Input please on my pvm meler

[Ivor MacGregor]

The posts on bushido vampires is amazing. I have decided to take what I have and make one to the best of my ability. From what I understand, 50% of being good at it is suit and the other 50% is plain battle practice. Here is what I have to work with; I would LOOOOVE the input of the experts in PVM with a melers and crafting before I start using up my resources and transfering skills.

Skills to play with:

120 swords or macefighting
120 bushido
120 tactic
100 resist or anatomy
120 parrying
75 necromancy (+25 with items to make 100 for vampire form)
65 chivalry

Items:
5 valorite runic hammers
20 barbed runic kits

I have a legendary smith with arms lore and totems for both blacksmithy and tailoring. I also have nearly all the artifacts (e.g., crimson, ring of the vile, etc.)

Question(s): I understand I need a weapon with SSI, HML, HSL at the minimum. Is it possible to craft a "balanced" property on the weapon for two-handed, thus being able to chug pots?

-do I make mage's rune blades or leaf blades with my runic hammers? Also, is a heavy ornate necessary for pvming? Or should I not even waist my runic valorite hammers on it; does it matter which ingot type I use on weapons (i.e., would it be better to craft from val to spread the damage or gold and gain the extra luck bonus)? Is it ideal to use a two-handed weapon like the ornate axe to take advantage of the bushido/parry bonus, or is a one handed weapon more efficient to use pots?

-What is the best artifacts to use in the template and which slots should I leave open for runic crafted armor?

-Is it viable to use a ring of the vile or should I not even bother with HCI and instead concentrate on DCI and LMC?

-What is the dex/stam I need to attain with 30% SSI to achieve the max swing speed on the weapon I will create?

-What is the minimum luck I should try and attain (i have the statue that gives 500luck)?

-I plan on only having 75 necro and using the remaining skills (max 720) in something like tactics. I can achieve 100 by just equiping a few items to get back into vamp form if I die, then switch right back...is there any problems I am not seeing here?

-Macefighting vs. swords: should I craft a one handed-fast swinging mace and a war hammer (for whirlwind), or should I craft a leaf blade/mage's blade and an ornate axe?

Thank you for answering these questions. I am just worried to start crafting away on hammers and sewing kits that I took so long to gather and don't want to screw it up.

 

[Arch Magus]

I can tell you right now that you need to have a minimum of 99 Necro at all times to sustain Vampire form.

No more switching necro items, they nerfed that.

From what I've read, it's way more reliable to buy the right weapon than to craft it. No doubt Conor will come tell you how he burned "xxx" number of hammers and got jack for it.

 

[Draxous]

I can tell you right now that you need to have a minimum of 99 Necro at all times to sustain Vampire form.

No more switching necro items, they nerfed that.

Also... there isn't a huge damage bonus from 100tactics and 120... only a cpl pts really... nice if you can do it, but honestly the templates tight as it is...

120 fighting skill
100 tactics
120 parry
120 bushido
100 anat (or resist)
100 necro
60 chivalry

is a pretty good template to go by... unless your jewels + talisman = the 25necro... you give the impression you're going after... midnight bracers and they just aren't going to cut it. Not worth the resists or mods that slot could otherwise give your character.

Also, a lot of people go for Jackals Collar... so if you want to focus on the perfect sleeves... it's good to fall back on that.

as I understand it... the usual suit combinations go as follows:

folded steel glasses or mace and shield glasses
jackals collar (or something more to your taste)
sleeves (customized to your taste.)
gauntlets of nobility (or stormgrips)
heart of lion (or rune beetle)
fey legs (or ember legs or something more to your taste)

ring - HCI, DCI, 1/3 casting and fire resist/LMC (this is optimal of course)
brace - HCI, DCI, 1/3 casting and fire resist/LMC (this is optimal of course)

talisman - conjurers trinket or primer of arms


Leafblades are great... feint is absolutely fantastic.

