Starting a New Shard

[Obsidian]

I took advantage of this long weekend in the U.S. and decided to have some fun starting from scratch on a new shard and see how far I could get. I had no old characters, gold, or other items on the shard. I purposely chose Origin because it was small and on the west coast. I found several things that we all usually take for granted (i.e. full 64-spellbooks, or the stash of items with various mods) were indeed important milestones to achieve. I worked to get into Lich Form only to find out that I didn't have +2 HPR on my suit... stuff like that. Anyway, it was a lot of fun to see my newbie progress.

I'm interested to hear how you all handle this sort of "from scratch" start on a new shard. My plan was very similar to the one Harlequin offered in the UO Tips thread at http://vboards.stratics.com/showthread.php?t=136673. I built two characters. The first is a necro-mage with inscription. The second will be a samurai (future sampire or wammy). So far I've only worked on the necro-scribe-mage. I used the inscription to make some initial gold and now I'm working necro to get until i can cast Lich Form (for the MR bonus) and then back to gm inscription. I'll eventually build the warrior once I have the mage-scribe well on his way. From my initial experience, it looks like the big challenges will be:

- Getting 110 magery related scrolls (at least on Origin, where I'm testing this plan, there is very little availability)
- Getting a soulstone (might as well buy one off the UO codes website)
- Getting an etheral mount (or also buy a Charger from the UO codes website)
- And then just the long haul to get gold to start buying items

I'm finding my "can't live without" list for a new shard is:
- Full spellbook & necro book
- Totem of the Void (for the +2 HPR & 10 LMC)
- 100% LRC medable suit
- -29 mage weapon w/spell channeling (to train magery)

Anyway, what sorts of characters do you build to start a new shard, what items to you seek out first, and what strategy do you use? Thanks all for your advice! I look forward to hearing your personal approach.

-OBSIDIAN-

 

[jelinidas]

No real clue on what kind of char I plan to build, but I transfered some gold recently to another shard.

Someone just started on cats and needed gold, he had planty on another shard and posted in cats forums. I took him up on it. I now have a few mil sitting on a noob on a different shard. Should make life a tad easier to start up when im ready.

 

[Theo_GL]

I took advantage of this long weekend in the U.S. and decided to have some fun starting from scratch on a new shard and see how far I could get. I had no old characters, gold, or other items on the shard. I purposely chose Origin because it was small and on the west coast. I found several things that we all usually take for granted (i.e. full 64-spellbooks, or the stash of items with various mods) were indeed important milestones to achieve. I worked to get into Lich Form only to find out that I didn't have +2 HPR on my suit... stuff like that. Anyway, it was a lot of fun to see my newbie progress.

I'm interested to hear how you all handle this sort of "from scratch" start on a new shard. My plan was very similar to the one Harlequin offered in the UO Tips thread at http://vboards.stratics.com/showthread.php?t=136673. I built two characters. The first is a necro-mage with inscription. The second will be a samurai (future sampire or wammy). So far I've only worked on the necro-scribe-mage. I used the inscription to make some initial gold and now I'm working necro to get until i can cast Lich Form (for the MR bonus) and then back to gm inscription. I'll eventually build the warrior once I have the mage-scribe well on his way. From my initial experience, it looks like the big challenges will be:

- Getting 110 magery related scrolls (at least on Origin, where I'm testing this plan, there is very little availability)
- Getting a soulstone (might as well buy one off the UO codes website)
- Getting an etheral mount (or also buy a Charger from the UO codes website)
- And then just the long haul to get gold to start buying items

I'm finding my "can't live without" list for a new shard is:
- Full spellbook & necro book
- Totem of the Void (for the +2 HPR & 10 LMC)
- 100% LRC medable suit
- -29 mage weapon w/spell channeling (to train magery)

Anyway, what sorts of characters do you build to start a new shard, what items to you seek out first, and what strategy do you use? Thanks all for your advice! I look forward to hearing your personal approach.

-OBSIDIAN-

Yup, I've done this several times on several diff shards.

One of the 'cheats' I've done is for years I've had xshard chars on each shard and collected gifts. To get a jump start - I've sold a soulstone token or two for some starting money to buy some needed items and armor.

