Congratulations on the design of Scalis!

[Meatbread]

I just came from a public Scalis spawn in Buc's Den Trammel on Atlantic. As this is the first time I've bothered with such a thing, I just wanted to make my thanks known.

Thanks for reminding me that as a melee combatant, my job is to stand under someone's dragon and instantly die. If I had been allowed to inflict damage and receive it at a survivable rate, I might have gotten away without thinking I rolled the wrong template.

Thanks especially for putting the anti-leech effect on Scalis. Sure pure paladins, pure samurai, plain vanilla warriors, any fighting necromancer without bushido, and every other melee template in Ultima Online have all long since been dumped on the "for newbies and roleplayers" garbage heap of history, but those darned sampires were singlehandedly keeping melee alive until now.

For that they definitely deserve to take a bunch of extra damage, even though they're the only ones who ever take any PVM damage in the first place anymore. When you see 30 or 40 players at an event, and zero of them are standing within the damage radius of the boss, that's how you know melee combat has been properly crushed balanced.

Good show!

 

[Madrid]

Not sure what the uproar is, if it's a legitimate thanks , just lousy sarcasm, or a cry to make the game easier.

Certain templates work better on certain bosses/spawns. I'm not a fan of the anti-life leech as Sampire is my favorite template but I understand the need to mix it up and have other templates be able to "win" the day. Osiredon can can be done with 2 accounts if you know what your doing.

The fact that Osiredon is one of the hardest bosses if not thee hardest boss in the game might indicate it's probably not a good idea to stand toe to toe with Osiredon hence the term "jousting". There's quite a few monsters standing toe to toe with is fraught with peril: Meraktus, Rend, Putrifier, and Slasher. You get some bad rolls and your in for a dirt nap against those guys. It might also pay to have a back up healer when dealing what is essentially a Titan.

Sounds like you got your head handed to you and your not happy about it. Learn how to play your template and bring the right tools for the job. Also don't bite off more than you can chew..

Sampires most certainly still rule the roost in PvM followed by Throwers.

 

[Frarc]

Awwww, did the mean lobsterman hit you on the head and you have a boo-boo now? Let us all give you a . Let us all talk to his mammie and tell her he is a meanie. She will then pull his barnacles... uhm... ears!


No seriously, some monster are not to fight alone or in close combat. We can't have it all.
I have different characters with different skills. I use the one i think that will work best for certain situations.
People need to stop being a little girls and act more like a man if they can't win every fight with same character.

 

[Raptor85]

I gotta agree with him though, every new boss-type monster since SA kills you in 1-2 hits which basicly makes it so the only melee warriors that can survive at all are sampires, which I refulse to play, and now a few of the newer bosses are patched specificly so that sampires won't work on them. Meanwhile 99% of everything in the game is designed around "just all kill with a gd and keep it healed". Meanwhile archery and throwing still works on EVERYTHING because even the toughest of the tough new bosses has ****ty ranged attacks and only hits for massive melee damage......

If as many of the new bosses ate pets like lord paroxy as they one hit kill melee dexxers tamers would be in a total uproar!

 

[kRUXCg7]

(I am sure no offense was meant!)

Finally - we have a real man speaking here?

 

[Frarc]

Finally - we have a real man speaking here?

Perhaps but you won't hear me crying or screaming like a little girl every time there is something that is not going the way i would like it.
I just accept i am not God almighty and can beat it all.

And before anyone replies that i only play a tamer or mystic or bard. I will say that most of the time i play with a character that only have 100% pure warrior skills. No Chivalry,No bushido just 100% old school warrior.

If there things i can't do alone, We organise events with friends and allies and do them together. Its suprisingly efficient in any MMO, including UO.

 

[Raptor85]

Perhaps but you won't hear me crying or screaming like a little girl every time there is something that is not going the way i would like it.
I just accept i am not God almighty and can beat it all.

