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Shields Any Good?

C

connelld1965

Guest
I want to make a warrior...sword and shield for PvM mostly. But I keep seeing how Samurai/Necro combo without a shield is the best template for mobs because of the auto heals. Is is possible to make a good PvM warrior with a shield? And if so does someone have a good template?
 
C

connelld1965

Guest
Nobody? Here is a template i am thinking about. All 100.

Swords
Parry
Anatomy
Resist
healing
Tactics
Focus
 

Farsight

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
1. Patience, while it isn't a virtue in the game, is a virtue :)

Second: It's quite possible to have an effective non-bushido warrior template in today's UO.

Since it appears that you are a new character, I'll give you a cheap version at 700 skill points:
110 (more is better) swords, fencing or mace fighting.
110 (more is better) parry
100 anatomy
100 healing
100 tactics
80 chivalry
100 in another skill (meditation would be my choice, but for reasons not significant to this discussion. The other skill can also be resist, hiding, focus, spellweaving, bushido (but then no shield), alchemy, etc...)

Eventually, you'll be fine tuning the template to meet your needs, so this is only a starting point.

The only way that this template can be as effective as the bushido variant is to use specific slayer types (terathan slayer in place of arachnid slayer when hunting terathans, for example). Otherwise you'll be doing less damage than the samurai counterpart who has perfection in addition to his slayer and enemy of one damage.

Another thing you'll enjoy in the long run is to get faster casting of 4 (and maybe fast cast recovery of 6) in addition to all the other bells and whistles, then you could use chivalry as a backup method of healing and curing, since using potions with a shield can be difficult without the proper tools (i.e. UO Assist) and chivalry can work nearly as fast as potions anyway.

Without chivalry and/or bushido, you can still be effective at 95% or more of the game content, but the top tier content (peerless, Doom, Champions, Reknowned) will be a lot more difficult, especially if you're hunting alone. If you find a good like-minded group, then the template works better.
 

Taylor

Former Stratics CEO (2011-2014)
VIP
Alumni
Supporter
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Campaign Benefactor
Using a shield is ok for PvM, but not as ideal as using bushido. Here are some benefits of using both bushido and parry, as opposed to just parry:

Honor/Perfection - with bushido, honoring your opponent will cause you to gain "perfection" with each successive hit. Each time you gain perfection, your damage output increases. Achieving perfection will result in 100% damage increase.

Weapon Parry - with bushido, you can parry with both one-handed and two-handed weapons, whereas if you only have parry you are limited to using one-handed weapons and shields. With bushido, using a one-handed weapon will also allow you to drink potions.

Confidence - the bushido confidence spell is another method of healing.

Momentum Strike - the bushido momentum strike allows you to attack two nearby opponents simultaneously.

Evasion - the bushido evasion spell allows you to evade damage, including magic damage.

Lightning Strike - the bushido lightning strike maximizes your hit chance increase and will occasionally allow you to inflict critical hits, which will deal more damage than normal hits.

As you can see, most players prefer to use both parry and bushido so that they can benefit from the items mentioned above. Also, you will want to use power strolls to raise some of your skills above 100s. With only 100 swords, it will be nearly impossible for you to hit mid- to high-level foes. Moreover, with only 100 parry, you will be hit too often to remain viable against higher-level creatures. Finally, you will definitely want the chivalry skill for PvM. Chivalry allows you to increase your damage output, provides you a method for travel, and allows you means to heal, cure, and remove curses.

For PvM, I'd suggest something like this:

120 weapon
120 bush
120 parry
100 tactics
100 anat
90 healing
70 chivalry

Or, for a more cost-efficient template (i.e., for newer folks who can't afford scrolls):

115 weapon
115 bush
115 parry
110 tactics
100 anat
90 heal
75 chiv

If you prefer to forgo the benefits of bushido, then perhaps something like this:

120 swords (or 115, for cheaper option)
120 parry (or 115, if you can't afford the scroll)
100 tactics
100 anatomy
90 healing
75 chiv
120 Points to distribute between perhaps your current skills, magic resist, or meditation. If you chose to use magic resist, you'll want to bring it to 120 (or 115 if that's all you can afford), else it won't prove very effective.

