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Warrior Skill FAQ
Below is the FAQ for gaining the skills associated with the UO Warrior. Please try and remember that raising skills should be fun and not a race to see how fast you can become a 7x GM Warrior. Start your Warrior with 50 Healing and 50 Magic Resist. These are probably the hardest skills to raise although Resist is pretty easy to get to 50. You may want to choose another skill besides resist if you are looking to get a “newbie” item from some other skill. Make your highest stat Dexterity, this will allow you to gain skills faster. Some players will even start with 10 Strength. Although I would recommend at least 20 Strength for newer players.
How do I GM Tactics, Macing, Fencing, Swordsmanship, Wrestling?
With the changes brought to us by Publish 16 the old methods of raising weapon skills are no longer effective. In order to gain you must be able to hit your opponent, and their melee skill must be in the same range as yours.
Sparring a Guild Mate that has similar Tacts/Weapon skills is a good way of gaining. The "Pits" in Jhelom is another option. If you decide to try Jhelom take lots of bandages, a few hundred gold, and a weapon that causes minimal damage (i.e. a Wand if your a macer). Depending on your skill level hire the following Npcs:
30-60: 6gp wrestlers
60-75: 8gp wrestlers
75-90: 7gp fighters
90+: 8gp fighters
Try to avoid hiring an NPC wielding a macing weapon, they will destroy your armor and lower your stamina. This means you will take more damage and swing slower, meaning less gains.
What other monsters can I fight to GM Weapon Skills?
Fighting monsters to gain weapon skills is also very effective. Its also much more enjoyable and profitable. Here is a list of monsters that can be fought to gain skill, depending on your skill level, and where you can find them:
0-30 (skill can be bought up to 28-32 if you find the right npc)
Birds, mongbats, cats, boars, pigs, dogs, cows, goats, sheeps, rabbits, chickens, snakes, slimes
Any forest almost anywhere, near minoc/yew moongate, outside delucia.
30-45
-Hinds, llamas, horses, great harts, ridgebacks, (tamed/released) bulls, eagles, gorillas, mountain goats, timber wolves, giant rats
Moonglow (right outside of town on the South and Eastern sides). Delucia has lots of great harts and bulls north and east of town. Around minoc moongate there's a few great harts and bulls as well. If you find you're out of targets, bulls can be good for gaining, but you'll probably make a lot of tamers mad. Ridgebacks can be found in ilshenar's central area, the easiest way is the compassion gate, then south and through the cavey entrance and up. There's usually a lot of tamers busy with them though.
45-70
-Skeletons, liches
Any graveyard, but I like Yew since it spawns *only* skeletons. Just beware of any bog things or plague beasts if you fight in Trammel. Yew crypts in Trammel is also good. You should only fight liches of course if you're just training another combat skill(and got high resist), but i found i gained pretty good on them at this level.
70-80
-Lizardmen
You can go to a swamp, like the one beneath Compassion, the Trinsic swamps, or the Destard swamps, but you can also go to Lvl. 1 Despise (I prefer there). No need to worry about jukas, ratmen, plague beasts, and bog things. Also the cold blood title spawn(when it's at it's lowest level) in ilshenar/felucca/lost lands has tons of lizardmen.
80-85
-Ratmen
Head to the Destard swamps on the North-West side, lure a few ratmen away and fight them 1 by 1. Also, in ilshenar, north of sacrifice, there is a medium size rat fort, you'll probably have to drag a few away at a time there. You can also go into the cave where the spawn is smaller.
-Orcs
The orc dungeon, lure a few of them away and attack them. Spawning orc camps around delucia or the orc forts near cove and britain also work well.
85-90
-Harpys
Covetous Lvl. 1 or lvl 2, just have to watch out for the occasional stone harpy, lvl2 doesn't have any stone harpys though. In ilshenar there's also a harpy nest north/east of the spirituality gate, be sure not to have negative karma or you'll be swarmed by pixies!
90-GM
-Harpys, stone harpys
As said above. Stone harpys can be found in the same place, they've got slightly higher combat skills but hit much harder, so they might not be a good choice.
- NPC warriors
Either hire one or fight them in the jhelom fighting pit.
- Ogre lords
Despise lvl3, some rune libraries have specific rune to this place. Best for archers though since they hit so hard.
- Earth elementals
Shame Lvl. 1, or if it's camped there you can go to Lvl. 2 or 3. There's also some places in Ilshenar, in the desert outside the gargoyle city, around the rocky place north of gargoyle city(get there by honor shrine, walk up and into the cave entrance), the rocky place south of the gargoyle city(it no longer has ore elementals) and in the ratman cave mentioned above(3 tiny spawn spots with only 2 earthys each)
-Bone and skeleton knights
City of the Dead in the lost lands, or if you can get a few friends you can head over to Deceit Lvl. 2, a.k.a. the BK room
GM-120
Several things work above GM. NPCs still work, but while easy, the gains are very slow. Rotting corpses are very effective, especially if you lure one up to the humility shrine in Ilshenar and use the ankh to cure poison. They can also be found at the bottom of covetous. With a little manipulation of the spawn a wall, like the infamous bone wall can be created.
Golems can also take you fairly easily up to 115. Anything else that has a strong melee should also be effective.
Parrying
Parry is a little harder to GM. It is important to understand the parry skill before becoming a GM Parrier. The chance to parry a blow is based on your parry skill as well as the type of shield you are using. The higher the base AR of a shield the more damage you will parry, but the less often you will parry a blow. So using lower AR shields use the parry skill more often and will raise your skill faster. Bucklers are a very good choice to GM Parry.
The formula for chance to parry is:
chance to block = skill - base AR * 2
Just about any creature will give gains up into the 50’s. After that fight hard hitting creatures like Bone Knights and Earth Elementals until you get into the 80’s or 90’s. Fighting more than one creature at at time will also help speed gains. Gains will slow down at this point. Fighting Cyclops, Stone Creatures, Dull Copper Elementals, Titans, Deamons, and any other hard hitting creatures will get you to GM from that point.
It does not matter what type of armor you wear while working parry.
If you are in a hurry to GM Parry the fastest method is to fight a group of Harpies at the same time. Try and get a Stone Harpie plus at least 4 regular Harpies on you at the same time. A friend to help you heal is helpful but you can do this method solo.
You can still GM off of Blade Spirits but not as fast as before Blade Spirits were changed. You will need to fight several at the same time.
Healing
Healing raises fairly quick until you get into the mid to upper 80's. The best way to raise healing is to heal yourself and others as often as you can. Healing gains are mainly based on movement not on the amount of damage healed. Apply a bandage anytime you take any damage and move around in-between heal attempts.
Once you get into the 80's the gains will slow down. Attempting to resurrect a ghost is the fastest way to do this, but it can be done solo by using a magic wizards hat. By putting the hat on and then off again you will have 5 hit points to heal. You can often get a healing partner by posting a message in the healing forum. The ghost can just answer no when the resurrect box comes up.
Anatomy
There are 3 ways to raise anatomy.
Directly by using the Anatomy skill on Players/Creatures. Set up a macro and use it all the time on other players as well as monsters.
Indirectly from hitting Creatures/Players. Kill as many creatures as possible. Killing different types of creatures seems to work better than killing the same thing over and over again.
Indirectly by using the Healing skill. As with healing, apply a bandage any time you can. Anatomy can be GM’d at the same time as healing as noted above. There is currently a little Anatomy “trick” that can also be used. The idea is to get on a boat and apply bandages until you get an Anatomy gain. Immediately stop the boat, lock your healing skill then continually apply bandages (using a Magic Wizards Hat works well). Using this last method is the currently the fastest way to GM Anatomy. Some players report getting gains of greater than 30-40 points of Anatomy in one spot.
Magic Resist
Magic resist is a very important skill and you should try and get it as high as you can. If you want to fight the hard creatures or PvP you will need Magic Resist. Magic Resist is also a difficult skill to GM. With the removal of powerhour and the implentation of control slots on summoned creatures makes resist much harder to gain.
The fastest way to GM Resist is to have several mage friends summon Daemons on the shore while you sit on a boat. Attack the Daemons and have them cast on you until out they are out of mana. You will need several healers to survive the mana dumps. Remember, summoned daemons have been vastly improved, you won't need nearly as many as people used to use. 1-3 should give good gains.
For those of us who would prefer to raise it with normal game play try the following.
0-50
Cast Fire Field and run through it. Don't just stand in it, run back and forth. For this to be effective you will either need to be in a guild or in Felucca.
50-80
Almost any magical creature will give gains in this range (Liches, Airs, Waters, Fires, Daemons, Elder Gazers, Orc Mages etc.) Fight as many of these creatures as you can.
80-100
This is when things start to get hard. You need to have magical monsters casting spells on you continuously. The tougher creatures (Elder Gazers, Daemons etc) take too long to kill and gains from these are very slow. Their mana runs out before they are dead and you spend too much time finishing them off.
The best creatures to fight at this stage are Bone Magi, Rat Magi, Evil Mage Lords, Wisps and/or Reapers. Bone Magi are possibly the best. They have a low number of hit points and cast lots of 6th and 7th circle spells. There are two main areas where these spawn. Deciet and the Graveyard in the Fire Dungeon. Wisps can be found in many areas, a good Reaper spawn can be found north of Minoc.
Once you get into the 90's try and get two to three Bone Magi (or whatever creatures you are fighting) casting on you at the same time. This is the most efficient way to raise resist, since you need lots and lots of spells cast on you to raise it. Allow the Creatures to get low on Mana, kill them, and get the next ones that spawn. Continue this until you GM. Expect gains of 0.2-0.8 at this level. You may get skunked every so often, just keep at it and you will get to GM.
Rat magi are also effective, there is a set of Ruins in ilshenar near the Sacrifice Shrine where two of these spawn. I GM'd resist on one of my characters fighting these. I was able to do this fighting a single Rat Magi most of the time.
Thanks to: Beren, Vidala, Seas, Stoneduck
Below is the FAQ for gaining the skills associated with the UO Warrior. Please try and remember that raising skills should be fun and not a race to see how fast you can become a 7x GM Warrior. Start your Warrior with 50 Healing and 50 Magic Resist. These are probably the hardest skills to raise although Resist is pretty easy to get to 50. You may want to choose another skill besides resist if you are looking to get a “newbie” item from some other skill. Make your highest stat Dexterity, this will allow you to gain skills faster. Some players will even start with 10 Strength. Although I would recommend at least 20 Strength for newer players.
How do I GM Tactics, Macing, Fencing, Swordsmanship, Wrestling?
With the changes brought to us by Publish 16 the old methods of raising weapon skills are no longer effective. In order to gain you must be able to hit your opponent, and their melee skill must be in the same range as yours.
Sparring a Guild Mate that has similar Tacts/Weapon skills is a good way of gaining. The "Pits" in Jhelom is another option. If you decide to try Jhelom take lots of bandages, a few hundred gold, and a weapon that causes minimal damage (i.e. a Wand if your a macer). Depending on your skill level hire the following Npcs:
30-60: 6gp wrestlers
60-75: 8gp wrestlers
75-90: 7gp fighters
90+: 8gp fighters
Try to avoid hiring an NPC wielding a macing weapon, they will destroy your armor and lower your stamina. This means you will take more damage and swing slower, meaning less gains.
What other monsters can I fight to GM Weapon Skills?
Fighting monsters to gain weapon skills is also very effective. Its also much more enjoyable and profitable. Here is a list of monsters that can be fought to gain skill, depending on your skill level, and where you can find them:
0-30 (skill can be bought up to 28-32 if you find the right npc)
Birds, mongbats, cats, boars, pigs, dogs, cows, goats, sheeps, rabbits, chickens, snakes, slimes
Any forest almost anywhere, near minoc/yew moongate, outside delucia.
30-45
-Hinds, llamas, horses, great harts, ridgebacks, (tamed/released) bulls, eagles, gorillas, mountain goats, timber wolves, giant rats
Moonglow (right outside of town on the South and Eastern sides). Delucia has lots of great harts and bulls north and east of town. Around minoc moongate there's a few great harts and bulls as well. If you find you're out of targets, bulls can be good for gaining, but you'll probably make a lot of tamers mad. Ridgebacks can be found in ilshenar's central area, the easiest way is the compassion gate, then south and through the cavey entrance and up. There's usually a lot of tamers busy with them though.
45-70
-Skeletons, liches
Any graveyard, but I like Yew since it spawns *only* skeletons. Just beware of any bog things or plague beasts if you fight in Trammel. Yew crypts in Trammel is also good. You should only fight liches of course if you're just training another combat skill(and got high resist), but i found i gained pretty good on them at this level.
70-80
-Lizardmen
You can go to a swamp, like the one beneath Compassion, the Trinsic swamps, or the Destard swamps, but you can also go to Lvl. 1 Despise (I prefer there). No need to worry about jukas, ratmen, plague beasts, and bog things. Also the cold blood title spawn(when it's at it's lowest level) in ilshenar/felucca/lost lands has tons of lizardmen.
80-85
-Ratmen
Head to the Destard swamps on the North-West side, lure a few ratmen away and fight them 1 by 1. Also, in ilshenar, north of sacrifice, there is a medium size rat fort, you'll probably have to drag a few away at a time there. You can also go into the cave where the spawn is smaller.
-Orcs
The orc dungeon, lure a few of them away and attack them. Spawning orc camps around delucia or the orc forts near cove and britain also work well.
85-90
-Harpys
Covetous Lvl. 1 or lvl 2, just have to watch out for the occasional stone harpy, lvl2 doesn't have any stone harpys though. In ilshenar there's also a harpy nest north/east of the spirituality gate, be sure not to have negative karma or you'll be swarmed by pixies!
90-GM
-Harpys, stone harpys
As said above. Stone harpys can be found in the same place, they've got slightly higher combat skills but hit much harder, so they might not be a good choice.
- NPC warriors
Either hire one or fight them in the jhelom fighting pit.
- Ogre lords
Despise lvl3, some rune libraries have specific rune to this place. Best for archers though since they hit so hard.
- Earth elementals
Shame Lvl. 1, or if it's camped there you can go to Lvl. 2 or 3. There's also some places in Ilshenar, in the desert outside the gargoyle city, around the rocky place north of gargoyle city(get there by honor shrine, walk up and into the cave entrance), the rocky place south of the gargoyle city(it no longer has ore elementals) and in the ratman cave mentioned above(3 tiny spawn spots with only 2 earthys each)
-Bone and skeleton knights
City of the Dead in the lost lands, or if you can get a few friends you can head over to Deceit Lvl. 2, a.k.a. the BK room
GM-120
Several things work above GM. NPCs still work, but while easy, the gains are very slow. Rotting corpses are very effective, especially if you lure one up to the humility shrine in Ilshenar and use the ankh to cure poison. They can also be found at the bottom of covetous. With a little manipulation of the spawn a wall, like the infamous bone wall can be created.
Golems can also take you fairly easily up to 115. Anything else that has a strong melee should also be effective.
Parrying
Parry is a little harder to GM. It is important to understand the parry skill before becoming a GM Parrier. The chance to parry a blow is based on your parry skill as well as the type of shield you are using. The higher the base AR of a shield the more damage you will parry, but the less often you will parry a blow. So using lower AR shields use the parry skill more often and will raise your skill faster. Bucklers are a very good choice to GM Parry.
The formula for chance to parry is:
chance to block = skill - base AR * 2
Just about any creature will give gains up into the 50’s. After that fight hard hitting creatures like Bone Knights and Earth Elementals until you get into the 80’s or 90’s. Fighting more than one creature at at time will also help speed gains. Gains will slow down at this point. Fighting Cyclops, Stone Creatures, Dull Copper Elementals, Titans, Deamons, and any other hard hitting creatures will get you to GM from that point.
It does not matter what type of armor you wear while working parry.
If you are in a hurry to GM Parry the fastest method is to fight a group of Harpies at the same time. Try and get a Stone Harpie plus at least 4 regular Harpies on you at the same time. A friend to help you heal is helpful but you can do this method solo.
You can still GM off of Blade Spirits but not as fast as before Blade Spirits were changed. You will need to fight several at the same time.
Healing
Healing raises fairly quick until you get into the mid to upper 80's. The best way to raise healing is to heal yourself and others as often as you can. Healing gains are mainly based on movement not on the amount of damage healed. Apply a bandage anytime you take any damage and move around in-between heal attempts.
Once you get into the 80's the gains will slow down. Attempting to resurrect a ghost is the fastest way to do this, but it can be done solo by using a magic wizards hat. By putting the hat on and then off again you will have 5 hit points to heal. You can often get a healing partner by posting a message in the healing forum. The ghost can just answer no when the resurrect box comes up.
Anatomy
There are 3 ways to raise anatomy.
Directly by using the Anatomy skill on Players/Creatures. Set up a macro and use it all the time on other players as well as monsters.
Indirectly from hitting Creatures/Players. Kill as many creatures as possible. Killing different types of creatures seems to work better than killing the same thing over and over again.
Indirectly by using the Healing skill. As with healing, apply a bandage any time you can. Anatomy can be GM’d at the same time as healing as noted above. There is currently a little Anatomy “trick” that can also be used. The idea is to get on a boat and apply bandages until you get an Anatomy gain. Immediately stop the boat, lock your healing skill then continually apply bandages (using a Magic Wizards Hat works well). Using this last method is the currently the fastest way to GM Anatomy. Some players report getting gains of greater than 30-40 points of Anatomy in one spot.
Magic Resist
Magic resist is a very important skill and you should try and get it as high as you can. If you want to fight the hard creatures or PvP you will need Magic Resist. Magic Resist is also a difficult skill to GM. With the removal of powerhour and the implentation of control slots on summoned creatures makes resist much harder to gain.
The fastest way to GM Resist is to have several mage friends summon Daemons on the shore while you sit on a boat. Attack the Daemons and have them cast on you until out they are out of mana. You will need several healers to survive the mana dumps. Remember, summoned daemons have been vastly improved, you won't need nearly as many as people used to use. 1-3 should give good gains.
For those of us who would prefer to raise it with normal game play try the following.
0-50
Cast Fire Field and run through it. Don't just stand in it, run back and forth. For this to be effective you will either need to be in a guild or in Felucca.
50-80
Almost any magical creature will give gains in this range (Liches, Airs, Waters, Fires, Daemons, Elder Gazers, Orc Mages etc.) Fight as many of these creatures as you can.
80-100
This is when things start to get hard. You need to have magical monsters casting spells on you continuously. The tougher creatures (Elder Gazers, Daemons etc) take too long to kill and gains from these are very slow. Their mana runs out before they are dead and you spend too much time finishing them off.
The best creatures to fight at this stage are Bone Magi, Rat Magi, Evil Mage Lords, Wisps and/or Reapers. Bone Magi are possibly the best. They have a low number of hit points and cast lots of 6th and 7th circle spells. There are two main areas where these spawn. Deciet and the Graveyard in the Fire Dungeon. Wisps can be found in many areas, a good Reaper spawn can be found north of Minoc.
Once you get into the 90's try and get two to three Bone Magi (or whatever creatures you are fighting) casting on you at the same time. This is the most efficient way to raise resist, since you need lots and lots of spells cast on you to raise it. Allow the Creatures to get low on Mana, kill them, and get the next ones that spawn. Continue this until you GM. Expect gains of 0.2-0.8 at this level. You may get skunked every so often, just keep at it and you will get to GM.
Rat magi are also effective, there is a set of Ruins in ilshenar near the Sacrifice Shrine where two of these spawn. I GM'd resist on one of my characters fighting these. I was able to do this fighting a single Rat Magi most of the time.
Thanks to: Beren, Vidala, Seas, Stoneduck
What are Stats and how do they effect my skills?
The 3 stats are Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence.
Strength effects both your hit points and the amount of damage you do when using a weapon. Strength also determines how much weight you can carry. Your Hit Points are determined by the formula HP=(Strength/2) + 50
Dexterity is directly related to your stamina. Your Stamina determines your weapon swing speed. i.e. the higher your Dexterity/Stamina the faster you can swing a weapon.
Intelligence is directly related to your mana. Mana is needed to cast spells.
How do I raise my stats?
Your Stats will raise with normal game play, if you are trying to raise your Stats fast use the following method. The fastest way to raise stats is by using the “Sea Saw” method. To do this you must be at your skill cap of 700. The idea is to “Sea Saw” between 2 skills that will raise the stats that you want to raise.
First you will need to lock all of your skills.
Choose a good stat modifying skill to raise and another skill you don’t want to keep to go down.
Use the skill until you have raised it to a base skill of 10. Then set it to go back down and choose another stat modifying skill to go up.
Keep raising and lowering these skills until you get the stats you want.
You will be able to get any stats you want within a few hours using this method. When you are done don’t forget to set the skills you still want to go up up and some skills to go down. Try not to get frustrated once you reach your Stat Cap of 225. You may lose some strenght or dexterity when you dont want to. Just keep at it and eventually you will get the stats you desire.
For strength use either Arms Lore, Herding, Wrestling, Lumberjacking or Mining. For Dexterity use Snooping, Music or Lockpicking. Snooping a released pack animal results in no karma loss. For Intelligence use Spirit Speak or Item ID.
The 3 stats are Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence.
Strength effects both your hit points and the amount of damage you do when using a weapon. Strength also determines how much weight you can carry. Your Hit Points are determined by the formula HP=(Strength/2) + 50
Dexterity is directly related to your stamina. Your Stamina determines your weapon swing speed. i.e. the higher your Dexterity/Stamina the faster you can swing a weapon.
Intelligence is directly related to your mana. Mana is needed to cast spells.
How do I raise my stats?
Your Stats will raise with normal game play, if you are trying to raise your Stats fast use the following method. The fastest way to raise stats is by using the “Sea Saw” method. To do this you must be at your skill cap of 700. The idea is to “Sea Saw” between 2 skills that will raise the stats that you want to raise.
First you will need to lock all of your skills.
Choose a good stat modifying skill to raise and another skill you don’t want to keep to go down.
Use the skill until you have raised it to a base skill of 10. Then set it to go back down and choose another stat modifying skill to go up.
Keep raising and lowering these skills until you get the stats you want.
You will be able to get any stats you want within a few hours using this method. When you are done don’t forget to set the skills you still want to go up up and some skills to go down. Try not to get frustrated once you reach your Stat Cap of 225. You may lose some strenght or dexterity when you dont want to. Just keep at it and eventually you will get the stats you desire.
For strength use either Arms Lore, Herding, Wrestling, Lumberjacking or Mining. For Dexterity use Snooping, Music or Lockpicking. Snooping a released pack animal results in no karma loss. For Intelligence use Spirit Speak or Item ID.
What is the best Warrior Template?
This question gets asked countless times. The answer is: There is NO one best template! The best template for you is the one that fits your play style and the one that you have the most fun playing. Below I will give my thoughts on the most common skills used by Warriors that may help you choose a template for you.
Most Warrior Templates will be some variation on this:
Tactics
Melee Weapon Skill
Anatomy
Healing
Magic Resist[
Options: Archery, Magery, Hiding, Parrying, Lumberjacking, Taming, Trade Skill etc.
There are literally hundreds of variations on the above. Below is a discussion to try and help you pick which ones would fit your play style. Please visit the other Stratics Forums for details on the ones not covered here.
Tactics, Healing, Anatomy
Not much to say about these three. You should have all of these at GM in your template. 85+ Healing is good enough for PvM.
Magic Resist
The higher your magic resist the better. If you want to be able to fight the harder monsters or fight mages in PvP you will need magic resist. With the recent changes to spells, resist has become more important than ever.
Parry
Parry is a very effective skill. Parry is very helfpful when fighting multiple monsters at the same time. It is also very effective in PvP when fighting other warriors.
Lumberjacking
GM lumberjack gets 10% damage bonus to Axe weapons in the Swordsmanship skill.
Archery
Very effective PvM skill. With Archery you can kill just about every monster in the game. Still not that great in PvP yet. Rate of fire is too slow to be very effective. The Archery forum has more information on Archery.
Magery
Magery is extremely useful for a Warrior in PvP. It can also make a PvM character more versatile. The main reason is the added healing ability it gives you. Even with GM Resist a Mage will get off a spell combo that will take you down to low health very quickly. A couple of "In Manis" will keep you in the fight. Without Magery to heal you will end up running from a Mage to heal way too often. It is also useful in healing your friends from a distance.
Other useful spells for a Warrior are Stat Modifying, Magic Reflect, Paralyze, Invisibility, Reveal, Mind Blast and the Poison spell.
On a warrior without Eval Int Magery is not used much for attack, but very helpful in staying alive.
You can have 0 magery in your template if it fits your goals. You can still recall using scrolls but will fizzle a lot. I would recommend having at least 10 magery, although you will still fizzle a fair bit.
Hiding
Many players love hiding on their template. It can be equated with the Pause button for UO. It can be useful for surviving those Faction ganks.
PvM Templates
Generally speaking you have more options with PvM Templates since every skill does not have to be geared for combat. There are too many options to list every possible template but below are some common ones.
Classic Warrior
Tactics-100
Anatomy- 100
Melee Weapon skill-100 There is really no need for more than one Melee skill on a PVM Template. Try and pick one keeping in mind the above information.
Parry-100. Can substitute Lumber here if you decide for swords/lumberjacking.
Healing- >85. After 85 you wont fail to heal very often and can take on the tougher monsters.
Magic Resist- The higher the better
Magery or Hiding or a mixture.
Archer Warrior
Tactics-100
Anatomy- 100
Melee Weapon skill-100
Parry-100. Can substitute Lumber here if you decide for swords/lumberjacking.
Healing- >85. After 85 you wont fail to heal very often and can take on the tougher monsters.
Magic Resist- The higher the better
Archery- Excellent PvM Skill. Can kill just about anything in the game.
Magery- Rest of skill points left for Magery
Craftsman Warrior
Tactics-100
Anatomy- 100
Melee Weapon skill-
Craft Skill-100 (Smithing, Tailoring, Fishing etc.
Healing- >85. After 85 you wont fail to heal very often and can take on the tougher monsters.
Magic Resist- The higher the better
Archery or Parry
Magery- Rest of skill points for Magery
Sample PvP Templates
The following are some sample templates and discussion by RobRoy. Text in italics are my own comments.
Red colored templates are more mage killers and blue are warrior killers, but let keep in your mind, every template can kill any other template.
Macer
The nightmare of all warriors, because his weapon skill, which has special abilities:
- stamina drain
- crushing blow
- armor piercing
Only chance you have is to bring many Greater Refresh potions with you.
Against mages a little slow, the earlier used Q-Staff is not the weapon of choice anymore.
Best weapons: WarAxe and WarHammer
1. The classical Macer
100 Macing
100 Tactics
100 Ana
100 Heal
100 Parry (can be exchanged with Hiding, more of a faction skill)
100 Resist
100 Magery
2. The Fencer/Macer
100 Macing
100 Fencing
100 Tactics
100 Ana
100 Heal
100 Resist
100 Magery
comments: a very variable template. Mace against warriors and fencing against mages. Only weakness is his lack of some added defense (parrying). Personally I feel having two melee skills on a characters is a waste. You can only use one weapon at a time
3. The Eval Macer
100 Macing
100 Tactics
100 Ana
100 Heal
100 Resist
100 Magery
100 Eval
comments: something like the old precasting tank mages. Precasts an offensive spell, arms his warhammer and so combines his firepower in a blink of a second if well timed. With the new spell changes and the precasting abilities maybe the new star of all warrior templates.
Fencer
The nightmare of all mages, because his weapon skill, which has one special ability:
Weapons: Kryss (can be poisoned), ShortSpear and LongSpear
1. The classical Fencer
100 Fencing
100 Tactics
100 Ana
100 Heal
100 Parry
(can be exchanged with Hiding, more of a faction skill)
100 Resist
100 Magery
No mage of the world will kill solo this fencer, because the fencer can deliver very fast his fire power and on the defensive side can heal himself with bandies, Greater Heal potions and with in mani (~10) or in vas mani (~50 hp)
2. The Poison Fencer
100 Fencing
100 Tactics
100 Ana
100 Heal
100 Poison
100 Resist
100 Magery
3. The Eval Fencer
100 Fencing
100 Tactics
100 Ana
100 Heal
100 Eval
100 Resist
100 Magery
comments: due to the new changes possibly a very fast killer machine. He can rip you apart with his Short/LongSpear or using a DP Kryss and mix his speed with deadly finishing spells.
Lumberjack
1. The classical Lumberjacker
100 Sword
100 Lumberjacing
100 Tactics
100 Ana
100 Heal
100 Resist
100 Magery
2. The defensive Lumberjacker
100 Sword
100 Lumberjacking
100 Tactics
100 Ana
100 Heal
100 Resist
100 Parry
comments: this is more a P(layer)vM(onster) warrior, lacking magery, which has much more his importance in PvP then in PvM. Still a very capable and fierceful enemy against any other warrior, no matter which type. He can use his axes or swords and even the hally to fit his tactics to the given situation. So he has the most flexibility in weapon questions.
3. The poison Lumberjacker
100 Swords
100 Lumber Jack
100 Poisoning
100 Anatomy
100 Healing
100 Tactics
80 Resist
20 Magery
This question gets asked countless times. The answer is: There is NO one best template! The best template for you is the one that fits your play style and the one that you have the most fun playing. Below I will give my thoughts on the most common skills used by Warriors that may help you choose a template for you.
Most Warrior Templates will be some variation on this:
Tactics
Melee Weapon Skill
Anatomy
Healing
Magic Resist[
Options: Archery, Magery, Hiding, Parrying, Lumberjacking, Taming, Trade Skill etc.
There are literally hundreds of variations on the above. Below is a discussion to try and help you pick which ones would fit your play style. Please visit the other Stratics Forums for details on the ones not covered here.
Tactics, Healing, Anatomy
Not much to say about these three. You should have all of these at GM in your template. 85+ Healing is good enough for PvM.
Magic Resist
The higher your magic resist the better. If you want to be able to fight the harder monsters or fight mages in PvP you will need magic resist. With the recent changes to spells, resist has become more important than ever.
Parry
Parry is a very effective skill. Parry is very helfpful when fighting multiple monsters at the same time. It is also very effective in PvP when fighting other warriors.
Lumberjacking
GM lumberjack gets 10% damage bonus to Axe weapons in the Swordsmanship skill.
Archery
Very effective PvM skill. With Archery you can kill just about every monster in the game. Still not that great in PvP yet. Rate of fire is too slow to be very effective. The Archery forum has more information on Archery.
Magery
Magery is extremely useful for a Warrior in PvP. It can also make a PvM character more versatile. The main reason is the added healing ability it gives you. Even with GM Resist a Mage will get off a spell combo that will take you down to low health very quickly. A couple of "In Manis" will keep you in the fight. Without Magery to heal you will end up running from a Mage to heal way too often. It is also useful in healing your friends from a distance.
Other useful spells for a Warrior are Stat Modifying, Magic Reflect, Paralyze, Invisibility, Reveal, Mind Blast and the Poison spell.
On a warrior without Eval Int Magery is not used much for attack, but very helpful in staying alive.
You can have 0 magery in your template if it fits your goals. You can still recall using scrolls but will fizzle a lot. I would recommend having at least 10 magery, although you will still fizzle a fair bit.
Hiding
Many players love hiding on their template. It can be equated with the Pause button for UO. It can be useful for surviving those Faction ganks.
PvM Templates
Generally speaking you have more options with PvM Templates since every skill does not have to be geared for combat. There are too many options to list every possible template but below are some common ones.
Classic Warrior
Tactics-100
Anatomy- 100
Melee Weapon skill-100 There is really no need for more than one Melee skill on a PVM Template. Try and pick one keeping in mind the above information.
Parry-100. Can substitute Lumber here if you decide for swords/lumberjacking.
Healing- >85. After 85 you wont fail to heal very often and can take on the tougher monsters.
Magic Resist- The higher the better
Magery or Hiding or a mixture.
Archer Warrior
Tactics-100
Anatomy- 100
Melee Weapon skill-100
Parry-100. Can substitute Lumber here if you decide for swords/lumberjacking.
Healing- >85. After 85 you wont fail to heal very often and can take on the tougher monsters.
Magic Resist- The higher the better
Archery- Excellent PvM Skill. Can kill just about anything in the game.
Magery- Rest of skill points left for Magery
Craftsman Warrior
Tactics-100
Anatomy- 100
Melee Weapon skill-
Craft Skill-100 (Smithing, Tailoring, Fishing etc.