Ornate Axes are great
Twinkling Scimitars are great
Runeblades are pretty good (some will say great)

hope this helps... I'm actually a sampire newb much like yourself, but I've played a friends briefly and have set up my own character just the other day (in the midst of training bushido atm... once that's done, he's ready to go)

The information I post is from what I've gathered through what everyone's told me... so I leave it to the more experienced to jump in and correct anything that I may have gotten wrong or misled you on.

Take care.

 

[RichDC]

I would suggest 2 things on crafting weapons,

1...dont use val

1...dont use val

I would use val on arms legs and gorgets...or just arms to find the right piece of your suit.

Reason, these pieces even if you dont find what fits your suit will normaly fetch a hefty retail price enabling you to buy more hammers.

Personally, i like to craft weapons out of aggy and verites. Verites if im feeling rich

I made some mage rune blades the other day and got some Very nice 1's! A fair few with FC2 and one that is almost...almost perfect. Also i made some Guardian axes and hit one that i have fallen in love with(out of verite again).

I make all weapons out of iron for the chance at unravelling them come SA, I make all armour out of verite for the poison and fire boost from the material.(as a sampire you need 95fire resist minimum)

Edit: My suit is still in crafting but as i have low HSL on my weaps i have cranked up the Stam regen on my suit...so far its working quite nicely.

In a few seconds ill find the chart i stole of lynk and post it for Swing speeds vs stam

This is the most accurate tables for swing speed i have seen so far:
http://users.lmi.net/~noodle/netathene/guilds/Posts/

 

[Farsight]

If you aren't done transferring your characters, I can get you a great diamond mace on Catskills. (stamina leech 38, mana leech 52, SSI 20, DI 36, made from dull copper).

I don't use maces any more (switched to archery) so I have no further use for that one. If you want to try out maces, it's a great weapon to start with.

For me, there are four artifacts which are required.
1. Mace and shield glasses: great resists and 30% HLD. There is no better head gear for the warrior unless you already have a perfect weapon with HLD.
2. Fey leggings: Average resists, but good DCI. And they're pretty cheap.
3. Heart of the Lion (or violet courage, but since you only have male characters...): Not bad resists, but has DCI.
4. Conjurer's trinket and primer on arms damage removal (primer for repond creatures)

Then your ring and bracelet needs another 10% DCI (more if you use divine fury) and at least 40% DI. Fire and poison resist are nice too.

That leaves your gloves, gorget and arms to play with. If you can't make a perfect suit out of three pieces, then your luck is horrible indeed. Try to focus on stamina, LMC and resists for your mods.

 

[RichDC]

For gloves i tend to use the stormgrips, there lacking a bit on resists but the extra 25DI makes finding those jewels a lot easier. Plus 8int bonus.

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

From what I understand, 50% of being good at it is suit and the other 50% is plain battle practice.

Thats about right, it's good to get a comfortable/easy to remember macro setup before trying to solo anything big.

120 swords or macefighting
120 bushido
120 tactic
100 resist or anatomy
120 parrying
75 necromancy (+25 with items to make 100 for vampire form)
65 chivalry

I used to consider Macing better but recently I did some checking and I think Swords is better.

Question(s): I understand I need a weapon with SSI, HML, HSL at the minimum. Is it possible to craft a "balanced" property on the weapon for two-handed, thus being able to chug pots?

No, balanced can only be crafted on Bows.

-do I make mage's rune blades or leaf blades with my runic hammers?

They serve different purposes. The checking I did involved finding the best damage at the easiest to reach swing cap for both 1 handed and 2 handed weapons. It also included what I consider the only two worthwile PvM specials; Feint & Whirlwind.

Best Damage at 150 Stamina 20 SSI (3s weapon)
1h Diamond Mace 14-17
2h Rune Blade 15-17

Best Feint at 120 Stamina 20 SSI (2.75s weapon)
1h Leafblade 13-15
2h Daisho 13-15

Best Whirlwind at 120 Stamina 20 SSI (2.75s weapon)
2h Black Staff 13-16

Best Whirlwind at 90 Stamina 20 SSI (2.5s weapon)
1h Radiant Scimitar 12-14

Because Swords has a weapon in each group is probably the main reason I decided Swords was better, but also that (good) Black Staffs are hard to come by.
You can make Leafblades Of Ease which are UBWS if you're in need of 1h set up. Also Twinkling Scimitars give 6 DCI. Mage's Rune Blades give 1 FC. Thats about it for the useful magic recipes.