Here is some additional info about bushido:
http://uo.stratics.com/php-bin/show_content.php?content=30726

Here is some additional info about chivalry:
http://uo.stratics.com/content/guides/paladinabilities.shtml
 
O

osha

Guest
Whatever your template will be, the goal is to push your weapon skill to 120, simply because it will raise your chances to hit the ennemy, and whatever template you choose, if you don't hit your ennemy you are not effective.
Of course, a powerscroll 120 swordmanship is a bit expensive, but you can buy a cheap 110 or 115 to start, until you are rich enough for the 120.

Now, about the shield, there are pros and cons :
Bad thing is you can only use one handed weapons, and you must disarm to drink potions.
good thing is that you don't need the bushido skill to parry, so you have room for another skill.
In the other hand, the bushido skill can be nice for honor and lightning strike when hunting.

Then, a char 7*100 is not the most effective nowadays :
for example, healing at 90 is enough. ten points won for another skill !
Another point : hunting without chivalry, it's really hunting with a big handicap (i mean for a classical warrior)
Again, you don't need 100 chivalry. 70 will do, and the rest could be used to raise your other skills above 100.

Which brings us to another important point : your stats.
In old time a warrior needed 11 INT. that is not possible anymore : you will need mana. i think 30 INT is a minimum. So : stat powerscroll (start small if you are not rich). gears with mana leech or mana regeneration.

Depending on what you want to hunt, you can also consider the possibility to drop resisting spells for another skill.

In conclusion : if you want to play a classical warrior for hunting, nowadays, the weapon skill must go to 120, and you need chivalry (and mana).
 
S

Stupid Miner

Guest
Parrying is (was) overrated.
If you have parrying without bushido you're pretty much restricted to 1-handed weapons.

Without parrying (with or without bushido) you can switch between 2-handed weapons and 1-handed + shield however you like. Don't rely on shield, make them supplemental.

Luckily for shield-users, there are some great new ones:
http://uo.stratics.com/php-bin/show_content.php?content=31371

Especially for gargoyles, but also humans too.

Sign of Chaos
(Chaos Shield)
Soul Charge 20% (<--- tons of free mana)
Hit Chance Increase 5%
Defense Chance Increase 10%
Faster Casting 1
Physical Resist 3%
Fire Resist 2%
Cold Resist 2%
Poison Resist 2%
Energy Resist 2%

Sign of Order
(Order Shield)
Chivalry +10
Hit Chance Increase 5%
Defense Chance Increase 10%
Faster Cast Recovery 1
Faster Casting 1
Physical Resist 1%
Cold Resist 5%
Poison Resist 5%

Wall of Hungry Mouths
(Heater Shield)
Energy Eater 20% (<--- reduces damage type by 20% essentially)
Poison Eater 20%
Cold Eater 20%
Fire Eater 20%
Physical Resist 5%
Fire Resist 1%
 
L

Lord GOD(GOD)

Guest
Nobody? Here is a template i am thinking about. All 100.

Swords
Parry
Anatomy
Resist
healing
Tactics
Focus
Thats basically fine but...

You want to take Swords higher, eventually to 120, as it is both your chance to hit and chance to dodge attacks.

It would be a good idea to have a minimum of 65 Chivalry so you can Sacred Journey with 100% success. Also use Enemy Of One, Consecrate Weapon, Divine Fury & Dispel Evil.

You could always drop Healing or Focus for Necro for Vamp Form and be a Vampire dexxer with bandages.

You don't HAVE to use Parry when using a shield, you can use them just for the mods. Many 4/6 Chiv characters do.
 

Garm The Green

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Thanks for all the great feed back!
dude i've been seriously considering ditching the bushido part on one of my vamp-samurai.

I've already dropped parry and i'm fine, it seems bush is only really any good for the perfection element!

Usually for my new players i put bushi on later if i have a good weapon.
Mainly to improve bushi, you have to spam lightning strike, which costs about 5 mana. Not much of a problem for a veteran with a good suit, but a lot for a naked low-stat nooby with only 10-20 mana! :D

I'd recomend rolling a warrior with chivalry, use a shield when it fancies you. Take the template recomended by farsight - it looks great for a beginner.

When you get more experience, you'll understand how you want to play/what you need etc.

quick word - meditation > focus but you need "medable" or "mage" armour for it to work - ie, usually you can only use light armours like leather which *can* be limiting when you begin.