And before anyone replies that i only play a tamer or mystic or bard. I will say that most of the time i play with a character that only have 100% pure warrior skills. No Chivalry,No bushido just 100% old school warrior.

If there things i can't do alone, We organise events with friends and allies and do them together. Its suprisingly efficient in any MMO, including UO.

How do you deal with the monsters that 1-2 shot you the second you get an edge on damage over the GD that's invariably tanking in front? I'm actually curious to know because whenever I tried even with a 70's suit, max DCI, on a max skilled dexxer the second i got off a solid hit i'd be turned on, dead, and rummaged immediately...sometimes multiple times by the boss! At that point the tactic is generally sit back and watch the fight until he's dead and i can get my freaking gear back..

Even with 120 healing and 190 stam/150 dex the bandage timer was too long, and even cross healing was too slow with the rate of damage taken. Aside from the monsters that block leech, the only strategy to actually stay alive was to have hp leech as then you get a good 40-50 hp back every 2 seconds or so on top of your healing.

It's partially why i switched from swords to archery when i came back after SA, with all the new mods only archery is allowed to break the pvp cap for damage (triple hit spell is only possible on bows), moving shot is invaluable since people invariably run, and it has all the benefits of a normal dexxer in pvp + with the new Ai you rarely ever take damage as you can easily stay away from everything as well. (it's bizarre, but even all the newer creatures that are mages have merely medeocre magery/myst attacks but insanely high melee attacks)

 

[Frarc]

For those monsters if i use my melee fighter i usualy use the hit and run tactic. X-healing with the friends i often hunt with works too. Some monster are realy much too strong to melee. Those i realy don't want to do alone but in groups. Then it don't matter who do the most damage. With my skills and Virtues i can take the role that fits me most and thats to help them with fallen friends and self ressurect if i need too.

its good to know your character strenght but even better to know there weakeness and limits.

Take the town raiders. for me i do these much faster and better then with a mage. With my warrior i can take 4-5 at ones on me and kill or arrest them. When my mage has 1 or 2 archers or mage on him he would eat dirt. And he only wears Virtue armor, no special mods on them then just all 70 resist.


I can understand that a pure warriors has problems fighting certain monsters alone if you compare it against other classes.
But i'm not for a character with certain skills and suit with mod combination who can kill everything on its own.


I remember when dragons where scary monsters you not should try to fight in melee combat. Still i did try that and eventualy killed one alone in close combat without fancy stuff. and that felt realy great then just using a tamer or a bard to kill one.


I don't say that people should not try to make the perfect skill combination and armor but no one should be invincible.

 

[Petra Fyde]

I remember when dragons where scary monsters you not should try to fight in melee combat. Still i did try that and eventualy killed one alone in close combat without fancy stuff. and that felt realy great then just using a tamer or a bard to kill one.

I remember that! My first solo dragon. My hands were shaking. Run in, hit it. If it hit you, run off and heal, cos if it hit you twice you were dead. Keep an eye on stamina and chug those refresh pots, cos if it hit you when your stamina was low it didn't need a second smack. I was so damned elated when it died. I went through shed loads of bandies and pots. Jousting was the only way a warrior could do it.

 

[Mervyn]

think you're supposed to kill these with cannon

Just throwing that one out there

 

[Larisa]

I remember that! My first solo dragon. My hands were shaking. Run in, hit it. If it hit you, run off and heal, cos if it hit you twice you were dead. Keep an eye on stamina and chug those refresh pots, cos if it hit you when your stamina was low it didn't need a second smack. I was so damned elated when it died. I went through shed loads of bandies and pots. Jousting was the only way a warrior could do it.

I did that too!! OMG that was so fun!

See I refuse to make a *sampire*...I still use my Bushido Archer or my tamer for most things..and yeah I die...alot! But I still have fun doin it

 

[Petra Fyde]

think you're supposed to kill these with cannon

Just throwing that one out there

yes, that's what most people do. It's mostly considered a large group activity with several boats and cannon, bards, tamers, the whole range of chars. Lots of death, lots of fun and shed loads of giggles.

