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The Dragoon (Bushido Paladin V.2.3)

Duncan Drake

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Duncan what would you do with this char if you came across a 10ssi 35 do clean bracelet. Would you change anything to use it or save it for something else?
yes i would change jewelry. If you use it you dont need essence of battle anymore. You have to imbue with fc1 fcr3 . Just Play around with the stats and see what is needed in the end
 

Garrisons Rage

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Like I said earlier I'm going to play around with refinements a little. I've picked up some by buying them. But I'd also like to start snooping around and stealing in Felucca shops. I'm going to setup one of my characters to do this ... I'm on GL BTW so likely I won't be competing with anyone.

I'd like some advice from the pros .... my intention is to create this character to do NOTHING ELSE. And if the die they die ... so that's the skill set that I'm looking for ....

I'm thinking ....

100 Hiding
100 Lock picking
120 Stealing
100 Snooping
80 Stealth
Magery ... recall, mark, invisible .... 92 so I have 100% success casting mark
Med ...

Anything else that I forgot?
 

Duncan Drake

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Hiding and snooping is not needed. Open the lock trigger the traps and See whats inside. If its worth stealing then do it. I recommend 120 stealing with items/ jewelry

Magery is good for cure heal mark and recall
 

Garrisons Rage

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Hiding and snooping is not needed. Open the lock trigger the traps and See whats inside. If its worth stealing then do it. I recommend 120 stealing with items/ jewelry

Magery is good for cure heal mark and recall
Great ... so I don't need remove trap ..... and I don't need snooping

I figured hiding ... to use with Stealth ?? NO ??

I've got tons of skills on Soul Stones .... (51 at last count) .... only thing I'll have to do some work on is Stealing ... and I've got Shadow Dancers and Burglars Bandana ..... so I've got a decent start .... I'll likely hit New Haven .... and then train a little

Thanks man
 

Geemarc

Visitor
The drop rate on the platemail ones are horrible.

I've been doing regular round trips over the past week or so. I must have stolen about 800 refinements in total, only 7 have been reinforced platemail (only defence and protection as well).

I use the same build on my thief although I have 100 snooping as I use it to steal peerless resources from the zealots in the Exodus dungeon.
 

Duncan Drake

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
The stats will do, but its true finding the right refinements can be a real pain. On Europa platemail invuln. Refinements sell for 10m +
 

Garrisons Rage

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
So after I spend the next 22 years stealing these things I do have a question

I'm seeing that you combine the lesser number refinements into greater number refinements ... and then you combine them with raw materials and you get the product that can be applied/used on your armor ... but I'm not seeing the reason or importance to combining them ..... do they have to be certain ones to apply them? Do they need to be a specific number to match what you want on a piece? So like I said WHY?
 

Duncan Drake

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Refinement Component Levels:
  • Invulnerability - Applies four modifications with a chance to apply five modifications.
  • Fortification - Applies three modifications with a chance to apply four modifications.
  • Hardening - Applies two modifications with a chance to apply three modifications.
  • Protection - Applies one modification with a chance to apply two modifications.
  • Defense - Applies one modification.
 

Garrisons Rage

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Morning Duncan .... I saw and understood that part ..... but why do you have to combine them and not just apply the number of mods that each type provides? Do you only get to apply refinements on a piece once? So if you want to modify 5 properties you need to have a plating that will apply 5? I haven't found any reading that explains why to combine. Like if i had 5 defense .... can't I just use all 5 of them one at a time on a piece to refine all 5 resists?
 

Duncan Drake

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
On each armor part you can only apply 1 point to a specific type of resist. It is not possible to put e.g. 2 points in physical resistance on 1 armor part
 

Garrisons Rage

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
I'm guessing that I'm not asking clearly enough .....

I know that I can only apply 1 point to each resist on a piece of Armor. Let's say I am working with a Platemail Tunic ... I can apply 1 point to Phys, 1 point to Fire, 1 point to Cold, 1 point to Poison, and 1 point to Energy .... this will also give me -5 DCI for that piece ... but could I use 5 single Scour of Defense for Platemail (after combining with Mall alloy) to get those 5 points .... I'm not understanding why I need to combine them if I can use then individually to get those 5 points. Hope I explained myself better .... want me to give you a call :)
 

Duncan Drake

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Ok i understand and the answer is No it doesnt work.
If you want plus 1 in every resist you need a scour of invulnerability. And you have to be lucky you get 5 mods with a 1 In 5 chance. Normally it applies only 4 mods.
Using several defense scours (1 resist) just overwrites your previously applied resist.
 