If you are able to have 100 necro instead of 100 med or focus, that'd be great as vampire form fives you the equivalent of like 80 focus in mana and stam regen as well as the leeching benefits... something like that!

Just roll your chiv warrior and enjoy - let us know how you progress!

What shard are you on?
 
Y

Yen Sid

Guest
Then you don't know Bushido.
Indeed! I haven't been using Bushido a lot and really just started a Sampire (up to ~85 Swords, ~70 Tactics, ~95 Bushido, ~110 Parry (had 109 on a stone when I started hehe), ~80 Spirit Speak, GM Necro/Resisting Spells/Anantomy (also had on stones already lol), and 65 Chiv), but I can see already that Bushido is far more useful then just getting perfection. I'm pretty excited about the whole Sampire scene, seems like I will like it although it is a much different style compared to what I'm used to. I play mages and tamers mostly. I only have had one dexer in 3+ years of playing and the Sampire is a great twist on something that I haven't had all that much experience with. :D And Confidence and Evasion, oh my, many good things with Bushido :D:D:D (This was longer then I had intended lol, I'm a little giddy due to not getting much sleep the past few nights, and im pretty excited to get this template underway, so bear with me ;)).

Oh and to the OP, sorry to derail, let me get this back on topic, I had a 115 Fencer before, no Bushido, and I used a shield when I wasn't using a spear or something. I couldn't fight high end stuff but I could take down Paragon Demons with a demon slayer spear without a shield. So if you were to get a 1-handed weapon with a slayer of some sort you should be good to go against mid-level stuff. (I realize a Paragon Demon isn't impresive for some but I think it is lol).
 

Garm The Green

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Then you don't know Bushido.
A constructive and positive post there Connor, thanks!

The ins and outs of Bushi are in the FAQ, I'm well aware of that as I'm sure the OP is :)
My comment was just my current sentiment towards bushi in the context of this young/new players question about a plate without bushi. There's just such rampant bushi-love that i wanted him to feel he can choose *not* to be a "sampire" (or vampire samurai for SM ;))
As a reference point I've got 4 at 115+ (2 melee, an ABC and a leftover bushi-mage from before the nerf) and another 2 on the way. Probably overkill, hence my lack of enthusiasm!

In essence Connell, as a young player, i personally don't feel you need to worry about bushi quite yet... just experiment it's easy enough to change later on if you fancy - a chiv warrior will be plenty effective enough as you train ^_^
 
S

Stupid Miner

Guest
...as a compromise of the two views:

Bushido isn't necessary, but there's a lot more to it than Honor.
 
H

Holofernes

Guest
This was the exact post I was looking for! Lots of very good information on here. I am in the same boat as connell. I have played UO on and off since 2001, but I have decided to start playing again and I am very out of date. My main character was a warrior with a shield. Now that I am coming back, I was trying to figure out how to rework my character and this has answered alot of my questions.

I do have a few though! :)

What should my stats be like in the end (with scrolls, etc)? Right now they are 100 str, 100 dex, and 25 int.
How big of a difference does it make using maces over swords? Currently my mace skill is higher. Is there a reason why people go swords with this type of build?
What type of gear would be best suited for this type of character? (plate, leather, etc) And what kind of stats on the gear should I look for?

I am 4xGM on parry, tactics, anatomy, and mace. So I planned on dropping the shield, maxing mace, parry and bushido and then getting chiv to 70. With that being said, what kind of tactics should I use when fighting monsters? I haven't played with bushido yet, but I have read some of the post about it. Any suggestions in this area would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I had resist on my character as well. Is it even worth raising now? Esp for this type of character?

Thank you for the great information you all posted!
 
Y

Yen Sid

Guest
Another quick question, does a lantern count as a shield and therefore mess up your chance to parry when using Bushido/Parry on the same template? I like to have the new lantern in hand when using a 1-handed weapon while training but I won't if it messes up my chances.
 
C

Connor_Graham

Guest
Another quick question, does a lantern count as a shield and therefore mess up your chance to parry when using Bushido/Parry on the same template? I like to have the new lantern in hand when using a 1-handed weapon while training but I won't if it messes up my chances.
No.
 
N

NickyDishes

Guest
Nobody? Here is a template i am thinking about. All 100.

Swords
Parry
Anatomy
Resist
healing
Tactics
Focus
this template will get you killed everywhere but painted caves......and even then lurg will destroy u
 
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