Obviously thats just my preference, I don't expect everyone agrees that their the only PvM specials worth a damn, or that 150 stam is the easiest to reach (if their already running 180).

Also, is a heavy ornate necessary for pvming?

No, without using an assassin suit the fastest you can swing one is 1.5s which does still put it ahead in terms of DPS over say 10 hits and beyond. They work if you chose to, just not my preference.

Or should I not even waist my runic valorite hammers on it; does it matter which ingot type I use on weapons (i.e., would it be better to craft from val to spread the damage or gold and gain the extra luck bonus)? Is it ideal to use a two-handed weapon like the ornate axe to take advantage of the bushido/parry bonus, or is a one handed weapon more efficient to use pots?

In my opinion it doesn't matter what ingot type you use, DC & Shadow give durability bonuses (one is 100% one is 50% respectively, reversed for armor). That is my current thinking, yes, that its better to use two handed for the extra defense, which Swords fits nicely with Rune Blades/Daishos or Ornate if thats your preference. If you need pots you can always have a 1h weapon on Equip Last.

-What is the best artifacts to use in the template and which slots should I leave open for runic crafted armor?

I tend to go with Mace & Shields, RBC, Human Fey Legs as a start. After the weapons I would use the hammers for Mempos and Hiro Sode (arms?) and the barbed kits for gloves, which are usually a pain to get. If the resists work out well enough you might be able to use artifact gloves for DI.

-Is it viable to use a ring of the vile or should I not even bother with HCI and instead concentrate on DCI and LMC?

It can be viable to use ROV, I've used it before, however I tend to use HCI/DCI/DI/LMC/Fire resist on my jewlery. I'd say DCI & DI are a priority then at least 30 LMC (on suit as a whole not just jewels obviously) and whatever HCI you get (my jewlery tends to have it on anyway) is fine.

-What is the dex/stam I need to attain with 30% SSI to achieve the max swing speed on the weapon I will create?

Listed above, Ornates can't reach it unless you're using an assassin suit.

-What is the minimum luck I should try and attain (i have the statue that gives 500luck)?

I personally don't worry about Luck, though it works in 100's. Perfection apparently gives 1000, though it doesn't show on your bar.

-I plan on only having 75 necro and using the remaining skills (max 720) in something like tactics. I can achieve 100 by just equiping a few items to get back into vamp form if I die, then switch right back...is there any problems I am not seeing here?

You can't do that anymore, they have to stay equipped, you'll probably have to lower Tactics.

-Macefighting vs. swords: should I craft a one handed-fast swinging mace and a war hammer (for whirlwind), or should I craft a leaf blade/mage's blade and an ornate axe?

If I was buying weapons it would be a lot easier to find Diamond Maces/Ornates/Leafblades/Twinklings. As you're able to make your own I would go with Swords.
As soon as I can be bothered to find some hammers I'm changing mine to Swords.

Edit:
Also you can burn as low as Gold Hammers for 20 SSI weapons with 3-4 mods. Though that doesn't mean it'll be any easier to get what you want .

These might also help with what you can expect to craft.
http://uo.stratics.com/php-bin/show_content.php?content=30375
http://www.uoguide.com/Hit_Mana_Leech

 

[Taylor]

Forget resist for PvM. Chiv-remove curse works better, anyway.

You need 99 rl skill necro for sampy. Also, for PvM and sampie, swords is really your best bet: soul seaker is a monster against repond and with swords you have more whirlwind weapons, which is a lifesaver for a sampy.