I did that too!! OMG that was so fun!

See I refuse to make a *sampire*...I still use my Bushido Archer or my tamer for most things..and yeah I die...alot! But I still have fun doin it

I don't have a sampire either. I have this strange idea that chivalry and necromancy shouldn't be possible on the same character, so I won't make one. Personal choice only of course.

 

[Phangs_of_Phage]

People need to understand diff temps work better on dif things. Personally I feel my sampire is out done by my wraith thrower in most cases (but to be fair I have invested far more time/money into the thrower), but there are several situations where the sampire is obviously the better choice (Semidar, Meph.spiderchamp, Navery, Medusa, Doom. There are also things that my thrower wrecks havoc at... (riktor, Slasher, Stygian, pretty much any champ where everything is not casters and the boss isnt super fast... love the 110 swords i put on him for whirlwind ) There are also things that a disco mystic wrecks havoc at far better than either of those and there are things my necro tamer demolishes... diff temps for diff MOBs. If everyone could solo everything this game would be boring...

 

[Raptor85]

The point is less about templates, the issue is the sheer amount of melee damage EVERYTHING new does, yes, i understand thrower is going to be better at X, mage better at Y, and swords is amazing at taking out tons of small stuff. It's not about soloing either, being in a group doesnt help much if your only contribution is to die repeatedly and have to sit it out until he's dead so you can loot your armor back, most of the newer stuff uses the AI that retargets on heavy damage. On the same template i can dump 120 swords on a soulstone and pick up 120 archery and solo pretty much any of them fairly safely, since most of the new creatures ranged attacks are insignificant compared to their melee attacks. I'd love to go back to sword + shield as that's my preferred playtype but with everything doing 100+ damage through a 70's suit in doing so i'm limiting myself to weaker monsters.....why bother when i can equip my bow instead and do the exact same damage from a distance and not take any damage? I would honestly say for SA monsters there are 0 cases where a melee dexxer is a better choice over something like a ABC archer or whammie thrower.

I understand that the bosses need to be tough but most of them had their damage buffed so that they actually make a significant dent in a GD's hp when tanking it as it was too easy for tamers....which made it impossible for melee dexxers to survive. They need more balanced attacks, mage type creatures actually need a AI that does combos, teleport, etc (like they actually used to...no idea why they were dumbed down)....not runs directly at the nearest person and starts punching them.... it's no fun when 99% of the monsters worth fighting for purposes other than RP kll you in one hit unless you attack from ranged. Melee damage only effects melee characters as tamers isn't generally not an issue to stay a few tiles back vetting and everyone else attacks from range.

 

[Petra Fyde]

I can tell you why teleport was stopped. Reapers etc teleporting into people's houses.
I regret the loss, my pet could teleport to me if it got stuck before they 'fixed' that.

Tamers don't have everything their own way - mobs with area effect prevent vetting
Bards don't have everything their own way - some mobs can't be barded.

Sampire is a hybrid invented by players, I don't think the devs ever expected such a char to be created, which means they hadn't taken it into account when attempting to balance play.

 

[Raptor85]

Tamers don't have everything their own way - mobs with area effect prevent vetting

Only one i've had any issue with really is corgul and his area attack isn't nearly as strong as his melee attack, yeah you'll take damage but the area attack "only" does about 50 damage, that's tiny compared to how hard most of the stuff hits. Pets can still be healed with magery quite easily from a distance as well.

Bards don't have everything their own way - some mobs can't be barded.

I'm not aware of any of the new bosses that can't, they're all barding difficulty 160 which means the chance is around 10% without slayer , but they can all be discorded.

Sampire is a hybrid invented by players, I don't think the devs ever expected such a char to be created, which means they hadn't taken it into account when attempting to balance play.