Healing- >85. After 85 you wont fail to heal very often and can take on the tougher monsters.
Magic Resist- The higher the better
Archery or Parry
Magery- Rest of skill points for Magery
Sample PvP Templates
The following are some sample templates and discussion by RobRoy. Text in italics are my own comments.
Red colored templates are more mage killers and blue are warrior killers, but let keep in your mind, every template can kill any other template.
Macer
The nightmare of all warriors, because his weapon skill, which has special abilities:
- stamina drain
- crushing blow
- armor piercing
Only chance you have is to bring many Greater Refresh potions with you.
Against mages a little slow, the earlier used Q-Staff is not the weapon of choice anymore.
Best weapons: WarAxe and WarHammer
1. The classical Macer
100 Macing
100 Tactics
100 Ana
100 Heal
100 Parry (can be exchanged with Hiding, more of a faction skill)
100 Resist
100 Magery
2. The Fencer/Macer
100 Macing
100 Fencing
100 Tactics
100 Ana
100 Heal
100 Resist
100 Magery
comments: a very variable template. Mace against warriors and fencing against mages. Only weakness is his lack of some added defense (parrying). Personally I feel having two melee skills on a characters is a waste. You can only use one weapon at a time
3. The Eval Macer
100 Macing
100 Tactics
100 Ana
100 Heal
100 Resist
100 Magery
100 Eval
comments: something like the old precasting tank mages. Precasts an offensive spell, arms his warhammer and so combines his firepower in a blink of a second if well timed. With the new spell changes and the precasting abilities maybe the new star of all warrior templates.
Fencer
The nightmare of all mages, because his weapon skill, which has one special ability:
Weapons: Kryss (can be poisoned), ShortSpear and LongSpear
1. The classical Fencer
100 Fencing
100 Tactics
100 Ana
100 Heal
100 Parry
(can be exchanged with Hiding, more of a faction skill)
100 Resist
100 Magery
No mage of the world will kill solo this fencer, because the fencer can deliver very fast his fire power and on the defensive side can heal himself with bandies, Greater Heal potions and with in mani (~10) or in vas mani (~50 hp)
2. The Poison Fencer
100 Fencing
100 Tactics
100 Ana
100 Heal
100 Poison
100 Resist
100 Magery
3. The Eval Fencer
100 Fencing
100 Tactics
100 Ana
100 Heal
100 Eval
100 Resist
100 Magery
comments: due to the new changes possibly a very fast killer machine. He can rip you apart with his Short/LongSpear or using a DP Kryss and mix his speed with deadly finishing spells.
Lumberjack
1. The classical Lumberjacker
100 Sword
100 Lumberjacing
100 Tactics
100 Ana
100 Heal
100 Resist
100 Magery
2. The defensive Lumberjacker
100 Sword
100 Lumberjacking
100 Tactics
100 Ana
100 Heal
100 Resist
100 Parry
comments: this is more a P(layer)vM(onster) warrior, lacking magery, which has much more his importance in PvP then in PvM. Still a very capable and fierceful enemy against any other warrior, no matter which type. He can use his axes or swords and even the hally to fit his tactics to the given situation. So he has the most flexibility in weapon questions.
3. The poison Lumberjacker
100 Swords
100 Lumber Jack
100 Poisoning
100 Anatomy
100 Healing
100 Tactics
80 Resist
20 Magery
Misc FAQ
How to make money as a warrior?
Warriors are definitely at a disadvantage compared to some other character classes when it comes to making gold. If you want to make a lot of gold fast I recommend making a Bard. Warriors can still make a good living however. Below is a list of monsters and a few tips to help you become a rich warrior.
Earth Elementals- Possibly the best monster to fight for making gold. They carry around 300 gold plus gems that you can sell. They can be found at Dungeon Shame. If you have the 3-D client they are also found in several locations in Ilshenar.
Liches- If you have a good silver weapon Liches are another good monster to fight. They can be found in Dungeon Deciet, the Fire Dungeon and near a set of Ruins south of Yew.
Work skills- Yes, you can make good money working skills. Try not to be in such a hurry and use the quickest way to gain skills. By fighting the harder monsters you can gain skills, make lots of gold and most importantly have fun.
Shame- Don’t forget the lower levels of shame. The fighting gets a bit tougher but less people go there. The Airs and Earths on the 3rd level are excellent for working skills as well as making gold
How to gain Fame as a warrior?
Liches are probably the easiest way to get you to 4th level fame. After that Lich Lords and Daemons are your best bet to get to 5th level. If you have a good Silver weapon then Lich Lords are the best.
Remember that Fame should mean more than just a title. Try to make the title mean something. If you are a Glorious Lord you should play with honor and treat other players with respect.
What are the special hits?
The special hits are an added bonus given to the 2 handed weapons. The chance to deliver a special hit is now based on your skill in Anatomy. If you have GM Anatomy your chance to deliver a special hit is 25%. They are effective in PvM and PvP. There is a different special hit for each melee skill:
Swords- Concussion blow, victim’s intelligence is halved for 30 seconds. Note the effects of a concussion blow are not cumulative, once a target is the victim of a concussion blow, they cannot be hit in that manner again for 30 seconds
Fencing-Paralyzing blow, victim is paralyzed for 4 seconds. Once paralyzed, the victim cannot fight back (s/he wont auto-defend) or cast spells, however s/he can still use potions and bandages. The paralysis will not break by any means, even if the victim takes damage. Once paralyzed, the victim cannot be paralyzed again with another special attack until the paralysis wears off.
Macing- Crushing blow, damage bonus of 50% (max 60 hp’s). Only applies to true maces, not staves.
What is the “insta-hit”?
The “insta-hit” is when your dexterity is high enough to instantly hit an opponent. The dexterity needed for this is now 75.
What are Trapped Pouches
Trapped pouches are used to break free from the paralyze skill. These are very valuable in PvP and when fighting magical creatures. They are the pouches that you can by from NPC provisioners that have had the spell magic trap cast on them. You have to “re-trap” them after every use.
Where do I find Magic Weapons
Magic Weapons are found on many of the harder creatures. Liches, Lich Lords, Dragons, Daemons, Elder Gazers, Titans, Cyclops, Drakes, Spectral Armors are some of the monsters Warriors can fight to obtain magic weapons. Keep in mind that the better weapons are rare and you will need to fight lots and lots of monsters to get a good magic Weapon.
Consider making a Treasure Hunter or a Fisherman to obtain lots of magic weapons. You can also hire a Treasure Hunter to help you dig up all those treasure maps you have gotten from monsters.
What is Jousting? (or can Warriors kill Dragons?)
Jousting or "Hit and Run" is a technique to fight difficult monsters. A hard hitting weapon like a War Hammer or Halberd is used. The idea is to run in, hit the beast, run out and heal. Using this method Blood Elementals and other very hard hitting monsters can be killed. And yes, a Warrior can kill a Dragon using this method.
How do you use a Bola?
Bola’s can be used to dismount a Player or a Savage Rider from their mount. Players cannot remount for about 10 seconds once dismounted. To use the bola you have to be dismounted and cannot have anything in you hands (i.e. Weapon or Spell Book). To use the Bola double click the bola then select your target. The success of using the Bola is based on your Tactics. At GM Tactics you have a 50% chance to dismount your target.
How to make money as a warrior?
Warriors are definitely at a disadvantage compared to some other character classes when it comes to making gold. If you want to make a lot of gold fast I recommend making a Bard. Warriors can still make a good living however. Below is a list of monsters and a few tips to help you become a rich warrior.
Earth Elementals- Possibly the best monster to fight for making gold. They carry around 300 gold plus gems that you can sell. They can be found at Dungeon Shame. If you have the 3-D client they are also found in several locations in Ilshenar.
Liches- If you have a good silver weapon Liches are another good monster to fight. They can be found in Dungeon Deciet, the Fire Dungeon and near a set of Ruins south of Yew.
Work skills- Yes, you can make good money working skills. Try not to be in such a hurry and use the quickest way to gain skills. By fighting the harder monsters you can gain skills, make lots of gold and most importantly have fun.
Shame- Don’t forget the lower levels of shame. The fighting gets a bit tougher but less people go there. The Airs and Earths on the 3rd level are excellent for working skills as well as making gold
How to gain Fame as a warrior?
Liches are probably the easiest way to get you to 4th level fame. After that Lich Lords and Daemons are your best bet to get to 5th level. If you have a good Silver weapon then Lich Lords are the best.
Remember that Fame should mean more than just a title. Try to make the title mean something. If you are a Glorious Lord you should play with honor and treat other players with respect.
What are the special hits?
The special hits are an added bonus given to the 2 handed weapons. The chance to deliver a special hit is now based on your skill in Anatomy. If you have GM Anatomy your chance to deliver a special hit is 25%. They are effective in PvM and PvP. There is a different special hit for each melee skill:
Swords- Concussion blow, victim’s intelligence is halved for 30 seconds. Note the effects of a concussion blow are not cumulative, once a target is the victim of a concussion blow, they cannot be hit in that manner again for 30 seconds
Fencing-Paralyzing blow, victim is paralyzed for 4 seconds. Once paralyzed, the victim cannot fight back (s/he wont auto-defend) or cast spells, however s/he can still use potions and bandages. The paralysis will not break by any means, even if the victim takes damage. Once paralyzed, the victim cannot be paralyzed again with another special attack until the paralysis wears off.
Macing- Crushing blow, damage bonus of 50% (max 60 hp’s). Only applies to true maces, not staves.
What is the “insta-hit”?
The “insta-hit” is when your dexterity is high enough to instantly hit an opponent. The dexterity needed for this is now 75.
What are Trapped Pouches
Trapped pouches are used to break free from the paralyze skill. These are very valuable in PvP and when fighting magical creatures. They are the pouches that you can by from NPC provisioners that have had the spell magic trap cast on them. You have to “re-trap” them after every use.
Where do I find Magic Weapons
Magic Weapons are found on many of the harder creatures. Liches, Lich Lords, Dragons, Daemons, Elder Gazers, Titans, Cyclops, Drakes, Spectral Armors are some of the monsters Warriors can fight to obtain magic weapons. Keep in mind that the better weapons are rare and you will need to fight lots and lots of monsters to get a good magic Weapon.
Consider making a Treasure Hunter or a Fisherman to obtain lots of magic weapons. You can also hire a Treasure Hunter to help you dig up all those treasure maps you have gotten from monsters.
What is Jousting? (or can Warriors kill Dragons?)
Jousting or "Hit and Run" is a technique to fight difficult monsters. A hard hitting weapon like a War Hammer or Halberd is used. The idea is to run in, hit the beast, run out and heal. Using this method Blood Elementals and other very hard hitting monsters can be killed. And yes, a Warrior can kill a Dragon using this method.
How do you use a Bola?
Bola’s can be used to dismount a Player or a Savage Rider from their mount. Players cannot remount for about 10 seconds once dismounted. To use the bola you have to be dismounted and cannot have anything in you hands (i.e. Weapon or Spell Book). To use the Bola double click the bola then select your target. The success of using the Bola is based on your Tactics. At GM Tactics you have a 50% chance to dismount your target.
Paladin FAQ
A paladin is one who uses the skill of Chivalry. Most paladins will likely have high karma to increase the effectiveness of their abilities.A prospective paladin will need to train in the Chivalry skill. Also, a paladin requires the Book of Chivalry which contains the paladin abilities, in much the same format as a spellbook holds spells. These books usually cost 140gp and come complete with all ten Chivalry abilities. The books are available from NPC Keepers of Chivalry, who may be found in the Malas city of Luna.
A paladin is one who uses the skill of Chivalry. Most paladins will likely have high karma to increase the effectiveness of their abilities.A prospective paladin will need to train in the Chivalry skill. Also, a paladin requires the Book of Chivalry which contains the paladin abilities, in much the same format as a spellbook holds spells. These books usually cost 140gp and come complete with all ten Chivalry abilities. The books are available from NPC Keepers of Chivalry, who may be found in the Malas city of Luna.
The numbers after the ability name represent tithing points, mana, and minimum skill, in that order. For example, Holy Light says 10/15 (55/105), meaning that it uses 10 tithing points and 15 mana, and requires a minimum skill of 55 Chivalry to cast and at 105 you have 100% chance to cast.
Cleanse by Fire (Expor Flamus) 10/10 (5/55)
An ability that can be used either to cure a target of poison, at the cost of a few of the Paladin's hit points. Is able to cure any level of poison; doesn't appear to fail at all.
Close Wounds (Obsu Vulni) 10/10 (0/50)
A healing ability which replenishes approximately 25-30 hit points at decent karma levels. May heal up to 39 hit points at high karma level.
Consecrate Weapon (Consecrus Arma) 10/10 (15/65)
An ability that enchants the paladin's weapon so that it targets an opponent's weakest resistance (physical, fire, cold, poison, or energy, depending on the opponent's resistances). This ability does not last long.
Divine Fury (Divinum Furis) 10/15 (25/75)
An ability that increases a paladin's attack power and accuracy, but lowers defense. Instantly refreshes one's stamina.
Enemy of One (Forul Solum) 10/20 (45/95)
An ability that allows the paladin to become much stronger against the next type of enemy hit, but weaker against other types of enemies. Increases the physical damage against the enemy type while increasing the damage inflicted by other types.
Dispel Evil (Dispiro Malas) 10/10 (35/85)
An ability that has a chance to frighten any evil creatures in the area. Also has the power to drain a transformed Necromancer of mana and stamina. Does NOT dispel creatures; does not appear to affect revenants.
Holy Light (Augus Luminos) 10/10 (55/105)
An ability that works as an area effect spell, similar to a mage's Earthquake.
Noble Sacrifice (Dium Prostra) 30/20 (65/115)
A powerful ability that resurrects all targets surrounding the paladin, cleanses them of poisons and curses, and heals them. In return, the paladin is reduced to 1 hit point, 1 mana, and 1 stamina.
Remove Curse (Externo Vomica) 10/20 (5/55)
An ability that reverses all negative stat effects (such as Clumsy or Curse) and paralysis from a target. Is also used to remove the Necromancy Strangle effect.
Sacred Journey (Sanctum Viatas) 15/10 (15/65)
A Recall-type ability for paladins which cannot be used when flagged as an aggressor.
Cleanse by Fire (Expor Flamus) 10/10 (5/55)
An ability that can be used either to cure a target of poison, at the cost of a few of the Paladin's hit points. Is able to cure any level of poison; doesn't appear to fail at all.
Close Wounds (Obsu Vulni) 10/10 (0/50)
A healing ability which replenishes approximately 25-30 hit points at decent karma levels. May heal up to 39 hit points at high karma level.
Consecrate Weapon (Consecrus Arma) 10/10 (15/65)
An ability that enchants the paladin's weapon so that it targets an opponent's weakest resistance (physical, fire, cold, poison, or energy, depending on the opponent's resistances). This ability does not last long.
Divine Fury (Divinum Furis) 10/15 (25/75)
An ability that increases a paladin's attack power and accuracy, but lowers defense. Instantly refreshes one's stamina.
Enemy of One (Forul Solum) 10/20 (45/95)
An ability that allows the paladin to become much stronger against the next type of enemy hit, but weaker against other types of enemies. Increases the physical damage against the enemy type while increasing the damage inflicted by other types.
Dispel Evil (Dispiro Malas) 10/10 (35/85)
An ability that has a chance to frighten any evil creatures in the area. Also has the power to drain a transformed Necromancer of mana and stamina. Does NOT dispel creatures; does not appear to affect revenants.
Holy Light (Augus Luminos) 10/10 (55/105)
An ability that works as an area effect spell, similar to a mage's Earthquake.
Noble Sacrifice (Dium Prostra) 30/20 (65/115)
A powerful ability that resurrects all targets surrounding the paladin, cleanses them of poisons and curses, and heals them. In return, the paladin is reduced to 1 hit point, 1 mana, and 1 stamina.
Remove Curse (Externo Vomica) 10/20 (5/55)
An ability that reverses all negative stat effects (such as Clumsy or Curse) and paralysis from a target. Is also used to remove the Necromancy Strangle effect.
Sacred Journey (Sanctum Viatas) 15/10 (15/65)
A Recall-type ability for paladins which cannot be used when flagged as an aggressor.
Paladin
In addition to the Book of Chivalry and the minimum Chivalry skill for an ability, paladins will need tithing points and mana. Tithing points can be gained by sacrificing gold at a shrine, which can be done by using the context menu on the ankh. The most convenient shrines are near Ilshenar moongates and upstairs in the center of Luna. A paladin will receive one tithing point per gold piece tithed, up to a maximum of 100000. Contrary to claim, you will not be able to sacrifice more gold than the 100000 cap.
A paladin's Chivalry skill will determine the chance of succeeding when using a paladin ability. Karma will determine the strength of the abilities used. A paladin with higher karma will have stronger abilities than a paladin with lower karma.
0-30: Bought from NPC (Editor's Note: Close Wounds will also gain you to 20 fairly quickly; however, at 10gp per gain, it is much cheaper to buy the skill as high as it will go.)
30-50: Conscerate Weapon
50-65: Divine Fury
65-75: Enemy of One
75-85: Holy Light
85+: Noble Sacrifice
Altogether, this method will use about 150000 tithing points and 17 hours to become a Grandmaster Paladin.
In addition to the Book of Chivalry and the minimum Chivalry skill for an ability, paladins will need tithing points and mana. Tithing points can be gained by sacrificing gold at a shrine, which can be done by using the context menu on the ankh. The most convenient shrines are near Ilshenar moongates and upstairs in the center of Luna. A paladin will receive one tithing point per gold piece tithed, up to a maximum of 100000. Contrary to claim, you will not be able to sacrifice more gold than the 100000 cap.
A paladin's Chivalry skill will determine the chance of succeeding when using a paladin ability. Karma will determine the strength of the abilities used. A paladin with higher karma will have stronger abilities than a paladin with lower karma.
0-30: Bought from NPC (Editor's Note: Close Wounds will also gain you to 20 fairly quickly; however, at 10gp per gain, it is much cheaper to buy the skill as high as it will go.)
30-50: Conscerate Weapon
50-65: Divine Fury
65-75: Enemy of One
75-85: Holy Light
85+: Noble Sacrifice
Altogether, this method will use about 150000 tithing points and 17 hours to become a Grandmaster Paladin.
Paladin
Focus: This skill complements just about any character type. With passive hit point, mana, and stamina gain increases, paladins will be able to last longer in battle.
Meditation: Those who wear leather or mage armor will find meditation a useful way of actively replenishing their mana, allowing them to continue the fight that much sooner.
Archery: Archery combined with Dispel Evil will make melee monsters a cinch, as they will keep far enough away from you so that you don't have to wory about taking damage. Consecrate Weapon also works on bows, for extra damage.
Swordsmanship/Fencing/Mace Fighting: Consecrate Weapon doesn't work too well without a weapon to consecrate.
Animal Taming/Provocation: Both of these skills are easy ways to gain karma, which will keep your abilities at their sharpest. It is possible to gain high karma without them, but not quite so easy.
Healing/Spirit Speak: While no longer necessary in a paladin warrior template, healing will allow you to conserve a few mana points from Close Wounds, which can be useful to get in that Consecrate Weapon ability you may need. Spirit Speak now also serves as a health-regaining skill, allowing you to either drain corpses of their life force or to recover health by using some of your own mana pool.
Resisting Spells: There's not much a paladin can do without mana. Resisting Spells will also cut down the necessity of using Cleanse By Fire and Remove Curse, allowing you to focus more on special moves or Consecrate Weapon.
Focus: This skill complements just about any character type. With passive hit point, mana, and stamina gain increases, paladins will be able to last longer in battle.
Meditation: Those who wear leather or mage armor will find meditation a useful way of actively replenishing their mana, allowing them to continue the fight that much sooner.
Archery: Archery combined with Dispel Evil will make melee monsters a cinch, as they will keep far enough away from you so that you don't have to wory about taking damage. Consecrate Weapon also works on bows, for extra damage.
Swordsmanship/Fencing/Mace Fighting: Consecrate Weapon doesn't work too well without a weapon to consecrate.
Animal Taming/Provocation: Both of these skills are easy ways to gain karma, which will keep your abilities at their sharpest. It is possible to gain high karma without them, but not quite so easy.
Healing/Spirit Speak: While no longer necessary in a paladin warrior template, healing will allow you to conserve a few mana points from Close Wounds, which can be useful to get in that Consecrate Weapon ability you may need. Spirit Speak now also serves as a health-regaining skill, allowing you to either drain corpses of their life force or to recover health by using some of your own mana pool.
Resisting Spells: There's not much a paladin can do without mana. Resisting Spells will also cut down the necessity of using Cleanse By Fire and Remove Curse, allowing you to focus more on special moves or Consecrate Weapon.
Paladins & Doom Guantlet
By Bronz,
I am posting some thoughts and observations on the Gauntlet in the hopes that some players may pickup something useful.
1) Looting: First, I notice players running the gauntlet much better than in the past. However, the one thing they seem to be fairly poor at is looting. Here are some tips, although I'm sure many of you know this already. In a typical situation, people are tanking a boss and you are there whacking away. Have an empty backpack in your pack and open it before the boss dies. This will tell you where the corpse gump will appear. Now take the empty backpack and move it about an inch over to one side. Have an all names macro set to a key and hover your finger over it. Once the boss dies, hit all names and double click on the boss' name (for example "a darknight creeper corpse") You click the name because doom's floor can often be weird and not allow you to open a body even though you are clicking directly on it. Now grab something in the corpse and drag it to the empty bag. You use an empty bag because if you drag it to your main pack you may, in your haste drop the item on a spell book, rune book, or pally book which will pop the item back into the boss.
Personally, I target items like rings and bracelets when I first get to the gauntlet. After all, they weigh little and can be big cash (for example 1/3 fast cast/fast cast recovery) and they do not need to be enhanced (translation "broken"). Also, since they are little, they are often taken last and you are almost assured of getting a few.
Naturally, being the paladin (unless you are a pally archer) you are probably right on top of the boss as he dies, which makes looting much easier.
2)The Moongate: The moongate is a great place to kill a Dark Father, however, there tends to be a pile of players, dragons, lesser spawn, bodies etc which can be hard to see through. I watch my damage and occasionally I notice myself getting damaged by/damaging a hidden Rotting Corpse or Lich. I wonder why pallys don't dispel at the gate, I would think this would clear the lesser spawn away and avoid all that nonsense. If you ever doubt that there are spawn hidden in the pile, cast Holy Light. You may see more red numbers than you expected. Naturally, all the spawn may agro on you and you may die, but hey... that only proves that someone should have dispelled.
Here is another gate observation: Players can be nasty to each other by using specials on Dark Father. DF responds to a special with a whirlwind attack which does damage to all players in the area. Watch out because I believe players may pull your bar if you are tanking, and special Dark Father if you get low, to get you killed. I think they assume that you have to be alive to get an artifact and that their chances go up if you're not. I have no idea how artifacts are dropped, or if this thinking is correct, but I DO notice that when I'm in the pile, Dark Father won't be hitting me and I will only be taking reflect damage, then when he is near dead... POW he whirlwinds a few times and some people die. Yeah, probably some people just want to get in the killing blow and use specials without malicious intent, but the effect is the same anyways. Maybe keep some mana to heal the inevitable Dark Father special when he is low, rather than attempting to put 30 extra damage on him.
3)Armor: Having 120 resist affords me some choices, and this is what I have done. I take a medable 70 physical resist suit with as much luck and stat increase as I can pack in. I take a vet cloak and robe and a gold shield, with hit chance increase and fast cast 1. Basically, I am then 70, 44, 44, 44, 44 with a few stat points.
4)Tanking: I rarely tank. Mostly I watch other players set up and once they start whacking away, I start. I ALWAYS heal the tank though, and its not out of courtesy. If he dies, then the whole thing can go to hell fast and cost me time. I even heal pet tanks. When you notice that the boss has switched to you check to see if players are healing you. If you don't see anything in a second or so, then take a few steps back. I think most guys would grab your bar and heal ya if they know who it was on. If you are tanking, then I suggest precast close wounds and just wait till you are very low to pop it off.
5)Jewelry: Fast Cast 1/Fast Cast Recovery 2 ring and bracelet... for me there is no other way.
6)Weapons: Other than the obvious Deamon and Undead slayer, I carry a GM Neon 70 cold 30 fire with Swing Speed Increase and 35% damage increase for the bugs. Saves mana from not having to consecrate and hurts bugs more than the other 2 weaps I carry.
By Bronz,
I am posting some thoughts and observations on the Gauntlet in the hopes that some players may pickup something useful.
1) Looting: First, I notice players running the gauntlet much better than in the past. However, the one thing they seem to be fairly poor at is looting. Here are some tips, although I'm sure many of you know this already. In a typical situation, people are tanking a boss and you are there whacking away. Have an empty backpack in your pack and open it before the boss dies. This will tell you where the corpse gump will appear. Now take the empty backpack and move it about an inch over to one side. Have an all names macro set to a key and hover your finger over it. Once the boss dies, hit all names and double click on the boss' name (for example "a darknight creeper corpse") You click the name because doom's floor can often be weird and not allow you to open a body even though you are clicking directly on it. Now grab something in the corpse and drag it to the empty bag. You use an empty bag because if you drag it to your main pack you may, in your haste drop the item on a spell book, rune book, or pally book which will pop the item back into the boss.
Personally, I target items like rings and bracelets when I first get to the gauntlet. After all, they weigh little and can be big cash (for example 1/3 fast cast/fast cast recovery) and they do not need to be enhanced (translation "broken"). Also, since they are little, they are often taken last and you are almost assured of getting a few.
Naturally, being the paladin (unless you are a pally archer) you are probably right on top of the boss as he dies, which makes looting much easier.
2)The Moongate: The moongate is a great place to kill a Dark Father, however, there tends to be a pile of players, dragons, lesser spawn, bodies etc which can be hard to see through. I watch my damage and occasionally I notice myself getting damaged by/damaging a hidden Rotting Corpse or Lich. I wonder why pallys don't dispel at the gate, I would think this would clear the lesser spawn away and avoid all that nonsense. If you ever doubt that there are spawn hidden in the pile, cast Holy Light. You may see more red numbers than you expected. Naturally, all the spawn may agro on you and you may die, but hey... that only proves that someone should have dispelled.
Here is another gate observation: Players can be nasty to each other by using specials on Dark Father. DF responds to a special with a whirlwind attack which does damage to all players in the area. Watch out because I believe players may pull your bar if you are tanking, and special Dark Father if you get low, to get you killed. I think they assume that you have to be alive to get an artifact and that their chances go up if you're not. I have no idea how artifacts are dropped, or if this thinking is correct, but I DO notice that when I'm in the pile, Dark Father won't be hitting me and I will only be taking reflect damage, then when he is near dead... POW he whirlwinds a few times and some people die. Yeah, probably some people just want to get in the killing blow and use specials without malicious intent, but the effect is the same anyways. Maybe keep some mana to heal the inevitable Dark Father special when he is low, rather than attempting to put 30 extra damage on him.
3)Armor: Having 120 resist affords me some choices, and this is what I have done. I take a medable 70 physical resist suit with as much luck and stat increase as I can pack in. I take a vet cloak and robe and a gold shield, with hit chance increase and fast cast 1. Basically, I am then 70, 44, 44, 44, 44 with a few stat points.
4)Tanking: I rarely tank. Mostly I watch other players set up and once they start whacking away, I start. I ALWAYS heal the tank though, and its not out of courtesy. If he dies, then the whole thing can go to hell fast and cost me time. I even heal pet tanks. When you notice that the boss has switched to you check to see if players are healing you. If you don't see anything in a second or so, then take a few steps back. I think most guys would grab your bar and heal ya if they know who it was on. If you are tanking, then I suggest precast close wounds and just wait till you are very low to pop it off.
5)Jewelry: Fast Cast 1/Fast Cast Recovery 2 ring and bracelet... for me there is no other way.
6)Weapons: Other than the obvious Deamon and Undead slayer, I carry a GM Neon 70 cold 30 fire with Swing Speed Increase and 35% damage increase for the bugs. Saves mana from not having to consecrate and hurts bugs more than the other 2 weaps I carry.
Ninja
Quote:
Trained in Art of Ninjitsu: Ninjitsu is the art of stealthy combat, espionage and assassination. Ninjitsu is a new skill and will be listed in the skill list. It has a regular cap of 100, and is raisable to a cap of 120 with Power Scrolls.
Ninja Special Abilities
Special Ability: Focus Attack
Summoning all of her skill and strength for a single attack, the Ninja strikes the enemy with great precision. Besides giving a damage bonus, Focus Attack also increases the effectiveness of any hit chance properties on the weapon the Ninja uses for the attack. The strength of these bonuses is dependent upon the Ninja’s skill in Ninjitsu.
Mana Cost: 20/ Min. Skill: 60 - Increases both your damage and the percentage chance for "hit" properties on your weapon for one attack.
Special Ability: Death Strike
Striking the enemy with a special technique, the Ninja can cause damage long after the actual blow. After receiving a Death Strike (which deals half of the damage of a normal blow) if the Ninja’s opponent moves more than five steps, or five seconds elapse, the opponent will suffer damage determined by the skill level of the Ninja. The delayed damage dealt is greater if the Ninja’s opponent chooses to run away rather than stand and fight. Only highly skilled Ninja can execute a Death Strike.
Mana Cost: 30/ Min. Skill: 85 - After receiveing a Death Strike, if the opponent moves more than five steps, or five seconds elapses, they will suffer direct damage determined by the attacker's Ninjitsu.
Special Ability: Animal Form
Using an ancient secret only known to a few, the Ninja mysteriously takes the shape of a beast, granting himself animal-like abilities. Animal form gives the Ninja the ability to transform into an animal, gaining special bonuses unique to each type of creature. There are 12 animal forms available to a skilled Ninja, including stealthy animals such as Rats, ferocious beasts like the Bake Kitsune, and fast runners like Ostards and Unicorns.
Mana Cost: 0/ Min. Skill: Varies - Allows you to transform into an animal, gaining special bonuses. If you are running while casting the spell, you will automatically transform into your last selected animal type. Duration is permanent until recast or death. The Animal Forms include:
Rabbit and Rat - Min Skill: 0 - grants a +20 bonus to stealth skill.
Cat and Dog - Min. Skill: 40 - Increases regeneration rate.The increase is based upon your Ninjitsu skill.
Bullfrog - Min. Skill: 50 - Inflicts poison when your enemy damages you at short range.
Giant Serpent - Min. Skill: 50 - Inflicts low level poison whenever you strike your opponent with a non-ranged weapon.
Llama and Ostard - Min. Skill: 70 - Increases your movement speed.
Bake-kistune and Wolf - Min. Skill: 85 - Increases movement speed, grants a bonus to your hit chance and gives you +20 hp.
Kirin -Min. Skill: 100 - Increases movement speed and regenerates stamina quickly.
Unicorn - Min. Skill: 100 - Increases movement speed and grants immunity to low level poisons.
Special Ability: Ki Attack
Focusing his Ki, the Ninja uses momentum to strike the enemy with tremendous force. The Ki Attack is a special attack that requires the superb timing and quick movement of a well trained Ninja. In order to execute this attack, the Ninja will have to initiate the Ki Attack and then quickly close the distance between himself and his opponent to deliver an effective blow. The farther the Ninja travels to deliver the blow, the more powerful the Ki Attack.
Mana Cost: 25/ Min. Skill: 80 - An attack that does greater damage based on how far you travel to your opponent from the location where you initiate the Ki attack. You must reach your target in under 2 seconds.
Special Ability: Surprise Attack
Attacking from the shadows, the Ninja catches her opponent off-guard and unable to fully defend himself. An attack that can only be initiated by a Ninja in stealth mode, Surprise Attack inflicts a defense penalty on the Ninja’s opponent for a short duration. Using this ability automatically reveals the Ninja, who then cannot stealth again for another 5 seconds. The defense penalty applied to the Ninja’s opponent is dependent upon the Ninja’s skill in Ninjitsu.
Mana Cost: 20/ Min. Skill: 30, An attack from stealth that inflicts a defense penalty on your opponent for a short duration. You cannot re-enter stealth for 5 seconds after a Surprise Attack.