Garrisons Rage

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Gotcha .... so as much fun as it will be if I want refine 5 pieces I need 5 scours of invulnerability ... and they will more than likely give me 4 instead of 5 .....

And if I'm reading this correctly
• 2 “Type” of Defense required to upgrade to 1 “Type” of Protection.
• 3 “Type” of Protection required to upgrade to 1 “Type” of Hardening.
• 4 “Type” of Hardening required to upgrade to 1 “Type” of Fortification.
• 5 “Type” of Fortification required to upgrade to 1 “Type” of Invulnerability.

I have to combine them in these insane sequence of steps .... 5 Type Defense does not make an Invulnerability ... it makes 2 Type Protection with 1 defense left over ..... and then I have to combine 3 Type Protection and I get 1 Hardening ... and so on up the ladder ??? Is that correct? DAMN
 

Duncan Drake

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Yes but if you have the blackthorn helmet (mace and shield) you have 6 armor parts you can refine. So its a lot easier to get what you need
 

Garrisons Rage

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Hey Duncan .... I'm still playing with Armor .... whenever I try to come up with a with 90/75/75/75/75 it's REAL PAINFUL ... and I mean REAL PAINFUL ... and then I look at yours and you NAILED everything right on the head except for Physical which you were 1 point over ... I have to believe there's a method to your madness :)

I know about crafting stuff that has the lowest in one of the properties (like a 5, or 3, or 2) ..... but when I get done assembling everything I always end up with too many points in one property that causes me to fall short in another.

Do you have a sequence of how you go about it? Do you just craft a bunch of pieces from each slot that have a low property and then assemble if like a puzzle .... of course the real clinker is once you get it assembled you may not be able to get 5 HCI or DCI on that piece and you have to start over ....

If you can think of anything the a "procedure" of sorts please let me know .... I'm accumulating Refinements "SLOWLY" and I'd like to be able to start with a clean suit before applying anything .... Thanks ...
 

Tuan

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
I start with the hardest piece to make, generally the breastplate, and craft that until I get the resists and then reforge that are acceptable.

From there I keep a spreadsheet with running a tally so that I'm always making a piece that fits, so nothing will eventually require something that's not possible.

In the end, I think it took me 4200 attempts to land a gorgot with both the proper resists, and that last piece, you shouldn't plan on needing to reforge, or that 4200 can easily become 20k.

Another way to help yourself is to simply use your head, and to understand that fundamentally, there's no reason to have 75 cold resist vs 74, since the number of things in the game that can do over 100 cold damage is limited (I believe precisely 0), which means that having 75 resist only makes your suit look pretty, but doesn't add any actual functional benefit. The same holds true for poison resist (Paroxymus does land bit poison hits, but if that 1 damage matters, you've done several other things wrong).
 

Garrisons Rage

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Great Explanation .... I did start with the hardest ..... I didn't know enough about the game to know where a point or two would or would not matter .... I guess I was taking the "ANAL RETENTIVE APPROACH" to everything being "PERFECT"

I also do keep a spreadsheet ..... when you say "so that I'm always making a piece that fits" .... what is it that your looking for? Do you try to keep properties fairly level?

Also ... when do you figure out what you will enhance with? Do you have a scheme that you always follow? Or is that another piece of the puzzle ....
 

Duncan Drake

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I do it like Tuan. Crafting the hardest piece first. The last one should be the gorget with no reforging.

I always use an excel spread sheet that gives me an overview regarding what i crafted what the current combined resists are and what needs to be imbued with resist. The material bonus matters though only valorite, verite and agapite are relevant.

Its not that difficult to judge if another part fits in or not. For the last part it may need some time.

Its true cold and poison resist is not needed that often except doing lv7 tmaps (frost dragons) fir example. But hey you never know what new monster types may be introduced in the future. So i crafted the suit i did, it wasnt that difficult.
 

Geemarc

Visitor
I finished my gear yesterday (90,75,75,75,75) with 1 resist imbue on each piece and it took 63k ingots.

I left the gorget until last and I reforged that with HCI (it took 7 tries to get a clean 5 HCI on the reforge). The gorget required 16 out of the random 20 resists, so I had a little room to play but it still took a lot of ingots.

I am very happy with this build it is really fun to play, makes a change from playing my tamer. So far I have killed Navrey (without the stones), several of the abyss mini champs, Miasmas and Balrons in Blackthorn. I also cleared the Humility Champion Spawn (Cold Blood) up to Rikktor but he just does too much damage, luckily an archer came along and finished him with me. I am still not at the 20k fame/karma for maximum DF and I am working hard on getting the refinements, so I still have some work to do.
 