They most definitely did take it into account recently, the new ability a lot of the bosses have is specificly to counter sampire tanking, or any sort of leech-based build (doesn't just stop sampires, stops any type of necro-warrior or warrior with leech weapons really)


To put in perspective, say 10 new bosses with yet another new set of items that makes everything in the game previously look like trash were released, and 9/10 of them had the abilities of lord paroxy where they ate pets to regen health. Tamers would be UP IN ARMS over this, and this is essentially what it's like for non-sampire melee dexxers on all the newer bosses....there's just few of us left and 99% of us are used to this since ML and just swap to archery whenever we want to actually be able to kill things larger than a spawn boss without dying instantly. (or put on necro or some other form of leech...but as per the point of this thread the devs are specificly blocking this option now) I'm all for not having any one template that can do everything solo....but perhaps....maybe...non-sampire melee dexxers can have SOMETHING they can do?

 

[sirrojen]

I like how the game forces you to come up with new templates. I have a killer samuwraith, a wicked healer/thrower, a mage/sw/mystic, and a bard tamer. Honestly my least fav char is my tamer because I hate relying completely on something besides myself. I dont think everything in the game should be soloable, i like how a lot lf it is, but promoting teamwork is a good thing imo.

I bet if u made a tank with max resist, max dci, and some decent eaters with 150 HP and enough people healing you, you could tank the mob. Even my mage healing himself, with no dci or resisting spells can survive the fight without anyone else healing him as long as he is not tanking.

 

[Saint of Killers]

Yeah, I guess we were due for a "my melee sampire can't solo everything" thread.

 

[RuSini Neb]

Cracks me up when I read things like, Oh I refuse to play sampire because they kill everything or Oh tamers are so OPED ( have you played a tamer in past 3 years lol ?) Tamers suck out right, unless you are just farming random world encounters for matts ie leather whatever. As far as peerless ( outside grizzle and mel ) what can a single tamer solo? As far as these, well there should be bosses that take huge groups to kill... This is exactly why I don't play wow, I am on a small shard and the people I can pick from to call friends and do hunts like this is far and few between, so yeah I prefer bosses that if you invest enough time into select character you can kill them with a single or two man group. Also do you realize how long it takes to get all the needed artifacts to build a truly good sampire suit, I would just like to know ho many of you have a set of tinkers leggings just hanging around, or a breastplate of the bizzerker for a thrower build ?? eh ? If you like to play gimp templates that are years behind the times, thats great for you but don't expect other people to dumb there characters down to that level, just because you are still stick in UO-Past, thats about as absurd as developers offering the idea of soloing the whole game in a sash, due to lack of new content, where as they should just make new encounters, not say well gimp your self and do old encounters again /rollseyes......


I would also like to point out all you people who say sampires take no skill, or are not fun at all. I think playing a sampire is a crap ton of fun, you forget to curse weapon once every 3 - 4 swings you die you forget to eat apple right time you die, you forget to chug refresh pot at right time you die..... and btw my fights generaly go on for 15-30 minutes depending on selected peerless. Plenty of time for stuff to go wrong, and lots of fun micro managing my sampires attacks Defenses pots trapped boxes apple etc.. etc...

 

[NuSair]

The problem is that a Sampire is a dexer with a healing advantage, if it's survivable by a dexer it's survivable by a Sampire.

Another problem is this- right now the Sampire is the only true character tank in UO. Other than that, you might as well call it Greater Dragons Online. Even with healing, x-healing, potions, a spamming healer with near limitless mana there are fights that a 'normal' character cannot survive, but a sampire can.

While I love the sandbox aspect of UO and the fact that it is not a level based system, it also creates limitations. There is only so much DPS a character can take. They have limited hit points to pretty much 150 cap. At that point, you have to get into damage mitigation. You can up your survival rate by being able to spam Feint/Evasion as a tank, but you still have to have that outside healing if you are not a Sampire. But, the increase in weight of potions has made carrying that many potions troublesome.

