Sampire Help

[calibek]

OK let me preface this by saying that I have been lurking these boards, reading many threads to gleam information on the best way to create and fight as a sampire. I feel I created a good suit and am pretty well off at the moment. I am able to solo things like Miasma (not hard), and A LOT of peerless by myself. However I am having a huge problem…Dread Horn. I keyed for him the other day on my mystic and was going to use my sampire to fight him and see how I do. Basically I got stomped in less than 5 seconds. Considering I read how people solo him with ease, I’m trying to figure out where I went wrong and could REALLY use some input. Here are my stats, skills, and suit:
Race: Human
Str: 100
Dex: 100 (116 modified)
Int: 30 (40 modified)

HP: 100
Mana: 40
Stamina: 156

Skills:
120 Macing
100 Necromancy
100 Anatomy
100 Tactics
100 Bushido
100 Spirit Speak/Healing/Resist Spells/Parry (can soulstone out depending on situation)
70 Chivalry

This leaves 30 points left over which I plan to put 110 into Bushido, Anatomy, and Tactics until I can afford 120 Scrolls. Also I only have 230 Stats at the moment simply because I cannot afford a +25 stat scroll. I’m trying to work my way up to it but it is going to take some time. One I do that I plan to put all 25 points into Dex. I used macing because it is cheap for the scrolls and I have a good amount of stamina increase on my armor too allow 1.25 Swing Speed on the weapons I use. Here are the mods on my current suit, all of which is imbued armor except for my helm which is the Ancient Samurai Helm. My suit has the following on it.

70/70/70/70/75 Resists after Vamp Form
40% LMC
45% DCI
30% HCI
+40 Stamina Increase
+16 Dex
+10 Int
40% Damage Increase
I use only a few weapons which are as follows:

Diamond Mace which I use for slayers so I can chug potions as well since it is one handed. Right now I only have a couple for various spawns like the ratmen peerless and Miasma but I plan to make more in the future. They normally look like this:

45% Damage Increase
20% SSI
55% HML
50% HSL
Various Slayers

I have a black staff made for an all purpose weapon which I can use to whirlwind on general spawns. This weapon has served me well so far. My only black staff has the following mods:

Made from Frostwood
52% DI
50% HLD
45% HML
40% HSL
20% SSI

Then next I have a defensive mace weapon for the Feint ability which is a Tessen. It currently has the following mods:

40% HLD
50% HLA
40% HML
50% HSL
45% DI

With the Diamond Mace I am able to chug potions. With the two-handed weapons I have a quick arm/disarm macro set up so I can drink a potion quick and rearm ASAP. I know it was probably too soon to take on Dread Horn but I wanted to try it out. I didn’t think I would win but I certainly did not think I would die as quick as I did. Anyways I know there are things that probably need improved which is why I come to you guys. I made this template on a budget and I think I did a good job. I want to buy a +25 Stat scroll and get a Crimson Cinture but right now I can’t possibly afford them. Down the road probably, but right now no. What I want to see is there anything I can do with my current setup that would allow me to do Dread Horn solo? Also which skills are best to do DH with. I normally use SS for the corpse HP regen and the Curse Weapon...70% Leech Life is very nice but that didn't seem to work too well. So any Ideas on how to make DH more friendly for this sampire?

 

[Pinco]

1. Check always if you wear your armor during this fight. The dread horn curse could drop some parts and your resistance will fall.

2. Use a physical damage weapon and be sure to do enough damage. Looking your equipment and your skills (100 tact + 100 anat + less than 100 DI), could be a problem. Maybe an AI weapon should be better...

3. You need speed. Use fast weapon with highest damage. The dread horn curse will slow you down and loosing stamina is a problem, so try with the faster weapon or ensure to have at least 1.5s of swing speed while cursed.

4. Use greater strength and greater agility potions for decrease the curse effect.

5. Use parrying so you can evade when you are in trouble.

6. Counter attack and confidence are your friends

By looking your stat I could say almost certainly that the problem is the curse, with only 100 str the armor can go down easily.

 

[calibek]

Thanks for the input.

1. Most of my armor is imbued barbed leather which has very low str requirements. I do know none of it comes off during the fight. Made sure before I went in that my armor wouldn't come off cause I knew about the -20 curse he does.

