millions of gold, and way better gear than anything I can find from the mid-range mobs I am able to hunt, so I assume selling gear drops isn't an option.

I care more about maximizing the template than decorating my house with 1 mil checks but I know I will need some money to get a good suit and +20 powerscrolls.


I'd eventually like to try out Lord GOD's build that he showcased in the "Newly rebuilt suit" thread, but I know it's gonna be a long time before I get there.

 

[A-tron]

I think it comes down to personal preference. Either you run mage/eval or myst/focus in addition to your bard skills. Meditation isn't all that important on your bard until you are running masteries which is very mana comsuming. I personally try to disco/provo things before I cast EV or RC. LMC +INT FC and FCR are a must. Crafting or investing in slayer books and instruments is invaluable too. If you are trying to farm I feel like you are better off maybe sacrificing some stats for a decent luck suit. I personally like to do T maps with my bard. I run 120 music provo disco magery and 100 lockpick mining and either some med or eval. I stone carto after decoding maps you can also stone off mining if you have good technique finding maps. If you are just trying to farm go after some higher level stuff in fel for best loot drops. A nice and easy way to farm and train bard skills is to go into twisted weald and provo cush's onto swoop, decent loot and very safe. Good luck

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

1) While you're training go with Med. A decent suit is subject to opinion obviously but to make life easier on yourself don't worry about it yet. You want all 70's, 100 lrc, 40 lmc, 2/6 casting and any MR, I say any MR because with Med and Focus you'll be ok for now. You'll spend a lot of time Invising/pre-casting Invis while Provoking. GM (100) everything to start with, by the time you get to a point where you need to lower a skill and drain it out of Med you should have plenty.Forget reforging, forget legendary arties, just get it Imbued, you'll have guildies that won't mind doing this for you, but to make life easier on them hunt for the ingredients yourself, it saves you money and works your skills. Plan your suit before hand so you don't waste time, and look up what drops the ingredients, all of the Abyssal mini champion spawns are doable with that template.

2) RC's are red, nothing aggros on red summons (like Blade Spirits), only blue/green (like Elemetals/Demon/Animas). So yeah you can't drop an RC and expect everything to flag it, just won't happen. You could Provoke onto it but that's a waste of time in my opinion. Tie up the spawn with Provoke first, then RC, that way it isn't taking damage. If for example you're tanking while the RC is on the target, cast Sleep/Mass Sleep on the target, and step away/tab out, because monsters target the [NEAREST] [AGRESSOR] your summon will be that when the Sleep wears off. Positioning can be very important. Getting monsters to stand on the same tile as your summon/pet, or you standing on the same tile as them, is a slightly more advanced game play tactic, but for example some monsters are faster than you, or pull you in, and knowing positioning means you can use it to our advantage... those tamers you see with their pets attacking Meph constantly trying to run away and getting pulled back to her, do not understand this concept and die frequently because of it.

3) In the Stygian Abyss, I can't remember where I used to look up Imbuing ingredients, but google or uoguide it. Those mini champ spawns will provide you with the ingredients for LRC, LMC, FC, FCR, Spell Channeling, Mage Weapon. You'll also need Boura Pelts from Boura. All doable with mid level skills. Don't forget to plan the suit before hand to save hunting the ones that are useless. For example you'll need 50 Faery Dust for LRC (it costs 10 for 20 LRC x 5 pieces for 100 LRC), for FC you'll probably need 30 (1 on each jewel 1 to cancel out the - on the weapon)

If you get bored of Stygian Abyss farming (likely), make money at Swoop, or Doom, take a bag of sending. You can also do champs in Ilsh and mop up the gold at the end, or whatever you do with your guildies.

Edit:
When you're at 90/90 Music/Prov, do the masteries quest (uoguide it if you don't know what this is, it's really easy), and use it to help heal and get used to how it works (e.g. it reveals you when active, toggle it on/off etc...) it's a good boost and you gain skill from it. The Discord one too, but I would experiment with that when you're more comfortable with the rest of the template.

 

[DreadLord Lestat]

RCs, like Energy Vortex and Blade Spirits, will attack ANYTHING near it but will not agro anything except what it is attacking. They are red, so other mobs do not attack. The basic idea for a bard template like that is to prov mobs onto each other, disco them, and have a summoned pet like RC or EV attack for extra DPS. Anything summoned will be despellable, the higher the magery of the mob, the more likely it will be despelled. RCs seem to be harder to despell than EVs.

Possible template
120 Music, Prov, Disco and use slayer instruments when possible.
120 Myst, Focus
80 or 100 Magery, 80 is enough to cast 8th Circle spells, barely for invis, recall, gate, rez, cure, heal etc
rest in med and you can put up to +30 med on jewels.

120 Music, Prov, Disco and use slayer instruments when possible.
120 Magery, Eval, Med

or Pure Bard

120 Music, Prov, Disco, Peace and use slayer instruments when possible.
120 Magery and Eval or Med
you can put up to +30 med on jewels, you can also put a lot of Mana Regen on your suit as well

 

[Rasah]

Thanks everyone for the quick responses.

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

As Magery is your melee defense I wouldn't have less than 120.