How about something like:

120 swords
120 bush
120 parry
120 tactics
99 necro (carry a pair of insured arcane boots to cast vamp form)
75 chiv
61 anat (a little extra dmg)

Carry a twinkling/radiant/icy scimitar with 50+ hll/hml, 40+ di, and a hit spell if you can affort it. Don't worry about stam leech, hld, or hla for pvm.

My sampy, Janus, runs this temp and weapon. I think he's died three times since I made him. He's a beast.

 

[RichDC]

Drop tactics to gm boost anat to GM drop chiv by however many that is.

On ornate axes...I absolutly cannot do anything without mine anymore!!!

1.5s hitting for well over 200's is absolutly devestating, before criticals damage(this was on a harry) was 140-160.

The leafblade of ease comes with a HUGE penalty...no evasion!

Personally, Its either Runeblades(they hit about 30points less than the ornate but faster), Guardian axes(cant turn down that 4hp and hpr) or Twinkling Scimitars.

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

The leafblade of ease comes with a HUGE penalty...no evasion!

Oh yeah!!! I always forget that lol.

 

[Connor_Graham]

No doubt Conor will come tell you how he burned "xxx" number of hammers and got jack for it.

I don't need to now, do I?


Btw, "xxx" should be "over 400", just so you know for next time.

 

[Taylor]

Drop tactics to gm boost anat to GM drop chiv by however many that is . . . .

Personally, Its either Runeblades(they hit about 30points less than the ornate but faster), Guardian axes(cant turn down that 4hp and hpr) or Twinkling Scimitars.

Very much in agreement w/ these weapon choices. Don't fall for leafblade, for the same reason mentioned (i.e., no evasion).

Disagree on tactics and anatomy, though. When you run the numbers, as listed on www.uoguide.com/anatomy and www.uoguide.com/tactics, here's what you come up with:

100 tactics + 81 anatomy = 190% damage increase
120 tactics + 61 anatomy = 200% damage increase

Thus, since high anatomy is not necessary (as you have no healing), I advocate placing as many points in tactics as possible and putting the leftovers into anatomy.

 

[Connor_Graham]

As far as the runics go, if it were me I'd sell the BKits then use the profit from that to buy 5x as many Horned kits. I'd then burn them for the armor pieces I needed. I'd then sell the Val hammers and turn that profit into 50-60 Bronze hammers. You'd get much more chance to make what you need, and possibly turn a hefty profit besides.

 

[Connor_Graham]

Disagree on tactics and anatomy, though.

The reason most of us suggest GM Tactics and Anatomy is to have the freedom to swap out SS or Resist for Anatomy to allow more freedom on the template, and be able to tailor to whatever creature you plan on fighting.

 

[Taylor]

Gotcha: sacrifice 10 di for dynamism. That makes sense, if you want to swap in resist.

 

[Ivor MacGregor]

Thank you all so much for your input. I went ahead and gathered what I could thus far. This is what I have:

120 swords
120 bushido
120 parry
100 tactics
100 anatomy (resist if needed for a specific boss)
100 necro
60 chiv

Stats: havent adjusted yet. please give me your input here.

With items:
Str 115 (hp 122)
dex 127 (stam 141)
int 40 (mana 66)

mace and shield
crafted platemail mempho
crafted leather leggings
crafter ninja mitts
crafted hiro sode
rune beetle carapice
crimson
conjourer's trinket/primier of arms removal
quiver

Jewles (this will definately be an area to improve as I can aquire them)
ring-DCI 13%, FCR 2, FC 1, LMC 6%
brac-DEX 6, DCI 14, FCR 2, DI 20%


HLD 30 (from mace and shield glasses)
HCI 10
DI 80
FCR 4
FC 1
LMC 35
Luck 228 (+500 from statue and another +1000 from honor)
HPR 8
MR 3
DCI 32

Resists:

physical 70
fire 97 (not in vamp form)
cold 64
Poison 61
engery 65

Weapons (this is what i think are my best from the pick, your input please)

Radiant Schimitars:
1-HLL 40%, HLD 46%, LUCK 40, SSI 30, scorpion slayer
2-HLL 55%, HML 57%, LUCK 40, DCI 14%, FC 1
3-HSL 46%, HML 62%, LUCK 40, DISPEL 44%, UBWS