2. I used the Diamond Mace and did not use CW on it which was pointless since it was already 100% physical damage. Right now I can't afford 120. Gonna try to get the DI on my weapons and ring/brace up to 100 just finding glass shards is a shot in the dark and they are expensive. My tactics and Anatomy are on the lower side at 100. Think 110 would be better?

3. I did some checking and even with the DH curse the lowest my speed will drop on the diamond mace is 1.5.

4. I used the STR and AGL potions too so it brings them up for more Damage output

5. I think that's where my problem was, no parry. Think I'm going to switch out Spirit Speak and bring in Parry for next time.

6. I never even thought to use those. I think with parry those will really help my chances.

The curse really does affect my HP, but my armor does stay on. With the curse my HP drops to 80. The problem is with my suit with all the mods on it finding a place to put in HP is difficult. I have about 3 extra pieces where I could put in some HPI (they have 1 more imbue slot left on them and I left it open just incase I need to ad something). With max HPI on those 3 I can bring my HP up to 115. Would that be a good idea?

Thanks again for the input. Love to see what other people have to say also.

 

[Taylor]

OK let me preface this by saying that I have been lurking these boards, reading many threads to gleam information on the best way to create and fight as a sampire.

This is evident. I don't have any comments about DH, just wanted you to know that your template and suit are looking good. Until you purchase your power scrolls, you could always throw the last 30 points into spellweaving. If you can get an unskilled focus, gift of renewal and attunement might help with the DH scenario.

 

[Obsidian]

I think you've got a good start. I see two issues. First, you need to keep your stamina above 150 to swing a diamond mace at max swing speed, and above 120 stamina for the black staff. Therefore you really want to push your stamina (and dex) as high as possible to give you a buffer.

Second, you need to find a way to raise your hit points. I couldn't imaging running a sampire with less than 120 hps. Remember, you are a tank... you need to be able to dish out continuous big hits and likewise absorb big hits. The stat scroll will help a lot. A little secret here, I never actually pushed my sampire to 255... He's still at 250. It's on the "to buy list" but I don't find it pressing. You'll be ok getting a +20.

For hit points, consider the following until you get your crimson:
- 6 HPI Fey legs
- 3 HPI Shroud of the Condemned
- 5 HPI from imued armor piece

That's 14 and when you get your crimmy you'll be up to 24. Max HPI is 25. So with greater str from the +20 scroll and the +14 you'll be around 120 hps which will help a lot.

Btw, are you an elf? I personally run elf for my plethora of sampires on multiple shards. The 20 mana bonus and NS is great. So I leave my base int on all builds at 10, which is 30 mana off the bat. The shroud I mentioned is 5 Int, and then I try to fit 14-16 mana increase total across 2 imbued leather pieces. Usually my builds sit somewhere between 50-60 mana when fully suited. So anyway, getting back to stats... With 250 max, I would go 115 Str, 10 Int, 125 Dex. 115 str = 107 hps + 14 hps = 121 hps. DH's curse will still suck, but it is a step toward greater survivability.

Oh, and whatever you do, try to keep 45 DCI (or close to that) on the suit. I get 20 from the Fey Legs, and 12 on my imbued ring, and 13 on the imbued brace.

Hope those thoughts give you something to work with. Happy hunting sampire-style!

-OBSIDIAN-

 

[Obsidian]

P.S. I now see you are human. This can still work, but it makes mana a bit tighter. Personally, I would switch to an elf and start there. You can always do the race quest back to human later when you have a better suit to raise your mana and fit 40 LMC.

 

[Klapauc]

To me,something looks wrong with your suit. You got 40 lmc, but no hpi at all.
You also didnt mention any mana increase. I assume 5 imbued pieces, you should get much more out of these then 40 stam + 40 lmc.
With mana increase on suit,you could run much lower int, making room for more strenght.
Also 100hp is very low, and 80 after curse to low,you got absolutly no buffer against bad rng rolls.
I would try to lower lmc and get 3 pieces with hpi instead.Also try to find a +10 stat scroll at least, on my shard they are under 200k.
Shroud of the condemned is a very good idea, just farm this guy for an hour or 2,the droprate is rather good.