Tuan

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
I also do keep a spreadsheet ..... when you say "so that I'm always making a piece that fits" .... what is it that your looking for? Do you try to keep properties fairly level?

Also ... when do you figure out what you will enhance with? Do you have a scheme that you always follow? Or is that another piece of the puzzle ....
Ideally you want to keep going along needing "average" type pieces. While it is technically possible to get a piece where you get all of the resists from the exceptional bonus all in 2 resist types, the chances of this are extremely small. You're much better off to shoot for something that spreads them evenly (or trying to minimize/maximize just 1).

As far as which metal to use to enhance, it should be reasonably obvious which one you want to use once you make the piece.
 

Tuan

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
Gotcha .... so as much fun as it will be if I want refine 5 pieces I need 5 scours of invulnerability ... and they will more than likely give me 4 instead of 5 .....

And if I'm reading this correctly
• 2 “Type” of Defense required to upgrade to 1 “Type” of Protection.
• 3 “Type” of Protection required to upgrade to 1 “Type” of Hardening.
• 4 “Type” of Hardening required to upgrade to 1 “Type” of Fortification.
• 5 “Type” of Fortification required to upgrade to 1 “Type” of Invulnerability.

I have to combine them in these insane sequence of steps .... 5 Type Defense does not make an Invulnerability ... it makes 2 Type Protection with 1 defense left over ..... and then I have to combine 3 Type Protection and I get 1 Hardening ... and so on up the ladder ??? Is that correct? DAMN
You don't necessarily need to use plate. Ring/Chain/Plate, they're all the same as far as the game mechanics go. Since I wear a robe all the time anyway, you don't see my armor, so I wear a mix of chain/plate/ring/studded which I made using whichever refinements were handy.
 

Duncan Drake

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
You don't necessarily need to use plate. Ring/Chain/Plate, they're all the same as far as the game mechanics go. Since I wear a robe all the time anyway, you don't see my armor, so I wear a mix of chain/plate/ring/studded which I made using whichever refinements were handy.
Yes thats right. All metal armor types work similar regarding stamina loss protection. For my suit i completely used plate armor just for style.
 

Geemarc

Visitor
Hi Duncan, I have a quick question regarding FC and Protection I was hoping you could clear up.

Protection adds a -2 penalty to FC (Chivalry has a FC/FCR cap of 4/6 and Magery is 2/6).

Now does your build have 2 FC to negate the -2 penalty from Protection or does the FC penalty get removed from the cap?

I was under the impression from what I have read that FC could not go into negatives, so I am assuming from your build with Protection active it would change the cap to 2/6 for Chivalry spells and 0/6 for Magery.

This would make it pointless to add FC on a Mage that was going to use Protection?
 

Crimson Hawk Moth

Adventurer
Stratics Veteran
Against most of the biggest things, this isn't true. Almost everything hits harder in melee (and with only 1 or 2 damage types) than they cast, especially over the long haul of a fight to do 50k damage. Even the best casters in the game, like the Blackthorn Wizard Master ultimately will do more melee hits to you than spell damage hits, and most of the melee hits will be for more damage than most of the spells.

Luckily, this is not, in fact, a matter of opinion - it is a math question. With a good enough DB of the base melee damage, skills, and str/int of a mobs, I could model this.

Sorry for reopening this but this is something I have been struggling with as of late.

I have a character that simply tanks most peerless and champ spawns no problems, but If I go to shame level 4 and fight insane mages, they blow me up before I have a chance to react with 4x flame strikes in a row.... after reading this thread and pondering for days, I am considering dropping DCI to get more resist to deal with those sorts of situations. Their low amount of damage they are doing to me via wrestling is nothing compared to eating 4x 20+ dmg flame strikes in a row....
 

Crimson Hawk Moth

Adventurer
Stratics Veteran
I should also add... I got another character that just uses feight and leaf blade and solos those same casters with zero problems.
 

Duncan Drake

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Well if you have problems with mages that heavily famestrike you at least refine to max fire resist. Dci doesnt help here.

And use evasion as often as possible.
 

BeaIank

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Campaign Supporter
Also, those mages have corrupted aura, so hit life leech don't work on them.
This template might not be the most suited to kill them. Also, they have WAY too many hit points and their loot is subpar. Shame was killed in pub 86. The devs should have at the very least cut all the monsters HP there by half after they rolled the new loot global.
 