Personally, I think that UO needed the sampire. Basically the game became nothing but tamers running around with Greater Dragons for Peerless level fights.

In general I agree in the IDEA that Chivalry and Necromancy should not be able to be used together, it really depends on how you look at it. Chivalry doesn't necessarily mean good. You can be evil and honorable at the same time. You can be virtuous and evil. Even if you go with the idea that Chivalrous powers are holy, there are/should be similar powers granted by the un-holy God(s)/beings of power.

Should there only be creatures that can be tanked by pets? I am going to say hesitantly a no. If you get 2 or 3 other characters with the sole purpose of healing one character, then definitely no.... once they get the loot situation fixed where it works that all the characters in those situations get loot boxes. Just like with creatures that just destroy pets.... which destroys player tanks.... which leaves it to be tanked by summons or kept in one place long enough to be bombarded by archers/throwers.

I can keep going on, but I didn't sleep at all last night and I am sitting here with my head bouncing off the key board.

 

[RuSini Neb]

Yeah, I guess we were due for a "my melee sampire can't solo everything" thread.

My Melee Sampire thrower does in fact solo everything in the game ( cept high seas bosses which I created a bushido dexer that me and one other friend use to duo all high seas non life leach bosses so good game for making those anti-melee ish fights )

 

[kRUXCg7]

My Melee Sampire thrower

Melee Sampire Thrower? Hm Must be a tight package.

 

[RuSini Neb]

Melee Sampire Thrower? Hm Must be a tight package.

well traditionally you could not melee on a thrower with out swordsmanship to offset the HCI penalty of being to close to target, well now they removed that and yes i would say 75% of the fights i stand one tile away from the boss and basically just melee him as stated. The are very few I have to actually kite ( and btw I run 0 DCI on my toon ).

 

[Saint of Killers]

My Melee Sampire thrower does in fact solo everything in the game

Ditto.

It only takes a couple soulstones to tweak any sampire to adjust to what you're soloing. I rotate bush/chiv/necro/music/disco/peace/melee/resist quite often on my thrower. That's too much thought/work for the average samp I guess though.

Me want 2 poynt clik consacrait emeny WINNNN!

 

[Raptor85]

you're all missing the point (except NuSair who seemed to actually read the thread) and just repeating what each other said, sampires ARE easy to tank anything with....yes...but the new stuff hits so hard no amount of healing will save you unless you're leeching on every blow...and some of the newer mobs they're adding a specific mod that prevents leeching, making them impossible to fight without ranged weapons or something with a lot of hp being the primary tank. So by all means, go try your sampire against a mob that prevents leeching, lemme know how that goes.

There was a time in UO where you could play as templates other than variations of myst/mages, bard/tamers, ABC archers, and sampires you know......(and no, it's doesnt count that "you can still do that!" when you're pointlessly weak if you do and all boss encounters are focused around players using these vs them)

As it sits now heres how basicly every single boss works.
1. you need a tank that can take a lot of damage, generally a greater dragon
a. alternatively a mystic can chain cast RC's if the mob doesnt have auto-dispel
2. if you don't want the fight to take a few hours bring a bard for discord
3. whoever's got the best weapon and has bush gets honor
4. everyone sits back with ranged weapons and we wait for the boss to die

Without something other than a player to take the brunt of the damage there's very little chance of success

 

[Phangs_of_Phage]

I agree with Raptor that they need to increase the AI of the oponent and not just give them 5 trillion HP and 130+ dmg hits vs all 70% suit.

 

[RuSini Neb]

you're all missing the point (except NuSair who seemed to actually read the thread) and just repeating what each other said, sampires ARE easy to tank anything with....yes...but the new stuff hits so hard no amount of healing will save you unless you're leeching on every blow...and some of the newer mobs they're adding a specific mod that prevents leeching, making them impossible to fight without ranged weapons or something with a lot of hp being the primary tank. So by all means, go try your sampire against a mob that prevents leeching, lemme know how that goes.