Part of the problem of starting a new char is not making gold - but finding the stuff you need for sale. Vendoring is for crap of late. Vendors either sell high end stuff, resources or nothing.

Trying to find full spellbooks or necro spellbooks is very difficult. Its also time consuming to make a scribe or hunt for all the scrolls to fill your book.

I wish vendors would sell full spellbooks and necro books. Charge 25k each - but at least make it possible for a new char to acquire the gold and buy them since most player vendors do NOT carry them esp on low pop shards.

The modded ones will still sell from players - but seriously - no ones 'UO Living' is threatened by taking away selling spellbooks.

 

[red sky]

Yup, it's probably one of the most exciting times in UO, when you have to work your way up from scratch. You should of been on Origin when it first began, when everyone was a noob and there were transfers for a month. Those were fun times. There were no advantages, just everyone working together to build up their chars.

 

[wanderer1origin]

uo might do improvement openning a no transfer server every 18 months or so get those intersted in new shards and the adventure!! balances the feild and gets blood flowing again origin was great fun !!!!!!!!!

Yup, it's probably one of the most exciting times in UO, when you have to work your way up from scratch. You should of been on Origin when it first began, when everyone was a noob and there were transfers for a month. Those were fun times. There were no advantages, just everyone working together to build up their chars.

 

[Maplestone]

But at least make it possible for a new char to acquire the gold and buy them since most player vendors do NOT carry them esp on low pop shards.

*checks*

*finds nobody has bought the spellbook off my vendor*

*votes no to your idea*

 

[wanderer1origin]

expand your search


spell books hard to find most shards

*checks*

*finds nobody has bought the spellbook off my vendor*

*votes no to your idea*

 

[Harlequin]

When I read the title, I quickly came in to make a shameless plug on my tips mwuahahaha. But since the OP already did that, further findings -


1) Either I recalled wrongly about the hallowed spellbooks giving fully filled spells up to the 5th circle or it was patched so that it now only gives some 5th circle spells. But circle 1 to 4 is full though.

2) LRC - The Ish/Tokuno champion spawns are nice places for newbies to loot now. For magic scrolls, eqm once the champion's corpse go public (Neira also drops a full necro book). I can normally manage to loot at least 30k from the public gold drops (summon a horde minion when the champion dies to help). The level 3 and 4 champion spawns normally have decent gold and loot too (well, considering they are hiryus/poison elementals/dragons/succubus/daemons), but decay too fast. A good source of LRC equipment though.

3) Mage weapon - The blessed ember staff from the Magery quest is a good starting mage weapon if you can't get wands. Or check the npc mages, sometimes players sell wands they don't want to npc mages. Otherwise, do some level 1 Vesper/dungeon/treasure chests. I recommend the vesper chests in Vesper bank, bring a couple of lockpicks (esp if you happen to be training a tinker as well)

4) Totem - Best to wait until you can cast EV and hunt Miasma. OTH, if you just want the +2 HPR, consider getting a faction crimmy... That too though, will need to wait until your skills are better trained.

5) Full books - Full Necro book from completing the necromancer's newbie quest, or from Neira. But a full spellbook will be a bigger challenge. Anyone has ideas on this? Daemons and succubus drop level 4 to level 7 scrolls. What's the weakest mob or t-chest that can drop level 8 scrolls?

Hmmm...anyone remember where/how did people get level 8 scrolls when UO started 11 years ago?

 

[Diomedes Artega]

Nice post. So from my personal experience and from what I know is this.

I usually do not make a spellcaster on a secondary shard (i.e. the one you don't play on the most). Reason being is many of the things you have stated already. Normally I make an offshoot of a character I already used to have. Chiv dexxer or something like that.

Reason being is the items are ridiculously cheap now to buy and well...most stuff I can get as drops (i.e. the heart of the lion still drops...stuff like that).

NOW...please note. I am not talking HIGH-END. I am talking feasible, practical and easy to make. NOT zomg, look at my 100+ million gold suit. No, no and no.