Special Ability: Backstab
Sneaking up behind the enemy undetected, the Ninja plunges his sword deep into his enemy’s back, inflicting great damage. Similar to Surprise Attack, Backstab requires the Ninja to be in stealth mode in order to initiate this special attack, but instead of lowering the defense of the Ninja’s opponent, Backstab applies a significant damage bonus to the attack. Using this ability automatically reveals the Ninja, who then cannot stealth again for another 5 seconds.
Mana Cost: 30, Min. Skill: 20, An attack from stealth with a damage bonus based on your Ninjitsu and the distance you have tracked your opponent
Special Ability: Mirror Image
Mana Cost: 10, Min. Skill: 40, Creates a mirror image of yourself that may absorb damage when you are standing within 4 steps of it. A mirror image consumes a follower slot and will disapear in 30 - 60 seconds. Your Mirror Image will create a image of whatever form you are in, including Animal forms, Polymorphs, and Incognitos.
Special Ability: Shadow Jump
Mana Cost: 15/ Min. Skill: 50, Allows you to teleport while maintaining stealth, but only if you succeed in a stealth check at your destination. (this acts just like teleport except you stay hidden.)
~Thanks very much to EliteXGamer for the new info!~
Quote:
Trained in Art of Ninjitsu: Ninjitsu is the art of stealthy combat, espionage and assassination. Ninjitsu is a new skill and will be listed in the skill list. It has a regular cap of 100, and is raisable to a cap of 120 with Power Scrolls.
Ninja Special Abilities
Special Ability: Focus Attack
Summoning all of her skill and strength for a single attack, the Ninja strikes the enemy with great precision. Besides giving a damage bonus, Focus Attack also increases the effectiveness of any hit chance properties on the weapon the Ninja uses for the attack. The strength of these bonuses is dependent upon the Ninja’s skill in Ninjitsu.
Mana Cost: 20/ Min. Skill: 60 - Increases both your damage and the percentage chance for "hit" properties on your weapon for one attack.
Special Ability: Death Strike
Striking the enemy with a special technique, the Ninja can cause damage long after the actual blow. After receiving a Death Strike (which deals half of the damage of a normal blow) if the Ninja’s opponent moves more than five steps, or five seconds elapse, the opponent will suffer damage determined by the skill level of the Ninja. The delayed damage dealt is greater if the Ninja’s opponent chooses to run away rather than stand and fight. Only highly skilled Ninja can execute a Death Strike.
Mana Cost: 30/ Min. Skill: 85 - After receiveing a Death Strike, if the opponent moves more than five steps, or five seconds elapses, they will suffer direct damage determined by the attacker's Ninjitsu.
Special Ability: Animal Form
Using an ancient secret only known to a few, the Ninja mysteriously takes the shape of a beast, granting himself animal-like abilities. Animal form gives the Ninja the ability to transform into an animal, gaining special bonuses unique to each type of creature. There are 12 animal forms available to a skilled Ninja, including stealthy animals such as Rats, ferocious beasts like the Bake Kitsune, and fast runners like Ostards and Unicorns.
Mana Cost: 0/ Min. Skill: Varies - Allows you to transform into an animal, gaining special bonuses. If you are running while casting the spell, you will automatically transform into your last selected animal type. Duration is permanent until recast or death. The Animal Forms include:
Rabbit and Rat - Min Skill: 0 - grants a +20 bonus to stealth skill.
Cat and Dog - Min. Skill: 40 - Increases regeneration rate.The increase is based upon your Ninjitsu skill.
Bullfrog - Min. Skill: 50 - Inflicts poison when your enemy damages you at short range.
Giant Serpent - Min. Skill: 50 - Inflicts low level poison whenever you strike your opponent with a non-ranged weapon.
Llama and Ostard - Min. Skill: 70 - Increases your movement speed.
Bake-kistune and Wolf - Min. Skill: 85 - Increases movement speed, grants a bonus to your hit chance and gives you +20 hp.
Kirin -Min. Skill: 100 - Increases movement speed and regenerates stamina quickly.
Unicorn - Min. Skill: 100 - Increases movement speed and grants immunity to low level poisons.
Special Ability: Ki Attack
Focusing his Ki, the Ninja uses momentum to strike the enemy with tremendous force. The Ki Attack is a special attack that requires the superb timing and quick movement of a well trained Ninja. In order to execute this attack, the Ninja will have to initiate the Ki Attack and then quickly close the distance between himself and his opponent to deliver an effective blow. The farther the Ninja travels to deliver the blow, the more powerful the Ki Attack.
Mana Cost: 25/ Min. Skill: 80 - An attack that does greater damage based on how far you travel to your opponent from the location where you initiate the Ki attack. You must reach your target in under 2 seconds.
Special Ability: Surprise Attack
Attacking from the shadows, the Ninja catches her opponent off-guard and unable to fully defend himself. An attack that can only be initiated by a Ninja in stealth mode, Surprise Attack inflicts a defense penalty on the Ninja’s opponent for a short duration. Using this ability automatically reveals the Ninja, who then cannot stealth again for another 5 seconds. The defense penalty applied to the Ninja’s opponent is dependent upon the Ninja’s skill in Ninjitsu.
Mana Cost: 20/ Min. Skill: 30, An attack from stealth that inflicts a defense penalty on your opponent for a short duration. You cannot re-enter stealth for 5 seconds after a Surprise Attack.
Special Ability: Backstab
Sneaking up behind the enemy undetected, the Ninja plunges his sword deep into his enemy’s back, inflicting great damage. Similar to Surprise Attack, Backstab requires the Ninja to be in stealth mode in order to initiate this special attack, but instead of lowering the defense of the Ninja’s opponent, Backstab applies a significant damage bonus to the attack. Using this ability automatically reveals the Ninja, who then cannot stealth again for another 5 seconds.
Mana Cost: 30, Min. Skill: 20, An attack from stealth with a damage bonus based on your Ninjitsu and the distance you have tracked your opponent
Special Ability: Mirror Image
Mana Cost: 10, Min. Skill: 40, Creates a mirror image of yourself that may absorb damage when you are standing within 4 steps of it. A mirror image consumes a follower slot and will disapear in 30 - 60 seconds. Your Mirror Image will create a image of whatever form you are in, including Animal forms, Polymorphs, and Incognitos.
Special Ability: Shadow Jump
Mana Cost: 15/ Min. Skill: 50, Allows you to teleport while maintaining stealth, but only if you succeed in a stealth check at your destination. (this acts just like teleport except you stay hidden.)
~Thanks very much to EliteXGamer for the new info!~
Ninja
All info is current as of pub 47
Please let me know if you see errors so I can correct the post
GENERAL NOTES FOR ALL NINJITSU ABILITIES
- Ninjitsu abilites benefit from fast casting up to 4 FC
- Ninjitsu abilites benefit from fast casting recovery up to 6 FCR
- Ninjitsu abilities cannot be interrupted by attacks
- Ninjtsu abilities can be used while moving
- Ninjitsu abilites can be used while fighting without interrupting your swings
- Ninjitsu ATTACK abilities use the listed mana regardless of whether or not you successfully use the ability. (If you try to death strike someone and fail, it still costs you 30 mana.)
NINJITSU ABILITY DESCRIPTIONS
ANIMAL FORMS [10 mana; min skill varies (see below); skill for 100% success is 37.5 higher than min skill for each form]:
NOTES:
- You cannot cast spells, use weapon special moves, or use ninja ATTACK abilities while in animal form. (You can still use mirror images and shadow jump.)
- Dismount attacks can force you out of animal form
- Animal forms are subject to the same timer restrictions as riding a mount. (Delay to use animal form after you use a dismount attack or after you have been dismounted etc)
- If you set animal form up as a macro in UO it has two effects. If you use it while standing still, it pops up the selection menu for you to choose an animl form. If you use it while you are moving, it skips the selection menu and automatically puts you into the last form that you successfully used.
Rabbit/Rat Form [min skill 0; 100% success skill is 37.5]: These forms give a +20 bonus to your stealth skill
Cat/Dog Form [min skill 40; 100% success skill is 77.5]: Increases hit point regen rate by ninjitsu/3 (so at 120 skill you get 40 hit point regen. That's 4 per second!)
Giant Serpent Form [min skill 50; 100% success skill is 87.5]: Giant serpent form inflicts lesser poison (lvl 1) whenever you hit an opponent with a melee (non ranged) attack.
Bullfrog Form [min skill 50; 100% success skill is 87.5]: Bullfrog form inflicts normal poison (lvl 2) whenever you are hit by an opponent at close range.
Ostard/Lama Form [min skill 70; 100% success skill is 107.5]: These forms allow you to move at mounted movement rates. This is very nice since it allows you to stealth at mounted walking speed which is as fast as unmounted running speed.
Wolf/Bake-Kitsune Form [min skill 85; 120 skill gives 95.0% success]: These forms allow you to move at mounted movement rates, give you +20 hit points, and give +20% hit chance increase (HCI) bonus
Unicorn Form [min skill 99; 120 skill gives 67.0% success]: This form allows you to move at mounted movement rates and gives immunity to lesser poison, poison, & greater poison. Unicorns are still effected by deadly poison & lethal poison
Kirin Form [min skill 99; 120 skill gives 67.0% success]: This form allows you to move at mounted movement rates and gives 20 stamina regen.
MIRROR IMAGE [10 mana, 20 min skill, 57.5 skill gives no chance to fail]
NOTE: Mirror image cannot be used while mounted
Creates an illusionary duplicate of your character that can have melee attacks deflected to it. [Spell attacks cannot be deflected to mirror images. ] If an attack is deflected, it will destroy the image instead of damaging you. (Like a one shot ninja version of parry) [The chance to deflect an attack is roughly (Ninjitsu-30)%... I orginally tested this out back when the min skill level was 40. Now that the min skill level is 20 I'm not sure what happens at low levels of skill...]
WEAPON FOCUS [10 mana, 30 min skill, 67.5 skill gives no chance to fail]:
NOTES:
- Weapon focus cannot be used with bow attacks.
- Weapon focus cannot be used if you have a shield equipped.
- Weapon Focus damage in PVP was reduced in pub 40.
At 120 ninjitsu this ability increases melee weapon damage by 30%. (About 17.5% in PvP) It also increases the "hit effect" properties of magic weapons. (When you activate weapon focus, it will change the percent chance for your weapon "hit effects" when you mouse over your weapon on your paperdoll.) At 60 ninjitsu it looks like it increases the chance by about 25% and at 120 ninjitsu it increases the chance by 100%. This means that at 60 ninjitsu if you have a weapon with 50% hit lightning then if your weapon focus attack succeeds you will have a 62% (50%*1.25) chance for lightning and at 120 ninjitsu when your weapon focus attack succeeds you will have 100% (50%*2) chance for lightning. I havent worked out the exact formula, but it doesn't appear to be a simple linear increase to the "hit effect" multiplier as your ninjitsu increases.
BACKSTAB [30 mana, 40 min skill, 77.5 skill gives no chance to fail]:
NOTES:
- Tracking has NO effect on backstab damage
- In order to use a backstab you have to be in stealth mode (hide and then use stealth skill or take a step).
- Backstab damage in PVP was reduced in pub 40.
When you attack from stealth, if you hit, you get a damage bonus that seems to be equal to your ninjitsu skill. So 80 ninjitsu = 80% bonus damage and 120 ninjitsu = 120% bonus damage, etc. (PVP weapon damage is only increased by about 65% at 120 ninjitsu.)
In order to see if backstab is worth the 30 mana, lets compare it to an armor ignore attack. At 120 ninjitsu a backstab will do more damage then an armor ignore weapon special if your target has less than 59 AR. If the target has 59 or more AR then armor ignore would have done more damage. {For the number crunchers out there: D=your weapon damage, A=target's armor, D*.9=Armor ignore damage, D*2.2*(100-A)/100=Backstab damage ; (solve for A) D*.9<D*2.2*(100-A)/100} Of course with 300 combat skill points you can armor ignore for 20 mana and the backstab will cost you 30 mana. Upshot: If the targets AR is noticably below 59 then backstab may be worth the 30 mana. Otherwise just use armor ignore. This means that backstab can be useful sometimes in PvM but rarely in PvP
SHADOW JUMP [15 mana, 50 min skill, 87.5 skill gives no chance to fail] You have to be in stealth mode before you can use this ability. Shadow jump is basically a new version of the 3rd circle mage spell "teleport" with the noteable difference that it will allow you to stay hidden while you teleport (if you pass an additional stealth check).
SURPRISE ATTACK [20 mana, 60 min skill, 97.5 skill gives no chance to fail]:
NOTES:
- In order to use surprise attack you have to be in stealth mode (hide and then use stealth skill or take a step).
- Tracking has NO effect on surprise attack
When you attack from stealth, if you hit, you will lower your opponents ability to defend for a short period of time. [At 120 ninjitsu the effect is -50% DCI for 10 seconds!!!]
KI STRIKE [25 mana, 80 min skill, 117.5 skill gives no chance to fail]
NOTES:
- Ki Strike cannot be used with bow attacks.
- You cannot be hidden when you activate this ability.
- Ki Strike damage in PVP was reduced in pub 40.
This attack gives bonus damage to a melee attack based on how far you move towards your target after the ability is activated. The further you move, the greater the damage bonus. You have 2 seconds to hit your target after the abilility is activated. If you "joust" by running at full mounted speed for the 2 seconds you can increase damage by about 100% [double damage] (PVP weapon damage is only increased by up to about 55%.)
DEATH STRIKE [30 mana, 85 min skill, 120 skill gives 95.0% success]
NOTE: Damage from Death Strike is halved with bow attacks.
If you hit in combat & pass the check to use deathstrike this 30 mana attack halves the damage of your initial strike and then has one of 2 additional effects:
1) If the target takes less than 5 steps during the next 5 seconds then they will take (Ninjitsu/9)*(.3+.7*(hiding+stealth)/220) + [tracking bonus] DIRECT damage
2) If the target takes more than 5 steps in the next 5 seconds then they will take (Ninjitsu/3)*(.3+.7*(hiding+stealth)/220) + [tracking bonus] DIRECT damage
TRACKING: If you sucessfully track a target before you deathstrike, the next deathstrike attack will do additional damage as follows. Adds up to 10 damage based on the distance between where the target was standing when you tracked them and where they are standing when you deathstrike them. In addition you will do tracking /10 (rounded down bonus damage)
[Tracking bonus is now capped at 10 + 1/10 skill ]
DAMAGE IS CAPPED AT 60 (if they run) & 20 (if they stand still).
If you stack a second deathstrike attack, the caps change to 70 (if they run) & 30 (if they stand still). (IMO the extra 10 damage isnt worth another 30 mana.)
Note: The 5 sec damage is unaffected by choice of weapon or level of tactics/anatomy (you can even use wrestling).
In PvP Death Strike can be used to put your enemy in a dilemma: run and take 40 (up to 60 with tracking) or stay toe to toe with you and take 13 (up to 20 with tracking).
The stealth changes have made the formula for death strike damage a little cumbersome. Here are some examples:
0 hiding and 0 stealth = 12 damage if they run (elf) [not including tracking] (a human does 17 because of the free 20 in hiding and stealth)
100 hiding and 80 stealth = 34 damage if they run [not including tracking]
100 hiding and 120 stealth = 40 damage if they run [not including tracking]
TRACKING SKILL
Tracking can give a damage bonus to your first deathstrike attack. The bonus is based on the distance between where your opponent was standing when you tracked them and where they are standing when you attack them. The greater the distance, the greater the bonus.
It does not take much tracking to track players that are near you. (I have 5 tracking, but I have heard you can track players with just 0.1 tracking skill.) If the players have hiding/stealth it will take a MUCH higher tracking skill to track them reliably.
EQUIPMENT
SMOKE BOMBS - Require 50 ninjitsu to use. When they are used they block line of site and make an immediate hiding check. The success is based on your hiding skill. At 100 hiding you will automatically succeed. VERY NICE! Note: They cost 10 mana to use and they are subject to the hiding skill delay.
FUKIYA - Can be loaded with 10 darts that can be deadly poisoned. This item does not have to be equiped to use, but you must have a hand free to use it. It can only be used at close range. (5 steps or less) When used, it makes an attack check using your ninjitsu skill level. If it hits, it will inflict the level of poison on the dart. This allows you to deadly poison without the poisoning skill. (The poisoning skill has nothing to do with these... except that it allows you to apply poison to the darts yourself.)
SHURIKEN - Up to 10 of these can be loaded into a ninja belt. You must have a hand free to use them from the belt. They can only be used from a distance. (more than 2 steps) When used, they make an attack check using your ninjitsu skill level. If it hits, the shuriken will inflict the level of poison that was applied to it. This allows you to deadly poison without the poisoning skill. (The poisoning skill has nothing to do with these... except that it allows you to apply poison to the shuriken yourself.)
NINJA WEAPON SPECIALS (require 50 ninjitsu to use)
TALON STRIKE: Talon strike does about 20% extra damage and gives the target negative hit point regen for a short time. [At 120 ninjitsu the effect is -50 hp regen for 3 seconds. This means you will do an extra 15 points of damage that ignore armor but can be offset if the target has good hp regen.]
ARMOR PIERCE: [**Thanks to WarUltima for the following information on how armor pierce works**] It adds approx 50% to your damage. (much like crushing blow) For example, if you attack a creature and are doing 14 points of damage per hit, then an armor pierce attack will do 21 points of damage. (Your normal 14 plus 7 more)
DUAL WIELD: Increases swing speed for a short time. [At 120 ninjitsu the effect is +50% SSI for 5 seconds.]
BLOCK: Increases your defense for a short time. [At 120 ninjitsu the effect is +15% DCI for 5 seconds.]
FEINT: ???
All info is current as of pub 47
Please let me know if you see errors so I can correct the post
GENERAL NOTES FOR ALL NINJITSU ABILITIES
- Ninjitsu abilites benefit from fast casting up to 4 FC
- Ninjitsu abilites benefit from fast casting recovery up to 6 FCR
- Ninjitsu abilities cannot be interrupted by attacks
- Ninjtsu abilities can be used while moving
- Ninjitsu abilites can be used while fighting without interrupting your swings
- Ninjitsu ATTACK abilities use the listed mana regardless of whether or not you successfully use the ability. (If you try to death strike someone and fail, it still costs you 30 mana.)
NINJITSU ABILITY DESCRIPTIONS
ANIMAL FORMS [10 mana; min skill varies (see below); skill for 100% success is 37.5 higher than min skill for each form]:
NOTES:
- You cannot cast spells, use weapon special moves, or use ninja ATTACK abilities while in animal form. (You can still use mirror images and shadow jump.)
- Dismount attacks can force you out of animal form
- Animal forms are subject to the same timer restrictions as riding a mount. (Delay to use animal form after you use a dismount attack or after you have been dismounted etc)
- If you set animal form up as a macro in UO it has two effects. If you use it while standing still, it pops up the selection menu for you to choose an animl form. If you use it while you are moving, it skips the selection menu and automatically puts you into the last form that you successfully used.
Rabbit/Rat Form [min skill 0; 100% success skill is 37.5]: These forms give a +20 bonus to your stealth skill
Cat/Dog Form [min skill 40; 100% success skill is 77.5]: Increases hit point regen rate by ninjitsu/3 (so at 120 skill you get 40 hit point regen. That's 4 per second!)
Giant Serpent Form [min skill 50; 100% success skill is 87.5]: Giant serpent form inflicts lesser poison (lvl 1) whenever you hit an opponent with a melee (non ranged) attack.
Bullfrog Form [min skill 50; 100% success skill is 87.5]: Bullfrog form inflicts normal poison (lvl 2) whenever you are hit by an opponent at close range.
Ostard/Lama Form [min skill 70; 100% success skill is 107.5]: These forms allow you to move at mounted movement rates. This is very nice since it allows you to stealth at mounted walking speed which is as fast as unmounted running speed.
Wolf/Bake-Kitsune Form [min skill 85; 120 skill gives 95.0% success]: These forms allow you to move at mounted movement rates, give you +20 hit points, and give +20% hit chance increase (HCI) bonus
Unicorn Form [min skill 99; 120 skill gives 67.0% success]: This form allows you to move at mounted movement rates and gives immunity to lesser poison, poison, & greater poison. Unicorns are still effected by deadly poison & lethal poison
Kirin Form [min skill 99; 120 skill gives 67.0% success]: This form allows you to move at mounted movement rates and gives 20 stamina regen.
MIRROR IMAGE [10 mana, 20 min skill, 57.5 skill gives no chance to fail]
NOTE: Mirror image cannot be used while mounted
Creates an illusionary duplicate of your character that can have melee attacks deflected to it. [Spell attacks cannot be deflected to mirror images. ] If an attack is deflected, it will destroy the image instead of damaging you. (Like a one shot ninja version of parry) [The chance to deflect an attack is roughly (Ninjitsu-30)%... I orginally tested this out back when the min skill level was 40. Now that the min skill level is 20 I'm not sure what happens at low levels of skill...]
WEAPON FOCUS [10 mana, 30 min skill, 67.5 skill gives no chance to fail]:
NOTES:
- Weapon focus cannot be used with bow attacks.
- Weapon focus cannot be used if you have a shield equipped.
- Weapon Focus damage in PVP was reduced in pub 40.
At 120 ninjitsu this ability increases melee weapon damage by 30%. (About 17.5% in PvP) It also increases the "hit effect" properties of magic weapons. (When you activate weapon focus, it will change the percent chance for your weapon "hit effects" when you mouse over your weapon on your paperdoll.) At 60 ninjitsu it looks like it increases the chance by about 25% and at 120 ninjitsu it increases the chance by 100%. This means that at 60 ninjitsu if you have a weapon with 50% hit lightning then if your weapon focus attack succeeds you will have a 62% (50%*1.25) chance for lightning and at 120 ninjitsu when your weapon focus attack succeeds you will have 100% (50%*2) chance for lightning. I havent worked out the exact formula, but it doesn't appear to be a simple linear increase to the "hit effect" multiplier as your ninjitsu increases.
BACKSTAB [30 mana, 40 min skill, 77.5 skill gives no chance to fail]:
NOTES:
- Tracking has NO effect on backstab damage
- In order to use a backstab you have to be in stealth mode (hide and then use stealth skill or take a step).
- Backstab damage in PVP was reduced in pub 40.
When you attack from stealth, if you hit, you get a damage bonus that seems to be equal to your ninjitsu skill. So 80 ninjitsu = 80% bonus damage and 120 ninjitsu = 120% bonus damage, etc. (PVP weapon damage is only increased by about 65% at 120 ninjitsu.)
In order to see if backstab is worth the 30 mana, lets compare it to an armor ignore attack. At 120 ninjitsu a backstab will do more damage then an armor ignore weapon special if your target has less than 59 AR. If the target has 59 or more AR then armor ignore would have done more damage. {For the number crunchers out there: D=your weapon damage, A=target's armor, D*.9=Armor ignore damage, D*2.2*(100-A)/100=Backstab damage ; (solve for A) D*.9<D*2.2*(100-A)/100} Of course with 300 combat skill points you can armor ignore for 20 mana and the backstab will cost you 30 mana. Upshot: If the targets AR is noticably below 59 then backstab may be worth the 30 mana. Otherwise just use armor ignore. This means that backstab can be useful sometimes in PvM but rarely in PvP
SHADOW JUMP [15 mana, 50 min skill, 87.5 skill gives no chance to fail] You have to be in stealth mode before you can use this ability. Shadow jump is basically a new version of the 3rd circle mage spell "teleport" with the noteable difference that it will allow you to stay hidden while you teleport (if you pass an additional stealth check).
SURPRISE ATTACK [20 mana, 60 min skill, 97.5 skill gives no chance to fail]:
NOTES:
- In order to use surprise attack you have to be in stealth mode (hide and then use stealth skill or take a step).
- Tracking has NO effect on surprise attack
When you attack from stealth, if you hit, you will lower your opponents ability to defend for a short period of time. [At 120 ninjitsu the effect is -50% DCI for 10 seconds!!!]
KI STRIKE [25 mana, 80 min skill, 117.5 skill gives no chance to fail]
NOTES:
- Ki Strike cannot be used with bow attacks.
- You cannot be hidden when you activate this ability.
- Ki Strike damage in PVP was reduced in pub 40.
This attack gives bonus damage to a melee attack based on how far you move towards your target after the ability is activated. The further you move, the greater the damage bonus. You have 2 seconds to hit your target after the abilility is activated. If you "joust" by running at full mounted speed for the 2 seconds you can increase damage by about 100% [double damage] (PVP weapon damage is only increased by up to about 55%.)
DEATH STRIKE [30 mana, 85 min skill, 120 skill gives 95.0% success]
NOTE: Damage from Death Strike is halved with bow attacks.
If you hit in combat & pass the check to use deathstrike this 30 mana attack halves the damage of your initial strike and then has one of 2 additional effects:
1) If the target takes less than 5 steps during the next 5 seconds then they will take (Ninjitsu/9)*(.3+.7*(hiding+stealth)/220) + [tracking bonus] DIRECT damage
2) If the target takes more than 5 steps in the next 5 seconds then they will take (Ninjitsu/3)*(.3+.7*(hiding+stealth)/220) + [tracking bonus] DIRECT damage
TRACKING: If you sucessfully track a target before you deathstrike, the next deathstrike attack will do additional damage as follows. Adds up to 10 damage based on the distance between where the target was standing when you tracked them and where they are standing when you deathstrike them. In addition you will do tracking /10 (rounded down bonus damage)
[Tracking bonus is now capped at 10 + 1/10 skill ]
DAMAGE IS CAPPED AT 60 (if they run) & 20 (if they stand still).
If you stack a second deathstrike attack, the caps change to 70 (if they run) & 30 (if they stand still). (IMO the extra 10 damage isnt worth another 30 mana.)
Note: The 5 sec damage is unaffected by choice of weapon or level of tactics/anatomy (you can even use wrestling).
In PvP Death Strike can be used to put your enemy in a dilemma: run and take 40 (up to 60 with tracking) or stay toe to toe with you and take 13 (up to 20 with tracking).
The stealth changes have made the formula for death strike damage a little cumbersome. Here are some examples:
0 hiding and 0 stealth = 12 damage if they run (elf) [not including tracking] (a human does 17 because of the free 20 in hiding and stealth)
100 hiding and 80 stealth = 34 damage if they run [not including tracking]
100 hiding and 120 stealth = 40 damage if they run [not including tracking]
TRACKING SKILL
Tracking can give a damage bonus to your first deathstrike attack. The bonus is based on the distance between where your opponent was standing when you tracked them and where they are standing when you attack them. The greater the distance, the greater the bonus.
It does not take much tracking to track players that are near you. (I have 5 tracking, but I have heard you can track players with just 0.1 tracking skill.) If the players have hiding/stealth it will take a MUCH higher tracking skill to track them reliably.
EQUIPMENT
SMOKE BOMBS - Require 50 ninjitsu to use. When they are used they block line of site and make an immediate hiding check. The success is based on your hiding skill. At 100 hiding you will automatically succeed. VERY NICE! Note: They cost 10 mana to use and they are subject to the hiding skill delay.
FUKIYA - Can be loaded with 10 darts that can be deadly poisoned. This item does not have to be equiped to use, but you must have a hand free to use it. It can only be used at close range. (5 steps or less) When used, it makes an attack check using your ninjitsu skill level. If it hits, it will inflict the level of poison on the dart. This allows you to deadly poison without the poisoning skill. (The poisoning skill has nothing to do with these... except that it allows you to apply poison to the darts yourself.)
SHURIKEN - Up to 10 of these can be loaded into a ninja belt. You must have a hand free to use them from the belt. They can only be used from a distance. (more than 2 steps) When used, they make an attack check using your ninjitsu skill level. If it hits, the shuriken will inflict the level of poison that was applied to it. This allows you to deadly poison without the poisoning skill. (The poisoning skill has nothing to do with these... except that it allows you to apply poison to the shuriken yourself.)
NINJA WEAPON SPECIALS (require 50 ninjitsu to use)
TALON STRIKE: Talon strike does about 20% extra damage and gives the target negative hit point regen for a short time. [At 120 ninjitsu the effect is -50 hp regen for 3 seconds. This means you will do an extra 15 points of damage that ignore armor but can be offset if the target has good hp regen.]
ARMOR PIERCE: [**Thanks to WarUltima for the following information on how armor pierce works**] It adds approx 50% to your damage. (much like crushing blow) For example, if you attack a creature and are doing 14 points of damage per hit, then an armor pierce attack will do 21 points of damage. (Your normal 14 plus 7 more)
DUAL WIELD: Increases swing speed for a short time. [At 120 ninjitsu the effect is +50% SSI for 5 seconds.]
BLOCK: Increases your defense for a short time. [At 120 ninjitsu the effect is +15% DCI for 5 seconds.]
FEINT: ???
By Lyria
Reposting this from my "Quick guide: How to make a macro to summon 5 mirror images" post a week or two ago:
After intense experimentation, I think I've nailed down the exact time delay one must wait before summoning a new mirror image (it works perfectly for me, at least). With that information, it becomes rather easy to make a UO macro to summon 5 mirror images in a row (which sure beats pressing the summon macro button repeatedly, probably getting a few "can't-summon-yet" messages along the way).
Once you've chosen which key(s) activate the macro, add the following entries in the following order:<blockquote><hr>
CastSpell, Mirror Image
Delay, 35
CastSpell, Mirror Image
Delay, 35
CastSpell, Mirror Image
Delay, 35
CastSpell, Mirror Image
Delay, 35
CastSpell, Mirror Image
<hr></blockquote>
With this macro, becoming ready to jump into close combat is just a click away!
Please note that the delay of 35 could be lowered to 32, depending on how smoothly UO runs; I personally recommend 35 for those times when UO is moving a little bit slower than usual.
Also note that you can probably not use any other UO macro (easily) while this one is still running, so make sure you don't have anything else that needs to be done urgently before summoning the mirror images (or summon them one at a time through other means than this macro).
Reposting this from my "Quick guide: How to make a macro to summon 5 mirror images" post a week or two ago:
After intense experimentation, I think I've nailed down the exact time delay one must wait before summoning a new mirror image (it works perfectly for me, at least). With that information, it becomes rather easy to make a UO macro to summon 5 mirror images in a row (which sure beats pressing the summon macro button repeatedly, probably getting a few "can't-summon-yet" messages along the way).
Once you've chosen which key(s) activate the macro, add the following entries in the following order:<blockquote><hr>
CastSpell, Mirror Image
Delay, 35
CastSpell, Mirror Image
Delay, 35
CastSpell, Mirror Image
Delay, 35
CastSpell, Mirror Image
Delay, 35
CastSpell, Mirror Image
<hr></blockquote>
With this macro, becoming ready to jump into close combat is just a click away!
Please note that the delay of 35 could be lowered to 32, depending on how smoothly UO runs; I personally recommend 35 for those times when UO is moving a little bit slower than usual.
Also note that you can probably not use any other UO macro (easily) while this one is still running, so make sure you don't have anything else that needs to be done urgently before summoning the mirror images (or summon them one at a time through other means than this macro).
Archery
Archery skill defined:
The Archery skill is automatically used when you engage in combat holding an archery weapon. It is used to calculate your chance to hit and chance to be hit.
Archery is influenced by:
Archery Skill - Adjusted skill level determines hit percentage
Tactics - Adjusts the damage of successful hits up to 150%.
Anatomy - The damage bonus for Anatomy is 20% of your skill level with an added 10% bonus at GM skill. The bonus is calculated with the following formula: % damage = (skill / 5) + (10% if GM) So, at 80 skill the bonus is 16%, at 90 skill the bonus is 18%, at 99 skill the bonus is 19.9%, and at 100 skill the bonus is 30%.
Dexterity - Along with bowtype, determines available stamina, which in turn determines rate of fire.
Bow Type/Special moves - Quality, Special moves available for bow type, Magical Accuracy/Damage and other bow qualities factor into the hit % and/or damage potential.
Defense Chance - Increased parry or bushido over GM level for either increases your chance for defence (blocking) by 5%.
Swing Speed and Damage Calculator
Archery facts:
All bows are two-handed weapons.
It is possible to drink potions with the balance property. If found or enhanced on a bow, the user will be able to drink potions without having to disarm.
Currently, the archer can "fire-and forget." That is, when an arrow is shot, the archer may move immediately thereafter and not fear that the arrow will not hit the target.
Ranged attack is limited to line-of-sight.