Crimson Hawk Moth

Adventurer
Stratics Veteran
Its more or less the fire breath hitting me for 50 hps then followed by a few FS. That fire breath wrecks. I assume its firebreath it looks like a fireball I hear the dragon sound when it happens, and I take huge damage on 70 fire resist.
 

JFSF

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
UNLEASHED
Duncan, kinda off topic but id like to gather opinions. What do you think the ultimate suit for this type of character what look like. No holds barred on artifacts or gold. Just curious to see what people come up with.
 

Duncan Drake

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Best is relative. You can replace the crafted parts of the suit with legendary rndm drops with tons of stats.

But thats very difficult and you always have to check that the core abilities are still maxed out
 

Tuan

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
A suit with 30 total Kinetic/ 30 fire and 30 energy eater would make one quite hard to kill, or maxxed HPR, unless something could do 150+ hp to you in < 3 seconds.

If you were running the Bushido mastery, and keeping confidence up, I'm not really sure what out there is going to be able to kill you, unless you miss 17 swings in a row or something.
 

Tabin

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
A suit with 30 total Kinetic/ 30 fire and 30 energy eater would make one quite hard to kill, or maxxed HPR, unless something could do 150+ hp to you in < 3 seconds.

If you were running the Bushido mastery, and keeping confidence up, I'm not really sure what out there is going to be able to kill you, unless you miss 17 swings in a row or something.
So were you able to solo everything in the game with this suit? ;)
 

Tuan

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
Should such a suit ever exist... I'm not sure what, in its current form, you couldn't solo given enough time. He asked what the ultimate (which I took to mean best possible) suit looked like, no holds barred (which I used to unburden myself with the pesky issue of reality...).
 

CorwinXX

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
but If I go to shame level 4 and fight insane mages
They are not difficult. Get Double Axe with Hit Mana Drain instead of HLL. Use Confidence to heal. Sometimes you may need to run away and cure/heal using Chivalry. It usually takes about 5 minutes to kill it. Although my current character has 100 Resisting Spells (and therefore I don't use Protection).

And if you replace 120 Parrying with 120 Healing you must kill it without any problem.
 

Crimson Hawk Moth

Adventurer
Stratics Veteran
They are not difficult. Get Double Axe with Hit Mana Drain instead of HLL. Use Confidence to heal. Sometimes you may need to run away and cure/heal using Chivalry. It usually takes about 5 minutes to kill it. Although my current character has 100 Resisting Spells (and therefore I don't use Protection).

And if you replace 120 Parrying with 120 Healing you must kill it without any problem.
Ill try it again, but when I take 50 insta from the dragon like breath attack, it really smarts. ;x
 

Garrisons Rage

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Hey ....

I've got some questions about my Swamp Dragon ..... I tamed one, fed it, stuck it in a Stable and now I'll Bonded .... just have to transfer it to Garrison's Rage.

But I'm trying to understand more about Barding Armor ..... so here's the chart ...

barding_armor.jpg


If I'm not concerned about durability (it's easy enough to make another set) and I'm not concerned about appearance what type is the best to have?

Figuring that my Resists are all 75 .... even in Protection .... what do I shoot for? Are resists "Capped" at 100 so anything more than 100 is wasted? If t is capped at 100 then Agapite would set all resists at the CAP or above ..... if there is no cap which resists are most valuable to have highest?

Thanks
 

Garrisons Rage

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
I found this on Stratics ....

Damage and Resistance types

With the release of Age of Shadows the combat system in Ultima Online has been changed considerably. One of the most visible changes is the introduction of various damage types and corresponding resistance types. Instead of the old damage vs. AR comparison you now have to consider 5 different types of damage and resist levels.


"When you look at your expanded status bar you will notice the 5 defense levels on the right side of the status gump. From top to bottom they are Physical, Fire, Cold, Poison and Energy. When you are not wearing anything (and not under the influence of magic spells) your five base defense levels are zero percent. Put on armor, jewelry or clothes, cast resistance influencing spells or equip magical weapons to increase or decrease your defenses. The absolute maximum of any resist level for your character is 80%. Therefor, if you are hit during combat, you will always at least receive 20% of the base damage done to you."

It doesn't say if any Swamp Dragon resists adhere to the same CAP after adding them to you character or not ...... I'm thinking that it does and basically ANY Dragon Armor with a Character that has 75/75/75/75/75 would drive you up to the 80 CAP ..... so why not choose what looks best and lasts longest.
 