So with the 500 starting gold or whatever it is (it's been a while since I made a new character on a new shard), I can buy a chivalry book. That is pretty much all of my expenses. The biggest pain really is training skills without having great armor.

However, since you gave no time limit...I would just start by doing the NPC quests. Sure it is a bit tedious...but its steady money and I don't die. After about a week of doing that and just training skills with a NPC bought weapon and armor, I can piece together a few 110 skills and some better armor and weapon.

Once that happens I can start farming titans and ogre lords. It is relatively simple then.

SEE here is the thing. When you start a game...you know nothing. You are discussing from a veteran perspective though. A veteran perspective is in of itself, a WHOLE DIFFERENT world.

Last but not least...it would have to be a shard I loved, otherwise I will always start a melee character. Reason being I don't have to worry about regs or arrows/bolts.

 

[Tina Small]

I started a peace tamer on Yamato on April 28th with beginning skills of 50 taming and 50 magery. I had no other developed characters on the shard, didn't buy gold from a broker, didn't raid other gift-trading characters for their gold or to sell stuff, and didn't get any help from anyone.

As of today, this character's "real" skills are 110 lore, 106.6 vet, 103.6 music, 93.8 peacemaking, 91.5 taming, 89.9 magery, 80.8 meditation, and 23.7 focus. I've purchased and used these power and stat scrolls: 115 taming, 110 lore, 110 vet, 110 music, 110 peacemaking, and a +5 stat.

In the stable, she has two crummy bonded greater dragons, two better greater dragons that will be bonded in a couple of days, two nightmares, one white wyrm, a hiryu, a unicorn, and a pack horse.

Her 100 LRC suit with a whopping 228 luck on it has resists of 55, 54, 63, 45, 51. Some of the nicer things she owns are a boomstick, a fairly nice "invasion spellbook," a butcher's war cleaver, pads of the cu sidhe, a Robe of the Eclipse, and a bandage summoning talisman. In the bank, she has just about 600,000 gold and some nice crafted weapons purchased from player vendors to give to some dexxer characters I'll eventually make. She also has about 8000 arrows, approximately 300 each of the regular gems, a nice pile of nightshade and lesser amounts of other regs. She's done the library donation quest and is almost at the halfway point towards getting 550,000 points built up to get the Birds of Britannia talisman.

She has received four of the 10th anniversary item drops from the legacy dungeons (the map, Katrina's Crook, and two pieces of the armor); five different Ilshenar marties (Heart of the Lion, the gold bricks, the Luna Lance, the Arctic Death Dealer, the Burglar's Bandana, and the Alchemist's Bauble); and she has one pile of rope from a kraken.

She has extra LRC and semi-okay weapons and resist armor (all looted stuff), paragon cooking drops, and jewelry stashed on two boats. She's also purchased full spellbooks for 4-5 other mage characters I hope to work on later, as well as marked each of them a set of rune books and given each of them LRC suits and 10,000 gold and pets. (Still haven't gone to tame a fire beetle though. Barding skills need to go up just a tad more before I try it.)

For the first couple of days, this tamer stuck around Haven killing stuff and working on raising magery and the barding skills. No suit, just carrying regs and using the newbie spell book supplemented with all the other level 1-4 spells purchased from the mage shop. Then it was on to taming timber wolves and brown bears around the Zoo and selling the leather at 6 gp per piece to a tanner. With about 10,000 gold in the bank, it was time to scout around and buy a cheap LRC suit, a few empty rune books, and a better spell book. Luckily, Yamato has a lot of vendors that seem to cater towards beginning players and finding those things was fairly easy. Spent an hour or so marking some city and dungeon runes.

After that, time to hit up the polar bears and white wolves. Still selling the leather to the tanner to make a bit more gold. Also spent a few hours in Despise having a blast clobbering ettins and earth eles and raising the magery and barding skills a bit more. On the lookout now for some better taming jewels and cheap 110 power scrolls.