You must have arrows (for bows) or bolts (for crossbow/heavy crossbow) in your backpack or quiver in order to fire. Quivers allow the archer to carry a supply of up to 500 bolts or arrows on their person. The archer can then insure the quiver and, in case of death, they will find the quiver on their body provided it was adequately insured. Quivers will only hold one ammo type, arrow or bolt.
At a skill level of 70, the Archer will be able to use an archery weapons primary special move.
At a skill level of 90, the Archer will be able to use an archery weapons secondary special move.
Please refer to the link on bow types for a more detailed description. Here follows the basic bow types:
Assassin's Shortbow
Barbed Longbow
Blight Gripped Longbow
Bow
Composite Bow
Crossbow
Elven Composite Longbow
Faerie Fire
Forzen Longbow
Heavy Crossbow
Lightweight Shortbow
Longbow of Might
Magical Shortbow
Mischief Maker
Mystical Shortbow
Ranger's Shorbow
Repeating Corssbow
Silvani's Feywood Bow
Slayer Longbow
The Night Reaper
Yumi
Archery skill defined:
The Archery skill is automatically used when you engage in combat holding an archery weapon. It is used to calculate your chance to hit and chance to be hit.
Archery is influenced by:
Archery Skill - Adjusted skill level determines hit percentage
Tactics - Adjusts the damage of successful hits up to 150%.
Anatomy - The damage bonus for Anatomy is 20% of your skill level with an added 10% bonus at GM skill. The bonus is calculated with the following formula: % damage = (skill / 5) + (10% if GM) So, at 80 skill the bonus is 16%, at 90 skill the bonus is 18%, at 99 skill the bonus is 19.9%, and at 100 skill the bonus is 30%.
Dexterity - Along with bowtype, determines available stamina, which in turn determines rate of fire.
Bow Type/Special moves - Quality, Special moves available for bow type, Magical Accuracy/Damage and other bow qualities factor into the hit % and/or damage potential.
Defense Chance - Increased parry or bushido over GM level for either increases your chance for defence (blocking) by 5%.
Swing Speed and Damage Calculator
Archery facts:
All bows are two-handed weapons.
It is possible to drink potions with the balance property. If found or enhanced on a bow, the user will be able to drink potions without having to disarm.
Currently, the archer can "fire-and forget." That is, when an arrow is shot, the archer may move immediately thereafter and not fear that the arrow will not hit the target.
Ranged attack is limited to line-of-sight.
You must have arrows (for bows) or bolts (for crossbow/heavy crossbow) in your backpack or quiver in order to fire. Quivers allow the archer to carry a supply of up to 500 bolts or arrows on their person. The archer can then insure the quiver and, in case of death, they will find the quiver on their body provided it was adequately insured. Quivers will only hold one ammo type, arrow or bolt.
At a skill level of 70, the Archer will be able to use an archery weapons primary special move.
At a skill level of 90, the Archer will be able to use an archery weapons secondary special move.
Please refer to the link on bow types for a more detailed description. Here follows the basic bow types:
Assassin's Shortbow
Barbed Longbow
Blight Gripped Longbow
Bow
Composite Bow
Crossbow
Elven Composite Longbow
Faerie Fire
Forzen Longbow
Heavy Crossbow
Lightweight Shortbow
Longbow of Might
Magical Shortbow
Mischief Maker
Mystical Shortbow
Ranger's Shorbow
Repeating Corssbow
Silvani's Feywood Bow
Slayer Longbow
The Night Reaper
Yumi
Archery
Some thoughts to ponder while deciding if archery is for you...
Do you like melee? If the draw of hand to hand combat calls you, archery might not be your first choice. Archery is a skill that allows you to step back from your prey with less physical damage to the archer.
Do you like to solo creatures? Archery is debatably the strongest (or one of the strongest) templates in PVM (player vs. monster). When combined with other skills, most notably paladin, bushido, or ninja, the archery template is very strong.
Do you like to play alone? Archery is condusive to solo play, not just where monsters are concerned, but in general, archers can be solitary players.
Do you enjoy PVP (player vs. player)? Currently, the number one new pvp template is the pvp archer, usually combined with bushido. This player uses a combination of high dexterity and the archery skill to quickly make mincemeat out of the competition.
Are you flexible? For some reason, archery is the most changed profession. What I mean by that is that sometimes our skill is strong, other times it's tweaked to oblivion. Ask anyone who was part of the many year campaign for "fire-and-forget." Sometimes archery is the "red-headed step-child" of UO. When we're weak, we're very weak, when we're strong, we're outstanding!
If you're someone who is a little off-beat, who likes to discover the UO world as would a ranger of old, then archery is for you.
Some thoughts to ponder while deciding if archery is for you...
Do you like melee? If the draw of hand to hand combat calls you, archery might not be your first choice. Archery is a skill that allows you to step back from your prey with less physical damage to the archer.
Do you like to solo creatures? Archery is debatably the strongest (or one of the strongest) templates in PVM (player vs. monster). When combined with other skills, most notably paladin, bushido, or ninja, the archery template is very strong.
Do you like to play alone? Archery is condusive to solo play, not just where monsters are concerned, but in general, archers can be solitary players.
Do you enjoy PVP (player vs. player)? Currently, the number one new pvp template is the pvp archer, usually combined with bushido. This player uses a combination of high dexterity and the archery skill to quickly make mincemeat out of the competition.
Are you flexible? For some reason, archery is the most changed profession. What I mean by that is that sometimes our skill is strong, other times it's tweaked to oblivion. Ask anyone who was part of the many year campaign for "fire-and-forget." Sometimes archery is the "red-headed step-child" of UO. When we're weak, we're very weak, when we're strong, we're outstanding!
If you're someone who is a little off-beat, who likes to discover the UO world as would a ranger of old, then archery is for you.
Archery
Other skills affect damage and defense chance:
Tactics - Adjusts the damage of successful hits up to 150%.
Anatomy - The damage bonus for Anatomy is 20% of your skill level with an added 10% bonus at GM skill. The bonus is calculated with the following formula: % damage = (skill / 5) + (10% if GM) So, at 80 skill the bonus is 16%, at 90 skill the bonus is 18%, at 99 skill the bonus is 19.9%, and at 100 skill the bonus is 30%.
Dexterity - Along with bowtype, determines available stamina, which in turn determines rate of fire.
Bow Type/Special moves - Quality, Special moves available for bow type, Magical Accuracy/Damage and other bow qualities factor into the hit % and/or damage potential.
Other skills affect damage and defense chance:
Tactics - Adjusts the damage of successful hits up to 150%.
Anatomy - The damage bonus for Anatomy is 20% of your skill level with an added 10% bonus at GM skill. The bonus is calculated with the following formula: % damage = (skill / 5) + (10% if GM) So, at 80 skill the bonus is 16%, at 90 skill the bonus is 18%, at 99 skill the bonus is 19.9%, and at 100 skill the bonus is 30%.
Dexterity - Along with bowtype, determines available stamina, which in turn determines rate of fire.
Bow Type/Special moves - Quality, Special moves available for bow type, Magical Accuracy/Damage and other bow qualities factor into the hit % and/or damage potential.
Archery
A note on quiver damage courtesy of Bhima_LS:
If the quiver has physical/elemental damage properties, those take precedence over the bow's physical/elemental properties. Thus, for example, an elven quiver or a quiver of infinity would do damage based on the bow, while a fire quiver would do 50/50 physical/fire because the quiver has that property.
The following quivers are made by GM tailors who obtain the recipe in heartwood:
Elven Quiver
28 Leather or Hides
Damage Increase 10%
Quiver of Blight
28 Leather, 10 Blight
Damage Increase 10%
Cold Damage 50%
Poison Damage 50%
Quiver of Fire
28 Leather, 15 Fire Ruby
Damage Increase 10%
Physical Damage 50%
Fire Damage 50%
Quiver of Ice
28 Leather, 15 White Pearl
Damage Increase 10%
Physical Damage 50%
Cold Damage 50%
Quiver of Lightning
28 Leather, 10 Corruption
Damage Increase 10%
Physical Damage 50%
Energy Damage 50%
The following 2 types are looted from ML monsters (swoop, miasma, lurg) or from peerless monsters:
Quiver of the Elements
Damage Increase 10%
100% Chaos Damage
50% Weight Reduction
Quiver of Rage
Damage Increase 10%
40% Physical Damage
50% Cold Damage
25% Weight Reduction
The following is the GRANDDADDY of all quivers. It was a gift choice for UO's 8th anniversary:
Quiver of Infinity
Damage modifier: 10%
Lower ammo cost: 20%
Weight Reduction: 30%
Defense chance increase: 5%
A note on quiver damage courtesy of Bhima_LS:
If the quiver has physical/elemental damage properties, those take precedence over the bow's physical/elemental properties. Thus, for example, an elven quiver or a quiver of infinity would do damage based on the bow, while a fire quiver would do 50/50 physical/fire because the quiver has that property.
The following quivers are made by GM tailors who obtain the recipe in heartwood:
Elven Quiver
28 Leather or Hides
Damage Increase 10%
Quiver of Blight
28 Leather, 10 Blight
Damage Increase 10%
Cold Damage 50%
Poison Damage 50%
Quiver of Fire
28 Leather, 15 Fire Ruby
Damage Increase 10%
Physical Damage 50%
Fire Damage 50%
Quiver of Ice
28 Leather, 15 White Pearl
Damage Increase 10%
Physical Damage 50%
Cold Damage 50%
Quiver of Lightning
28 Leather, 10 Corruption
Damage Increase 10%
Physical Damage 50%
Energy Damage 50%
The following 2 types are looted from ML monsters (swoop, miasma, lurg) or from peerless monsters:
Quiver of the Elements
Damage Increase 10%
100% Chaos Damage
50% Weight Reduction
Quiver of Rage
Damage Increase 10%
40% Physical Damage
50% Cold Damage
25% Weight Reduction
The following is the GRANDDADDY of all quivers. It was a gift choice for UO's 8th anniversary:
Quiver of Infinity
Damage modifier: 10%
Lower ammo cost: 20%
Weight Reduction: 30%
Defense chance increase: 5%
Archery
Skill & Stat Caps, by Xena Dragon
So you are curious about the Skill and Stat Caps? These caps were put in place to even the playing field for newer players and people who didn't have all day to spend practicing their skills and raising their attributes. A character that was 18 months old would be godlike, with GM Status in every skill and 100s for Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence, without the Caps because this character would have months and months to train.
The Skill Cap
The Skill Cap is a way to limit the number of points that can be divided between all of your skills. If you want to be really good in one skill, you will be forced to be not so good in other skills. The default Skill Cap is 700 points. This means that no matter what, if you add up all your base skills together the total will be equal to or less than 700. Over time, the skill cap of a character will increase because of Veteran Rewards. For each year an account is active, 5 points will be added to the Skill Caps on that account, up to a maximum of 720 points (for 4+ year old accounts). Note that the total of your displayed skills can be higher than 700/720. This is because the jewelry bonuses have been added to the base skill levels.
An individual skill can be trained to 100 points under normal circumstances. With the aid of a Skill Scroll of Power, an individual skill can be trained up to 120 points maximum.
The Stat Cap
That Stat Cap is very similar to the Skill Cap. The normal Stat Cap is 225 points. If you add up your Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence that number should not be higher than 225. When you have reached the Stat Cap you will notice that if one stat increases, another one will decrease so you will remain at the cap. Players are able to raise their Stat Cap up to a maximum of 250 by using a Stat Scroll of Power.
Since publish 16, an individual stat can be trained to 125 points. This has been changed for all players.
Since Age of Shadows you can gain 1 stat point per 15 minutes, and have max 10 gains per day. You have a chance to gain a stat with any successful skill check. Since stats no longer affect skills, the skill you use has no bearing on which stat you gain. The only restrictions on gaining stats would be:
You are at your total stat cap
The stat you are trying to gain (per your stat locks) is at its individual cap
The state of your stat locks
Note: Players who had active accounts at the time of the Age of Shadows launch could, in addition to powerscrolls, pick a +5 stat cap increase. These players will be able to reach a total of 255 stats (225, a +25 statscroll and the AoS gift). In which order they applied the stat gift and stat scroll does not matter, the effect will always stack.
Maximum Stats
By combining several stat increasing methods, it is possible to reach very high stats. Some examples of higher than "normal" levels are shown below. Note that these may be even further increased by event rewards or other unique items.
Strength: 125 + 8 (ring) + 8 (bracelet) + 15 (titans hammer) + 8 (gauntlets of nobility) + 20 (spirit of the totem) + 8 (voice of the fallen king) + (20 * 1.5 for potion enhance) = 222
Dexterity: 125 + 8 (ring) + 8 (bracelet) + 8 (hunters headdress) + 15 (jackals collar) + 5 (taskmaster) + 30 (potion + potion enhance)) = 199; and, on top of that can be added 8 * (tunic, arms, legs, gloves) worth of stamina. That makes 199 max Dexterity and 231 max Stamina.
Intelligence: (125 + 8 (ring) + 8 (bracelet) + 8 (hat of the magi)) + 13% (from cunning or bless cast by legendary evaluate intelligence) = 168
Conclusion
The Stat and Skill Caps were not put into place to inconvenience you or make your life miserable. They were put in place as a way to force boundaries upon characters that would normally run rampant over the countryside slaying everything in their wake if they were given no limits. With the addition of the Scrolls of Power, players now have a way to specialize their characters even more, and even train their stats a little bit higher than others to make things more "interesting".
Suggested stats
In general, 80 strength is sufficient for any template. For your remaining 145 stat points available, choose your intelligence accordingly and put the remainder of your stat points into dexterity:
If Magery is your primary skill and Archery is secondary, go with higher intelligence: 90 to 100
If Archery is your primary skill and Magery is secondary, choose an average intelligence: 40 to 60
If you have any level of Magery and live in Felucca, average intelligence helps negate the effects of Mindblast: 40 to 45
If you have low (or no) Magery and you live in Trammel: 11 (so you can Recall)
These are just guidelines - try also experimenting with different stat combinations on the Test Center to find out what works best for you. There are many valid stat templates not covered here, for example: 25str / 100int / 100dex. Such a character would not be able to carry much loot but would be quite effective in both Magery and Archery.
Note: You must have 80str and 80 dex to use slayer bows.
Skill & Stat Caps, by Xena Dragon
So you are curious about the Skill and Stat Caps? These caps were put in place to even the playing field for newer players and people who didn't have all day to spend practicing their skills and raising their attributes. A character that was 18 months old would be godlike, with GM Status in every skill and 100s for Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence, without the Caps because this character would have months and months to train.
The Skill Cap
The Skill Cap is a way to limit the number of points that can be divided between all of your skills. If you want to be really good in one skill, you will be forced to be not so good in other skills. The default Skill Cap is 700 points. This means that no matter what, if you add up all your base skills together the total will be equal to or less than 700. Over time, the skill cap of a character will increase because of Veteran Rewards. For each year an account is active, 5 points will be added to the Skill Caps on that account, up to a maximum of 720 points (for 4+ year old accounts). Note that the total of your displayed skills can be higher than 700/720. This is because the jewelry bonuses have been added to the base skill levels.
An individual skill can be trained to 100 points under normal circumstances. With the aid of a Skill Scroll of Power, an individual skill can be trained up to 120 points maximum.
The Stat Cap
That Stat Cap is very similar to the Skill Cap. The normal Stat Cap is 225 points. If you add up your Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence that number should not be higher than 225. When you have reached the Stat Cap you will notice that if one stat increases, another one will decrease so you will remain at the cap. Players are able to raise their Stat Cap up to a maximum of 250 by using a Stat Scroll of Power.
Since publish 16, an individual stat can be trained to 125 points. This has been changed for all players.
Since Age of Shadows you can gain 1 stat point per 15 minutes, and have max 10 gains per day. You have a chance to gain a stat with any successful skill check. Since stats no longer affect skills, the skill you use has no bearing on which stat you gain. The only restrictions on gaining stats would be:
You are at your total stat cap
The stat you are trying to gain (per your stat locks) is at its individual cap
The state of your stat locks
Note: Players who had active accounts at the time of the Age of Shadows launch could, in addition to powerscrolls, pick a +5 stat cap increase. These players will be able to reach a total of 255 stats (225, a +25 statscroll and the AoS gift). In which order they applied the stat gift and stat scroll does not matter, the effect will always stack.
Maximum Stats
By combining several stat increasing methods, it is possible to reach very high stats. Some examples of higher than "normal" levels are shown below. Note that these may be even further increased by event rewards or other unique items.
Strength: 125 + 8 (ring) + 8 (bracelet) + 15 (titans hammer) + 8 (gauntlets of nobility) + 20 (spirit of the totem) + 8 (voice of the fallen king) + (20 * 1.5 for potion enhance) = 222
Dexterity: 125 + 8 (ring) + 8 (bracelet) + 8 (hunters headdress) + 15 (jackals collar) + 5 (taskmaster) + 30 (potion + potion enhance)) = 199; and, on top of that can be added 8 * (tunic, arms, legs, gloves) worth of stamina. That makes 199 max Dexterity and 231 max Stamina.
Intelligence: (125 + 8 (ring) + 8 (bracelet) + 8 (hat of the magi)) + 13% (from cunning or bless cast by legendary evaluate intelligence) = 168
Conclusion
The Stat and Skill Caps were not put into place to inconvenience you or make your life miserable. They were put in place as a way to force boundaries upon characters that would normally run rampant over the countryside slaying everything in their wake if they were given no limits. With the addition of the Scrolls of Power, players now have a way to specialize their characters even more, and even train their stats a little bit higher than others to make things more "interesting".
Suggested stats
In general, 80 strength is sufficient for any template. For your remaining 145 stat points available, choose your intelligence accordingly and put the remainder of your stat points into dexterity:
If Magery is your primary skill and Archery is secondary, go with higher intelligence: 90 to 100
If Archery is your primary skill and Magery is secondary, choose an average intelligence: 40 to 60
If you have any level of Magery and live in Felucca, average intelligence helps negate the effects of Mindblast: 40 to 45
If you have low (or no) Magery and you live in Trammel: 11 (so you can Recall)
These are just guidelines - try also experimenting with different stat combinations on the Test Center to find out what works best for you. There are many valid stat templates not covered here, for example: 25str / 100int / 100dex. Such a character would not be able to carry much loot but would be quite effective in both Magery and Archery.
Note: You must have 80str and 80 dex to use slayer bows.
Archery Templates
Warrior archer
110 Mage
110 Eval
110 Swords
110 Archery
110 Tact
110 Anat
Archer/Mage
110 Archery
110 Anatomy
100 Tactics
100 Magery
100 Evalint
100 Meditation
100 Resist
Paladin Archer
110 Archery
110 Anatomy
100 Chivalry
100 Tactics
100 Healing
100 Resist
100 Hiding
Stealth Archer
110 Archery
110 Anatomy
100 Tactics
100 Healing
100 Hiding
100 Stealth
100 Poisoning
Warrior archer
110 Mage
110 Eval
110 Swords
110 Archery
110 Tact
110 Anat
Archer/Mage
110 Archery
110 Anatomy
100 Tactics
100 Magery
100 Evalint
100 Meditation
100 Resist
Paladin Archer
110 Archery
110 Anatomy
100 Chivalry
100 Tactics
100 Healing
100 Resist
100 Hiding
Stealth Archer
110 Archery
110 Anatomy
100 Tactics
100 Healing
100 Hiding
100 Stealth
100 Poisoning
PvP Archer Guide
The PvP Archer by Versatile
Archery is an incredibly powerful skill that is "viable" on practically any template.
Currently the most popular are:
Spell Weaver archers (WOD is nerfed now so this template will not be as popular anymore)
Bushido archers
Stealth archers
Mage/Necro archers
Paladin archers are not so popular because the power of chivalry in PvP is shadowed by the likes of Bushido. Chivalry is however very useful with only a few skill points, so although you won’t see many "pure" paladin archers, you will see most pvpers with at least 55 points invested in chivalry (mainly for divine fury).
Previously archers were all about dex (stamina). This still rings true, but with the new ML bow - the short bow, it is possible to swing at the maximum speed with relatively low stamina. But generally you will want as high stamina as you can get.
Depending on the template you chose you will want a fairly decent mana pool also, so as much mana increase and int as possible.
Generally every PvP template has 100 points in str, but this is overrated, and 80 is often enough (provided you have some hit point increase to counter the small loss).
As far as gear and jewels go it’s pretty much the same as any warrior type, except the need for DCI is lessened by the fact that you will rarely get hit by your opponent.
The best tactic for an archer is to simply avoid being hit, the rest will just happen for you. The .25 second delay in order to shoot will happen accidentally for the most part (for example when turning corners) so concentrate on just avoiding your opponent. Only when your opponent is about to die do you really need to concentrate on purposefully trying to fire.
PvP templates and tactics by Croaker
Archery used to be a joke in PvP. Slow shot speed, little damage, and your opponent could actually outrun your arrows! No longer. Currently, archery is king of PvP - so much so that it's called "gimp" by many implying that it requires little skill to get a decent kill/death ratio. That's partially true at the moment, but PvP is mostly about experience, and experienced PvPer's will tell you a dozen tactics to beat an archer ("disarm anyone?").
However, this thread is for discussing archery-based PvP templates and tactics. Please add your comments, templates, suggestions so we can compile a good list for the FAQ.
Disclaimer: I'm not a PvP expert. The initial information here is mostly from reading the forum plus a little bit of guild PvP. Regardless, take these templates as approximate. There's tons of tinkering that can be done with any of them to streamline them into killing machines.
"Classic" Stealth Archer
---------------------------
100 Hide
80 Stealth
120 Archery
120 Tactics
120 Anatomy
90 Heal
70 Chiv or Magery
125 Dex/ 90 Str/ 35 Int
No special tactics here, just hide, stealth, and shoot. Awesome if you have a couple friends and are good at coordinating gank squads.
Bushido Archer
-----------------
120 Bushido
120 Archery
120 Tactics
120 Anatomy
90 Healing
120 Resist
30 Med
Basically spam Lightning Strike constantly and hope for a critical hit. Use a lot of pots (balanced bow is nice here = Mischief Maker) to supplement your healing.
Ninja Archer
--------------
120 Ninjitsu
120 Archery
120 Tactics
80 Anatomy
80 Healing
100 hiding
80 Stealth
The idea is to snipe, running and hiding when things get tough. You don't have resist, so carry a para-crate.
Paladin Archer
----------------
120 Archery
120 Tactics
120 Anatomy
90 Healing
120 Resist
80 Chivalry
70 Med
Harder to run than the others, but very effective. EoO and CW work in PvP. Use chiv to heal/cure. Can possibly substitute healing for other skills.
Mage Archer
--------------
120 Magery
120 Archery
120 Tactics
120 Anatomy
120 Eval Int
120 Resist
Use a LMC + Mana regen suit for this guy. With a good spell channeling bow, this guy can be awesome. Harder to play than the templates above, but more flexible. Explosion + flamestrike + AI puts anyone in a world of hurt.
"Word of Death" archers
----------------------------
120 Spellweaving
120 Archery
120 Tactics
120 Anatomy
90 Healing
120 Resist
30 Med
Precast Word of Death, toggle AI, run in, target opponent. WOD and AI arrive at the same time. Usually instant death. The problem is balancing the mana needs with the need for high dex. You could drop Healing/Resist/Med for Focus/Med to help out here.
"Dog" archers
----------------
120 Ninja
120 Archery
120 Tactics
120 Anatomy
90 Healing
120 Resist
30 Med
125 Str/ 100 Dex/ 25 Int
Max out Str with +Str equipment, and add tons of Hit Point Regen to the suit. Use greater strength pots. Go in dog form (for more HPR) or wolf form (for speed). Very hard to kill if you have any timing in heals/pots.
Necro Archer
---------------
120 Necromancy
120 Archery
120 Tactics
120 Anatomy
90 Healing
120 Spirit Speak
30 Med
Very nasty template. Use blood oath followed by AI a lot. If your opponent doesn't notice the blood oath, he's dead. If he does, he keeps away from you and you can chase him down with a moving shot. If combined with poisoning or poison strike, it can be very bad indeed. Plus there's painspike, healing with spirit speak, evil omen, etcetera...
Ok, that's my list. I'm sure there are other archery PvP templates that also need to be listed. Also, there's got to be plenty of tactics and combos that should be listed. For example, archers should try to dismount their opponents in the first shot if they can. They don't run as fast then.
A note of thanks to Versatile and Croaker for their assistance in writing this faq.
The PvP Archer by Versatile
Archery is an incredibly powerful skill that is "viable" on practically any template.
Currently the most popular are:
Spell Weaver archers (WOD is nerfed now so this template will not be as popular anymore)
Bushido archers
Stealth archers
Mage/Necro archers
Paladin archers are not so popular because the power of chivalry in PvP is shadowed by the likes of Bushido. Chivalry is however very useful with only a few skill points, so although you won’t see many "pure" paladin archers, you will see most pvpers with at least 55 points invested in chivalry (mainly for divine fury).
Previously archers were all about dex (stamina). This still rings true, but with the new ML bow - the short bow, it is possible to swing at the maximum speed with relatively low stamina. But generally you will want as high stamina as you can get.
Depending on the template you chose you will want a fairly decent mana pool also, so as much mana increase and int as possible.
Generally every PvP template has 100 points in str, but this is overrated, and 80 is often enough (provided you have some hit point increase to counter the small loss).
As far as gear and jewels go it’s pretty much the same as any warrior type, except the need for DCI is lessened by the fact that you will rarely get hit by your opponent.
The best tactic for an archer is to simply avoid being hit, the rest will just happen for you. The .25 second delay in order to shoot will happen accidentally for the most part (for example when turning corners) so concentrate on just avoiding your opponent. Only when your opponent is about to die do you really need to concentrate on purposefully trying to fire.
PvP templates and tactics by Croaker
Archery used to be a joke in PvP. Slow shot speed, little damage, and your opponent could actually outrun your arrows! No longer. Currently, archery is king of PvP - so much so that it's called "gimp" by many implying that it requires little skill to get a decent kill/death ratio. That's partially true at the moment, but PvP is mostly about experience, and experienced PvPer's will tell you a dozen tactics to beat an archer ("disarm anyone?").
However, this thread is for discussing archery-based PvP templates and tactics. Please add your comments, templates, suggestions so we can compile a good list for the FAQ.
Disclaimer: I'm not a PvP expert. The initial information here is mostly from reading the forum plus a little bit of guild PvP. Regardless, take these templates as approximate. There's tons of tinkering that can be done with any of them to streamline them into killing machines.
"Classic" Stealth Archer
---------------------------
100 Hide
80 Stealth
120 Archery
120 Tactics
120 Anatomy
90 Heal
70 Chiv or Magery
125 Dex/ 90 Str/ 35 Int
No special tactics here, just hide, stealth, and shoot. Awesome if you have a couple friends and are good at coordinating gank squads.
Bushido Archer
-----------------
120 Bushido
120 Archery
120 Tactics
120 Anatomy
90 Healing
120 Resist
30 Med
Basically spam Lightning Strike constantly and hope for a critical hit. Use a lot of pots (balanced bow is nice here = Mischief Maker) to supplement your healing.
Ninja Archer
--------------
120 Ninjitsu
120 Archery
120 Tactics
80 Anatomy
80 Healing
100 hiding
80 Stealth
The idea is to snipe, running and hiding when things get tough. You don't have resist, so carry a para-crate.
Paladin Archer
----------------
120 Archery
120 Tactics
120 Anatomy
90 Healing
120 Resist
80 Chivalry
70 Med
Harder to run than the others, but very effective. EoO and CW work in PvP. Use chiv to heal/cure. Can possibly substitute healing for other skills.
Mage Archer
--------------
120 Magery
120 Archery
120 Tactics
120 Anatomy
120 Eval Int
120 Resist
Use a LMC + Mana regen suit for this guy. With a good spell channeling bow, this guy can be awesome. Harder to play than the templates above, but more flexible. Explosion + flamestrike + AI puts anyone in a world of hurt.
"Word of Death" archers
----------------------------
120 Spellweaving
120 Archery
120 Tactics
120 Anatomy
90 Healing
120 Resist
30 Med
Precast Word of Death, toggle AI, run in, target opponent. WOD and AI arrive at the same time. Usually instant death. The problem is balancing the mana needs with the need for high dex. You could drop Healing/Resist/Med for Focus/Med to help out here.
"Dog" archers
----------------
120 Ninja
120 Archery
120 Tactics
120 Anatomy
90 Healing
120 Resist
30 Med
125 Str/ 100 Dex/ 25 Int
Max out Str with +Str equipment, and add tons of Hit Point Regen to the suit. Use greater strength pots. Go in dog form (for more HPR) or wolf form (for speed). Very hard to kill if you have any timing in heals/pots.
Necro Archer
---------------
120 Necromancy
120 Archery
120 Tactics
120 Anatomy
90 Healing
120 Spirit Speak
30 Med
Very nasty template. Use blood oath followed by AI a lot. If your opponent doesn't notice the blood oath, he's dead. If he does, he keeps away from you and you can chase him down with a moving shot. If combined with poisoning or poison strike, it can be very bad indeed. Plus there's painspike, healing with spirit speak, evil omen, etcetera...
Ok, that's my list. I'm sure there are other archery PvP templates that also need to be listed. Also, there's got to be plenty of tactics and combos that should be listed. For example, archers should try to dismount their opponents in the first shot if they can. They don't run as fast then.
A note of thanks to Versatile and Croaker for their assistance in writing this faq.
Archery Special Moves
Bow
Base Damage 15-19
Weapon Speed 25
Range 10
Strength Requirements 30
Special Moves:
Composite Bow
Base Damage 13-17
Weapon Speed 26
Range 10
Strength Requirements 45
Special Moves:
Crossbow
Base Damage 18-22
Weapon Speed 23
Range 8
Strength Requirements 35
Special Moves:
Elven Composite Longbow
Base Damage 12-16
Weapon Speed 27
Range 10
Strength Requirements 45
Special Moves:
Heavy Crossbow
Weapon Damage 20-24
Weapon Speed 21
Range 8
Strength Requirements 80
Special Moves:
Magical Shortbow
Weapon Damage 9-13
Weapon Speed 38
Range 10
Strength Requirements 45
Special Moves:
Repeating Crossbow
Weapon Damage 8-12
Weapon Speed 41
Range 7
Strength Requirements 30
Special Moves:
Yumi
Weapon Damage 16-20
Weapon Speed 24
Range 10
Strength Requirements 35
Special Moves:
__________________
Bow
Base Damage 15-19
Weapon Speed 25
Range 10
Strength Requirements 30
Special Moves:
Composite Bow
Base Damage 13-17
Weapon Speed 26
Range 10
Strength Requirements 45
Special Moves:
Crossbow
Base Damage 18-22
Weapon Speed 23
Range 8
Strength Requirements 35
Special Moves:
Elven Composite Longbow
Base Damage 12-16
Weapon Speed 27
Range 10
Strength Requirements 45
Special Moves:
Heavy Crossbow
Weapon Damage 20-24
Weapon Speed 21
Range 8
Strength Requirements 80
Special Moves:
Magical Shortbow
Weapon Damage 9-13
Weapon Speed 38
Range 10
Strength Requirements 45
Special Moves:
Repeating Crossbow
Weapon Damage 8-12
Weapon Speed 41
Range 7
Strength Requirements 30
Special Moves:
Yumi
Weapon Damage 16-20
Weapon Speed 24
Range 10
Strength Requirements 35
Special Moves:
__________________
ML Bow Recipes
Artifact Recipe Bows
Blight Gripped Longbow
20 Boards
1 Lard of Paroxysmus
10 Blight
10 Corruption
Hit Poison Area 20%
Stamina Regeneration 3
Night Sight
Swing Speed Increase 20%
Damage Increase 35%
Poison Damage 100%
Weapon Damage 19-22
Weapon Speed 27
Range 10
Strength Requirement 45
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Rare.
Faerie Fire
20 Boards
1 Lard of Paroxysmus
10 Putrefaction
10 Taint
Hit Fireball 25%
Balanced
Dexterity Bonus 3
Swing Speed Increase 20%
Damage Increase 60%
Fire Damage 100%
Weapon Damage 19-22
Weapon Speed 27
Range 10
Strength Requirement 45
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Rare.
Mischief Maker
15 Boards
1 Dread Horn Mane
10 Corruption
10 Putrefaction
Undead Slayer
Balanced
Swing Speed Increase 35%
Damage Increase 45%
Cold Damage 100%
Weapon Damage 14-16
Weapon Speed 38
Range 10
Strength Requirement 45
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Rare.