There was a time in UO where you could play as templates other than variations of myst/mages, bard/tamers, ABC archers, and sampires you know......(and no, it's doesnt count that "you can still do that!" when you're pointlessly weak if you do and all boss encounters are focused around players using these vs them)

As it sits now heres how basicly every single boss works.
1. you need a tank that can take a lot of damage, generally a greater dragon
a. alternatively a mystic can chain cast RC's if the mob doesnt have auto-dispel
2. if you don't want the fight to take a few hours bring a bard for discord
3. whoever's got the best weapon and has bush gets honor
4. everyone sits back with ranged weapons and we wait for the boss to die

Without something other than a player to take the brunt of the damage there's very little chance of success

I guess you totally skimmed my post where I said me and a friend of mine took necro skills off of two our characters replaced with healing modded our sets to fit in EP and now we can duo the bosses no problem, good game on making anti-melee bosses. It can still be done just not 1/2 as easy. ( actually just to clarify he still likes to run wraith form for those mana leeches, we just cross heal instead of leach heal... )

 

[Saint of Killers]

I guess you totally skimmed my post where I said me and a friend of mine took necro skills off of two our characters replaced with healing modded our sets to fit in EP and now we can duo the bosses no problem, good game on making anti-melee bosses. It can still be done just not 1/2 as easy. ( actually just to clarify he still likes to run wraith form for those mana leeches, we just cross heal instead of leach heal... )

Dexxers that cross heal with bandages? I are's so confuzdeded.

 

[Viper09]

Cannons, hence Scalis being a part of the whole high seas deal.

 

[RuSini Neb]

Cannons, hence Scalis being a part of the whole high seas deal.

Isn't a shot like 300 something hps off him... I thought about trying to get 4 boats and square him in, and see if we could kill him with nothing but cannons....

 

[Meatbread]

Commentary from tamers is of course entirely welcome, since everyone knows that tamers are easily the most informed and expert players in Ultima Online. I mean let's face it, when you see a tamer standing there, unmoving, taking no damage, casting greater heal over and over again while his dragon chews on a target, you can't help but be struck by the sheer skill on display. Man, and those guys on the FPS tournament circuits thought they were good at games.

Also, isn't it great how any discussion of melee must always be a discussion of sampires and virtually nothing else? I mean I remember the days when people could make a paladin, or a samurai, or a plain old warrior without being second-class citizens. Those were horrible days, and we're surely much better off now that there's only one real melee archetype in the entire game.

I mean, is anyone out there dumb enough to not be completely in love with the current state of affairs? I doubt it very much! Nonetheless, if they were, it would be trivial for them to fix the situation on their own in multiple sorts of ways.

1) Join a guild, or perhaps create one, or maybe just quit doing anything independant of the guild you're already in. Go to a boss fight in the company of ten or more people, and contribute to their overall victory by forcing them to resurrect your obsolete pure paladin (or whatever) over and over as he's repeatedly killed in one or two shots each.

2) Get archery.

These completely equitable and reasonable options are all the evidence anyone needs to see that Ultima Online is trucking along in a state of precision-tuned gameplay balance!

 

[MalagAste]

While I agree the tend of the DEV's to make what we call "Kitchen Sink" bosses is rather annoying and I do NOT like it. I mean monsters aren't "fun" nor are they good if you just increase the HP to biblical proportions and make them hit for 1200 HP of damage... Getting one hit rolled is pretty lame. That said however I don't usually have that problem with Scalis. And yes you are "meant" to fire all the guns at him... The other new boss as well... Good luck hitting him without getting killed he don't tend to take cannon fire too kindly. I've mostly fought him with my Bushido/Chivy/Archer... who doesn't do too bad... sure I die from time to time... but that's all part of the thrill... it's not fun if there isn't a risk of life and limb. But honestly to me the worst monster for a group battle has got to be the Tormented Minotaur. Instantly killing 100's of players in a single blast... Often was used by EM's as a base creature... I finally got myself a Talisman with protection against them.