No-Dachis:
1-HML 70, MAGIC ARROW 38%, HLL 87%, DCI 14%
2-HML 66%, LIGHTING 46%, SSI 20%
3-HML 70%, HLD 38%, HLL 84%, dragon slayer
4- LIGHTING 38%, HLL 70%, LUCK 81, scorpion slayer
5-HLL 87%, HLD 38%, HML 84%, ogre slayer

I made a few guardian axes with a apagipe hammer but did'nt come up with anything better than the no-dashis...oh well, I like the no-dachi better for a samurai

 

[Aibal]

Drop intel and or strength down to get your dex up to 140...this is important for 4 second heals with your bandies unless you plan to chug agility pots constantly. Take dex to 140, strength to 100-110 (depending on HPI on your suit) and lower your intel to compensate. Dexterity is the most important attribute of your template, to maximize healing and ssi.

 

[Ender]

Drop intel and or strength down to get your dex up to 140...this is important for 4 second heals with your bandies unless you plan to chug agility pots constantly. Take dex to 140, strength to 100-110 (depending on HPI on your suit) and lower your intel to compensate. Dexterity is the most important attribute of your template, to maximize healing and ssi.

He doesn't have healing.

 

[Setnaffa]

Very much in agreement w/ these weapon choices. Don't fall for leafblade, for the same reason mentioned (i.e., no evasion).

Disagree on tactics and anatomy, though. When you run the numbers, as listed on www.uoguide.com/anatomy and www.uoguide.com/tactics, here's what you come up with:

100 tactics + 81 anatomy = 190% damage increase
120 tactics + 61 anatomy = 200% damage increase

Thus, since high anatomy is not necessary (as you have no healing), I advocate placing as many points in tactics as possible and putting the leftovers into anatomy.

5% GM bonus for Anatomy, so (GM Tactics + GM Anatomy) > (120 Tactics + 80 or 81 Anatomy).

 

[Setnaffa]

I would suggest 2 things on crafting weapons,

1...dont use val

1...dont use val

I would use val on arms legs and gorgets...or just arms to find the right piece of your suit.

Reason, these pieces even if you dont find what fits your suit will normaly fetch a hefty retail price enabling you to buy more hammers.

Personally, i like to craft weapons out of aggy and verites. Verites if im feeling rich

I made some mage rune blades the other day and got some Very nice 1's! A fair few with FC2 and one that is almost...almost perfect. Also i made some Guardian axes and hit one that i have fallen in love with(out of verite again).

I make all weapons out of iron for the chance at unravelling them come SA, I make all armour out of verite for the poison and fire boost from the material.(as a sampire you need 95fire resist minimum)

Edit: My suit is still in crafting but as i have low HSL on my weaps i have cranked up the Stam regen on my suit...so far its working quite nicely.

In a few seconds ill find the chart i stole of lynk and post it for Swing speeds vs stam

This is the most accurate tables for swing speed i have seen so far:
http://users.lmi.net/~noodle/netathene/guilds/Posts/

I know this is more of a crafting comment, but I'll answer it here anyway...

I do just the opposite. Until imbuing is here, I'm buying or earning as many Val and Verite hammers as I can. I'm making a bunch of iron weapons and storing them all away.

Once imbuing is available, I'll start using Gold and higher hammers to make items with 4 or more properties. I'll pick out those that are close to perfect, then imbue the desired property onto them.

I never use runic hammers for armor. BRSK's are much more plentiful (50 BRSK'S to 1 Val Hammer) and can make armor as good as Val hammers. On the other hand, you can't make any weapons with BRSK's.

 

[Ivor MacGregor]

I agree. I am personally storing away as many hammers as I can till the imbuing comes available. I am going to take the advice and only make weapons from iron ingots. however, why is this so improtant to imbuing and where are you getting your information?

Thanks again

as for dex...ill raise it to 140 for the ssi.