Silvani's Feywood Bow
20 Boards
1 Lard of Paroxysmus
10 Scourge
10 Muculent
Spell Channelling
Hit Chance Increase 12%
Swing Speed Increase 30%
Damage Increase 35%
Energy Damage 100%
Weapon speed 27
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Rare.
The Night Reaper
10 Boards
1 Dread Horn Mane
10 Blight
10 Scourge
Demon Slayer
Night Sight
Swing Speed Increase 25%
Damage Increase 55%
Physical Damage 100%
Weapon Damage 10-12
Weapon Speed 41
Range 7
Strength Requirement 30
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Rare.
Magic Items
Assassin's Shortbow
15 Boards
1 Dark Sapphire
Hit Chance Increase 3%
Damage Increase 4%
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Barbed Longbow
20 Boards
1 Fire Ruby
Reflect Physical Damage 12%
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Frozen Longbow
20 Boards
1 Turquoise
Swing Speed Increase 5%
Damage Increase 10%
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Lightweight Shortbow
15 Boards
1 White Pearl
Balanced
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Longbow of Might
20 Boards
1 Blue Diamond
Damage Increase 5%
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Mystical Shortbow
15 Boards
1 Ecru Citrine
Spell Channeling
Faster Casting -1
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Ranger's Shortbow
15 Boards
1 Perfect Emerald
Swing Speed Increase 5%
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Slayer Longbow
20 Boards
1 Brilliant Amber
Random Slayer.
Double-Slayer is possible when crafted with a runic.
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Artifact Recipe Bows
Blight Gripped Longbow
20 Boards
1 Lard of Paroxysmus
10 Blight
10 Corruption
Hit Poison Area 20%
Stamina Regeneration 3
Night Sight
Swing Speed Increase 20%
Damage Increase 35%
Poison Damage 100%
Weapon Damage 19-22
Weapon Speed 27
Range 10
Strength Requirement 45
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Rare.
Faerie Fire
20 Boards
1 Lard of Paroxysmus
10 Putrefaction
10 Taint
Hit Fireball 25%
Balanced
Dexterity Bonus 3
Swing Speed Increase 20%
Damage Increase 60%
Fire Damage 100%
Weapon Damage 19-22
Weapon Speed 27
Range 10
Strength Requirement 45
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Rare.
Mischief Maker
15 Boards
1 Dread Horn Mane
10 Corruption
10 Putrefaction
Undead Slayer
Balanced
Swing Speed Increase 35%
Damage Increase 45%
Cold Damage 100%
Weapon Damage 14-16
Weapon Speed 38
Range 10
Strength Requirement 45
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Rare.
Silvani's Feywood Bow
20 Boards
1 Lard of Paroxysmus
10 Scourge
10 Muculent
Spell Channelling
Hit Chance Increase 12%
Swing Speed Increase 30%
Damage Increase 35%
Energy Damage 100%
Weapon speed 27
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Rare.
The Night Reaper
10 Boards
1 Dread Horn Mane
10 Blight
10 Scourge
Demon Slayer
Night Sight
Swing Speed Increase 25%
Damage Increase 55%
Physical Damage 100%
Weapon Damage 10-12
Weapon Speed 41
Range 7
Strength Requirement 30
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Rare.
Magic Items
Assassin's Shortbow
15 Boards
1 Dark Sapphire
Hit Chance Increase 3%
Damage Increase 4%
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Barbed Longbow
20 Boards
1 Fire Ruby
Reflect Physical Damage 12%
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Frozen Longbow
20 Boards
1 Turquoise
Swing Speed Increase 5%
Damage Increase 10%
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Lightweight Shortbow
15 Boards
1 White Pearl
Balanced
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Longbow of Might
20 Boards
1 Blue Diamond
Damage Increase 5%
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Mystical Shortbow
15 Boards
1 Ecru Citrine
Spell Channeling
Faster Casting -1
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Ranger's Shortbow
15 Boards
1 Perfect Emerald
Swing Speed Increase 5%
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Slayer Longbow
20 Boards
1 Brilliant Amber
Random Slayer.
Double-Slayer is possible when crafted with a runic.
Bowcrafting Quests in Heartwood and Sanctuary.
Archery
General information
The name of the game here is 70. Most people are in a search to find a suit that has all 70 resists: physical, fire, cold, poison, and energy. You'll want to piece together a suit that comes as close to 70's as you can. You could also find out what type of damage a creature does, then wear items to become resistant to it. You can tell an items resistance qualities by mousing over it. You can find out your total suit resists by double clicking your healthbar and looking to the right of the display. You'll see symbols that stand for each resistance.
The second popular type of suit is lower reagent cost. If you add each items lower reagent cost percentage, your goal is to get to at least 100%. This will allow a mage to cast spells without supplying his own reagents, saving lots of gold in the long run.
Things to keep in mind:
The highest armor that can be worn and allows meditation is leather.
The highest full set of (non-magical) armor that can be worn with 0 Dex loss is studded leather.
Close Helms, etc. also are 0 Dex loss.
Armor should be maintained (repaired).
For a more detailed list of item properties: go here.
If you don't already have a tailor/smith character, get to know a friendly one. They should be able to arrange for a special combination of armor so you don't have to buy 300 sets to discover what ensemble fits you the best. Also, since metal and leather can be recycled, you might be appreciated for bringing in old armor or raw materials for your armor craftsperson, saving them a special trip to collect resources (Smiths and Tailors like to adventure too!).
Note: There are literally thousands of armor combinations available. Only you can decide what is best for each of your characters.
General information
The name of the game here is 70. Most people are in a search to find a suit that has all 70 resists: physical, fire, cold, poison, and energy. You'll want to piece together a suit that comes as close to 70's as you can. You could also find out what type of damage a creature does, then wear items to become resistant to it. You can tell an items resistance qualities by mousing over it. You can find out your total suit resists by double clicking your healthbar and looking to the right of the display. You'll see symbols that stand for each resistance.
The second popular type of suit is lower reagent cost. If you add each items lower reagent cost percentage, your goal is to get to at least 100%. This will allow a mage to cast spells without supplying his own reagents, saving lots of gold in the long run.
Things to keep in mind:
The highest armor that can be worn and allows meditation is leather.
The highest full set of (non-magical) armor that can be worn with 0 Dex loss is studded leather.
Close Helms, etc. also are 0 Dex loss.
Armor should be maintained (repaired).
For a more detailed list of item properties: go here.
If you don't already have a tailor/smith character, get to know a friendly one. They should be able to arrange for a special combination of armor so you don't have to buy 300 sets to discover what ensemble fits you the best. Also, since metal and leather can be recycled, you might be appreciated for bringing in old armor or raw materials for your armor craftsperson, saving them a special trip to collect resources (Smiths and Tailors like to adventure too!).
Note: There are literally thousands of armor combinations available. Only you can decide what is best for each of your characters.
Getting Arrows & Bolts
There are three methods for obtaining arrows or bolts.
Kill 'em - You can kill monsters that carry arrows and bolts. Ratman Archers can be found southeast of Compassion gate in Ilshenar and northwest of Sacrifice gate in Ilsh as well. Each ratman archer carries 60-70 arrows. Centuars can be found near the Serpentine Passage just north of the City of Mistas in Ilshenar. Eash Centaur carries 80-90 arrows. Juka Lords can be found in the City of Mistas, in Blackthorn's Castle, in Humility Jungle (all in Ilshenar), and in levels 1 and 2 of dungeon Wrong. Be careful with these guys, as they hit hard. Each Juka Lord carries 60-70 arrows.
Meer Captains and changelings carry bolts. A Meer Captain carries 50-60 bolts. But BEWARE, you will lose fourth tier karma (5000 points) for each you kill. If you're a paladin and your skill is based on karma, you might want to try another source for bolts. Changelings in the Twisted Weald carry 25 bolts and 35 arrows (approximately) also. They are tough to kill. Be forewarned...they like to gang up on you. Running in the sand can also be a particular challenge.
Make 'em - Kill some birds, chop some wood, and you're in business. The harpy cave north of Spirituality shrine is a good source for feathers. Each bird has 50. Any bird will do. Any person can lumberjack wood also. You do not need the lumberjack skill to chop wood. You'll need a fletching kit purchased from a bowcraft shop to craft your own. Don't bother using various woods like yew, oak, bloodwood, hearthwood, frostwood, or ash. You'll waste a valuable resource as the wood is expensive and does not effect performance.
Buy 'em - Any provisioner shop or bowyer shop carries bolts and arrows. You'll pay top dollar doing it that way, but there will be a steady supply. Check the various player-run vendor shops. Often you'll get them cheaper. Also, check the gypsy camps around Ilshenar. Gypsy maidens sell bolts and arrows for low prices. Gypsies tend to move around a lot, so sometimes the camp won't be populated. You have to keep checking back.
There are three methods for obtaining arrows or bolts.
Kill 'em - You can kill monsters that carry arrows and bolts. Ratman Archers can be found southeast of Compassion gate in Ilshenar and northwest of Sacrifice gate in Ilsh as well. Each ratman archer carries 60-70 arrows. Centuars can be found near the Serpentine Passage just north of the City of Mistas in Ilshenar. Eash Centaur carries 80-90 arrows. Juka Lords can be found in the City of Mistas, in Blackthorn's Castle, in Humility Jungle (all in Ilshenar), and in levels 1 and 2 of dungeon Wrong. Be careful with these guys, as they hit hard. Each Juka Lord carries 60-70 arrows.
Meer Captains and changelings carry bolts. A Meer Captain carries 50-60 bolts. But BEWARE, you will lose fourth tier karma (5000 points) for each you kill. If you're a paladin and your skill is based on karma, you might want to try another source for bolts. Changelings in the Twisted Weald carry 25 bolts and 35 arrows (approximately) also. They are tough to kill. Be forewarned...they like to gang up on you. Running in the sand can also be a particular challenge.
Make 'em - Kill some birds, chop some wood, and you're in business. The harpy cave north of Spirituality shrine is a good source for feathers. Each bird has 50. Any bird will do. Any person can lumberjack wood also. You do not need the lumberjack skill to chop wood. You'll need a fletching kit purchased from a bowcraft shop to craft your own. Don't bother using various woods like yew, oak, bloodwood, hearthwood, frostwood, or ash. You'll waste a valuable resource as the wood is expensive and does not effect performance.
Buy 'em - Any provisioner shop or bowyer shop carries bolts and arrows. You'll pay top dollar doing it that way, but there will be a steady supply. Check the various player-run vendor shops. Often you'll get them cheaper. Also, check the gypsy camps around Ilshenar. Gypsy maidens sell bolts and arrows for low prices. Gypsies tend to move around a lot, so sometimes the camp won't be populated. You have to keep checking back.
Archery
Two new bow properties were created from Mondain's Legacy:
Velocity - Velocity is the speed that an arrow gains in air. Velocity is higher the farther away from your target you get. After a trial standing first one square away using a bow with 25% velocity, then standing 2-8 tiles away, I compiled the following results (damage per player varies):
1 (square from target)-71,66,62,67,65,66,62,66,65,67=66 average
2 squares-62,70,65,66,66,65,67,69,65,66=66 average
3 squares-69,67,63,66,68,65,67,62,68,64=66 average
4 squares-72,76,71,70,70,64,68,70,72,68=70 average
5 squares-70,71,76,72,76,70,64,68,68,72=70 average
6 squares-73,71,69,67,66,72,72,68,72,70=70 average
7 squares-68,70,71,73,68,72,71,68,70,71=70 average
8 squares-72,68,71,71,68,64,71,69,68,72=70 average
Results: on average, standing at least 4 tiles away from a target increases your damage by 6%.
Balance - A balanced bow allows the archer to drink potions without having to disarm his/her bow. The potion drinking will not be interrupted by offensive spells. This allows the archer to continue fighting without disarming or having to stop movement in order to heal himself/herself.
A great big thanks goes to Croaker, Versatile, Sigfried McGreed, mrwarpig, Jimmy Pop, Koris, amidala, and Xena Dragon for volunteering information used in the creation of this faq. Thanks for the update on mana/life leech, Bort of Atlantic.
I'd also like to credit the highly knowledgeable people of the archery forum (I'd name names, but don't want to leave anyone out.) Thanks for keeping this place fun to visit and for being such a terrific source of knowledge. I see the way folks around here help out anyone with questions and it makes me smile. We archers are a fine bunch indeed.
*Raises bow in salute*
Two new bow properties were created from Mondain's Legacy:
Velocity - Velocity is the speed that an arrow gains in air. Velocity is higher the farther away from your target you get. After a trial standing first one square away using a bow with 25% velocity, then standing 2-8 tiles away, I compiled the following results (damage per player varies):
1 (square from target)-71,66,62,67,65,66,62,66,65,67=66 average
2 squares-62,70,65,66,66,65,67,69,65,66=66 average
3 squares-69,67,63,66,68,65,67,62,68,64=66 average
4 squares-72,76,71,70,70,64,68,70,72,68=70 average
5 squares-70,71,76,72,76,70,64,68,68,72=70 average
6 squares-73,71,69,67,66,72,72,68,72,70=70 average
7 squares-68,70,71,73,68,72,71,68,70,71=70 average
8 squares-72,68,71,71,68,64,71,69,68,72=70 average
Results: on average, standing at least 4 tiles away from a target increases your damage by 6%.
Balance - A balanced bow allows the archer to drink potions without having to disarm his/her bow. The potion drinking will not be interrupted by offensive spells. This allows the archer to continue fighting without disarming or having to stop movement in order to heal himself/herself.
A great big thanks goes to Croaker, Versatile, Sigfried McGreed, mrwarpig, Jimmy Pop, Koris, amidala, and Xena Dragon for volunteering information used in the creation of this faq. Thanks for the update on mana/life leech, Bort of Atlantic.
I'd also like to credit the highly knowledgeable people of the archery forum (I'd name names, but don't want to leave anyone out.) Thanks for keeping this place fun to visit and for being such a terrific source of knowledge. I see the way folks around here help out anyone with questions and it makes me smile. We archers are a fine bunch indeed.
*Raises bow in salute*
Way of the Samuria by Ravenspyre
Way of the Samurai
A Guide to Bushido in Ultima Online™
Created by Ravenspyre
Welcome to Way of the Samurai; a guide for Bushido that states, describes, and attempts to answer various questions concerning this warrior based skill. Now, before we get started, I am going to state up front that this guide is not a guide on how to make a killer template, or how to make the ultimate PWNing machine. At best, this guide will give pointers on template combos, item combos, and what skills go well together and what skills do not.
What you can expect in this guide is an explanation of the various abilities, weapon specials that require Bushido to use, Honor and Perfection, and various other aspects of the Samurai described here.
All images are the copyright of EA Games
Last Update: January 14th, 2008
How to Learn Bushido and Ways to Train
You have several methods open to you in how to learn Bushido when you decide to take up the road to becoming a samurai. The first method, and perhaps the easiest, is to create a new samurai character. However, that option is not always open to some players. So in those cases, you have the following methods to introducing your path on the way of the samurai.
First method, you can go to either New Haven or the city of Zento located in the Tokuno Islands, which is located on the island Mokata-jima. From there you will locate a samurai and ask to be trained in the art of Bushido. In Zento, just about any guard or warrior looking character can train in Bushido, while in New Haven, the samurai trainer is located in the very far north of the city, in a lone Asian-esque shrine. The fee will be 250 gold, minimum, to train, as you need at least 25 skill to begin your pursuits of Bushido. Just open the context menu and select Train Bushido, then drag the requisite gold onto the NPC in question, and your skill will automatically be elevated. Another method, and about the only choice for murderer’s on production shards, is to find 25 points worth of skill jewelry. This will get you to the requisite 25 skill to begin your training as a samurai.
But that doesn’t finish your beginning steps on the road of Bushido; you also need a Book of Bushido which can be gotten one of three separate ways. The first, and probably the easiest for all but murderer characters, is to go to a scribe in Zento, or the Samurai trainer in New Haven, and buy a Book of Bushido from him. This will probably be the cheapest method as well.
Your second choice is to shop around at player vendors, though finding one might be difficult and many players tend to charge more for these rather common items.
The final method, and the most difficult, is to find a ronin samurai in Tokuno, typically found wandering around Isamu-jima near the castle or by the Fan Dancer Dojo. This final method proves the most difficult as the ronin will employ a number of different weapons, all their weapon specials, as well as use bushido moves. However, the reward for defeating them nets you several hundred gold, a Book of Bushido, and probably some very nice gear and equipment especially if you are hunting for samurai style look for your character.
Now, once you have acquired the necessary base skill, and a Book of Bushido, the method of training to become a samurai is pretty straight forward. Much like any other skill in the game, you will be employing skills that you can possibly succeed at, of course, the best skill gains are when you have about a 50/50 chance of success or failure. However, starting out in a skill, this is not going to be something readily available to a samurai.
Since most starting samurai will most likely be below 50 skill your basic choice at this time is using Confidence. This skill is pretty easy to spam, but it costs 10 mana per use, so be sure your intelligence is decent enough to begin with. Having focus and/or meditation can help as well as a a lot of Mana Regeneration gear on. This can carry you to 50, though gains will start coming less and less frequently.
Starting at 50 skill, you can finally dump the Confidence spam and move into the heart of the samurai moves; in this case lightning strike. This easily spam-able move is only limited on two things; your chance to hit and how fast your weapon swings. Basically, go out and start whacking away at this with Lightning Strike and you will watch gains come pretty straight forward; Lightning Strike is even capable of taking you all the way up to 120 skill, but make no mistake, it’s a very slow process doing so.
At 60 skill, you can opt to use Evasion, however I will make this clear; the method using this has now been nerfed due to the PvP changes. There is a 20 second recharge time on Evasion, so the best method would be to include Evasion in your Lightning Strike attacks every so often to attempt to help and accelerate your gains. Of course, Evasion seems to have a quirk in it, where it caps out on how much skill you gain based on the Bushido Skill Scroll you have used on your character; mid 90s for no scroll, and roughly 107 skill for those with a 120 scroll.
At 70 skill you can opt to start using Momentum Strike to start taking down foes, however this presents several problems. One, Momentum Strike is very mana intensive attack, 10 mana per use in fact which will necessitate high focus and meditation or lots of Mana Regeneration gear. Two, to even have a chance of working, you must always have two or more targets around you at all times. Three, since you are basically attacking twice in one action and the nature of needing multiple opponents at a time, which will cause a lot of durability damage to your weapons and armor in the long run, so you can expect to be carrying a number of weapons at a time or using a lot of armor. This ability can net you a lot of skill points fast, like Lightning Strike did, but make no mistake, it is the hardest method to use to gain skill.
The titles for samurai who achieve 110 skill points in Bushido is Tatsujin, and those samurai who achieve 120 skill points in Bushido are called Kengo
Way of the Samurai
A Guide to Bushido in Ultima Online™
Created by Ravenspyre
Welcome to Way of the Samurai; a guide for Bushido that states, describes, and attempts to answer various questions concerning this warrior based skill. Now, before we get started, I am going to state up front that this guide is not a guide on how to make a killer template, or how to make the ultimate PWNing machine. At best, this guide will give pointers on template combos, item combos, and what skills go well together and what skills do not.
What you can expect in this guide is an explanation of the various abilities, weapon specials that require Bushido to use, Honor and Perfection, and various other aspects of the Samurai described here.
All images are the copyright of EA Games
Last Update: January 14th, 2008
How to Learn Bushido and Ways to Train
You have several methods open to you in how to learn Bushido when you decide to take up the road to becoming a samurai. The first method, and perhaps the easiest, is to create a new samurai character. However, that option is not always open to some players. So in those cases, you have the following methods to introducing your path on the way of the samurai.
First method, you can go to either New Haven or the city of Zento located in the Tokuno Islands, which is located on the island Mokata-jima. From there you will locate a samurai and ask to be trained in the art of Bushido. In Zento, just about any guard or warrior looking character can train in Bushido, while in New Haven, the samurai trainer is located in the very far north of the city, in a lone Asian-esque shrine. The fee will be 250 gold, minimum, to train, as you need at least 25 skill to begin your pursuits of Bushido. Just open the context menu and select Train Bushido, then drag the requisite gold onto the NPC in question, and your skill will automatically be elevated. Another method, and about the only choice for murderer’s on production shards, is to find 25 points worth of skill jewelry. This will get you to the requisite 25 skill to begin your training as a samurai.
But that doesn’t finish your beginning steps on the road of Bushido; you also need a Book of Bushido which can be gotten one of three separate ways. The first, and probably the easiest for all but murderer characters, is to go to a scribe in Zento, or the Samurai trainer in New Haven, and buy a Book of Bushido from him. This will probably be the cheapest method as well.
Your second choice is to shop around at player vendors, though finding one might be difficult and many players tend to charge more for these rather common items.
The final method, and the most difficult, is to find a ronin samurai in Tokuno, typically found wandering around Isamu-jima near the castle or by the Fan Dancer Dojo. This final method proves the most difficult as the ronin will employ a number of different weapons, all their weapon specials, as well as use bushido moves. However, the reward for defeating them nets you several hundred gold, a Book of Bushido, and probably some very nice gear and equipment especially if you are hunting for samurai style look for your character.
Now, once you have acquired the necessary base skill, and a Book of Bushido, the method of training to become a samurai is pretty straight forward. Much like any other skill in the game, you will be employing skills that you can possibly succeed at, of course, the best skill gains are when you have about a 50/50 chance of success or failure. However, starting out in a skill, this is not going to be something readily available to a samurai.
Since most starting samurai will most likely be below 50 skill your basic choice at this time is using Confidence. This skill is pretty easy to spam, but it costs 10 mana per use, so be sure your intelligence is decent enough to begin with. Having focus and/or meditation can help as well as a a lot of Mana Regeneration gear on. This can carry you to 50, though gains will start coming less and less frequently.
Starting at 50 skill, you can finally dump the Confidence spam and move into the heart of the samurai moves; in this case lightning strike. This easily spam-able move is only limited on two things; your chance to hit and how fast your weapon swings. Basically, go out and start whacking away at this with Lightning Strike and you will watch gains come pretty straight forward; Lightning Strike is even capable of taking you all the way up to 120 skill, but make no mistake, it’s a very slow process doing so.
At 60 skill, you can opt to use Evasion, however I will make this clear; the method using this has now been nerfed due to the PvP changes. There is a 20 second recharge time on Evasion, so the best method would be to include Evasion in your Lightning Strike attacks every so often to attempt to help and accelerate your gains. Of course, Evasion seems to have a quirk in it, where it caps out on how much skill you gain based on the Bushido Skill Scroll you have used on your character; mid 90s for no scroll, and roughly 107 skill for those with a 120 scroll.
At 70 skill you can opt to start using Momentum Strike to start taking down foes, however this presents several problems. One, Momentum Strike is very mana intensive attack, 10 mana per use in fact which will necessitate high focus and meditation or lots of Mana Regeneration gear. Two, to even have a chance of working, you must always have two or more targets around you at all times. Three, since you are basically attacking twice in one action and the nature of needing multiple opponents at a time, which will cause a lot of durability damage to your weapons and armor in the long run, so you can expect to be carrying a number of weapons at a time or using a lot of armor. This ability can net you a lot of skill points fast, like Lightning Strike did, but make no mistake, it is the hardest method to use to gain skill.
The titles for samurai who achieve 110 skill points in Bushido is Tatsujin, and those samurai who achieve 120 skill points in Bushido are called Kengo
Bushido Moves
Bushido Moves and How They Work
The following is a list of the Bushido specific moves, their mana cost, the skill necessary to use the ability, and whether if it is an attack or a stance, and the duration for the stance. In parenthesis () will be the game description followed by an explanation of what the move actually does. It should be noted, that an attack which also includes weapon special moves, cannot be used at the same time as another attack. A stance cannot be used with another stance either. However you can have a stance active while using an attack.
Honorable Execution ~ 0 Mana ~ 25 Bushido ~ (Attack)
(Attempts to deliver a killing blow to your opponent, gaining a swing speed boost afterwards. Failing a killing blow results in massive resistance penalties for a short duration.)
What it Does – Honorable execution is a killing move like it describes. You use this as the final attack on your opponent which makes timing very critical for this. Outside of its normal use, you also gain hit points back for honorably executing your opponent, which is also dependant on your perfection. Executing your opponent gives the following perks;
†Swing Speed Increased by 0.25s - Duration 10s
† Restore Health by roughly 8 to 10 + additional per level of perfection.
Failing to execute your opponent has the following penalties;
† Magic Resistance skill set to 0
† All your resistances suffer a -40 penalty
† You are unable to use any Bushido attacks for the duration of the failed execution
These penalties persist for roughly 6 seconds after a failed execution, or until you successfully parry an attack, whichever comes first.
Ability Usefulness:
This move is damnably hard to time and place; the penalties are outrageous, and even if you do get successful in using it, the duration of the swing speed increase is negligible, and hardly noticeable.
Confidence ~ 10 Mana ~ 25 Bushido ~ (Stance) ~ Duration 20s
(Places you in a defensive stance of confidence, allowing you to gain stamina and health each time you parry.)
What it Does – Every time you parry with confidence active you gain the following health and stamina back.
† Stamina Regain : 1 to (Bushido / 5)
† Health Regain : 1 to (Bushido / 12)
Example – If you have 100 Bushido, and you activate Confidence and parry an attack, you will get 1 to 20 stamina back and 1 to 8 health back.
Outside of this, Confidence also has an innate health regeneration bonus when the stance is first activated, restoring a phenomenal amount of health based upon your actual bushido skill. This health regeneration persists until the amount of health it would restore is reached, or until you are struck by a damaging effect or other effects;
Confidence Heal : (Bushido * Bushido) / 576 + 15
Example – If you have 100 Bushido, upon activating Confidence your HP will start to gain 32 Health over the next several seconds in an accelerated HP Regeneration. However, if during this time period you take any damage, the health regeneration will immediately stop.
Usefulness:
This move is useful in rebuilding health fast. It's cheap to cast, especially after a death you can go from 0 to near full very quickly. Also in a fight with tough opponents you can use this on the run or stand toe-to-toe and get the benefits.
Evasion ~ 10 Mana ~ 60 Bushido ~ (Stance) ~ Duration 3s to 7s ~ Recharge 20 s
(Puts you in a evasive stance for a short duration, allowing you to parry magical attacks like dragon's breath and energy bolt.)
What it Does – Evasion dramatically increases your parry chance, also giving you the ability to parry direct damage attacks from other sources, such as spells, and dragons breath. This does not give the evader the chance to parry status effecting spells and abilities, however, if the effect does damage over time, which can be parried, such as poison or bleed ticks.
As of publish 43, Evasion formula underwent some changes and no longer multiplies your block chance by a flat 50%. Instead it is based on your Bushido, Anatomy, and Tactics skills. The duration of Evasion is also influenced by these skills. Examples of the multiplier to the evasion bonus to your parry skill are as follows.
Evasion Bonus : 16% - 40% without GM Anatomy or Tactics
† 42% - 50% depending on level of Anatomy and Tactics skill starting at Grandmaster.
Example – If you have a 30% chance to parry, and your skill combinations net you a 40% parry bonus, your parry chance will increase to (30 * 1.4) = 42% for the duration of Evasion.
† It should be noted that as of the PvP Publish, Evasion has a 20 second recharge associated with it now, thus it can no longer be used back to back.
Usefulness:
This move has been on the receiving end of alot of nerfs lately. The first was to nerf down it's parry bonus and duration by making it reliant on bushido, anatomy and tactics skill, and the second slapped a recharge timer on it of 20 seconds. This move has gone from useable 5 cool points to a situational power that you only put up when you know the explosion falmestrike is coming.
Counter Attack ~ 5 Mana ~ 40 Bushido ~ (Stance) ~ Duration 40s or next successful parry
(Places you in a defensive stance that automatically allows you to counter attack the next time you successfully parry.)
What it Does : For all intents and purposes this move does exactly what it says. Your next parried attack will deliver a counter attack that does not interrupt your normal swing timer. This attack takes normal hit and miss ratios into account, so can miss. The bonus of this stance, is that it uses any attack that you had ready at the time, delivering that attack on a successful counter attack.
Usefulness:
The usefulness of this stance is so situational and so problematic that it becomes more or less a waste of mana, unless you think you are lucky enough to parry and to get a successful hit check after the attack. Better than Honorable Execution honestly, it's still far off the list of usefulness.
Lightning Strike ~ 5 Mana ~ 50 Bushido ~ (Attack)
(An attack with a large bonus to your hit chance.)
What it Does – This increases your hit chance by a large percent, and in effect, acts like hit chance increase jewelry.
Hit Chance Increase : 50% Hit Chance Increase (caps apply)
Lightning Strike also has another function outside of the normal one provided above. It gives a chance at a critical strike, which is a direct damage attack that bypasses armor, delivering the full damage you are capable of to your opponent.
Critical Strike Chance : (Bushido * Bushido) / 72,000
Example – If you have 100 Bushido and attempt to use Lightning Strike on a target, you have a 13% chance to do a critical strike. This critical strike will ignore any resistance the target has, delivering your maximum possible damage (this includes slayer, Damage Increase, Perfection, Enemy of One and any other applicable effects) directly to the targets Health Points.
† The damage from this critical strike is capped at 35 in player versus player situations.
Usefulness:
There should be no questions asked on how useful Lightning Strike is. It's probably the most common attack you will see if a template possesses Bushido. It's inherent HCI plus it's chance to crit (aka ignore all resistances) make this attack very useful, but overly used too much.
Momentum Strike ~ 10 Mana ~ 70 Bushido ~ (Attack)
(If you strike your opponent with this ability, you will automatically strike a nearby opponent. You receive a damage boost if you kill your first opponent.)
What it Does – Pretty much does what it says. This move only works if you are fighting more than one opponent at a time. If you hit your first opponent with this, you will attempt to attack another nearby opponent, with normal hit and miss ratios applying. Damage bonus seems to always be in effect, regardless if the first opponent dies or not, however, any bonuses on your first opponent you receive do not apply to the second one, unless they meet the stipulations such as enemy of one the same monster type or same monster type for slayer weapons. Honor perfection bonus damage does not transfer to a secondary target.
Damage Increase to Secondary Target : Roughly 100% increase, doubling the normal damage delivered.
Usefulness:
Situational attack, again, it's usefulness will rely solely on how many mobs are around you. The secondary target always seems to get flattened fast, but if you have a weapon with Hit Chance property on it, you could very well end up swapping targets alot because of that. It's a good crowd clearing move, but no where near as useful as a weapon with Whirlwind on it.
Bushido Moves and How They Work
The following is a list of the Bushido specific moves, their mana cost, the skill necessary to use the ability, and whether if it is an attack or a stance, and the duration for the stance. In parenthesis () will be the game description followed by an explanation of what the move actually does. It should be noted, that an attack which also includes weapon special moves, cannot be used at the same time as another attack. A stance cannot be used with another stance either. However you can have a stance active while using an attack.
Honorable Execution ~ 0 Mana ~ 25 Bushido ~ (Attack)
(Attempts to deliver a killing blow to your opponent, gaining a swing speed boost afterwards. Failing a killing blow results in massive resistance penalties for a short duration.)
What it Does – Honorable execution is a killing move like it describes. You use this as the final attack on your opponent which makes timing very critical for this. Outside of its normal use, you also gain hit points back for honorably executing your opponent, which is also dependant on your perfection. Executing your opponent gives the following perks;
†Swing Speed Increased by 0.25s - Duration 10s
† Restore Health by roughly 8 to 10 + additional per level of perfection.
Failing to execute your opponent has the following penalties;
† Magic Resistance skill set to 0
† All your resistances suffer a -40 penalty
† You are unable to use any Bushido attacks for the duration of the failed execution
These penalties persist for roughly 6 seconds after a failed execution, or until you successfully parry an attack, whichever comes first.
Ability Usefulness:
This move is damnably hard to time and place; the penalties are outrageous, and even if you do get successful in using it, the duration of the swing speed increase is negligible, and hardly noticeable.
Confidence ~ 10 Mana ~ 25 Bushido ~ (Stance) ~ Duration 20s
(Places you in a defensive stance of confidence, allowing you to gain stamina and health each time you parry.)
What it Does – Every time you parry with confidence active you gain the following health and stamina back.
