Defense

[Caelas]

Which is better:

Sword + Shield, both with high DCI (easily DCI capped with jewels)
or
Wrestle with no sword or shield, likely below DCI cap (have to hold Tome for the extra magery, need a hand for pot chugging)

I'd mostly be doing PvM, with some structured RP-PvP tossed in occasionally.

 

[Harlequin]

PvM Sword and shield

PvP 50/50. Wrestle is slightly better since you can't be disarmed. But Sword & Shield is still very attractive due to imbue-able mods

Note that you still can fall back on defensive wrestle even if you get disarmed.

 

[A Rev]

What pieces are you using, you should easily hit cap DCI with either way and still have a hand spare.

Pieces you can consider using.

Armour of Fortune
Heart of the Lion
Folded steels
Fey legs
Ring with magery and DCI and 3fcr imbued.

Pieces you kinda must use

Conjurers Garb / Cloak of death
Quiver of Infinity

When using wrestle i tend to go for an imbued ring with EP/FCR/DCI and some other mods, if you need magery put it there. Then you can use a DCI HPR shield and leave book hand open.

If your using a sword...well, if you already need magery...i dont see how this is viable. You dont gain any defensive skill from having a sword without -mage weapon in which case you would need the magery (usually -20) you lose on the weapon and then the extra magery you need. This makes the suit alot harder to build, not impossible but your losing alot of mods.

Just my opinion anyways.

 

[Caelas]

So no pot chugging? There's people in my guild that make a huge deal about chugging pots.

 

[Caelas]

What pieces are you using, you should easily hit cap DCI with either way and still have a hand spare.

Pieces you can consider using.

Armour of Fortune
Heart of the Lion
Folded steels
Fey legs
Ring with magery and DCI and 3fcr imbued.

Pieces you kinda must use

Conjurers Garb / Cloak of death
Quiver of Infinity

When using wrestle i tend to go for an imbued ring with EP/FCR/DCI and some other mods, if you need magery put it there. Then you can use a DCI HPR shield and leave book hand open.

If your using a sword...well, if you already need magery...i dont see how this is viable. You dont gain any defensive skill from having a sword without -mage weapon in which case you would need the magery (usually -20) you lose on the weapon and then the extra magery you need. This makes the suit alot harder to build, not impossible but your losing alot of mods.

Just my opinion anyways.

Well...my mage is a garg. Unless they've fixed the artifact altering...and the lower overall mods on human / elf clothing...heh.

Suit will be a total imbue project probably (minus the quiver of infinity).

9+MR
100LRC
40LMC
all 70s
45 DCI (if I can get it)
...and a guild emissary wants me to put 50 EP on it...pot chugging.

 

[NickyDishes]

So no pot chugging? There's people in my guild that make a huge deal about chugging pots.

any buff is good and beneficial.....i cant tell u how many times a heal pot saved my life both pvp and pvm

 

[A Rev]

My gargoyle mystic uses wrestling.

I use a 15DCI 25EP 3/1 ring and bracelet set (50EP 30DCI 2/6casting)

Conjurers garb
Quiver of infinity
Slither (realise this isnt available to everyone)
15DCI shield (large gargish plate shield with resists, helps towards corpse proof)

Thats 65dci

All 70's
100lrc
40lmc
5%casting focus
13mr (i think)
12hpr
10SDI
10int bonus
25hpi
and if memory serves around 32mana increase.

I will probs be changing the template and dropping the shield for a mage weapon but the same properties near enough.

Edit: Book hand has slayer / SDI MR3 book PvM nothing PvP

 

[Caelas]

Okay, so...do you hold a shield usually, and when you hold the spellbook no shield? Or do you not chug pots?

 

[A Rev]

When i PvM i tend to not chug. Ill always have pots for the rare occasion i truly need the cure / heal. Then it is a case of dropping the book to chug and re-equiping again when i go offensive.

If im doing champs, same applies...except the first sign of trouble of comes the shield to allow chugging.

 

[NickyDishes]

Okay, so...do you hold a shield usually, and when you hold the spellbook no shield? Or do you not chug pots?

doesnt matter either way except sheild and book at once......or sheild if u have parry.

 

[icm420]

i disagree with a lot of these posts on defense here. What I tend to do is run a slightly differnt suit for each situation. For example i have a blessed hat of magi in my bag at all times. When i pvm i put that on, why because i get 4 mr and 10 sdi off it and i am in a situation where i wont get hit as much. I run slayer books pvm. Rarely do i use a shield, I would take pots over 15-20 dci on a shield. In most pvm situation, or even at champion spawns, you are often in protection, decreasing your resist spells. Again pots are key there to negate poison spams. I also run a mage with 10 dexterity. It serves no purpose for mage that is pure caster to have dexterity so red pots are key here when in fel or in a situation where your stamina is drained. For pvp i run a pair of folded steel glasses with a -20 15dci mage weapon and chug. I carry a shield in my bag but that is more for a field fight where i die and have no pots available to me. in that situation an extra dci boost would be important. Potions are a big part of uo pvp now, and to not chug them puts you in a hole to start off. I love fights with no pots vs no pots but rarely do you get such occassions.

My point is that i believe potions are key for pvm and pvp.
pvm there is no real need for defense. Slayer books are key for pvm.
pvp you need to chug and have large dci preferably over cap.

 

[Lefty]

This is what I run

ring 1/3 +15 Magery +13 DCI
Bracelet 1/3 +6 Magery +13 DCI +6 Mysticism
Folded Steel Glasses +15
SC Cleaver +15
+15 sc shield (usually in backpack)

120 Magery
120 Focus
120 Eval
120 Resist
120 Mysticism
120 Wrestling

Much is determined by the situation I am in, but I usually have a hand free.

 

[taglol]

I run like this:
SC -0 Shield 15 DCI
Quiver 5 DCI
Garb 5 DCI
Faction Kasa 10 DCI
Faction Fey 20 DCI
Armor of Fortune 15 DCI

70 DCI

The suit is also 70+/75/70/75/70, 100 LRC, 40 LMC, 11 mr, 15 SDI, 50 EP.
And temp

120 Magery
120 Eval
120 Resist
120 Meditation
120 Wrestling
100 Scribe

So that's with one hand free. They can't disarm shield so I wont ever go below 45 DCI, and I can chug all the time without any worries. Just get a decent ecru and it's np.

 

[[JD]]

i dont like the idea of imbuing a spellbooks properties onto your suit, because it hurts you when you change out slayer books.

i use an imbued greater heal wand with dci: fc1, spell channel, mage weap -20, and 15 dci.

all you need to do is overcap magery by 20 and it works great......

if you're a garg i like the 10 dci warden shield...there's a couple other shields

you should be able to build a macro to disarm shield, chug pot, and rearm. or at least I did in the EC, I like it a lot. i get the benefit of a dci shield and at the same time can chug pots or use healstone with 1 keypress

 

[slayer888]

i dont like the idea of imbuing a spellbooks properties onto your suit, because it hurts you when you change out slayer books.

i use an imbued greater heal wand with dci: fc1, spell channel, mage weap -20, and 15 dci.

all you need to do is overcap magery by 20 and it works great......

if you're a garg i like the 10 dci warden shield...there's a couple other shields

you should be able to build a macro to disarm shield, chug pot, and rearm. or at least I did in the EC, I like it a lot. i get the benefit of a dci shield and at the same time can chug pots or use healstone with 1 keypress

hi JD, I haven't used wand for awhile.

If you use the wand to cast greater heal, will it gets disrupted during the process if something hits you?

Thanks.