Trying something new

[Ecliptic_Sins]

Hello me and a rl friend are returning to UO we left many years ago shortly after trammel. we have decided to a pair of thieves. we are planing to run together on Napa. i have read a lot of the posts here on templates and such most seem to be a few years old; which leaves me wondering if things have changed. we are planning on hitting champ spawns and gates. maybe doing some PvM stealing.

what i'm looking for is advice on templates and race advice we're both thinking Human but still not sure.
we know we need stealing (modified to 120)
Stealth (modified to 120)
hiding 100
we want to have magery
Personally after reading here i'm planning on using Ninja (modified high enough to get Llama)
I am pretty sure i want to go Fencing but open to suggestions.
Considering doing poisoning (modified to 80 or 80 real)
other than that we are open to suggestions.

Thanks in advance for all your help!

 

[Nonel]

Hi, and welcome back!

You may be able to sacrifice some stealing points if you intend on doing a lot of spawns. Scrolls only weigh 1 stone, after all. Of course, lower stealing may cause you to fail on that 1-in-100,000 chance you find an uninsured piece of armor or weapon, and will cause a lower success rate in PvM thieving. I guess you'll just have to go with what you primarily plan on doing...120 is safe.

Yes, get ninjitsu. Like you said, at least enough to get into llama/ostard form...though having the full range of forms available to you can really be useful in a pinch. Ki-rin for mad stamina regen, wolf for that extra 20 HP, or Uni so you can deal with mass nox fields. Aside from forms, you'll want to be using shadow jump and mirror images often.

Fencing isn't a bad idea. The ability to instantly go into stealth with the shadow strike is awesome. Especially if you find yourself in a tough spot.

Forget poisoning. Its fun, sure, but its really only useful for killing afk'ers and scripters these days. Those points would be very welcome in other areas. Like magic resist.

Magery... I think this is an overrated skill for a thief. It has infinite use to a faction thief, who may be dealing with a dozen enemy mages trying to trap him, but in the field I think its a waste. Why tele-hide when you can pop a smoke bomb? Honestly, though, you'll be missing this skill the first time you get e-fielded into an area that you cant shadow jump out of. Heh

 

[chessythief]

I'm a big fan of Wraith form, no push threw is awesome during spawns.

 

[Ecliptic_Sins]

Firstly thank you for the advice.
So we have stealing of course along with snooping, stealth and hiding.
Defensive we have Fencing ( what about tactics and anatomy?)
also Ninja should i take it higher than 80?

my reasoning for magery is to have some way to heal, cure and transportation.

would it be more advisable to work alchemy up (could be stoned off) and have some enhance potion items on me to cure and heal and go with another form of travel?

Chessythief said Necro for wraith form. i can see that but what about heaing and curing ? I have read that wraith form allows you to recall effectively.

i'm thinking of only taking stealth and hiding to 80 and using items to make up the difference.
stealing i think i can find some items with some points in that too so would i need to take it to a real 110 or 120 or can i just use items and put those points somewhere else?


I thought about chiv but it's effectiveness lessens with lowered karma.

I'm not guilded and i haven't done any of the faction stuff. I don't know if i'm interested in the faction side of it.

basically;I know eventually i'm gonna get caught and i want to have a way to get myself out of the jam i'm sure to find myself in.

Many years ago i had a thief that i ran with Thom Thumb. So impossibly long ago and so many changes to the game since then. Back then i had no defensive only thief skills and magery. working the cities and banks. now with item insurance and 100% lower regent cost it's a bit more tricky. you found your mark snooped their pack and steal the item as they were recalling away or going through a gate. simply run away stealth ya way to safety wait and drop it in your house or bank box. Mages it was simple catch them chatting it up then snoop their pack, find their regents and grab what you wanted as you went by. Generally taking their Black Pearl first since it is a regent in most spells, and moving on down the list LoL. Now that the Nostalgic moment has passed thank you very much for any and all advise!

 

[Nexus]

Firstly thank you for the advice.
So we have stealing of course along with snooping, stealth and hiding.
Defensive we have Fencing ( what about tactics and anatomy?)
also Ninja should i take it higher than 80?

my reasoning for magery is to have some way to heal, cure and transportation.

would it be more advisable to work alchemy up (could be stoned off) and have some enhance potion items on me to cure and heal and go with another form of travel?

Chessythief said Necro for wraith form. i can see that but what about heaing and curing ? I have read that wraith form allows you to recall effectively.

i'm thinking of only taking stealth and hiding to 80 and using items to make up the difference.
stealing i think i can find some items with some points in that too so would i need to take it to a real 110 or 120 or can i just use items and put those points somewhere else?


I thought about chiv but it's effectiveness lessens with lowered karma.

I'm not guilded and i haven't done any of the faction stuff. I don't know if i'm interested in the faction side of it.

basically;I know eventually i'm gonna get caught and i want to have a way to get myself out of the jam i'm sure to find myself in.

Many years ago i had a thief that i ran with Thom Thumb. So impossibly long ago and so many changes to the game since then. Back then i had no defensive only thief skills and magery. working the cities and banks. now with item insurance and 100% lower regent cost it's a bit more tricky. you found your mark snooped their pack and steal the item as they were recalling away or going through a gate. simply run away stealth ya way to safety wait and drop it in your house or bank box. Mages it was simple catch them chatting it up then snoop their pack, find their regents and grab what you wanted as you went by. Generally taking their Black Pearl first since it is a regent in most spells, and moving on down the list LoL. Now that the Nostalgic moment has passed thank you very much for any and all advise!

Fencing is most useful for Shadow Strike to be honest, and it doesn't require Tactics to use it takes Weapon skill + Stealth I think.

I use magery personally, simply so I can mark runes to various places no other skill lets you do that and it being 6th circle means JOAT doesn't cut it at least with giving you any success rate.

Ninjitsu is pretty much a must if you aren't on Siege and even there it's extremely useful for animal forms. The benefits of various forms all have their uses even low end ones like Dog Form for finding a quiet corner to regen health in while hidden. I get the most use out of it and wolf form for the 20 Hits bonus and mounted speed. On most shards it's Shadow Jump you'll benefit most from, it allows you to circumvent the passive reveal check.

Wraith Form is nice, but the skill requirement for it is so low, you can easily pick up enough.

With Shadow Dancer Leggins, Burglar's Bandana, and the various stealth cloaks running around getting skill isn't difficult, and thanks to Imbuing good jewlery you can make up a ton of skill points, I'm sitting one about 850 or so points on my Thief and still haven't hit the skill cap. With effective suit building you can cap out resists and have enough wiggle room in a template from +Skill items to be extremely flexible.

I'm running.
Hiding
Stealing
Stealth
Snooping
Magery
Fencing
Poisoning
Ninjitsu

All of those skills except poisoning, magery, and ninjitsu are capped out thanks to mod items. Magery is at 110, poisoning is locked at 80 (80% chance for lethal poison), and ninjitsu is modded to like 112 and still gaining.
Fencing is locked at 100, but scrolled to 120 I keep a dagger and a Dread's Revenge (+20 fencing) with me. The other skills use + skill items as well to make up the difference.

 

[Ecliptic_Sins]

Thank you all for the advice. It's greatly appreciated.