Got lucky and found a vendor selling very cheap skill jewels and was able to boost taming up to the high 90s range. Now time to tame a couple of unicorns. Stuck two extras in the stable to bond. Tamed lots of unicorns and killed them for their gold and horned leather, knowing it would be helpful later for library donations. Went to the wisp dungeon and killed wisps for gold. Also raised honor in the process. Took off jewels and tamed lots of gamens and bulls just to get some variety. (White wolves were another option, but I found I was often competing with another tamer or two for access to the wolves.) Of course, took the leather and sold it for more gold.

One day got brave enough to farm some decent nightmares. Always a bit of a rush to get those with a newbish tamer and stuff 'em in the stable to bond. Back to taming more unicorns. Also tamed dire wolves in Ilshenar for an afternoon of fun and spined leather gathering.

When the unicorns bonded, used them to kill ogre lords to raise honor up to the follower level. Also put in an afternoon at the serpentine passage killing those dudes (sorry can't remember their name) for arrows and spined leather. When taming skill with jewels was up to about 106, went to Destard and tamed the best two greater dragons that I could find in the dungeon at the time. Crummy specimens, but they would have to do.

When the nightmares bonded, took a trip to Ilshenar and did the library donation quest. Made a few trips to the library using the bonded pack animal to donate the accumulated horned leather, all 6000 pieces. Gave her a nice 60,000 point start on the long haul to 550,000 points.

Finally the day arrives that the crummy greater dragons bond. Take the better one and start farming in Destard to get horned and barbed leather (yay!! finally!!) to donate at the library.

At present, still working on the taming a little bit at a time but mostly hunting in Destard for leather and gold when I can stomach the thought of it and hunting other stuff to pile up gold to get better power and stat scrolls.

So, that's my long story of how I typically get a peace tamer going on a brand new shard. It's definitely a challenge, but I've found it to be very very satisfying to look at the characters started from scratch and remember all the fun I had working on them. They may not have the best gear or even the best pets (yet), but already after a month I can use this tamer character to go to a lot of the dungeons and have a pretty good time making some gold and continuing to raise skills. I've also found that each time I start a new character and work it from scratch up to this level, I learn something about the game that I didn't already know and I sometimes end up making a new friend or two along the way.

 

[Tina Small]

Air eles drop up through level 7 spell scrolls.

 

[Diomedes Artega]

I've also found that each time I start a new character and work it from scratch up to this level, I learn something about the game that I didn't already know and I sometimes end up making a new friend or two along the way.

Probably the most important point in all of online gaming that "some" people and elitists tend to forget. I have on countless occasions made new characters for this exact reason. Some of my best friends I made in this manner. It is like you said though...it allows you to see some things from new perspectives and maybe learn something you didn't know before. Both are great.

 

[Theo_GL]

*checks*

*finds nobody has bought the spellbook off my vendor*

*votes no to your idea*

I really hope you sell it soon. I'm sure you will be struggling for that 5k until you do.

What fun is it for a new player to hunt around out of the way vendors to try to find a book needed to build even the lowest of skill levels in their profession?

They should be sold on NPC's like Chiv books. Case closed.

You want frustration? Go create a char on Arirang for example and let me know how long it takes you to find a full spellbook for sale (no mods).

*votes twice for my idea*
*votes once to cast Maplestone off the island*

 

[Maplestone]

They should be sold on NPC's like Chiv books. Case closed.

I think you're looking for the test shard. It sounds like it's what you want.

 

[Voluptuous]

I always sell full spellbooks. 2k.

If i'm not currently doing a vendor, i toss em in a freebie finds box on my steps

 

[Littleblue]

It can be difficult to find a full spellbook for sale, or even the higher level scrolls on player vendors.

I would like to see the higher level scrolls for sale at least, perhaps with some scrolls available only in certain towns. The scrolls could be priced at 2x or so the regularly charged price by player vendors, allowing those vendors to still be viable. Just an idea.

I personally enjoy filling my spellbooks while hunting. Always fun to finally loot that higher level scroll you've been patiently waiting for, and then hear that *clunk* sound when it magically drops into your book.

 

[Farsight]

I've done it twice in the recent past, with varying results.