I'm glad that the DEV's discovered Sampires and now have given monsters a defense against them. There shouldn't be one template in-game that is the absolute ruler. If there were the game would be EXTREMELY boring and everyone would only play Sampires.

Petra Fyde I still recall being a younger player and finding someones "wild" WW at a house along the road out of East Brit Bank. I remember how giddy and excited I was because I had FINALLY gotten a "Dragon Slayer" bow.... I ran back to the bank as fast as I could grabbed my shinny new bow went back out and ran bravely up to the beast and took my shot... BAM! I though yeah that had to do it! I expected to see his bar down maybe a quarter or so... even an eighth... So I check his bar.... FULL HEALTH!!!!!! I ran so fast WW hot on my heals.... Ran him straight into East Brit Bank and proceeded to watch as EVERYONE scattered... Didn't take long for guards to get called and the mighty beast was gone... and I was still in awe of the mighty dragon. I miss those times. Dragons were the kings of the land... sad that now the mighty dragon is now childs play. No longer do they inspire fear and respect... I'm waiting and hoping for the day the dragon returns to his former glory.

 

[RuSini Neb]

Commentary from tamers is of course entirely welcome, since everyone knows that tamers are easily the most informed and expert players in Ultima Online. I mean let's face it, when you see a tamer standing there, unmoving, taking no damage, casting greater heal over and over again while his dragon chews on a target, you can't help but be struck by the sheer skill on display. Man, and those guys on the FPS tournament circuits thought they were good at games.

Also, isn't it great how any discussion of melee must always be a discussion of sampires and virtually nothing else? I mean I remember the days when people could make a paladin, or a samurai, or a plain old warrior without being second-class citizens. Those were horrible days, and we're surely much better off now that there's only one real melee archetype in the entire game.

I mean, is anyone out there dumb enough to not be completely in love with the current state of affairs? I doubt it very much! Nonetheless, if they were, it would be trivial for them to fix the situation on their own in multiple sorts of ways.

1) Join a guild, or perhaps create one, or maybe just quit doing anything independant of the guild you're already in. Go to a boss fight in the company of ten or more people, and contribute to their overall victory by forcing them to resurrect your obsolete pure paladin (or whatever) over and over as he's repeatedly killed in one or two shots each.

2) Get archery.

These completely equitable and reasonable options are all the evidence anyone needs to see that Ultima Online is trucking along in a state of precision-tuned gameplay balance!

You might be a little off... Tamers are gimp now days imo, you have to have a hand full to do anything ( not really pro imo ). what you mean a Paladin or a Samurai I am playing both as well as a Necromancer on the same character...

 

[Meatbread]

The proper defense against sampires is to inflate the skill requirements just a little until no one can fit necro, chiv, and bush all on the same template. But add new, good things to go along with the inflated the skill requirements, so that the templates that ARE possible are actually worthwhile.

 

[RuSini Neb]

The proper defense against sampires is to inflate the skill requirements just a little until no one can fit necro, chiv, and bush all on the same template. But add new, good things to go along with the inflated the skill requirements, so that the templates that ARE possible are actually worthwhile.

so you are saying you want powerful templates just as long as its not with the combination of Bushido, necromancy, and chiv ( btw i dont even need chiv on my sampie.... ) ???? Can we do cooking ninja and say detect hidden and call it a cooinjan ? The point is you nerf sampires whatever, someone else will run another template such as wammy !!!! omg no necromancy really needed there, or How about those Mystic Dexxers that never die and can solo slasher , the Rak-acha or w.e they were calling them last year. Oh and by all means lets nerf ABC archer because not cool u can stand at range and basically do same thing current sampires can.......