† Stamina Regain : 1 to (Bushido / 5)
† Health Regain : 1 to (Bushido / 12)
Example – If you have 100 Bushido, and you activate Confidence and parry an attack, you will get 1 to 20 stamina back and 1 to 8 health back.
Outside of this, Confidence also has an innate health regeneration bonus when the stance is first activated, restoring a phenomenal amount of health based upon your actual bushido skill. This health regeneration persists until the amount of health it would restore is reached, or until you are struck by a damaging effect or other effects;
Confidence Heal : (Bushido * Bushido) / 576 + 15
Example – If you have 100 Bushido, upon activating Confidence your HP will start to gain 32 Health over the next several seconds in an accelerated HP Regeneration. However, if during this time period you take any damage, the health regeneration will immediately stop.
Usefulness:
This move is useful in rebuilding health fast. It's cheap to cast, especially after a death you can go from 0 to near full very quickly. Also in a fight with tough opponents you can use this on the run or stand toe-to-toe and get the benefits.
Evasion ~ 10 Mana ~ 60 Bushido ~ (Stance) ~ Duration 3s to 7s ~ Recharge 20 s
(Puts you in a evasive stance for a short duration, allowing you to parry magical attacks like dragon's breath and energy bolt.)
What it Does – Evasion dramatically increases your parry chance, also giving you the ability to parry direct damage attacks from other sources, such as spells, and dragons breath. This does not give the evader the chance to parry status effecting spells and abilities, however, if the effect does damage over time, which can be parried, such as poison or bleed ticks.
As of publish 43, Evasion formula underwent some changes and no longer multiplies your block chance by a flat 50%. Instead it is based on your Bushido, Anatomy, and Tactics skills. The duration of Evasion is also influenced by these skills. Examples of the multiplier to the evasion bonus to your parry skill are as follows.
Evasion Bonus : 16% - 40% without GM Anatomy or Tactics
† 42% - 50% depending on level of Anatomy and Tactics skill starting at Grandmaster.
Example – If you have a 30% chance to parry, and your skill combinations net you a 40% parry bonus, your parry chance will increase to (30 * 1.4) = 42% for the duration of Evasion.
† It should be noted that as of the PvP Publish, Evasion has a 20 second recharge associated with it now, thus it can no longer be used back to back.
Usefulness:
This move has been on the receiving end of alot of nerfs lately. The first was to nerf down it's parry bonus and duration by making it reliant on bushido, anatomy and tactics skill, and the second slapped a recharge timer on it of 20 seconds. This move has gone from useable 5 cool points to a situational power that you only put up when you know the explosion falmestrike is coming.
Counter Attack ~ 5 Mana ~ 40 Bushido ~ (Stance) ~ Duration 40s or next successful parry
(Places you in a defensive stance that automatically allows you to counter attack the next time you successfully parry.)
What it Does : For all intents and purposes this move does exactly what it says. Your next parried attack will deliver a counter attack that does not interrupt your normal swing timer. This attack takes normal hit and miss ratios into account, so can miss. The bonus of this stance, is that it uses any attack that you had ready at the time, delivering that attack on a successful counter attack.
Usefulness:
The usefulness of this stance is so situational and so problematic that it becomes more or less a waste of mana, unless you think you are lucky enough to parry and to get a successful hit check after the attack. Better than Honorable Execution honestly, it's still far off the list of usefulness.
Lightning Strike ~ 5 Mana ~ 50 Bushido ~ (Attack)
(An attack with a large bonus to your hit chance.)
What it Does – This increases your hit chance by a large percent, and in effect, acts like hit chance increase jewelry.
Hit Chance Increase : 50% Hit Chance Increase (caps apply)
Lightning Strike also has another function outside of the normal one provided above. It gives a chance at a critical strike, which is a direct damage attack that bypasses armor, delivering the full damage you are capable of to your opponent.
Critical Strike Chance : (Bushido * Bushido) / 72,000
Example – If you have 100 Bushido and attempt to use Lightning Strike on a target, you have a 13% chance to do a critical strike. This critical strike will ignore any resistance the target has, delivering your maximum possible damage (this includes slayer, Damage Increase, Perfection, Enemy of One and any other applicable effects) directly to the targets Health Points.
† The damage from this critical strike is capped at 35 in player versus player situations.
Usefulness:
There should be no questions asked on how useful Lightning Strike is. It's probably the most common attack you will see if a template possesses Bushido. It's inherent HCI plus it's chance to crit (aka ignore all resistances) make this attack very useful, but overly used too much.
Momentum Strike ~ 10 Mana ~ 70 Bushido ~ (Attack)
(If you strike your opponent with this ability, you will automatically strike a nearby opponent. You receive a damage boost if you kill your first opponent.)
What it Does – Pretty much does what it says. This move only works if you are fighting more than one opponent at a time. If you hit your first opponent with this, you will attempt to attack another nearby opponent, with normal hit and miss ratios applying. Damage bonus seems to always be in effect, regardless if the first opponent dies or not, however, any bonuses on your first opponent you receive do not apply to the second one, unless they meet the stipulations such as enemy of one the same monster type or same monster type for slayer weapons. Honor perfection bonus damage does not transfer to a secondary target.
Damage Increase to Secondary Target : Roughly 100% increase, doubling the normal damage delivered.
Usefulness:
Situational attack, again, it's usefulness will rely solely on how many mobs are around you. The secondary target always seems to get flattened fast, but if you have a weapon with Hit Chance property on it, you could very well end up swapping targets alot because of that. It's a good crowd clearing move, but no where near as useful as a weapon with Whirlwind on it.
Bushido Based Enhancements
Bushido Based Enhancements
The following list is an example of Bushido based enhancements to already in place abilities and skills. All these enhancements are passive effects, and thus are going to be based on your actual bushido skill, as well as their inherent power effects.
Parrying : The strength of the samurai lies in the fact he can parry with weapon alone and forsakes the use of shields. As a result, concerning the samurai and his weapon use, the parry formulas work as follows;
Bushido Based Parry
One-Handed Parry (shieldless) : Parry * Bushido / 48,000 = Chance to Block
Two-Handed Parry (shieldless) : Parry * Bushido / 41,140 = Chance to Block
Parry with a Shield Equipped : (Parry – Bushido) / 4
Legacy Parry Chance (without Bushido and shieldless) : Parry / 8
Note: For a skill of 100.0 or greater in either Bushido or Parry, a 5% bonus is added to parry chance. This is a one time bonus, thus you will not get 5% for Bushido at or over 100 skill and another 5% for parry at or over 100 skill. You only receive the bonus once for one or the other as long as they remain at or over the 100 skill mark.
Example: If you have a Bushido skill of 90 and a parry skill of 100, your base chance to block with a one handed weapon will be 18.75% chance to block, plus 5% for parry being 100, for a total of 23.75% chance to block. Your two handed parry at the same skill will be 21.88% chance to block, plus 5% more for a total of 26.88% chance to block with a two handed weapon. If you use a shield with the same figures, your chance to block will be 2.5% plus 5% for a total of 7.5% chance to block with a shield. In other words, as a samurai, your chance to block worsens with a shield.
Best Methods for Gaining Parry - There are many guides on this, but for samurai, it's a tricky thing to do. The best way to train parry is to do it before you pick up Bushido, that way you can use a shield, and do the atypical sheep method. However, if that option is not available, the next best thing is to get a weapon in a weapon skill you have no skill in, like macing if you are a sword user, and use that to parry. Like any parry training, you will want to bring alot of back up shields (or weapons) as parrying can tear out alot of the items durability.
Whirlwind : ((# of opponents * Bushido) * (# of opponents * Bushido) / 3600) = Bonus Damage
Note: Damage Bonus for Whirlwind caps at 100. Also, Bushido counts as a weapon skill towards the reduction of the mana cost of weapon specific moves and abilities.
Example: If you are using a weapon with Whirlwind on it, and you are surrounded by 4 enemies, and have a Bushido skill of 90, the additional damage you do to each of those enemies will be 36 points of additional damage.
Usefulness:
Though this move is dependant on how many mobs are near you, go someplace, say Doom and fight renderer's with a fire or cold damage based weapon (or consecrate weapon if you are a paladin samurai) and just watch the damage climb and climb from that alone. Jump in hte middle of a bunch of spawn and whirlwind once and watch how fast the mobs drop; it almost feels like a requirement to have Whirlwind based weapons.
Bushido Based Enhancements
The following list is an example of Bushido based enhancements to already in place abilities and skills. All these enhancements are passive effects, and thus are going to be based on your actual bushido skill, as well as their inherent power effects.
Parrying : The strength of the samurai lies in the fact he can parry with weapon alone and forsakes the use of shields. As a result, concerning the samurai and his weapon use, the parry formulas work as follows;
Bushido Based Parry
One-Handed Parry (shieldless) : Parry * Bushido / 48,000 = Chance to Block
Two-Handed Parry (shieldless) : Parry * Bushido / 41,140 = Chance to Block
Parry with a Shield Equipped : (Parry – Bushido) / 4
Legacy Parry Chance (without Bushido and shieldless) : Parry / 8
Note: For a skill of 100.0 or greater in either Bushido or Parry, a 5% bonus is added to parry chance. This is a one time bonus, thus you will not get 5% for Bushido at or over 100 skill and another 5% for parry at or over 100 skill. You only receive the bonus once for one or the other as long as they remain at or over the 100 skill mark.
Example: If you have a Bushido skill of 90 and a parry skill of 100, your base chance to block with a one handed weapon will be 18.75% chance to block, plus 5% for parry being 100, for a total of 23.75% chance to block. Your two handed parry at the same skill will be 21.88% chance to block, plus 5% more for a total of 26.88% chance to block with a two handed weapon. If you use a shield with the same figures, your chance to block will be 2.5% plus 5% for a total of 7.5% chance to block with a shield. In other words, as a samurai, your chance to block worsens with a shield.
Best Methods for Gaining Parry - There are many guides on this, but for samurai, it's a tricky thing to do. The best way to train parry is to do it before you pick up Bushido, that way you can use a shield, and do the atypical sheep method. However, if that option is not available, the next best thing is to get a weapon in a weapon skill you have no skill in, like macing if you are a sword user, and use that to parry. Like any parry training, you will want to bring alot of back up shields (or weapons) as parrying can tear out alot of the items durability.
Whirlwind : ((# of opponents * Bushido) * (# of opponents * Bushido) / 3600) = Bonus Damage
Note: Damage Bonus for Whirlwind caps at 100. Also, Bushido counts as a weapon skill towards the reduction of the mana cost of weapon specific moves and abilities.
Example: If you are using a weapon with Whirlwind on it, and you are surrounded by 4 enemies, and have a Bushido skill of 90, the additional damage you do to each of those enemies will be 36 points of additional damage.
Usefulness:
Though this move is dependant on how many mobs are near you, go someplace, say Doom and fight renderer's with a fire or cold damage based weapon (or consecrate weapon if you are a paladin samurai) and just watch the damage climb and climb from that alone. Jump in hte middle of a bunch of spawn and whirlwind once and watch how fast the mobs drop; it almost feels like a requirement to have Whirlwind based weapons.
Honor and Perfection
Honor and Perfection
Honor is the life blood of a samurai, so much that it can help dictate how a fight turns out; it can even dictate his health, mana, and stamina after prolonged fights as well. This determination is known as the perfection for samurais, as they strive to perfect their techniques and adherence to Bushido as they continue about their daily lives.
Honor, at its most basic, offers a user the ability to increase their potential damage output by up to 25%, just by simply honoring yourself. However, for those who are following the path of Bushido (those with a skill of 50 or greater) they gain a new advantage. The opponent they have honored, they start to improve in their perfection. This perfection makes a samurai even more deadly to his opponents.
Perfection has a system known as Steps of Perfection that are also based on the samurai’s skill in Bushido. At 50 skill a samurai is at his least understanding of his goal of perfection and thus has to work harder to attain his perfection. In this case, the samurai has to gain 20 steps in perfection to Achieve Perfection. A samurai at 100 skill, however, understands perfection better, and thus only needs to gain 10 steps to Achieve Perfection. A Kengo samurai, is at the height of his understanding of perfection and will only need 9 steps to Achieve Perfection.
Now, what do these steps of perfection do? Well that depends on your relative Bushido skill honestly. Achieving Perfection nets you a bonus of 100% to damage and a luck bonus for the creature you honored equivalent to 1,000 luck. Basically put, for a samurai of 50 skill, each step is a 5% bonus and a 50 luck bonus to the target he honored, while to a Grandmaster samurai, it’s 10% damage bonus and 100 luck per hit. A Kengo samurai it’s roughly 11% damage bonus and 110 luck, though once Perfection is achieved the damage bonus is always 100% and the luck bonus for that target is always 1,000.
However, the benefits of perfection do not end there either. For each step of perfection you have, at the defeat of your opponent, you also gain back some health, stamina, and mana based on the level of perfection you have. Low perfection, low returns, achieved perfection however, you can almost expect to get fully restored in all relevant states fairly easily. Remember, the amount of your luck bonus, and stat replenishment is based on your current level of perfection, not the highest you achieved in a fight.
However, perfection isn’t easy to attain, or maintain. To gain perfection one must strike his opponent. To keep perfection, one must not miss. Basically this is how it works. Each time you strike your foe, you gain a step of perfection, just one step. For any miss, whether it’s natural miss or parried attack, you will lose three steps of perfection. This means that if you struck your opponent 5 times, but missed once, you would be back on step 2 of perfection. If you miss again, you will be back at step 0, and a message will state you have lost all perfection.
Of course there are rules when it governs the use of honor and perfection. First rule, you must be able to have a clear line of sight, and thus your opponent must have a clear line of sight as well, to honor them (flying mobs must be grounded before they can be honored). Second, Your opponent can not have been wounded in any way, whether this is from natural damage, or from health boosting spells or abilities. They must be in top shape before they can be honored. Finally, only one person can honor an opponent at a time, so if someone else already has the honor, no one else can honor that same target.
Honor and Perfection
Honor is the life blood of a samurai, so much that it can help dictate how a fight turns out; it can even dictate his health, mana, and stamina after prolonged fights as well. This determination is known as the perfection for samurais, as they strive to perfect their techniques and adherence to Bushido as they continue about their daily lives.
Honor, at its most basic, offers a user the ability to increase their potential damage output by up to 25%, just by simply honoring yourself. However, for those who are following the path of Bushido (those with a skill of 50 or greater) they gain a new advantage. The opponent they have honored, they start to improve in their perfection. This perfection makes a samurai even more deadly to his opponents.
Perfection has a system known as Steps of Perfection that are also based on the samurai’s skill in Bushido. At 50 skill a samurai is at his least understanding of his goal of perfection and thus has to work harder to attain his perfection. In this case, the samurai has to gain 20 steps in perfection to Achieve Perfection. A samurai at 100 skill, however, understands perfection better, and thus only needs to gain 10 steps to Achieve Perfection. A Kengo samurai, is at the height of his understanding of perfection and will only need 9 steps to Achieve Perfection.
Now, what do these steps of perfection do? Well that depends on your relative Bushido skill honestly. Achieving Perfection nets you a bonus of 100% to damage and a luck bonus for the creature you honored equivalent to 1,000 luck. Basically put, for a samurai of 50 skill, each step is a 5% bonus and a 50 luck bonus to the target he honored, while to a Grandmaster samurai, it’s 10% damage bonus and 100 luck per hit. A Kengo samurai it’s roughly 11% damage bonus and 110 luck, though once Perfection is achieved the damage bonus is always 100% and the luck bonus for that target is always 1,000.
However, the benefits of perfection do not end there either. For each step of perfection you have, at the defeat of your opponent, you also gain back some health, stamina, and mana based on the level of perfection you have. Low perfection, low returns, achieved perfection however, you can almost expect to get fully restored in all relevant states fairly easily. Remember, the amount of your luck bonus, and stat replenishment is based on your current level of perfection, not the highest you achieved in a fight.
However, perfection isn’t easy to attain, or maintain. To gain perfection one must strike his opponent. To keep perfection, one must not miss. Basically this is how it works. Each time you strike your foe, you gain a step of perfection, just one step. For any miss, whether it’s natural miss or parried attack, you will lose three steps of perfection. This means that if you struck your opponent 5 times, but missed once, you would be back on step 2 of perfection. If you miss again, you will be back at step 0, and a message will state you have lost all perfection.
Of course there are rules when it governs the use of honor and perfection. First rule, you must be able to have a clear line of sight, and thus your opponent must have a clear line of sight as well, to honor them (flying mobs must be grounded before they can be honored). Second, Your opponent can not have been wounded in any way, whether this is from natural damage, or from health boosting spells or abilities. They must be in top shape before they can be honored. Finally, only one person can honor an opponent at a time, so if someone else already has the honor, no one else can honor that same target.
The Good and the Bad; Common Template Combos
The Good and the Bad; Common Template Combos
There are a multitude of template suggestions out there, as well as possible templates. This part of the guide will examine skill combinations with Bushido and the relative good and bad side effects of either. Remember, this is just one persons view point as others can possibly have other relative view points that are just as valid based on their play experience, and remember;your play experience may very well be different from everyone else’s. If template questions pop up I will try to answer the question as best as possible or allow others with more experience to do so.
Archery –
Archery and Bushido can be good together, in fact a lot of archers make great use of Bushido. However, archery has one major drawback; parry does not work with it. This means that any parry based moves will never work for your archer, ever. However, this drawback comes with a few perks; the lack of needing parry gives you free skill points to cram into a template that is typical over-crowded, and as archery is a ranged attack, you have a bit more freedom on your item preferences since you will be less likely to be in melee. Remember, though, that moves like Momentum Strike require you to be near two opponents (that means right next to them) for it to work.
Chivalry –
Chivalry and Bushido almost seem to go hand-in-hand together, especially with the concerns of a very crowded template. One of the boons of chivalry is that it is highly effective at low skill, as most of the spells of chivalry are based more on your karma than on your actual skill, thus making chivalry a very cheap and effective skill to cram into tight template builds.
The drawback in chivalry is that you will need some magery based items to make it effective. Fast Cast, Faster Cast Recovery, and Mana Regeneration. This can make for some frustrating hunts in the decent suits and gear for your character to achieve the full effectiveness of this combo, though when it is achieved, it is quite powerful.
Enemy of One combined with Perfection can produce some massive damage to enemy targets you are facing in PvE. You can even expect to level quite a number of foes this way.
Consecrate Weapon lends to the fact you can really deliver some damage to the weakest resist of an enemy in a short amount of time.
Divine Fury coupled with the samurai's ability to parry, and you can pretty much never have to worry about stamina issues again.
Magery –
Magery and Bushido can work well together, but the drawback in this field is that you not only need warrior based gear for melee, but also magery based gear with Fast Cast, Faster Cast Recovery, Spell Channeling weapons and SDI to make it effective. Cramping in Evaluate Intelligence as well and you are looking at a very cramped template. More than likely, to be effective, your template will probably have to give up tactics, which means no weapon special moves, but other’s may have suggestions on that field to make it work.
Necromancy –
Necromancy seems to be a premiere skill for PvP, especially given the potent nature of some of the curses. However, necromancies drawback, again, is the simple fact that Bushido is a very cramped template, and you maybe looking at giving up tactics again to have an effective build, which means no weapon specials. Make no mistake, the forms and curses, utilized correctly, are very powerful. Any necromancer worth his salt will be able to utilize the skills and combos very effectively to delivering devastating impact damage in a short period of time.
Curse Weapon is good for the samurai with our ability to hit more accurately than most builds, with a good life stealing weapon you can probably keep yourself topped out in life, even through lethal poison.
Wraith Form is good for regaining mana, also ontop of that add in the simple fact that Wraith Form can also recall 100% of the time as long as you have a mage book with recall and the regs to use it.
Vampire Form is also looked at as a premiere bility, with the inherrant mana regneration and life drain attack.
All other Necro spells are just gravy ontop of those effects.
Pure Warrior –
The pure warrior is the most handicapped concerning the changes made recently. To be the most successful with his build the pure warrior will most likely have to give up magic resist to gain tactics. Though there are a plethora of items that pretty much negate curses, and such, falling back and relying on those items can be just as costly as not having magic resistance to begin with. Basically put, the current system rules in the game for Ultima Online as they are right now, makes playing a pure samurai warrior past a one trick pony almost a moot point.
Paladin Necro Samurai -
Make no mistake, this is a powerful template combination, but it is definitely not a template for beginners. The requirements of balancing out the extremes of necro and chivalry are dificult, as chivalry is highly karma based in it's powers, while necromancy produces massive negative effects on your karma.
Close Wounds is very susceptible to this,a s the amount healed by Close Wounds is affected by your karma level. If you end up bottoming out karma, you could very well be healing about as much as a mage heal spell or less.
Cleanse by Fire is affected by Karma in the sense that the fire damage you take is decreased by higher karma, and increased by lower karma. The exact amount varies, but based on karma you can expect anywhere from 9 to 55 fire damage from this effect based on your karma.
Remove Curse is also Karma based in the fact the higher your karma, the better chance you have of removing the curse. If you are negative karma, you pretty much almost have no chance to remove the curse.
The duration of enemy of one, consecrate weapon, and divine fury also are affected by karma. If you have low karma, then the affects are very short, while with high karma they last for quite a bit longer.
Spellweaving Samurai -
I've not heard alot about this type of template, and my experience with spellweaving is actually quite limited. On one hand, the combination looks quite viable, however, in my experience with spellweaving and the pre-emptive nature of many of the spells in that set, it doesn't seem like it would lend itself well to the samurai type of palystyle. However, that should not dissuade someone who is curious or thinks it might be a good combination.
Of note should be Gift of Renewal, Immolating Weapon, and Attune Weapon spells from Spellweaving. Gift of Renewal is a Heal Over Time effect, with an added bonus that it can attempt to cure poison, which most likely is similar to all other effects that can cure poison; the amount of skill in Spellweaving determines what level of poison this effect can attempt to cure. However, the drawback is that it seems to have a recharge effect in place till it can be cast again. The duration of this is based on your skill level as well.
Immolating Weapon adds additional fire damage to your weapon attack for a few seconds based on your Spellweaving skill. This can be useful to add extra damage to your attacks in a given time period, and especially useful against those types of critters weak to fire damage.
Attune Weapon is a protective spell that is auto cast on yourself. This spell will reduce all weapon based damage by 50% for a short duration. Fighting Peerless bosses this can probably prove to be quite useful, and these are starting spells to boot, so should be fairly easy to attain and use.
Gift of Life would also be quite useful to pre-empt cast on yourself, or your pet Hiryu, if you use one. If you die while the spell is active you can auto res yourself, though there is a recharge on this.
Word of Death is probably another spell that might prove useful on those Peerless boss fights, but since most Samurai spend their time in Melee, with the exception of archer samurai, this maybe rather dificult to pull off.
I will note, Arcane Empowerment may also affect Bushido's Confidence power, though I will state I am not sure at all on this since I have never attempted it. Arcane Empowerment basically increased the effectiveness of spell damage and healing, but since we do not do spell damage we are left with the healing aspect. If anyone tests this and finds that Arcane Empowerment does indeed affect Confidence send me a PM and I will edit this part of the FAQ accordingly.
Alchemist Samurai -
This template seems rather bizarre at first, but it actually has a sound approach. With the ability to create potions at a whim, provided you have the proper reagents and bottles handy, you also get an extra benefit in that your potions are more readily powerful than someone who does not possess alchemy. The drawback of such a template is you will rely more on your potions for healing and curing. This gives a slight benefit in that you will have a few skill points free to play around with in your template build. Just remember, to utilize many potions you will rely more on single handed weapons over two handed ones.
Elf versus Human -
Both have their flaws and their strengths, however in my personal opinion, the elf comes out far weaker to the human in these regards. An elf's advantage is he has inherent night sight as well as additional base mana, however he lack's in strength and the additional mana comes at the cost of the human's inherent mana regneration from his bonus skills.
A human comes with the 20 bonus skills, of course, as well as additional carrying capacity. This ontop of the plethora of night sight items with the right properties you do want makes the slight mana boost of an elf seem paltry, especially given the nature humans have a natural mana regneration thanks to the invisible 20 skill points in focus and meditation. Personall,y I would make a human samurai over an elven one, but personal taste is what it boils down to.
Another drawback to elves is that alot of worn gear, esepcially head gear, kills a look for your elf, especially if you were going for a certain look and appearance, you could end up wearing the unsightly elven helm instead of the samurai one, or a circlet instead of a kasa.
Gargoyle Samurai: (the following information is based on what is readily known about Gargoyles found on the Stygian Abyss site.)
The gargoyle will soon be added to the UO client, and from the looks of what racial abilities that they will possess they will bring some interesting additions to the samurai profession. First up is their beserker state. That can be a handy trait to have for a samurai giving more speed and power, with the samurais ability to parry making up the defense deficit. Ontop of that the mystical insight can help lads to a lot of cramped templates when it comes to cramming in rudimentary things like recall power. The downside I see in the gargoyle is their need to have specific armor crafted for them. This could be difficult in terms of gear and equipment. One I am up in the air about (no pun intended) is flying. Not needing a mount is nice, but then again, not being able to mount on a hiryu can be a bit of a pain in the long run.
The Good and the Bad; Common Template Combos
There are a multitude of template suggestions out there, as well as possible templates. This part of the guide will examine skill combinations with Bushido and the relative good and bad side effects of either. Remember, this is just one persons view point as others can possibly have other relative view points that are just as valid based on their play experience, and remember;your play experience may very well be different from everyone else’s. If template questions pop up I will try to answer the question as best as possible or allow others with more experience to do so.
Archery –
Archery and Bushido can be good together, in fact a lot of archers make great use of Bushido. However, archery has one major drawback; parry does not work with it. This means that any parry based moves will never work for your archer, ever. However, this drawback comes with a few perks; the lack of needing parry gives you free skill points to cram into a template that is typical over-crowded, and as archery is a ranged attack, you have a bit more freedom on your item preferences since you will be less likely to be in melee. Remember, though, that moves like Momentum Strike require you to be near two opponents (that means right next to them) for it to work.
Chivalry –
Chivalry and Bushido almost seem to go hand-in-hand together, especially with the concerns of a very crowded template. One of the boons of chivalry is that it is highly effective at low skill, as most of the spells of chivalry are based more on your karma than on your actual skill, thus making chivalry a very cheap and effective skill to cram into tight template builds.
The drawback in chivalry is that you will need some magery based items to make it effective. Fast Cast, Faster Cast Recovery, and Mana Regeneration. This can make for some frustrating hunts in the decent suits and gear for your character to achieve the full effectiveness of this combo, though when it is achieved, it is quite powerful.
Enemy of One combined with Perfection can produce some massive damage to enemy targets you are facing in PvE. You can even expect to level quite a number of foes this way.
Consecrate Weapon lends to the fact you can really deliver some damage to the weakest resist of an enemy in a short amount of time.
Divine Fury coupled with the samurai's ability to parry, and you can pretty much never have to worry about stamina issues again.
Magery –
Magery and Bushido can work well together, but the drawback in this field is that you not only need warrior based gear for melee, but also magery based gear with Fast Cast, Faster Cast Recovery, Spell Channeling weapons and SDI to make it effective. Cramping in Evaluate Intelligence as well and you are looking at a very cramped template. More than likely, to be effective, your template will probably have to give up tactics, which means no weapon special moves, but other’s may have suggestions on that field to make it work.
Necromancy –
Necromancy seems to be a premiere skill for PvP, especially given the potent nature of some of the curses. However, necromancies drawback, again, is the simple fact that Bushido is a very cramped template, and you maybe looking at giving up tactics again to have an effective build, which means no weapon specials. Make no mistake, the forms and curses, utilized correctly, are very powerful. Any necromancer worth his salt will be able to utilize the skills and combos very effectively to delivering devastating impact damage in a short period of time.
Curse Weapon is good for the samurai with our ability to hit more accurately than most builds, with a good life stealing weapon you can probably keep yourself topped out in life, even through lethal poison.
Wraith Form is good for regaining mana, also ontop of that add in the simple fact that Wraith Form can also recall 100% of the time as long as you have a mage book with recall and the regs to use it.
Vampire Form is also looked at as a premiere bility, with the inherrant mana regneration and life drain attack.
All other Necro spells are just gravy ontop of those effects.
Pure Warrior –
The pure warrior is the most handicapped concerning the changes made recently. To be the most successful with his build the pure warrior will most likely have to give up magic resist to gain tactics. Though there are a plethora of items that pretty much negate curses, and such, falling back and relying on those items can be just as costly as not having magic resistance to begin with. Basically put, the current system rules in the game for Ultima Online as they are right now, makes playing a pure samurai warrior past a one trick pony almost a moot point.
Paladin Necro Samurai -
Make no mistake, this is a powerful template combination, but it is definitely not a template for beginners. The requirements of balancing out the extremes of necro and chivalry are dificult, as chivalry is highly karma based in it's powers, while necromancy produces massive negative effects on your karma.
Close Wounds is very susceptible to this,a s the amount healed by Close Wounds is affected by your karma level. If you end up bottoming out karma, you could very well be healing about as much as a mage heal spell or less.
Cleanse by Fire is affected by Karma in the sense that the fire damage you take is decreased by higher karma, and increased by lower karma. The exact amount varies, but based on karma you can expect anywhere from 9 to 55 fire damage from this effect based on your karma.
Remove Curse is also Karma based in the fact the higher your karma, the better chance you have of removing the curse. If you are negative karma, you pretty much almost have no chance to remove the curse.
The duration of enemy of one, consecrate weapon, and divine fury also are affected by karma. If you have low karma, then the affects are very short, while with high karma they last for quite a bit longer.
Spellweaving Samurai -
I've not heard alot about this type of template, and my experience with spellweaving is actually quite limited. On one hand, the combination looks quite viable, however, in my experience with spellweaving and the pre-emptive nature of many of the spells in that set, it doesn't seem like it would lend itself well to the samurai type of palystyle. However, that should not dissuade someone who is curious or thinks it might be a good combination.
Of note should be Gift of Renewal, Immolating Weapon, and Attune Weapon spells from Spellweaving. Gift of Renewal is a Heal Over Time effect, with an added bonus that it can attempt to cure poison, which most likely is similar to all other effects that can cure poison; the amount of skill in Spellweaving determines what level of poison this effect can attempt to cure. However, the drawback is that it seems to have a recharge effect in place till it can be cast again. The duration of this is based on your skill level as well.
Immolating Weapon adds additional fire damage to your weapon attack for a few seconds based on your Spellweaving skill. This can be useful to add extra damage to your attacks in a given time period, and especially useful against those types of critters weak to fire damage.
Attune Weapon is a protective spell that is auto cast on yourself. This spell will reduce all weapon based damage by 50% for a short duration. Fighting Peerless bosses this can probably prove to be quite useful, and these are starting spells to boot, so should be fairly easy to attain and use.
Gift of Life would also be quite useful to pre-empt cast on yourself, or your pet Hiryu, if you use one. If you die while the spell is active you can auto res yourself, though there is a recharge on this.
Word of Death is probably another spell that might prove useful on those Peerless boss fights, but since most Samurai spend their time in Melee, with the exception of archer samurai, this maybe rather dificult to pull off.
I will note, Arcane Empowerment may also affect Bushido's Confidence power, though I will state I am not sure at all on this since I have never attempted it. Arcane Empowerment basically increased the effectiveness of spell damage and healing, but since we do not do spell damage we are left with the healing aspect. If anyone tests this and finds that Arcane Empowerment does indeed affect Confidence send me a PM and I will edit this part of the FAQ accordingly.
Alchemist Samurai -
This template seems rather bizarre at first, but it actually has a sound approach. With the ability to create potions at a whim, provided you have the proper reagents and bottles handy, you also get an extra benefit in that your potions are more readily powerful than someone who does not possess alchemy. The drawback of such a template is you will rely more on your potions for healing and curing. This gives a slight benefit in that you will have a few skill points free to play around with in your template build. Just remember, to utilize many potions you will rely more on single handed weapons over two handed ones.
Elf versus Human -
Both have their flaws and their strengths, however in my personal opinion, the elf comes out far weaker to the human in these regards. An elf's advantage is he has inherent night sight as well as additional base mana, however he lack's in strength and the additional mana comes at the cost of the human's inherent mana regneration from his bonus skills.