Method 1: Europa

I had started a mage in Europa and was working on the necromancer quest to get my full necromancy spellbook (Always do the necromancy and inscription newbie quests, even on warriors!) when someone from the HLP guild found me and gave me a 100% LRC suit, a full spellbook and a rune to a good/cheap vendor house and rune library. (I think it's RAA, could be wrong)

From there on out, it was easy.

2. Drachenfels: I decided not to use my extensive list of contacts on DF and just build up a character from scratch, this time a sampire.

I worked my resist up to get my base resists to 40 and hit the swordsmanship road with no armor and a cheap weapon. By the time I had 70 swordsmanship, I could afford a very cheap LRC suit and a very cheap warrior training suit (stam gains, LMC, DCI and 70 physical resist)(less than 200k for both suits). I used the LRC suit to train my chivalry and my necromancy (70 chiv/100 necromancy), then switched to the training suit and hit the Trogs. With vampire form and a repond slayer, training on Troglodytes is pretty much like watching the grass grow. You only have to interact with them to chase down the runners. Now I'm at 105 swords, I use a soul seeker and am actively in search of a scorpion slayer with mana leech for the next step in my plan. I'll need a new suit for Miasma too as my 40 poison resist gets me killed there quick. (I tried transferring a suit over, but my taxi didn't go so now I have to save some gold)

Now I'm using that same LRC suit to train up a spellweaver/necro/mage. There's a vendor house south of Luna which has everything a new player could possibly need at a decent price (except spellweaving scrolls, I had to break down and get a friend to provide them).

 

[QueenZen]

I went thru withdrawl of all my pixel crack and vet rewards were on Chesapeake, when I first went to make a new chr. on Siege. But I enjoy the challenge of making a newbie and starting all over from nothing just in part to see IF I can go thru all that again again ever and tried it for Siege. But those first months were .............oh my missing my mongbat dartboard, missing my hearths and I had no home at first there and no real gp to speak of. Now that was in 2004, now I have 2 full 18 x 18s on Siege with almost as much STUFF as I have on my ancient Chesapeake chrs. and in their homes.

As for full spellbooks, they DO sell on siege so do my 8th circle spells sold individually, and individual necro spells. Those also SOLD when I had vendors up on Chesapeake too cuz new players always look for full spell books or at least any mage spell sold above what few circles the npcs sell. I am not sure why more players do not run all those items on their scribe vendor but full spell books no mods are time consuming so maybe that is why..esp. if they do not sell them very often so they give up selling them at all.

I think to begin ANY new shard one has to actually enjoy the rebirth or remaking of one self and a new character and doing all that newbie chr. work up ya need to DO to become a *done* chr. I always see that as part of the charm and uniqueness of Ultima Online ie anyone willing to start over CAN do so and also gain a bit of nostalgia remembering those days back when we made our very very first ever all done chr. on any shard. . and the challenge to start and finish a chr. *again* with all of the shortcomings a new chr. has to endure, provided some other shard maybe does interest you or any of us to TRY to begin with. We oft get quite comfortable with our homes all done chrs. and their stuff to oft not even wish to go back to making a newbie and to do all the work it takes to make them a viable chr. on any shard even our OWN. hehe

 

[Fogsbane]

For Magery Scrolls ~>

Go to Dungeon Despise.
Go to the Northeast Corner of the upper level of the dungeon.
In the Northeast corner of the upper level of Despise - there is a Lizardman 'Camp' (spawn).
At this camp are some barrels, chests, and also often an Escort waiting for rescue.

Open and look inside each barrel, and they may be empty.
After some time (?15 minutes or so?), each barrel that has been 'activated' (by peeking inside) will spawn loot.
In days past - I had been able to get most every level and type of magery scroll from these barrels.


This is how I collected Magery scrolls back in the early days of playing a new shard.
It has been a long time since I have done this, probably the last time was around Formosa birth?
On Atlantic, these barrels (at server up this morning) still appear to have scrolls spwaning in them.

 

[InspectorGadget]

Never had a problem building a new mage on shards, but i go a different tactic to most...and sometimes takes a little longer(depends on RL Luck).

I start a chiv dexxer, work up the neb quests in healing anatomy tactics swords chivalry resist spells(for base resist).