Also I am still confused why you keep bringing up tamers as OPED in any fashion, once again they cant do anything outside having a group. I could just be misunderstanding what you are trying to get across, maybe you want all combat type skills nerfed that do anything over 5 dmg in the game?

 

[Zero Day]

Scalis has anti-life leech, but deals less melee damage that most peerless bosses. He does not perform stun attacks, and his other special abilities deal more damage to targets at greater range.
His attacks are
Melee Special : Smash attack (AOE proc on melee)

Ranged Specials
Eel toss
Water Globes
Bounce Lighting

Lightning damage increases with bounces and does more damage to Wet targets.
Eels are more likely to be thrown at ranged attackers than melee attackers.

Also deals alot of damage to pets.

Get 2 parry healer dexers beating on him with high chiv and xhealing he dishes out alot less damage.


Scalis is not too bad a boss to fight if you are organized. But if you aren't paying attention to what is actually happening (such as sitting there beating on him while standing in a puddle of water) you may find yourself taking alot more damage than you need to be.

IE: You're doing it wrong.

 

[RuSini Neb]

Scalis has anti-life leech, but deals less melee damage that most peerless bosses. He does not perform stun attacks, and his other special abilities deal more damage to targets at greater range.
His attacks are
Melee Special : Smash attack (AOE proc on melee)

Ranged Specials
Eel toss
Water Globes
Bounce Lighting

Lightning damage increases with bounces and does more damage to Wet targets.
Eels are more likely to be thrown at ranged attackers than melee attackers.

Also deals alot of damage to pets.

Get 2 parry healer dexers beating on him with high chiv and xhealing he dishes out alot less damage.


Scalis is not too bad a boss to fight if you are organized. But if you aren't paying attention to what is actually happening (such as sitting there beating on him while standing in a puddle of water) you may find yourself taking alot more damage than you need to be.

IE: You're doing it wrong.

dun give away all de secrets dey must find out about wet targets by trial end erroz ;c

 

[Meatbread]

so you are saying you want powerful templates

Yes. Melee templates. With an S. That is to say, more than one.

 

[MalagAste]

dun give away all de secrets dey must find out about wet targets by trial end erroz ;c

AGRH! How dare they give away that secret! Don't just stand there in a puddle of water you dolt! Move it or lose it! You have to pay close attention at Scalis or you might get burned...

 

[SunWolf]

Cannons do around 2000 dmg to him, but you have to wait till he is lined up infront of the cannon or it miss's.

 

[NuSair]

Line up the boats like such

..A
A..A
..A

Then he is always in line for the top and bottom. I haven't had enough people to do him at once, but you might could even box him into a single square and have all 4 constantly lined up.

 

[virtualhabitat]

this was really a nerf for bards disguised as a nerf for sampires.

 

[TBH]

A good thrower can solo Scalis.

Don't bring a knife to a gun fight and then come to Stratics and cry nerf.

 

[Meatbread]

Thank you for this insightful and relevant post. As long as throwers are fine, melee is in great shape with only one template, and that template subject to direct counteraction.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

I've done reasonably well with a non-Sampire dexer (2 of them actually) at Scalis. And I do not consider my own playing skill to be that great.

It's a rough ride but it's surely doable.

-Galen's player

 

[Uvtha]

I don't say that people should not try to make the perfect skill combination and armor but no one should be invincible.

There's a difference between "invincible" and "able to survive more than 1 hit".

While its true that teaming up will help any situation, like the op stated, once you get target switched on you have to run, or die a lot of the time, and with this boss especially the only really functional melee template is completely unusable. In the mean time the bard keep barding, the throwers keep throwing, and the dragons keep munching away.

 

[Petra Fyde]

Zero Day has explained why you took so much damage - don't stand in the water.
He has also told you how to melee this creature, x heal with another.

Since this thread has descended into personal attacks I think it's done.