Creating a PvM Pure Mage, that last skill???

[Dreadmage]

Alright, I have spent about two weeks researching, asking opinions, and asking my wife her thoughts, and here is what I got for my PvM Pure Mage Template:

Magery- 120 (duh!)
Eval. Intel.- 120 (again, duh!)
Meditation- 120 (most use this)
Inscription- 100 (dmg bonus & make some gold)
Focus- 120 (wanna massive mana regen)

and the last skill is...

I'm not sure, I have narrowed it down to three. Spell Weaving, this is the one I think would be the coolest! Resist Spells, many people seem to put a lot of stock in this skill, others say it isn't important, especially in PvM. So, I'm not sure about whether I might <u>need</u> it. The third is Wrestling, again some say it is important for a mage's defense, others say it's barely an option.

My point is, I like the idea of adding Spell Weaving, but if Resist Spells, or Wrestling are really important to the survivability of a PvM Pure Mage, then perhaps I should take one of them. Ultimately, the test shard will be helpful in figuring this out, but if anyone could give me there opinion, and maybe tell me a place on the test shard to go test that weak link would be great.

Thank you all for all of your help!
The UO community ROCKS!

 

[Guest]

spellweaving or resist would be ok, wrestling not so much (my opinion), since I do not think your going to be in hand to hand combat are you? You are going to be hit monsters with spells, and moving away and hit it again, yes?

if you have access to soulstones or soulstone fragments you could stick with your main skills. work up which ever one you pick, then if you decide it not work well stone it off, pick you the next skill. Then if you decide you would like that skill back, its still there on a soulstone or fragement.

this is the mage I run for pvm:

Magery- 100
Eval. Intel.-100
Meditation- 100
Inscription- 100 (dmg bonus &amp; make some gold)
Resist - 100
Necromancy 100 some nice spells + raise dead + summon wisp which helps mana regeneration
spirit speak 100 allows you to heal from dead bodies around you

There are few things I can not take down with this character, he can be improved just need the gold for the scroll, then I will retweak him.

I am scrolled higher on magery, eval, neco, spirit speak and with my items, I hit 110 in all these skills. Still working on afford 120 scrolls in every skill I use on this character.

Personally just build your character as you wish. While it is great to get input from fellow players. It is your enjoyment of the game and your characters that is most important. I know a player that has a grandmaster in begging, hiding, stealth, and stealing. To him begging from npcs and trying to steal in front of them is fun. I do not understand it, but he has a blast, even when he ends up getting the guards called on him.


Also buying the power scrolls you are going to need, is going to take quite awhile.
Unless you are in a champ spawn guild or a raiding guild. Your 120 magery scroll is going to be very expensive.

 

[joblackjon]

You must have Resist unless you plan to never fight magic casters.

 

[Dreadmage]

Alot of people say that, but resist only stops certain spells, and not many of the direct damage ones, even then, there is still a chance that the ones it can stop will get through. After all that, is it still that important? I'm only going by what stratics said resist did, if I'm wrong, let me know.

It just looks like an awfully lot of skill points, to stop a handful of spells, only a majority of the time. It would seem more worth while if it affected all spells, or just all magery spells, or if at gm level, the handful it did effect you were immune to. You know what I mean? Honestly, is stopping those select spells roughly 3 out of 4 times really that helpful. I'm just wondering, looking at the numbers it just don't seem to add up.

Thanks for the input

 

[eric13]

well in my opinion if u are staying out of felucca then resist is not at all necessary. I mean if the monster is say master theopoulus at 150 magery you aren't resisting his para regardless of having magic resist or not! he is gonna run you down if he para's you. In my opinion the stronget pvm mage combo is a provoking-spellweaving one
120 mage
120 eval
100 med
120 provo
120 music
120 weave

plenty of firepower and as long as there is something else around you can make them damage each other, which is a good thing. and with word of death doing anywhere from 300-500 or more damage on bosses that spell alone is worth having weave,but there also some awesome other spells too!

 

[Guest]

yes,

you need resist, since you are going with a pure casting character, your only way to heal/cure is through spells.