Train those up quickly...looting the gold from everything i kill in old haven. Find a soulseeker(usually easy and by the time your60-70ish in melee skills oyu have enough). Hit trogs...looting ALL LRC and High Phys resist armour+gold. In about an hour or 2 (have had it a day or 2 though) i have a full LRC suit and plenty of gold...plus an almost decent skill wise dexxer.

Then start the mage and have 49 scribe, 49necro. You can get easily to 50necro with the spells in the book. That gets you a full Necro book, The scribe is a little more difficult, but you can loot regs of of spellbinders.

Generally within a week and little expense you have a playable(skillwise) necro and a playable(skillwise) chiv dexxer.

 

[Lynk]

I've been building parry/ninja mages on all big pvp shards. The skills are pretty easy to work. Cross sharding gold helps, but you can do it without.

Here's my method.

First skills come.

Ninja comes first. I only take it to 80 so it doesn't take too horribly long.

Next is resist. Spectral Spellbinders are quick and I usually find a 10 or 15 scroll for free.

Next I train parry. Usually takes less than 1 hour to get from 0-GM. Go into dog form and get 9 sheep on me. I would disarm female NPCs but I go anat/eval on this build so there is no disarm capability. I can usually find a 110 or a 115 parry for free, in which case about 2 hours to get to 115.

By now I've already got the meditation that I need, so I start working magery. Magery I only need to take to 95 because I plan to use the faction crystalline ring, so it goes fairly quickly along with Eval.

After this, I just work Anat and Eval on a horse until they hit the desired levels.

I join the least populated faction. I go farm silver and loot whatever gold or good item drops.

I usually need 14k silver for my standard suit. That's about 467 demons, which comes out to 280k in gold (averaging 600 per demon).

Whatever 15 scrolls I can't get for free I end up paying for. Whatever is left is what I'll use for runic pieces. I usually go pretty cheap on these guys, 15 stat scroll with 15 skill scrolls. The nice thing about the build is you can get 120 defensive ability without buying a 120 scroll.

When it comes time to suit up I'll usually camp a moongate with red healers and take a res kill to get rank. Lame I know but can't pvp until I can wear decent armor.

The skills are usually done in 4 days, getting the silver is the most mind numbing part of it.

 

[Kellgory]

You can always get a full necro spellbook by doing the heartwood quest. Not sure how many people still farm the swoops, but I always went there and went through the public loot and could usually find enough pieces to make an LRC suit for training purposes. The hardest part was finding a full spellbook on some of the smaller shards, but I guess that has gotten a little easier if you search on certain websites. Back in the day (ie a couple months ago) before they changed the bag of sending back, you could go to places that people went to train chars and some of the time they wouldn't collect the gold.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

I've been building parry/ninja mages on all big pvp shards.

I hope Siege is one of those shards. Sure it takes a little longer to get skills up to legendary level, but the prices of everything are much cheaper, so starting out fresh on Siege (imo) is much easier. Plus, new PvPers are always welcomed on Siege as long as you aren't some script kiddy with alt capped name. ...la

 

[CatLord]

Trying to find full spellbooks or necro spellbooks is very difficult. Its also time consuming to make a scribe or hunt for all the scrolls to fill your book.

Make a new character with 49 inscription, necromancy...
Do the quests...

Rewards:
- Inscription, undead slayer spellbook (all spells till 4th)
- Necromancy, full necro book.

 

[Lynk]

I hope Siege is one of those shards.

No it's not, I said PvP shards.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

I hope Siege is one of those shards.

No it's not, I said PvP shards.

Ouch, lol. Say what you will, but right now the shard is pretty active in warring these days. Hell, for that matter, the war isn't faction based (because many on the shard have grown tired of the faction artis) but have also pulled some people into roleplay.

The best PvPers on the shard are begging to get let into the aliance so they can find more people to fight. Start a character up, you might be surprised the fun you can have on Siege if you PvP...la

 

[Obsidian]

Thanks for all of your posts. I was fortunate... even on Origin I had no trouble getting a full spellbook. It just took a little searching for the right vendor. Now finding a -29 mage weapon with spell channeling... that's a different story. I usually find those on the ground in Luna or Haven. There is next to nothing dropped on the ground there, but I'll find something.