A human comes with the 20 bonus skills, of course, as well as additional carrying capacity. This ontop of the plethora of night sight items with the right properties you do want makes the slight mana boost of an elf seem paltry, especially given the nature humans have a natural mana regneration thanks to the invisible 20 skill points in focus and meditation. Personall,y I would make a human samurai over an elven one, but personal taste is what it boils down to.
Another drawback to elves is that alot of worn gear, esepcially head gear, kills a look for your elf, especially if you were going for a certain look and appearance, you could end up wearing the unsightly elven helm instead of the samurai one, or a circlet instead of a kasa.
Gargoyle Samurai: (the following information is based on what is readily known about Gargoyles found on the Stygian Abyss site.)
The gargoyle will soon be added to the UO client, and from the looks of what racial abilities that they will possess they will bring some interesting additions to the samurai profession. First up is their beserker state. That can be a handy trait to have for a samurai giving more speed and power, with the samurais ability to parry making up the defense deficit. Ontop of that the mystical insight can help lads to a lot of cramped templates when it comes to cramming in rudimentary things like recall power. The downside I see in the gargoyle is their need to have specific armor crafted for them. This could be difficult in terms of gear and equipment. One I am up in the air about (no pun intended) is flying. Not needing a mount is nice, but then again, not being able to mount on a hiryu can be a bit of a pain in the long run.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Samuria
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
This portion of the Guide is a constant work in progress. I implore that any new questions that have answers be directed to me in PM, or a possible mod asking them politely to modify this portion of the Guide to include the answers to the FAQ as needed.
Does Archery Work with Bushido?
This is a trick question. Yes, Archery works with Bushido, however specific Bushido moves will not work without parry skill. In this case, Counter Attack and Evasion both will not work without parry, and the secondary aspects of Confidence will not either. Momentum Strike also will require the archer to be next to two opponents to get it to work effectively and the parry stipulation of a failed honorable execution will not work with archery either. The reason these do not work with archery is because you cannot ever parry with a bow, and the likelihood of this changing is pretty low.
Can Bushido Attacks/Stances fail to execute?
Yes, they can. Just because you have the pre-requisite skill value does not mean they will automatically work. There are tell tale sound effects that let you know when the Attack/Stance has fired off. If you do not hear any of these, then the action failed to happen. The amount of skill necessary to have 100% chance of success at an Attack/Stance is roughly 40 skill over the minimum to use.
Why do I need more Bushido than the amount necessary to have 100% success if I just want X move?
Good question. Do you really need high Bushido if all you are after is that one move or stance? No. However, Bushido is much like any other skill in the game, it not only decides the chance of success, it decides the over-all effectiveness of your attacks and stances. It also effects your passive abilities such as parry, whirlwind, and Perfection. Basically put, the greater you knowledge of Bushido, the greater the effect it has.
Why can’t I use my Lesser Hiryu anymore/it’s failing to bond to me?
Lesser Hiryu code was changed. For a long time, anyone could command and bond a Lesser Hiryu without any Bushido or taming skill, they just couldn’t ride it. However, a recent changed now makes it a requirement that you either having taming or a minimum of 90 Bushido skill in order to command and bond a Lesser Hiryu.
I can’t use my weapon specials anymore, what happened?
A recent change put in a requirement of 70 Tactics for the primary weapon special and 90 Tactics for the secondary weapon special, on-top of other requirements. This change was mostly aimed at PvP balances, however, it has damaged a lot of valid templates that are too cramped to fit in Tactics normally.
I am a Paladin/Samurai, and damage doesn’t seem to increase from perfection.
Damage is capped at 300% from DI based enhancements. A slayer weapon against the appropriate type of critters will give you a 200% damage increase. Enemy of One itself will give another 50% increase. That's 250%. Damage increase from weapons and jewerly can easily add an additional 50% at this point to. The result is basically just too easy to cap damage with the samurai/paladin build.
If I don’t get the Perfection damage bonus, what good is Perfection then?
Two reasons to still attempt to Achieve Perfection; First, your level of Perfection acts as a sort of luck towards your target. The higher your perfection the greater luck value for that target only, you get, thus the increased chance of better loot. Secondly, Perfection levels also restore heaps of lost health, mana, and stamina versus your target. Especially tough fights, like certain Paragons, it would be wise to be able to restore what was lost to you.
Why is my parry crap when I use a shield?
Because samurai do not use shields, plain and simple. Though some will try to point out the fan as such a thing, the reality of that weapon was it was used to communicate troop movement in battle, and also used to parry incoming attacks. It is also a weapon in UO, thus those who wish to fall back on the fan can do so. However if you want a mind set to reason it, think of it this way, hiding behind a shield is cowardly, and it would insult a samurai’s honor to be considered a coward, thus the reason why shields hurt a samurais parry chances instead of helping it.
Does Human inherent +20 skill effect my chance to parry with a shield?
No, it has no effect on your inherent chances to parry with a shield, as long as you do not have any real Bushido skill.
Does Bushido skill jewelry effect my chances to parry with a shield?
Yes, it does. Skill jewelry, for all intents and purposes, acts as real skill, thus if you are carrying 30 points of Bushido skill jewelry, then the system thinks you have 30 real skill of Bushido. This will negatively impact your parry chances with a shield, so suggest finding other jewelry if you plan on playing with a sword and board.
If Lightning Strike gives 50% Hit Chance Increase, and the cap is 45%, why do I need Hit Chance Increase Items?
Overflow; plain and simple. Despite having a high inherent accuracy, things like hit lower attack will lower that chance tremendously, and having overflow can help negate some of that effect. Furthermore, relying solely on Lightning Strike, though a powerful attack, is relying solely on luck and is not going to be 100% when other moves, such as Concussion Blow or Armor Ignore maybe more useful, and more reliable when you need an instant burst of damage.
How come I don't get Perfection in PvP?
A while back ago, they changed the honor code to be unable to honor targets in PvP situations. You can honor yourself and get the 25% damage increase from that, but you cna not honor another player and get Perfection in PvP. It was basically stated as a balance change.
Lightning Strike doesn't seem to hit hard at all in PvP.
Again, another change for the sake of PvP balancing. This change came before the Perfection nerf for PvP, and Lightning Strike damage was capped at 35 maximum. Honestly, this rule should be lightened up, since many attacks and other weapons outshine Lightning Strike in this regard now, especially since Samurai can no longer get the Perfection bonus in PvP.
Why do I randomly get the dismounted debuff when my Lesser Hiryu is fighting?
A code was recently introduced that acts as if you had used a dismount yourself if your pet uses a dismount move on your target. This is mostly a PvP change, however, the Lesser Hiryu's chance of dismounting was drastically nerfed to only 20% chance.
If I have X Bushido value, can I still parry if I don't have parry skill?
Anything multiplied by 0 is still going to be 0. That's a fundamental fact of mathematics. The only time this might not be true is in the situation when you have 100 or greater skill in Bushido. At that point you are given a base of 5% chance to block. Anything less than 100 skill and you have a 0% chance to block.
It should also be noted that human character's may also not have to contend with this issue as deeply, as they get an invisible +20 skill points. Therefor you would place all the formulas above with 20 skill parry.
If I have X parry skill, can I still parry with only a weapon and without bushido?
Yes, you can. If you look in the above post on Parrying, you will see a value called Legacy Parry Chance. This value describes the chance for someone using a weapon without a shield, and no bushido skills, ability to block an attack with weapon alone. Again, this might not be true for human characters, however, who get an invisible +20 bushido skill, so that maybe taking into the equation on block chance with weapon alone.
Does Perfection give luck bonus or not?
This has been hotly debated since the first time Jeremy stated that Perfection luck bonus was turned off. However, Jeremy ate her words when she stated in the August 17th, 2007 Five on Friday that her and the team were in error and that Perfection was indeed giving bonus luck.
What's with the difference in Steps of Perfection based on skill?
I honestly don't know. I've been testing and working with Bushido ever since Samurai Empire came out, and this was a new thing to me as pointed out to me by Fisher King in the older Samurai FAQ (before the new forums). I tested it myself just recently, and this change is indeed the case. However, I must also stress another factor that it is quite possible that I may have been in error, despite my talking wtih Leurocian when comprising the original fact and this may have always been the case. However, I will also digress that this may have also been an undocumented change as well.
Can I use a UBWS weapon I don't have skill in to use Evasion?
No, you can not. To combat PvP twinking, this change was put in a long time ago. If you are using a weapon that you have no skill in but has Use Best Weapon Skill as a modifier, and especially those mages who try to use Mage Weapons, Evasion will not work with it. I believe this goes for all parry based skills using those weapons as well.
Does using a shield on my Bushido only (no parry) character ruin my DCI chance?
I have no idea where this came from, but lately I have been seeing alot of people getting confused on this notion. Defence Chance Increase is not even in the same ballpark as parrying. Plain and simple. Defense Chance Increase affects the initial Hit/Miss calculations when comparing weapon versus weapon skill, not your parry chances. When parrying is taken into account, in other words blocking, that is figured after the hit/miss calculation is done as a seperate check. So short answer, no wearing a shield on your samurai will not affect your Defense Chance Increase, though it will gimp the crap out of your parry.
How much will Defense Chance Increase affect Bushido Stances?
First, as in the previous Question, Defense Chance Increase has no affect on your parry. Zero, Zilch, Nada. Parry is a seperate check from the Hit/Miss calculation performed by the system when attacks are performed. What DCI affects is your defense based value of your weapon skill versus their weapon skill. At equal skill, you and your opponent have a 50/50 base chance of hitting or missing. If you have 25% DCI, you would get (50 * 1.25 = 62.5) chance of them missing you.
Now, how this affects things like parry. Higher DCI means that your stances are less likely to occur. Stances like counter attack, which rely on the parry check, would see less use. However this is not a bad thing actually. Parry's intent is to be there when a melee attack bypasses your primary defenses and that becomes your secondary defense. The armor you are wearing, the resistance, is your tertiary defense, and basically the final step before damage is applied.
So basically, in short, the higher DCI you have, the less useful powers like Counter Attack are, and the secondary effects of Confidence. However, Evasion and the primary effect of confidence is still quite useful.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
This portion of the Guide is a constant work in progress. I implore that any new questions that have answers be directed to me in PM, or a possible mod asking them politely to modify this portion of the Guide to include the answers to the FAQ as needed.
Does Archery Work with Bushido?
This is a trick question. Yes, Archery works with Bushido, however specific Bushido moves will not work without parry skill. In this case, Counter Attack and Evasion both will not work without parry, and the secondary aspects of Confidence will not either. Momentum Strike also will require the archer to be next to two opponents to get it to work effectively and the parry stipulation of a failed honorable execution will not work with archery either. The reason these do not work with archery is because you cannot ever parry with a bow, and the likelihood of this changing is pretty low.
Can Bushido Attacks/Stances fail to execute?
Yes, they can. Just because you have the pre-requisite skill value does not mean they will automatically work. There are tell tale sound effects that let you know when the Attack/Stance has fired off. If you do not hear any of these, then the action failed to happen. The amount of skill necessary to have 100% chance of success at an Attack/Stance is roughly 40 skill over the minimum to use.
Why do I need more Bushido than the amount necessary to have 100% success if I just want X move?
Good question. Do you really need high Bushido if all you are after is that one move or stance? No. However, Bushido is much like any other skill in the game, it not only decides the chance of success, it decides the over-all effectiveness of your attacks and stances. It also effects your passive abilities such as parry, whirlwind, and Perfection. Basically put, the greater you knowledge of Bushido, the greater the effect it has.
Why can’t I use my Lesser Hiryu anymore/it’s failing to bond to me?
Lesser Hiryu code was changed. For a long time, anyone could command and bond a Lesser Hiryu without any Bushido or taming skill, they just couldn’t ride it. However, a recent changed now makes it a requirement that you either having taming or a minimum of 90 Bushido skill in order to command and bond a Lesser Hiryu.
I can’t use my weapon specials anymore, what happened?
A recent change put in a requirement of 70 Tactics for the primary weapon special and 90 Tactics for the secondary weapon special, on-top of other requirements. This change was mostly aimed at PvP balances, however, it has damaged a lot of valid templates that are too cramped to fit in Tactics normally.
I am a Paladin/Samurai, and damage doesn’t seem to increase from perfection.
Damage is capped at 300% from DI based enhancements. A slayer weapon against the appropriate type of critters will give you a 200% damage increase. Enemy of One itself will give another 50% increase. That's 250%. Damage increase from weapons and jewerly can easily add an additional 50% at this point to. The result is basically just too easy to cap damage with the samurai/paladin build.
If I don’t get the Perfection damage bonus, what good is Perfection then?
Two reasons to still attempt to Achieve Perfection; First, your level of Perfection acts as a sort of luck towards your target. The higher your perfection the greater luck value for that target only, you get, thus the increased chance of better loot. Secondly, Perfection levels also restore heaps of lost health, mana, and stamina versus your target. Especially tough fights, like certain Paragons, it would be wise to be able to restore what was lost to you.
Why is my parry crap when I use a shield?
Because samurai do not use shields, plain and simple. Though some will try to point out the fan as such a thing, the reality of that weapon was it was used to communicate troop movement in battle, and also used to parry incoming attacks. It is also a weapon in UO, thus those who wish to fall back on the fan can do so. However if you want a mind set to reason it, think of it this way, hiding behind a shield is cowardly, and it would insult a samurai’s honor to be considered a coward, thus the reason why shields hurt a samurais parry chances instead of helping it.
Does Human inherent +20 skill effect my chance to parry with a shield?
No, it has no effect on your inherent chances to parry with a shield, as long as you do not have any real Bushido skill.
Does Bushido skill jewelry effect my chances to parry with a shield?
Yes, it does. Skill jewelry, for all intents and purposes, acts as real skill, thus if you are carrying 30 points of Bushido skill jewelry, then the system thinks you have 30 real skill of Bushido. This will negatively impact your parry chances with a shield, so suggest finding other jewelry if you plan on playing with a sword and board.
If Lightning Strike gives 50% Hit Chance Increase, and the cap is 45%, why do I need Hit Chance Increase Items?
Overflow; plain and simple. Despite having a high inherent accuracy, things like hit lower attack will lower that chance tremendously, and having overflow can help negate some of that effect. Furthermore, relying solely on Lightning Strike, though a powerful attack, is relying solely on luck and is not going to be 100% when other moves, such as Concussion Blow or Armor Ignore maybe more useful, and more reliable when you need an instant burst of damage.
How come I don't get Perfection in PvP?
A while back ago, they changed the honor code to be unable to honor targets in PvP situations. You can honor yourself and get the 25% damage increase from that, but you cna not honor another player and get Perfection in PvP. It was basically stated as a balance change.
Lightning Strike doesn't seem to hit hard at all in PvP.
Again, another change for the sake of PvP balancing. This change came before the Perfection nerf for PvP, and Lightning Strike damage was capped at 35 maximum. Honestly, this rule should be lightened up, since many attacks and other weapons outshine Lightning Strike in this regard now, especially since Samurai can no longer get the Perfection bonus in PvP.
Why do I randomly get the dismounted debuff when my Lesser Hiryu is fighting?
A code was recently introduced that acts as if you had used a dismount yourself if your pet uses a dismount move on your target. This is mostly a PvP change, however, the Lesser Hiryu's chance of dismounting was drastically nerfed to only 20% chance.
If I have X Bushido value, can I still parry if I don't have parry skill?
Anything multiplied by 0 is still going to be 0. That's a fundamental fact of mathematics. The only time this might not be true is in the situation when you have 100 or greater skill in Bushido. At that point you are given a base of 5% chance to block. Anything less than 100 skill and you have a 0% chance to block.
It should also be noted that human character's may also not have to contend with this issue as deeply, as they get an invisible +20 skill points. Therefor you would place all the formulas above with 20 skill parry.
If I have X parry skill, can I still parry with only a weapon and without bushido?
Yes, you can. If you look in the above post on Parrying, you will see a value called Legacy Parry Chance. This value describes the chance for someone using a weapon without a shield, and no bushido skills, ability to block an attack with weapon alone. Again, this might not be true for human characters, however, who get an invisible +20 bushido skill, so that maybe taking into the equation on block chance with weapon alone.
Does Perfection give luck bonus or not?
This has been hotly debated since the first time Jeremy stated that Perfection luck bonus was turned off. However, Jeremy ate her words when she stated in the August 17th, 2007 Five on Friday that her and the team were in error and that Perfection was indeed giving bonus luck.
What's with the difference in Steps of Perfection based on skill?
I honestly don't know. I've been testing and working with Bushido ever since Samurai Empire came out, and this was a new thing to me as pointed out to me by Fisher King in the older Samurai FAQ (before the new forums). I tested it myself just recently, and this change is indeed the case. However, I must also stress another factor that it is quite possible that I may have been in error, despite my talking wtih Leurocian when comprising the original fact and this may have always been the case. However, I will also digress that this may have also been an undocumented change as well.
Can I use a UBWS weapon I don't have skill in to use Evasion?
No, you can not. To combat PvP twinking, this change was put in a long time ago. If you are using a weapon that you have no skill in but has Use Best Weapon Skill as a modifier, and especially those mages who try to use Mage Weapons, Evasion will not work with it. I believe this goes for all parry based skills using those weapons as well.
Does using a shield on my Bushido only (no parry) character ruin my DCI chance?
I have no idea where this came from, but lately I have been seeing alot of people getting confused on this notion. Defence Chance Increase is not even in the same ballpark as parrying. Plain and simple. Defense Chance Increase affects the initial Hit/Miss calculations when comparing weapon versus weapon skill, not your parry chances. When parrying is taken into account, in other words blocking, that is figured after the hit/miss calculation is done as a seperate check. So short answer, no wearing a shield on your samurai will not affect your Defense Chance Increase, though it will gimp the crap out of your parry.
How much will Defense Chance Increase affect Bushido Stances?
First, as in the previous Question, Defense Chance Increase has no affect on your parry. Zero, Zilch, Nada. Parry is a seperate check from the Hit/Miss calculation performed by the system when attacks are performed. What DCI affects is your defense based value of your weapon skill versus their weapon skill. At equal skill, you and your opponent have a 50/50 base chance of hitting or missing. If you have 25% DCI, you would get (50 * 1.25 = 62.5) chance of them missing you.
Now, how this affects things like parry. Higher DCI means that your stances are less likely to occur. Stances like counter attack, which rely on the parry check, would see less use. However this is not a bad thing actually. Parry's intent is to be there when a melee attack bypasses your primary defenses and that becomes your secondary defense. The armor you are wearing, the resistance, is your tertiary defense, and basically the final step before damage is applied.
So basically, in short, the higher DCI you have, the less useful powers like Counter Attack are, and the secondary effects of Confidence. However, Evasion and the primary effect of confidence is still quite useful.
Bushido Issues
Bushido Issues
The following list is just a comprised list of issues with Bushido and it’s abilities, and weapon specials.
The new tactics requirement for weapon specials hurts pure warrior based samurai templates, requiring them to dump necessary skills in order to be able to use their weapon specials again.
Using Riding Swipe, because of the rules of the weapon, can turn the weapon special user grey, thus attackable or guard whacked in a guard zone because the secondary hit to the mount which is counted as a separate entity instead of being appropriately flagged to the target. Killing the users mount also does not work until the target has dismounted from his mount. (need to test for confirmation)
Counter Attack is near worthless in its current form. It requires the user to parry an attack, then a hit miss calculation is taken into effect. Despite Counter Attack will use the recent readied weapon special, it’s no guarantee of a hit. Counter Attack either needs to counter all parried attacks for the duration of the stance or the countered attack needs to be a guaranteed hit.
Honorable Execution is totally worthless for samurai. The duration of the swing speed increase is hardly worth the gauging and deciding if a target is damaged enough that your next hit will kill them. This attack needs to be changed to be more useful for samurai and the penalties associated with it reduced dramatically. A change is in order to make this attack more worthy instead of making us fall back on constant Lightning Strike spam.
Momentum Strike is also a tough one to gauge on its worthiness as an attack. The stipulation of two targets standing next to plus anytime a To Hit effect goes off on a target other than your primary target, you will automatically retarget the critter that got hit by the To Hit effect instead and start attacking it. A change to make this more useful is in order, so as to stop making Lightning Strike our only move we use.
Frenzied Whirlwind does not benefit at all from the samurai whirlwind damage bonus, despite it being a whirlwind attack. This makes the move absolutely worthless compared to it's big brother whirlwind.
The removal of Perfection in PvP makes the Lightning strike damage cap of 35 redundant now. This damage cap needs to be loosened up a bit as other moves are more devastating than Lightning Strike.
More of a general concern, but tactics skill jewelry will not let you use weapon specials, even if they take your skill past the requisite 70 or 90 skill to use the primary or secondary weapon special. This is high contradiction versus every other skill in the game that benefits from skill jewelry.
Bushido Issues
The following list is just a comprised list of issues with Bushido and it’s abilities, and weapon specials.
The new tactics requirement for weapon specials hurts pure warrior based samurai templates, requiring them to dump necessary skills in order to be able to use their weapon specials again.
Using Riding Swipe, because of the rules of the weapon, can turn the weapon special user grey, thus attackable or guard whacked in a guard zone because the secondary hit to the mount which is counted as a separate entity instead of being appropriately flagged to the target. Killing the users mount also does not work until the target has dismounted from his mount. (need to test for confirmation)
Counter Attack is near worthless in its current form. It requires the user to parry an attack, then a hit miss calculation is taken into effect. Despite Counter Attack will use the recent readied weapon special, it’s no guarantee of a hit. Counter Attack either needs to counter all parried attacks for the duration of the stance or the countered attack needs to be a guaranteed hit.
Honorable Execution is totally worthless for samurai. The duration of the swing speed increase is hardly worth the gauging and deciding if a target is damaged enough that your next hit will kill them. This attack needs to be changed to be more useful for samurai and the penalties associated with it reduced dramatically. A change is in order to make this attack more worthy instead of making us fall back on constant Lightning Strike spam.
Momentum Strike is also a tough one to gauge on its worthiness as an attack. The stipulation of two targets standing next to plus anytime a To Hit effect goes off on a target other than your primary target, you will automatically retarget the critter that got hit by the To Hit effect instead and start attacking it. A change to make this more useful is in order, so as to stop making Lightning Strike our only move we use.
Frenzied Whirlwind does not benefit at all from the samurai whirlwind damage bonus, despite it being a whirlwind attack. This makes the move absolutely worthless compared to it's big brother whirlwind.
The removal of Perfection in PvP makes the Lightning strike damage cap of 35 redundant now. This damage cap needs to be loosened up a bit as other moves are more devastating than Lightning Strike.
More of a general concern, but tactics skill jewelry will not let you use weapon specials, even if they take your skill past the requisite 70 or 90 skill to use the primary or secondary weapon special. This is high contradiction versus every other skill in the game that benefits from skill jewelry.
The Sampire
I personally believe that the Sampire (Samurai Vampire) is the most efficient overall Player vs. Monster (PvM) character ever designed. While I'd like to take credit for this brilliant build, I can't. In fact I don't really know who was the first Sampire, nor would I believe anyone if they told me they were.
What is a Sampire?
A sampire is a character that uses (at least) Weapon Skill, Necromancy, and Bushido. The main objective is to get into Vampiric Embrace form and deal lots of damage to the enemy. While in Vampiric Embrace you perform 20% life drain whenever you strike an enemy (20% of the damage that you deal will be returned you in hit points). Example, if you deal 100 points of damage while in Vampiric Embrace you will be healed 20 points of damage.
The 'Samurai' comes in with Bushido. Certain parts of the bushido skill gives you large advantages in terms of offense and defense (which we'll cover shortly).
What can I kill with a Sampire?
The short answer, anything. I personally have killed everything from paragon succubi, to Dreadhorn and Irk, Miasma, ranging to Baracoon and paragon Balrons.
How does a Sampire work?
A Sampire deals as much damage as possible, while taking as little damage as possible. The more damage you deal the more you are healed, the less damage you take the less you have to heal.
What skills does a Sampire have and why?
There are two different schools of thought on this after the publish that was an attempt to nerf sampires. I call them the 'Connor' and 'Lynk' schools of thought. First we will cover what the templates have in common and then we'll discuss where they are different.
Weapon Skill (macing, fencing, or swordsmanship) - This needs to be 120. You can get away with 115 but any peerless boss or doom boss will be extremely difficult. A weapon skill defines your chance to hit as well as to be hit. As mentioned earlier, the whole idea behind a sampire is to deal lots of damage while taking as little as possible. It needs to be one of the three skills listed because of the next required skill....
Parry - Parry should be 120, but you can get away with 115. With 115 parry you have a 32% chance to parry, with 120 you have a 35% chance. Is the 3% chance worth it? In my opinion yes. If you can't afford it go with 115 and when you can afford it go to 120. You will be effective with 115. In fact, 115 only has a 1% chance increase to 110. Anyone can afford a 110 parry.
Bushido - Bushido is an integral part to this template. Bushido allows you to honor your foe, lightning strike, and parry with out a shield with no penalty.
You can honor your enemy as long as it is at full life. Make sure you ALWAYS honor your enemy before hitting it. When you honor your opponent, you begin to achieve 'perfection'. Perfection is an ability that gives a damage bonus based on the amount of consecutive hits you deal to your target. In order to use it you must have at least 50 bushido and then honor your target creature. After that, every successful hit will increase your perfection while a miss will lower it. As your level increases each hit will gain a 10% damage increase bonus (to a maximum of a 100% bonus at the highest level). This does not stack on top of the 300% damage increase cap.
Lightning strike will grant you a 50% hit chance bonus when attacking your target. This bonus does not exceed the hard 45% item increase cap. Lightning strike also gives you a chance to perform a 'critical hit' on your opponent. When you perform a critical hit you hit your opponent for roughly 200% more damage than you normally would (this stacks on top of the damage increase cap of 300%). This is key to a sampire, because for 1 v 1 PvM it allows you to exclude hit chance from your suit and focus on other mods that might be beneficial. With that being said, if you can afford it it's wise to include hit chance for the times you get mana drained and/or you need to use a special move like whirlwind or momentum strike. Hit chance is still extremely valuable.
Bushido allows you to parry without the use of a shield. In fact, using a shield with Bushido actually hurts your chance to parry. This grants you the ability to use a 2 handed weapon which hits harder, or use a one handed weapon and drink heal/agility/strength/refresh potions.
Necromancy - Necromancy is used for Vampiric Embrace which was covered earlier. You need a minimum of 99 necromancy (after items) to sustain vampiric embrace form. Some templates (which will be covered later) also use it for curse weapon.
Chivalry - Chivalry is essential. There are several spells use with Chivalry that make it invaluable to a successfull sampire. The first of which is Enemy of One. This spell grants a damage increase of 50% (while you receive a 100% dmg increase from other monsters than your target). Consecrate Weapon is also regularly used which makes all damage you deal allocated to the lowest resist of your target.
These are the required skills, the remaining skill points are what cause 70% of the sampire debates between the most knowledgable and regular Stratics contributors.
The Lynk Method (supported by NickyDishes) - This method inovlves using skill increase items to fit in Tactics (damage), Anatomy (damage and healing bonus), and Healing. The benefit to this build is the obvious healing. On top of the constant life leech, you also get 60 point bandaid heals every four seconds. In order to use this template you need to fit in a lot of skill increase between armor and jewelry. The cons to this suit is it is very hard to change equipment when you find a better piece. This template is left more to those that have aquired an arsenal of oddball jewelry and armor. Not recommended for the casual player.
The Connor Graham Method - Connor's method is a little more diverse. He sets up his template to use Tactics, but his last skill (that isn't mentioned above) ranges between Anatomy, Resist, or Spirit Speak depending on what he fights. It's a great style and requires the use of soul stones but it really does make a difference.
Anatomy is the best all-around skill, since it will increase your damage output, and thus enable you to leech more life back.
Resisting spells is good for long fights with necromancy-casting opponents. Specifically this is a good skill for use in Doom, where the bosses frequently cast blood oath. A well timed blood oath will kill a no-resist sampire every time.
Spirit speak gives your other necromancy spells a little bit of added oomph, enabling you to wither through low end spawns, use wraith form instead of vamp form for leeching mana or using curse weapon for emergency life leeches.
What stats should I use?
100 strength (minimum)
10 int (30 mana with elf)
As much dex as you can get away with up to 125
Items:
The sampire depends on the right items to get away with this template, which can be very pricey or very cheap.
The bare minimum you'll need for a sampire is:
Armor:
45% DCI (70 if you depend on divine fury)
All 70's resists
Weapon:
A weapon that swings at the highest possible speed (1.25 seconds)
High mana leech
High stamina leech
Combined armor, talisman and weapon
100% damage increase
You can get all of that for a relatively small amount of gold with a little bit of creativity, then build up over time to get the higher end items.
For example, a new sampire could use an aegis of grace, fey leggings (elf version) and a ring or bracelet with 10% DCI to cover the DCI requirements while adding 20% damage increase to a ring and bracelet as well as wearing the gauntlets of nobility or stormgrip (both are less than 500k gold at the time of this guide) and a 40% damage increase weapon with mana and stamina increase in order to start out.
Through Miasma or Thrasher hunting, you can earn a lot of gold and earn minor artifacts which you can sell until you can afford better weapons and armor.
When you feel comfortable with that, you can learn to key the Dread Horn, which is the easiest peerless monster to kill with this template. After a while, you'll earn high end artifacts (the Crimson Cincture specifically, but ML ingredients and dread horn manes sell well too) which you can sell or trade for the highest end armor (mace and shield glasses, jackal's collar, ring of the vile, conjurer's trinket, etc)
Tactics advice:
Honor everything, even mongbats.
Use bushido's confidence, heal potions, refresh potions liberally. Use chivalry to cure only when you're done fighting (you auto-cure low level poisons in vampire form, and leech more damage than you take from any high level poisons)
If you aren't lightning striking, then you're doing it wrong.
If you don't have the mana to lightning strike constantly, then you need more mana leech
You can get away with no stamina leech on your weapon only if you have more than 70% DCI and can cast frequent divine furies as well as using refresh potions.
Honor everything (it bears repeating) Without honor, it's harder to hit that 300% damage increase cap, and makes things a lot harder for you.
A special thanks goes out to Farsight for his help and input. Items/Stats/Tactics was taken from an article he wrote. His article can be found here
The original post by Baghdaddy1 that catapulted the sampire into popularity can be found here
I personally believe that the Sampire (Samurai Vampire) is the most efficient overall Player vs. Monster (PvM) character ever designed. While I'd like to take credit for this brilliant build, I can't. In fact I don't really know who was the first Sampire, nor would I believe anyone if they told me they were.
What is a Sampire?
A sampire is a character that uses (at least) Weapon Skill, Necromancy, and Bushido. The main objective is to get into Vampiric Embrace form and deal lots of damage to the enemy. While in Vampiric Embrace you perform 20% life drain whenever you strike an enemy (20% of the damage that you deal will be returned you in hit points). Example, if you deal 100 points of damage while in Vampiric Embrace you will be healed 20 points of damage.
The 'Samurai' comes in with Bushido. Certain parts of the bushido skill gives you large advantages in terms of offense and defense (which we'll cover shortly).
What can I kill with a Sampire?
The short answer, anything. I personally have killed everything from paragon succubi, to Dreadhorn and Irk, Miasma, ranging to Baracoon and paragon Balrons.
How does a Sampire work?
A Sampire deals as much damage as possible, while taking as little damage as possible. The more damage you deal the more you are healed, the less damage you take the less you have to heal.
What skills does a Sampire have and why?
There are two different schools of thought on this after the publish that was an attempt to nerf sampires. I call them the 'Connor' and 'Lynk' schools of thought. First we will cover what the templates have in common and then we'll discuss where they are different.
Weapon Skill (macing, fencing, or swordsmanship) - This needs to be 120. You can get away with 115 but any peerless boss or doom boss will be extremely difficult. A weapon skill defines your chance to hit as well as to be hit. As mentioned earlier, the whole idea behind a sampire is to deal lots of damage while taking as little as possible. It needs to be one of the three skills listed because of the next required skill....
Parry - Parry should be 120, but you can get away with 115. With 115 parry you have a 32% chance to parry, with 120 you have a 35% chance. Is the 3% chance worth it? In my opinion yes. If you can't afford it go with 115 and when you can afford it go to 120. You will be effective with 115. In fact, 115 only has a 1% chance increase to 110. Anyone can afford a 110 parry.