If you have no resist at all, when paralyzed, you can not cast any spells, the monster walks over to you and mops the floor with you. Because the less resist you have the longer the paralyze spell holds you in place.

Now if you have resist, yes you can still be paralyzed but the spell effect wears off faster the higher you have resist.

So unless your going to not be fighting the harder magic using monsters, I believe resist is a good fit on a pure mage. If your going to fight peerless boss monsters then I think you definitely need resist, even in a group at a peerless, I get my fair share of spells cast my way.

 

[Dreadmage]

Ok, so Resist Spells is a must for the bosses, to at least lessen the durations. In that case I'll take it. So now my question evolves, Spell Weaving, it sounds so awsome, and just above it was said Word of Death deals like 300-500 dmg. So now it sounds even better, and what to drop to pick that up is the question. At a glance, I would say Focus. Since I mainly wanted it for the Mana Regen, and can get that from equipment.

Any thoughts???

Thanks

 

[joblackjon]

Problem with Spellweaving is the Arcane Crystal which determines the strength of the Weaver spells.

You need a group of Weavers (up to 5 with nearly similar skill levels) to gather on a pentagram and create an Arcane Crystal in each backpack. The duration of the Crystal and the power of the spells is determined by the number Weavers and their skill levels.

It can dang hard to find 4-5 willing Weavers when you need them!

 

[Dreadmage]

I see, that does seem to be a major problem. I was hoping to find a guild that had a strong mage influence. Spellweaving included, and then use that as my arcane circle. But that may be harder than I thought. I think I will have focus, and spellweaving both turned up to start, and if I find the guild I'm looking for, keep spellweaving, if not, I would keep focus, and turn down the one I'm dropping.

This leaves me with this template...

Magery - 120
Eval. Intel. - 120
Meditation - 120
Inscription - 100
Res. Spells - 120
and...
Spellweaving or Focus - 120
with...
Strength - 70
Dexterity - 35
Intelligence - 120

Sounds like a good PvM Pure Mage to me! Any final thoughts on this concept? Strengths, weaknesses, problems, advantages?

Thank you all! You are excellent advisers, and I appreciate all you knowledge &amp; experience. Thank you...

 

[eric13]

Well my point was that I have never seen a monster throw e-fields on you and then kill u because u could not move. 9 times out of ten they cast harm or fireball after a para and your out of it anyway

. If you absolutly must move get a trapped box. It is made by a low level (skill of like 45) tinker. And they make a dart trap box. You keep it in your pack and when you get para'ed click the box, It will break the para and wont cost you 100-120 points of skill. So I guess it is your choice. I am not a huge fan of resist for pvm, even in pvp there are ways to para and kill people with resist! Focus will go a long way if you plan to make a lot of high level scrolls. But honestly you can make more money killing stuff now than you ever could selling scrolls to npc's(or to players). It is just the state of the game. And i regularly use spellweaving with no focus. All of the spells still work, it is just that some like word of death, can be cast earlier (the monster has to be at a little less than 1/4 life with a level 5 focus). level four a little lower and so on. and others like gift of renewal do not last as long. Still totally usable spells without a focus. The focus just makes them much better. Best of luck in your adventuring! You really cant go wrong with a mage whichever way you decide to go. They are very powerful characters and can survive almost anywhere in game.

 

[DougAlmighty13]

I use resist on my chiv dexer, since it lessens the rate at which I get paralyzed and poisoned, and also greatly lessens the power of curse, so I don't have to waste casting remove curse. As far as a mage template for PVM, I love the way mine is set up. I do close to 700 damage to Lady M with Word of Death with a circle 6 and arcane empowerment, in reaper form. Graylen Ravene's temp is as follows:
Magery-120
Eval Int-120
Med-120
Necro-120
Spirit Speak-120
Spellweaving-120

I didn't see enough bonus to spell damage increase on inscription to warrant wasting 100 skill points, nothing that my suit can't take care of. With the right suit, you get the mana regen, SDI, and LMC (and 100% LRC too, of course) you need. If you can manage it, do it this way. Although these suits are pricey, especially with good resists (mine's not quite all 70's, but close enough), it's worth it. Good luck bro.