I'm slowly adjusting my suit and someone kindly offered me the last piece of medable LRC armor to make my mana regen much faster. That and lich form should make the scribing go faster. Looks like the only major stumbling block at this point is finding a 110 magery and 110 eval scroll. I just can't find any available, but I will keep looking. I have to save up some more gold first, so I suppose it is better not to be sitting there on the vendor taunting me.

I was surprised to hear anyone started with the Tamer, but it sounds like Tina has it down to a science. And thanks to all the thoughts on starting warriors. I'd like to have Lynk's luck with 115 scrolls on the ground, but I think that is a function of the shard population. I suspect starting on another shard would have yielded a similar, but distinctly different experience.

Question -- is there an equivalent mage shop somehwere in Fel that has as many vendors as the New Haven Mage Shop? My recollection is that scrolls and regs are cheaper in Fel, which would help me with a little boost to my gold collection via inscription.

-OBSIDIAN-

 

[Harlequin]

Question -- is there an equivalent mage shop somehwere in Fel that has as many vendors as the New Haven Mage Shop? My recollection is that scrolls and regs are cheaper in Fel, which would help me with a little boost to my gold collection via inscription.

-OBSIDIAN-

The largest ones are in Brit, Vesper and Moonglow.

1) Brit - Large 2-storey mage shop in east Brit. There's also an alchemist shop nearby that has several alchemists. Plus a smaller 2 mage/2 herbalist shop in west Brit.

2) Vesper - Large 3-storey mage shop east of bank. Alchemist shop nearby. Plus a smaller mage shop near the docks.

3) Moonglow - Moonglow Reagent Shop, Encyclopedia Magicka, Sorcerers Guild, Illusionist's Guild. But only the first is considered in a faction controllable area and can be affected by lowered prices.

Guards zone may not be back up yet, so you will be freely attackable.

I'd suggest looking for faction reg vendors that have been placed near the bank, then use a character that can hide. Hide yourself in the bank. Open up your bank box, buy from the reg vendors using the context menu. Stuff the regs in your bank immediately after you buy them.

 

[OldAsTheHills]

When I read the title, I quickly came in to make a shameless plug on my tips mwuahahaha. But since the OP already did that, further findings -


1) Either I recalled wrongly about the hallowed spellbooks giving fully filled spells up to the 5th circle or it was patched so that it now only gives some 5th circle spells. But circle 1 to 4 is full though.

2) LRC - The Ish/Tokuno champion spawns are nice places for newbies to loot now. For magic scrolls, eqm once the champion's corpse go public (Neira also drops a full necro book). I can normally manage to loot at least 30k from the public gold drops (summon a horde minion when the champion dies to help). The level 3 and 4 champion spawns normally have decent gold and loot too (well, considering they are hiryus/poison elementals/dragons/succubus/daemons), but decay too fast. A good source of LRC equipment though.

3) Mage weapon - The blessed ember staff from the Magery quest is a good starting mage weapon if you can't get wands. Or check the npc mages, sometimes players sell wands they don't want to npc mages. Otherwise, do some level 1 Vesper/dungeon/treasure chests. I recommend the vesper chests in Vesper bank, bring a couple of lockpicks (esp if you happen to be training a tinker as well)

4) Totem - Best to wait until you can cast EV and hunt Miasma. OTH, if you just want the +2 HPR, consider getting a faction crimmy... That too though, will need to wait until your skills are better trained.

5) Full books - Full Necro book from completing the necromancer's newbie quest, or from Neira. But a full spellbook will be a bigger challenge. Anyone has ideas on this? Daemons and succubus drop level 4 to level 7 scrolls. What's the weakest mob or t-chest that can drop level 8 scrolls?

Hmmm...anyone remember where/how did people get level 8 scrolls when UO started 11 years ago?

Hmmm...anyone remember where/how did people get level 8 scrolls when UO started 11 years ago?
Answer was level five treasure maps, rarely SOS, and very high level monsters
like Ancient Wyrm, Ice Daemons, Named Daemons like The Slayer...etc...
Remember the treasure drop 11 years ago was better than today. The monsters
were also nastier.