Bushido - Bushido is an integral part to this template. Bushido allows you to honor your foe, lightning strike, and parry with out a shield with no penalty.
You can honor your enemy as long as it is at full life. Make sure you ALWAYS honor your enemy before hitting it. When you honor your opponent, you begin to achieve 'perfection'. Perfection is an ability that gives a damage bonus based on the amount of consecutive hits you deal to your target. In order to use it you must have at least 50 bushido and then honor your target creature. After that, every successful hit will increase your perfection while a miss will lower it. As your level increases each hit will gain a 10% damage increase bonus (to a maximum of a 100% bonus at the highest level). This does not stack on top of the 300% damage increase cap.
Lightning strike will grant you a 50% hit chance bonus when attacking your target. This bonus does not exceed the hard 45% item increase cap. Lightning strike also gives you a chance to perform a 'critical hit' on your opponent. When you perform a critical hit you hit your opponent for roughly 200% more damage than you normally would (this stacks on top of the damage increase cap of 300%). This is key to a sampire, because for 1 v 1 PvM it allows you to exclude hit chance from your suit and focus on other mods that might be beneficial. With that being said, if you can afford it it's wise to include hit chance for the times you get mana drained and/or you need to use a special move like whirlwind or momentum strike. Hit chance is still extremely valuable.
Bushido allows you to parry without the use of a shield. In fact, using a shield with Bushido actually hurts your chance to parry. This grants you the ability to use a 2 handed weapon which hits harder, or use a one handed weapon and drink heal/agility/strength/refresh potions.
Necromancy - Necromancy is used for Vampiric Embrace which was covered earlier. You need a minimum of 99 necromancy (after items) to sustain vampiric embrace form. Some templates (which will be covered later) also use it for curse weapon.
Chivalry - Chivalry is essential. There are several spells use with Chivalry that make it invaluable to a successfull sampire. The first of which is Enemy of One. This spell grants a damage increase of 50% (while you receive a 100% dmg increase from other monsters than your target). Consecrate Weapon is also regularly used which makes all damage you deal allocated to the lowest resist of your target.
These are the required skills, the remaining skill points are what cause 70% of the sampire debates between the most knowledgable and regular Stratics contributors.
The Lynk Method (supported by NickyDishes) - This method inovlves using skill increase items to fit in Tactics (damage), Anatomy (damage and healing bonus), and Healing. The benefit to this build is the obvious healing. On top of the constant life leech, you also get 60 point bandaid heals every four seconds. In order to use this template you need to fit in a lot of skill increase between armor and jewelry. The cons to this suit is it is very hard to change equipment when you find a better piece. This template is left more to those that have aquired an arsenal of oddball jewelry and armor. Not recommended for the casual player.
The Connor Graham Method - Connor's method is a little more diverse. He sets up his template to use Tactics, but his last skill (that isn't mentioned above) ranges between Anatomy, Resist, or Spirit Speak depending on what he fights. It's a great style and requires the use of soul stones but it really does make a difference.
Anatomy is the best all-around skill, since it will increase your damage output, and thus enable you to leech more life back.
Resisting spells is good for long fights with necromancy-casting opponents. Specifically this is a good skill for use in Doom, where the bosses frequently cast blood oath. A well timed blood oath will kill a no-resist sampire every time.
Spirit speak gives your other necromancy spells a little bit of added oomph, enabling you to wither through low end spawns, use wraith form instead of vamp form for leeching mana or using curse weapon for emergency life leeches.
What stats should I use?
100 strength (minimum)
10 int (30 mana with elf)
As much dex as you can get away with up to 125
Items:
The sampire depends on the right items to get away with this template, which can be very pricey or very cheap.
The bare minimum you'll need for a sampire is:
Armor:
45% DCI (70 if you depend on divine fury)
All 70's resists
Weapon:
A weapon that swings at the highest possible speed (1.25 seconds)
High mana leech
High stamina leech
Combined armor, talisman and weapon
100% damage increase
You can get all of that for a relatively small amount of gold with a little bit of creativity, then build up over time to get the higher end items.
For example, a new sampire could use an aegis of grace, fey leggings (elf version) and a ring or bracelet with 10% DCI to cover the DCI requirements while adding 20% damage increase to a ring and bracelet as well as wearing the gauntlets of nobility or stormgrip (both are less than 500k gold at the time of this guide) and a 40% damage increase weapon with mana and stamina increase in order to start out.
Through Miasma or Thrasher hunting, you can earn a lot of gold and earn minor artifacts which you can sell until you can afford better weapons and armor.
When you feel comfortable with that, you can learn to key the Dread Horn, which is the easiest peerless monster to kill with this template. After a while, you'll earn high end artifacts (the Crimson Cincture specifically, but ML ingredients and dread horn manes sell well too) which you can sell or trade for the highest end armor (mace and shield glasses, jackal's collar, ring of the vile, conjurer's trinket, etc)
Tactics advice:
Honor everything, even mongbats.
Use bushido's confidence, heal potions, refresh potions liberally. Use chivalry to cure only when you're done fighting (you auto-cure low level poisons in vampire form, and leech more damage than you take from any high level poisons)
If you aren't lightning striking, then you're doing it wrong.
If you don't have the mana to lightning strike constantly, then you need more mana leech
You can get away with no stamina leech on your weapon only if you have more than 70% DCI and can cast frequent divine furies as well as using refresh potions.
Honor everything (it bears repeating) Without honor, it's harder to hit that 300% damage increase cap, and makes things a lot harder for you.
A special thanks goes out to Farsight for his help and input. Items/Stats/Tactics was taken from an article he wrote. His article can be found here
The original post by Baghdaddy1 that catapulted the sampire into popularity can be found here
I make this post for share in 1 place the info about the sampire equipment.
WEAPONS:
The base weapon type for a sampire depends on your skills.
Basically you have to choose the weapon based on what you are going to hunt:
Here is a list of the main 3 types of weapon and the name of the most used
- A weapon with feint (leafblade/daisho) for high damages critter. Feint usually halves the damage of any monster (even spell damage and firebreath)
- A weapon with whirlwind (radiant sword). Very usefull in places like doom and champion spawns. Whirlwind damage all the critters around you.
- A weapon with a big damage (ornate axe)
Remember this: the base speed of a weapon tells you how much harder you can hit: Slow Weapon -> High Damage - Fast Weapon -> Low Damage
The properties that you need could be a lot, but usually you have to make a chooice. Here is the more important ones:
Leech properties:
Every leech properties transform part of the damage in life/mana/stamina.
If you have a weapon with a low damage, you need an high leech (vampiric embrace is only 20% life leech and sometimes is not enough!) and vice versa, you can have low (or none is some cases) if your weapon can deal high damages.
- Mana Leech: the weapon restores up to 40% of the displayed percentage of the damage dealt as Mana. You MUST have this in any case. If you lack of mana means that you have a low mana leech.
- Stamina Leech: the weapon restores 100% of the damage dealt as Stamina. You can avoid this property if you plan to use total refresh potions or divine fury, in the other cases you must have it.
- Life Leech: The weapon restores up to 30% of the displayed percentage of the damage dealt as Hit Points. Use this if your weapon has medium low-damage.
NOTE: The lower is the damage and higher should be this mod. If you plan to use heavy weapon (like ornate axe) you can replace this with Hit Lower Attack
Other weapon properties:
Here is the list of the other nice properties that you can have into your weapon:
- Hit Lower Defense: lower the enemy defense chance by 25% for 8 seconds. NPCs has no defense chance so they go to -25% and could be a nice advantage. (I suggest to have it or you could be in trouble againist high end bosses)
- Hit Lower Attack: lower the enemy hit chance by 25% for 10 seconds. NPCs has no hit chance so they go to -25% and will hit you less.
NOTE: very usefull if you can fit it.
- Swing Speed Increase: increase your swing speed BUT if you put it in the weapon every leech properties will be scaled. Use this in the weapon ONLY if you can survive with a scaled leech. For example the leafblade at 30% SSI has the cap to 50% on leech rate instead of 68.
GENERAL EQUIPMENT ADVICE
- Defense Chance Increase: you need this higher as you can. 65% is the perfect amount for use Divine Fury. (35-40 still enough for survive if you have 120 in combat skill)
- Hit Chance Increase: many tells: "if you have lightning strike you don't need it", but I say: "if you wish to use the specials of your weapon you need this higher as you can". So if you plan to use the weapon special moves you absolutely need it or you miss a lot againist the high level critters.
- Lower Mana Cost: is very usefull, this low the mana cost of your special moves too. So if you plan to use special moves you need to reach 30-40% or they will cost too much mana.
- Mana Regeneration: optional property, is usefull only when you die for cast vampiric embrace.
NOTE: Mage Armor DO NOT affect mana regeneration. So you can use non meddable parts and this property still working.
Non-meddable armor piece block meditation passive and active regeneration but NOT the Mana Regeneration which come from items.
- Hit Point Increase: nice addition if you could have it. The more hp you have better is, if you use the feint special move you could keep it low without consequences. (130 hp are the best thing if you dont plan to use feint, else 110 are enough)
- Hit Point Regeneration: nice, but useless. You need to leech lot of life and you cant still and wait the life growing.
- Intelligence Bonus/Mana Increase: very usefull if you plan to use the special moves. The more is mana and more specials you can use. You absolutely need some if you are playing a human character. (30 mana points is a must have!)
- Resistances: be sure to have 70 in: physical, fire, energy. You can keep a bit lower cold and poison resistances, but you need to stay near 60.
Swing Speed Increase and Stamina balancement:
everyone sais that you need 180 stamina for a high swing speed, but is not always true...
We all must remember that in battle is very rare to keep the stamina at 180 (if you had 10000 potions on your pack, you can drink 1 every second and keep it). So you have to calculate the "spring" effect and check your speed at cap and for example, 60 less than the cap. Usually there are 3 usefull checkpoints in the stamina before reach really bad speeds, and every weapon has its own based on the base speed and SSI.
There are also some checkpoints on swing speed increase and between each checkpoint you earn nothing. So you have to make some test. Each checkpoint lower by 1 level the speed (for example if with 0 SSI you have the 1.25 at 180 stamina with 5% you have the 1.25 at 150 stamina)
here is the weapon speed table (by Athene):
Usually if you raise SSI you cant keep an high stamina level (because actually is physically impossible to have both in your equipment unless you start to sacrifice other properties).
The best way to have SSI is to have it outside the weapon, in this manner you can keep high leech level with high speed.
Human/elf characters could reach high level in SSI (outside the weapon) only with these items:
- Turquoise ring: 5%
- Jade Ambarad [Replica]: 5%
- Ranger Cloak of Augmentation: 5%
- Daimyo Helm: 10%
- Animated Legs of the Insane Tinker: 10%
- Full Assassin Armor Set: 20%
- [SPELL] Divine Fury: 10%
The best you can do is reach 55% with divine fury, the rest must go in the weapon.
Damage Increase
This is a very important part. The damage is the base of your survival skills and you need as much as you can.
First let's see the melee/range damage ABC:
The damage increase is split in 2:
- Passive (unlimited): this is given by Tactics, Anatomy, Strength and Lumberjacking (if you use an axe).
- Active (CAP 300%): this one is given by slayers, killer attribute, damage increase of your equipment and spells and honor.
The Damage Increase in your equipment is capped at 100%
Slayer Damage = +200%
Super Slayer Damage = +100%
Enemy of One = +50%
Divine Fury = +10%
Here is some suggestion about the damage:
- If you wish to raise a skill to 120 and your chooice is between tactics or anatomy, choose TACTICS. Because grant you a better damage increase than anatomy.
- If you are using a lesser slayer and you have 100% damage increase in your suit, you can avoid to use enemy of one.
- Honor: if you honor your target each shot give you a (bushido / 10) % of damage increase (capped at 100%) and 1000 luck bonus if you kill creature while you've "Achieved Perfection". If you miss a hit, you lose damage increase (only the one earned with honor) and luck too.
In addition of all that bonus, honor give you the chance to recover 100% of life, mana and stamina.
SLAYERS ADVICES:
Slayers are a very good thing to use, but be careful!
If you have an opposite slayer you will get 50% extra damage from monsters.
The worst case is wielding an opposite slayer with enemy of one on another creature. In this case you take 150% extra damage from the monsters! Like as they have the slayer againist you.
Some of the new Stygian Abyss mini-champion will trick you if you don't pay attention:
For example: every lava spawn has a Fire Demon and Lava Elemental. This combo is insane because if you wear the elemental slayer, the Fire Demon Breath hit you with a 120 damage (at 70 fire resistance). If you wear the demon slayer the lava elemental will hit you with a 30 damage spells.
Then how do I choose a weapon?
All depends on you game style, but here is how I choose a weapon:
- I like weapons with armor ignore (just because if you have low hp, you can hit with this special and heal yourself).
- I like one-handed weapons (using potions is a great advantage)
Here is the weapon list with Armor Ignore:
(I have highlighted the ones with medium speed and nice damage.)
Hatchet, Long Sword, Bladed Staff, Stone War Sword, Hammer Pick, War Axe, Disc Mace, Kryss, Spear, Shortblade, Broadsword, Katana, Leafblade
Except for the leafblade, the other ones do not have feint; so if you need this special, just switch the weapon when needed
The feint weapon has not to be slayer or else, just put Hit Lower Attack if you want, but switch it fast (EC client is the best for this kind of macros)
While you are switching, DO NOT STAY UNARMED! sometimes happen the macros run too fast and fail to equip the weapons. In this case if you don't pay attention, you are dead.
Shields:
There are many nice shields around that can help you to fix the equipment. My advice is STAY AWAY FROM THEM!
If you use a shield with bushido you lower your parry chance from 35-40% to 5% and evey high level critters will take you down in few shots.
If you really want to use a shield you have to remove bushido and renounce to all its bonus (Honor, Evade, Lightning Strike - that is an almost free ignore armor)
Armor pieces and strength requirement
If you plan to go around without resisting spells, pay attention at your armor strength requirement!
Monsters like dread horn can lower your strenght enough to drop your armor (especially the chest), and you will fall if your resistances fall (obviously againist boss not mongbats!)
The best solution is raise your strength. Strength gave you the chance to keep your armor while cursed, increase your damage (more life leeched) and give you more weight available in your backpack (very important if you plant to bring with you lots of potions or bandages)
Wodland Armor
This kind of armor imbued and enhanced with heartwood could give much benefits (like damage increase 10 or Hit chance 5). But be careful! When you repair it, you have enough chance to fail and burn 1 total durability each fail. Once I failed to repair it 10 times, so remember when you buy this kind of item: is nice and good, but has shorter life than leather and metal armor pieces.
Additional Gameplay Tactics:
Everywhere is wrote to honor the opponent and strike hard till end. I wish to throw some extra informations:
Always remember the Swing Speed/Stamina spring effect:
- If you are facing a big boss and you have clumsy in your buff, remove it immediately (with an enchanted apple or remove curse or cleansingwind)
- If your stamina bring the swing speed lower than 1.5/1.75 drink a refresh potion or cast divine fury. You must keep a fast swing speed.
Losing strength could make you some trouble:
- Ensure you are not holding too much weigth. Keep always a bag of sending, it could be very usefull if you go overweight.
- Ensure you have the armor weared and not in the pack! Sometimes the curses can remove your armor, so use the enchanted apple to remove the curse and keep the dress agent ready.
Feeblemind is not a problem! If you have this in your buff, you can ignore it, usually you lose 2 to 4-5 mana points and remove this buff will cost you more than what you earn.
Blood Oath il your weak point. Keep always an eye into the buff/debuff bar, if you see the "red hand" of blood oath run away as fast as you can and eat an apple for remove this curse.
Resisting spells shall only reduce the damage that you take back, so remember to run away if you have blood oath. If you hit the enemy with this curse and you are dead.
True Fear is another big problem of this template. This unfair ability of some new bosses will freeze you, and you cant move until the effect is done. Even if you were damaged you cannot move. My solution for this problem is to have some invisibility potions with you. Just drink one when you are frozen and with a bit of luck you could avoid the death (if receive damage before to be invisible usually you can consider yourself dead).
Keep your karma higher as much as you can. More karma you have and higher is the chivalry spells duration.
You are the real enemy. When you are near death is common to think: "Hey now I hit the enemy with a 150 damage and I'm safe". The result of this thought is: "OoOOoOoO".
When you have low HP cast evasion and heal yourself. Use potions, spells or everthing you want, but move away and raise your hps!
Boss-Specific Advices:
Dread Horn: easy but keep an eye on your backpack, if you are cursed your armor could be in there. The hard thing here is to take the keys. Irk and its brothers can hit you so hard and if you are againist 2 or more of them you are dead. Do not use physical damage againist chagelings, make sure to have a valorite weapon (or a weapon with elmental damage).
Shimmering Effusion: this is a very dangerous enemy. As every mages in the game, he can cast 3 spells at once, but its spells hit you with no less than 50-60 damage each. When you are againist it the only way to be safe is using feint and never miss.
NOTE: he can summon the corporeal brume, and this guy will return the physical damage back. So be careful!
Chief Paroxysmus: make sure someone else goes for the keys, slime will destroy your weapon. The boss itself is not hard at all, just feint and hit hard, if you are in a party a healer could be usefull for removing the poison. If you are alone just remember to cast enemy of one when the plague beasts are dead.
Monstrous Interred Grizzle: a dangerous boss. Not because hit you hard, but because put you in a bath of acid and you are naked in few minutes. If you can avoid acid, the other problem is the scream that give you -60% in swing speed. If you can, avoid this boss.
Travesty: a suicide. He will become you, so imagine to fight againist yourself with 35k hit points and with all the skills (even the one that you have at 10) raised to 120.
He has Vampiric embrace, can cast revenant, wither, enemy of one, consacrate weapon and (if you are using the conjurer's trinket) he has an undead slayer for doing double damage againist you. If this is not enough, he spam mirror image and deflect your attacks away.
Lady Melisande: you will get some trouble from satirs (once discorded you become a piece of cake), and hers puke that slow your swing speed. If you could manage this, she's not so hard.
Medusa: when you solo her, remember o take with you 3-4 gorgon lenses and to remove the stoned monsters (when free).
Remove every undead slayer (the conjurer's trinket is one) or she double the damage againist you. For the rest I suggest only to use momentum strike when you are free from the stone for kill your evil twin immediatly before he start to attack you.
Stygian Dragon: his base damage is huge! The base hit can do 60-90, then he spam the wing strike (area damage of 80-90) and he use a fire strike that dismount you and damage with about 90-95. The best tactic here is to keep it with feint and run if you miss it. Usually he can do wing strike + fire strike as combo and if he is not feinted you are dead.
Slasher of Veil: hard. This guy is hard to take down in solo. His base damage is not huge, but he can hit you lot of times and with spells. His curses requires more than 1 apple to be removed and spam true fear and fire walls everywhere. For this one, the best tactic is hit hard as you can and evade when your life is less than 3/4 (because you dont know when he use the true fear and evade could save your life when you are frozen). The Invisibility potion here is useless, because he will reveal you or you still in a firewall (90% of the times you are on a fire wall)
WEAPONS:
The base weapon type for a sampire depends on your skills.
Basically you have to choose the weapon based on what you are going to hunt:
Here is a list of the main 3 types of weapon and the name of the most used
- A weapon with feint (leafblade/daisho) for high damages critter. Feint usually halves the damage of any monster (even spell damage and firebreath)
- A weapon with whirlwind (radiant sword). Very usefull in places like doom and champion spawns. Whirlwind damage all the critters around you.
- A weapon with a big damage (ornate axe)
Remember this: the base speed of a weapon tells you how much harder you can hit: Slow Weapon -> High Damage - Fast Weapon -> Low Damage
The properties that you need could be a lot, but usually you have to make a chooice. Here is the more important ones:
Leech properties:
Every leech properties transform part of the damage in life/mana/stamina.
If you have a weapon with a low damage, you need an high leech (vampiric embrace is only 20% life leech and sometimes is not enough!) and vice versa, you can have low (or none is some cases) if your weapon can deal high damages.
- Mana Leech: the weapon restores up to 40% of the displayed percentage of the damage dealt as Mana. You MUST have this in any case. If you lack of mana means that you have a low mana leech.
- Stamina Leech: the weapon restores 100% of the damage dealt as Stamina. You can avoid this property if you plan to use total refresh potions or divine fury, in the other cases you must have it.
- Life Leech: The weapon restores up to 30% of the displayed percentage of the damage dealt as Hit Points. Use this if your weapon has medium low-damage.
NOTE: The lower is the damage and higher should be this mod. If you plan to use heavy weapon (like ornate axe) you can replace this with Hit Lower Attack
Other weapon properties:
Here is the list of the other nice properties that you can have into your weapon:
- Hit Lower Defense: lower the enemy defense chance by 25% for 8 seconds. NPCs has no defense chance so they go to -25% and could be a nice advantage. (I suggest to have it or you could be in trouble againist high end bosses)
- Hit Lower Attack: lower the enemy hit chance by 25% for 10 seconds. NPCs has no hit chance so they go to -25% and will hit you less.
NOTE: very usefull if you can fit it.
- Swing Speed Increase: increase your swing speed BUT if you put it in the weapon every leech properties will be scaled. Use this in the weapon ONLY if you can survive with a scaled leech. For example the leafblade at 30% SSI has the cap to 50% on leech rate instead of 68.
GENERAL EQUIPMENT ADVICE
- Defense Chance Increase: you need this higher as you can. 65% is the perfect amount for use Divine Fury. (35-40 still enough for survive if you have 120 in combat skill)
- Hit Chance Increase: many tells: "if you have lightning strike you don't need it", but I say: "if you wish to use the specials of your weapon you need this higher as you can". So if you plan to use the weapon special moves you absolutely need it or you miss a lot againist the high level critters.
- Lower Mana Cost: is very usefull, this low the mana cost of your special moves too. So if you plan to use special moves you need to reach 30-40% or they will cost too much mana.
- Mana Regeneration: optional property, is usefull only when you die for cast vampiric embrace.
NOTE: Mage Armor DO NOT affect mana regeneration. So you can use non meddable parts and this property still working.
Non-meddable armor piece block meditation passive and active regeneration but NOT the Mana Regeneration which come from items.
- Hit Point Increase: nice addition if you could have it. The more hp you have better is, if you use the feint special move you could keep it low without consequences. (130 hp are the best thing if you dont plan to use feint, else 110 are enough)
- Hit Point Regeneration: nice, but useless. You need to leech lot of life and you cant still and wait the life growing.
- Intelligence Bonus/Mana Increase: very usefull if you plan to use the special moves. The more is mana and more specials you can use. You absolutely need some if you are playing a human character. (30 mana points is a must have!)
- Resistances: be sure to have 70 in: physical, fire, energy. You can keep a bit lower cold and poison resistances, but you need to stay near 60.
Swing Speed Increase and Stamina balancement:
everyone sais that you need 180 stamina for a high swing speed, but is not always true...
We all must remember that in battle is very rare to keep the stamina at 180 (if you had 10000 potions on your pack, you can drink 1 every second and keep it). So you have to calculate the "spring" effect and check your speed at cap and for example, 60 less than the cap. Usually there are 3 usefull checkpoints in the stamina before reach really bad speeds, and every weapon has its own based on the base speed and SSI.
There are also some checkpoints on swing speed increase and between each checkpoint you earn nothing. So you have to make some test. Each checkpoint lower by 1 level the speed (for example if with 0 SSI you have the 1.25 at 180 stamina with 5% you have the 1.25 at 150 stamina)
here is the weapon speed table (by Athene):
Usually if you raise SSI you cant keep an high stamina level (because actually is physically impossible to have both in your equipment unless you start to sacrifice other properties).
The best way to have SSI is to have it outside the weapon, in this manner you can keep high leech level with high speed.
Human/elf characters could reach high level in SSI (outside the weapon) only with these items:
- Turquoise ring: 5%
- Jade Ambarad [Replica]: 5%
- Ranger Cloak of Augmentation: 5%
- Daimyo Helm: 10%
- Animated Legs of the Insane Tinker: 10%
- Full Assassin Armor Set: 20%
- [SPELL] Divine Fury: 10%
The best you can do is reach 55% with divine fury, the rest must go in the weapon.
Damage Increase
This is a very important part. The damage is the base of your survival skills and you need as much as you can.
First let's see the melee/range damage ABC:
The damage increase is split in 2:
- Passive (unlimited): this is given by Tactics, Anatomy, Strength and Lumberjacking (if you use an axe).
- Active (CAP 300%): this one is given by slayers, killer attribute, damage increase of your equipment and spells and honor.
The Damage Increase in your equipment is capped at 100%
Slayer Damage = +200%
Super Slayer Damage = +100%
Enemy of One = +50%
Divine Fury = +10%
Here is some suggestion about the damage:
- If you wish to raise a skill to 120 and your chooice is between tactics or anatomy, choose TACTICS. Because grant you a better damage increase than anatomy.
- If you are using a lesser slayer and you have 100% damage increase in your suit, you can avoid to use enemy of one.
- Honor: if you honor your target each shot give you a (bushido / 10) % of damage increase (capped at 100%) and 1000 luck bonus if you kill creature while you've "Achieved Perfection". If you miss a hit, you lose damage increase (only the one earned with honor) and luck too.
In addition of all that bonus, honor give you the chance to recover 100% of life, mana and stamina.
SLAYERS ADVICES:
Slayers are a very good thing to use, but be careful!
If you have an opposite slayer you will get 50% extra damage from monsters.
The worst case is wielding an opposite slayer with enemy of one on another creature. In this case you take 150% extra damage from the monsters! Like as they have the slayer againist you.
Some of the new Stygian Abyss mini-champion will trick you if you don't pay attention:
For example: every lava spawn has a Fire Demon and Lava Elemental. This combo is insane because if you wear the elemental slayer, the Fire Demon Breath hit you with a 120 damage (at 70 fire resistance). If you wear the demon slayer the lava elemental will hit you with a 30 damage spells.
Then how do I choose a weapon?
All depends on you game style, but here is how I choose a weapon:
- I like weapons with armor ignore (just because if you have low hp, you can hit with this special and heal yourself).
- I like one-handed weapons (using potions is a great advantage)
Here is the weapon list with Armor Ignore:
(I have highlighted the ones with medium speed and nice damage.)
Hatchet, Long Sword, Bladed Staff, Stone War Sword, Hammer Pick, War Axe, Disc Mace, Kryss, Spear, Shortblade, Broadsword, Katana, Leafblade
Except for the leafblade, the other ones do not have feint; so if you need this special, just switch the weapon when needed
The feint weapon has not to be slayer or else, just put Hit Lower Attack if you want, but switch it fast (EC client is the best for this kind of macros)
While you are switching, DO NOT STAY UNARMED! sometimes happen the macros run too fast and fail to equip the weapons. In this case if you don't pay attention, you are dead.
Shields:
There are many nice shields around that can help you to fix the equipment. My advice is STAY AWAY FROM THEM!
If you use a shield with bushido you lower your parry chance from 35-40% to 5% and evey high level critters will take you down in few shots.
If you really want to use a shield you have to remove bushido and renounce to all its bonus (Honor, Evade, Lightning Strike - that is an almost free ignore armor)
Armor pieces and strength requirement
If you plan to go around without resisting spells, pay attention at your armor strength requirement!
Monsters like dread horn can lower your strenght enough to drop your armor (especially the chest), and you will fall if your resistances fall (obviously againist boss not mongbats!)
The best solution is raise your strength. Strength gave you the chance to keep your armor while cursed, increase your damage (more life leeched) and give you more weight available in your backpack (very important if you plant to bring with you lots of potions or bandages)
Wodland Armor
This kind of armor imbued and enhanced with heartwood could give much benefits (like damage increase 10 or Hit chance 5). But be careful! When you repair it, you have enough chance to fail and burn 1 total durability each fail. Once I failed to repair it 10 times, so remember when you buy this kind of item: is nice and good, but has shorter life than leather and metal armor pieces.
Additional Gameplay Tactics:
Everywhere is wrote to honor the opponent and strike hard till end. I wish to throw some extra informations:
Always remember the Swing Speed/Stamina spring effect:
- If you are facing a big boss and you have clumsy in your buff, remove it immediately (with an enchanted apple or remove curse or cleansingwind)
- If your stamina bring the swing speed lower than 1.5/1.75 drink a refresh potion or cast divine fury. You must keep a fast swing speed.
Losing strength could make you some trouble:
- Ensure you are not holding too much weigth. Keep always a bag of sending, it could be very usefull if you go overweight.
- Ensure you have the armor weared and not in the pack! Sometimes the curses can remove your armor, so use the enchanted apple to remove the curse and keep the dress agent ready.
Feeblemind is not a problem! If you have this in your buff, you can ignore it, usually you lose 2 to 4-5 mana points and remove this buff will cost you more than what you earn.
Blood Oath il your weak point. Keep always an eye into the buff/debuff bar, if you see the "red hand" of blood oath run away as fast as you can and eat an apple for remove this curse.
Resisting spells shall only reduce the damage that you take back, so remember to run away if you have blood oath. If you hit the enemy with this curse and you are dead.
True Fear is another big problem of this template. This unfair ability of some new bosses will freeze you, and you cant move until the effect is done. Even if you were damaged you cannot move. My solution for this problem is to have some invisibility potions with you. Just drink one when you are frozen and with a bit of luck you could avoid the death (if receive damage before to be invisible usually you can consider yourself dead).
Keep your karma higher as much as you can. More karma you have and higher is the chivalry spells duration.
You are the real enemy. When you are near death is common to think: "Hey now I hit the enemy with a 150 damage and I'm safe". The result of this thought is: "OoOOoOoO".
When you have low HP cast evasion and heal yourself. Use potions, spells or everthing you want, but move away and raise your hps!
Boss-Specific Advices:
Dread Horn: easy but keep an eye on your backpack, if you are cursed your armor could be in there. The hard thing here is to take the keys. Irk and its brothers can hit you so hard and if you are againist 2 or more of them you are dead. Do not use physical damage againist chagelings, make sure to have a valorite weapon (or a weapon with elmental damage).
Shimmering Effusion: this is a very dangerous enemy. As every mages in the game, he can cast 3 spells at once, but its spells hit you with no less than 50-60 damage each. When you are againist it the only way to be safe is using feint and never miss.
NOTE: he can summon the corporeal brume, and this guy will return the physical damage back. So be careful!
Chief Paroxysmus: make sure someone else goes for the keys, slime will destroy your weapon. The boss itself is not hard at all, just feint and hit hard, if you are in a party a healer could be usefull for removing the poison. If you are alone just remember to cast enemy of one when the plague beasts are dead.
Monstrous Interred Grizzle: a dangerous boss. Not because hit you hard, but because put you in a bath of acid and you are naked in few minutes. If you can avoid acid, the other problem is the scream that give you -60% in swing speed. If you can, avoid this boss.
Travesty: a suicide. He will become you, so imagine to fight againist yourself with 35k hit points and with all the skills (even the one that you have at 10) raised to 120.
He has Vampiric embrace, can cast revenant, wither, enemy of one, consacrate weapon and (if you are using the conjurer's trinket) he has an undead slayer for doing double damage againist you. If this is not enough, he spam mirror image and deflect your attacks away.
Lady Melisande: you will get some trouble from satirs (once discorded you become a piece of cake), and hers puke that slow your swing speed. If you could manage this, she's not so hard.
Medusa: when you solo her, remember o take with you 3-4 gorgon lenses and to remove the stoned monsters (when free).
Remove every undead slayer (the conjurer's trinket is one) or she double the damage againist you. For the rest I suggest only to use momentum strike when you are free from the stone for kill your evil twin immediatly before he start to attack you.
Stygian Dragon: his base damage is huge! The base hit can do 60-90, then he spam the wing strike (area damage of 80-90) and he use a fire strike that dismount you and damage with about 90-95. The best tactic here is to keep it with feint and run if you miss it. Usually he can do wing strike + fire strike as combo and if he is not feinted you are dead.
Slasher of Veil: hard. This guy is hard to take down in solo. His base damage is not huge, but he can hit you lot of times and with spells. His curses requires more than 1 apple to be removed and spam true fear and fire walls everywhere. For this one, the best tactic is hit hard as you can and evade when your life is less than 3/4 (because you dont know when he use the true fear and evade could save your life when you are frozen). The Invisibility potion here is useless, because he will reveal you or you still in a firewall (90% of the times you are on a fire wall)
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