Zalan

Crazed Zealot
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Swamp Dragon Barding has nothing to do with resist. It flat out absorbs 20% of the damage dealt to you if exceptional and 10% for non-exceptional till it breaks.
 
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ysolt

Seasoned Veteran
Having the right barding deed makes your swampy die less often, that being said shadow gives most durability,while val gives most resist,aggy gives best all around resist.


Swamp dragon doesnt have a resist cap like players do,when i apply my shadow ingot deed to my swampy it has 85 phy resist,and around 80s in energy,but low fire,so depending what you are fighting and what kind of damage the mobs do,and if they dismount,you pick different types of barding deed.but most older mobs dont dismount,only the newer one does,like dragon turtle boss,the dinosaurs,and roof top bosses, so i mostly go for most durability which is shadow.


So when taming or buying a swamp dragon,just like tamers pets go for high rating pets,so when you apply the barding deed it will have very high resist and die less often.
 
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Tuan

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
Just to be clear, that chart only matter when you're swampy is taking damage. Since you intend to stay in the saddle, you should not be too concerned about the resist of the swampy itself. If you're too concerned about him getting hit when you die, just log off quickly and when you log in, he'll be in the aether - after you rez, relog again, and he's back at your side. If you're concerned for his safety should you get dismounted, maybe a confusion blast potion to keep him safe until you can remount is in order.
 

ysolt

Seasoned Veteran
When you think about small detail's like the op,and about swampy,and it's armour you are a perfectionist.

As a perfectionist,one tend's to think of all situation;'s such as what if you have a person that's willing to ress you?,so you let your swamp dragon sit there and take damage.

Not just this situation,just like when you are fighting virtuebane or ozymandias,they dismount you only for few sec's so you want to keep the mount alive long enough to let you remount it after the timer is up.

So in that situation,one want's a swamp dragon to live as long as possible,thus the concern about the swamp dragon's resist.

Confusion potion only works half the time, forgive me if im wrong,but it feel's like to me, it act's like the invis potion the slightest movement and it doesnt work at all.

But of course that might be all just in my head hehe.
 
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Tuan

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
Even if you have a person who is willing to res you, and assuming they start casting res in the exact moment you're killed, by the time you A) get ressed, B) put your own armor back on, and C) get back on your swamp dragon; at least 3 seconds will have gone by. I can log out in under 1s. The perfectionist logs out, thus GUARANTEEING the continued life of his swampy; the risk taker lets the swampy stand there getting hit to see if they can pull off the scenario you lay out.

Confusion potions have nothing to do with movement in my experience. I'm not aware of a situation where a confusion potion fails to work, but I admittedly have only used them a handful of times. When I use them, the fact that I'm walking around doesn't seem to matter. Many of the highest end mobs have "dragon AI" where any movement causes them to attack you. It is possible that you're seeing this effect. Are you using Greater Confusion Blast, or just Confusion Blast? I couldn't find any evidence of anyone else on the internet having had the same complaint; though there isn't much of any discussion of these potions.

If against one of these bosses you get dismounted, and your swampy gets targeted, and you've taken a step away, and you have spammed Close Wounds on him for 3 or 4 seconds, if it gets down to 10 or 15 hp, but isn't killed, that is more luck based on the mix of spells the mob chose than good planning. It likely means he cast an EB against high energy resist, instead of harm against low cold or visa versa.
 

ysolt

Seasoned Veteran
Loggin out to save your swampy is pretty easy,i agree,but then you have to run away from spawn. and get ressed log back in, and get to your corpse. Which get's annoying very fast.


Second,you should try to use confusion blast more , i have tried and used confusion blast more than i want to,but not only does it doesnt work as good as i want it too,but it after time seem's to only make me seem to carry more weight.

Please forgive me i'm such a newb i cannot tell the difference between greater and normal pot.
Have you ever thought about people not trying to use confusion blast enough to try and complain about it?

Heck some people i've meet never even thought about trying invis potion.....

In thoery taking a step away to heal the swampy seem's logical,But do you play in prot? or 4/6?,if not that's my prob,more than usual i get disrupted trying to heal my swampy,that mean's agrro is on me, then i usally have to run away.... then my swampy dies to spawn or w/e.

But i learn now my suit is prot proof, vamp proof corpse skin proof.


Just to make it clear my suit is 75.75.75.75.80,after prot after vamp after if some mob corpse skin's me just cause of the situation of the above that you described.
 
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