*stares*
Yahaxithonix

 

[Harlequin]

Hmmm...anyone remember where/how did people get level 8 scrolls when UO started 11 years ago?
Answer was level five treasure maps, rarely SOS, and very high level monsters
like Ancient Wyrm, Ice Daemons, Named Daemons like The Slayer...etc...
Remember the treasure drop 11 years ago was better than today. The monsters
were also nastier.

*stares*
Yahaxithonix

They weren't nastier, we just got better

Still, gonna be difficult for a new mage without level 8 spells to handle the mobs above...You are right regarding their drops being better back then, specifically with regards to scrolls... Ice fiends (and possibly Balrons too) now only drop up to level 7 after they rescaled the loot.

Do you remember a time before T2 was added? No AW, Balrons or T-maps back then, did dragons and daemons carry these scrolls then? I remember doing dungeon chests too like what Fogsbane said, but can't remember if they gave level 8 scrolls. It's probably rescaled now too.

Gonna give it a try later to see if I can get level 8 scrolls from lvl 5 dungeon chests.

Do meer eternals carry level 8 magery scrolls? I remember hunting them for vampiric embrace...

 

[Fink]

Inscription is definitely one of the easiest ways to make set-up money.

 

[Sarsmi]

I usually make idoc campers on other shards, it's not too difficult since they don't normally utilize all 700 points or GM everything even:

75 ninja
75 stealth
GM tracking
GM hiding
90ish magery

It's a pretty easy template to build up, especially with new haven. I do ninjitsu at 50, hiding at 49, and magery a 1 for the free regs.

Everything on the template can be trained to 50 in New Haven. I usually work stealth/hiding in a public house since I fail quite a bit less at hiding that way. Tracking is definitely a toughie but it's not really so much a necessity to GM it immediately, and I can run a UOA macro to track while I'm scouting for houses. Hiding takes a while to GM as well, but you don't fail to hide while stealthing.

In a week, working at it every day I can get everything where I want it except the tracking and hiding. I might have 90 hiding if I've worked a lot at it, but tracking will probably be 70ish if that.

BTW Just to pimp my shop The Yewphorium (on Baja), it is a very large vendor shop that stocks many items new players (new to game or shard) can use, full spell and necro books, -29 mage wands, cheap armor, jewelry, weapons, 7500 gps 100% LRC suits (meddable), cheap bandages and enhanced bandages, etc. It is just a couple screens to the northeast of the trammel yew gate, and very easy to get to!

 

[RichDC]

I'd like to have Lynk's luck with 115 scrolls on the ground, but I think that is a function of the shard population. I suspect starting on another shard would have yielded a similar, but distinctly different experience.
-OBSIDIAN-

Im gna guess by on the floor he means at champ spawn locations, if you have nothing to lose you might as well check them, never know what scrolls...and gold youll find lying about!

 

[Tina Small]

I'd like to have Lynk's luck with 115 scrolls on the ground, but I think that is a function of the shard population. I suspect starting on another shard would have yielded a similar, but distinctly different experience.
-OBSIDIAN-

Im gna guess by on the floor he means at champ spawn locations, if you have nothing to lose you might as well check them, never know what scrolls...and gold youll find lying about!

And I'm guessing Lynk was lucky on LA.

 

[Lynk]

If they were on the ground they were at the champ spawns. A few quick run through despise and T2A usually yields at least one that I'll use.

Some of them people gave to me. Some of them I bought. The only expensive one is 15 magery, so sometimes I have to settle for 110.

You can get most 15's for extremely cheap aside from mage.

And no I'm not on LA yet. Right now just ATL, GL, Chessy, and Cats. Not sure if I wanna do LA or Origin next.

 

[Tina Small]

Thought I'd tack this on for anyone that read this thread earlier this week and likes to get their spell scrolls as loot. If you can stand the karma loss, meer eternals drop level 8 spell scrolls. Oftentimes, they drop two of the same one on the same corpse.