 

[calibek]

I should probably give some reason why I felt human would have been better for me...

1. the HPR +2 trait is very nice. Some may not notice it but when i go from my elf chars to my human chars I notice it. This can potentially reduce downtime after fights and help me to spend less mana on healing.

2. Workhorse: I know elves get 20 extra mana and that is huge but to be honest the +20 in skills is good. That gives me +3 MR from 20 med and 20 focus +2 SR from Focus, access to attunement and Gift of Renewal from Spellweaving which can REALLY help and healing stone from Mysticism...It's not much but it is something.

3. The 60 extra stone in carrying weight. This allows me to carry more loot cause, lets face it, Sampires can make A LOT of money.

Now as far as HPI goes I can add +5 onto 3 pieces of my suit which will allow me to gain 115. The shroud of the condemend will put me at 118 and give me more 5 more int for 5 more mana which is nice. When I get a CC that will put me at 123 HPI. Can use STR and AGL potions to push me up. When I get a +25 Stat scroll I'll dump the points into DEX. Right now even when cursed my Diamond mace still swings at 1.5. Not the absolute best but still, by no means bad. I'm trying not to use too many arties simply because of money. My imbued suit/weapons/scrolls maybe cost me 2 mil total, and that's with all the relic frags and PoF, and other stuff. I'll add the HPI to my 3 pieces and go for a shroud.

My DCI is set at 45%. 15% on ring, 15% on bracelet, 15% on Ancient Samurai Helm. I'm thinking of adding parry to make life a little easier for me. Does that sound like a good idea?

 

[Lynk]

Suit and template looks good. Could make some improvements.

HLD and HLA would probly make the fight go your way. HLA on the wep, and try to fit mace and shield glasses in to your suit.

Get HP to at least 130.

I dont use parry on dreadhorn, I started using resist because he vamps so damn much. Not saying that is the best, just what I prefer.

 

[calibek]

Suit and template looks good. Could make some improvements.

HLD and HLA would probly make the fight go your way. HLA on the wep, and try to fit mace and shield glasses in to your suit.

Get HP to at least 130.

I dont use parry on dreadhorn, I started using resist because he vamps so damn much. Not saying that is the best, just what I prefer.

I have a tessen with HLD 40% and HLA 50%. I can use that with the feint ability. Thinking of trying out resisting spells cause I did notice he Mana Vamped me right away.

 

[Obsidian]

The problem with the tessen is it's low base damage. You depend on big hits to leech back life. With bushido only at 100, your LS crits will be far between. And with no viable slayer for DH I think you'll find yourself dead rather quickly. My mace fighting sampire runs 181 stamina and 35 SSI (30 on weapon and 5 on cloak of augmentation). With that setup, I like to use a war axe for frequent AIs, which means a nice heal-back leech. If I am having trouble keeping up swing speed, I go to a black staff. The staff can swing at max speed at 91 stamina with 35 SSI.

 

[Zalan]

Maybe I missed it in your post but:

Exceptionally Armored Swampy? for the 20% damage reduction

Its not necassary but nice to have Enhance Potion on your rings & bracers. EP of 50% can be helpfull if you chug alot.

Learning your timing can be another thing. & learning when the AI patterns to. I still have to do this yet myself. Haven`t been in UO for about 6 weeks. School took over irl ><

 

[calibek]

OK here is what I did:

Replaced SS with 110 Parry for the time being

imbued my suit with 15 extra HP and dropped my int by 5 since i got 5 from the Shroud of the Condenmed and added that 5 to HP. This brings me up to 117 HP at this moment.

Going to bring tactics, anatomy, and bushido up to 110 until i can afford a 120 bushido scroll at which time I will prob drop anatomy to 100 and scroll bushido to 120.

I'm probably going to have to rethink my DH weapon. AI leech does look so I'm going to have to find a way to get that going.

I'm used to mages that are soooooooooo easy to suit up. Sampires are A LOT more item dependent.

 

[Pinco]

a mage: 100 lrc and you are ready

a sampire: misplace some parts and you are done
I have 1 box almost filled of imbued armor, jewels and weapons of all the version of my sapire equipment and now seems I have a good suit... until I don't think to any possible upgrade