Dreadhorn Keys

[Macrophage]

To get enough spirit speak to make corpse skin and curse weapon really viable, you need to drop either anatomy or parry, and either way it pretty much balances out considering you either do less damage naturally or take more damage due to getting hit more. And while casting you'll either A. be getting interrupted or B. be waiting for it to cast (which means, not swinging therefore not hitting)

In short, lol corpse skin warriors

To be completely honest if you play a wammy aka with spirit speak, corpse skin is going to last a lot of time, so unless you can effectively spam AI, you ll always be better doing with it than without. Obviously after that you re going to use LS/AI as much as you can, but LS is not a guaranteed crit as far as I know. If irk's minimal resist is 50 fire and you use corpse skin, provided your wep is 100% of that damage type (or consecrus), you are going to do 30% more damage per hit. If 40% of your hits are non crits, the difference of damage will be significant (+12% of total damage). Of course, that strategy is only valid if your target lowest resist is fire of poison. If you wear FC items, casting Corpse is about as fast as one swing, so at worse you ll lose one LS every 40sec-one minute...

But that s all about the template you re playing, if you play pure sampire obviously it won t work.

 

[harry_mccreature]

Okay, as the OP, i feel obligated to post an update.

I've managed to raise my sampire's Str to 122 and Dex to 141, Int is still 40 courtesy of some awesome imbued jewelry, a crimson cincture, and a conjurer's trinket.

After failing once more to kill irk i went back to my normal stomping grounds for building back fame and honor: miasma.

I was able to loot a 60/40 Poison/Fire Rune Blade from Miasma that had no additional mods on it and thanked my lucky stars. I was so excited that i logged onto my crafter and jumped right into imbuing it, forgetting to use POF on it. So it only has 60 durability. oh well. I put HML, HSL, SSI, and 45 DI on it.

So i went and attempted irk again...and killed her! Only to find that Irk's brain was not in the loot. A second attempt at irk had me missing honor and getting killed once more. Sufficiently pissed off i decided to take a break at this point.

I'm absolutely convinced that what I need is an elemental Double Axe at this point. Double Strike and the appropriate weapon combined with my previous tactics would surely allow me to kill irk much easier.

Can someone explain to me the best/fastest/cheapest way to craft an elemental weapon using a dull copper runic hammer and enhancing? This is the next step in my journey. Thanks again everyone.

 

[Picus at the office]

Buy a bag of dull hammers, craft till you get what you want. I smelt the left over stuff but some my unravel. Took me 20 hammers to craft a 100% cold dashio for Rikkie so the numbers will either be with you or not. Use iron ingots only.

 

[Macrophage]

You can enhance your wep with dull copper and it will double its durability. It won t change its resists.

 

[Ozzmandias]

Aye, DC hammers, make with iron ingots and look for the coloured ones... 100% weaps are possible right off the bat, but unlikely. However, also look for some that arent pure neon, but have some damage remaining in phys. You can enhance these with another metal to change this remaining phys damage into an elemental damage type... Good metals to use for irk would be Bronze for 40% more fire, or maybe Agapite for cold and energy.

Of course, once you make some neons, you gotta hope they have SSI HML HSL or something you can use. All the damn 100% Fire weaps I make seem to have Mage Weap, UBWS, Luck & Spell channel crapness.

This is a great guide, and still works:

http://vboards.stratics.com/uo-craftsman/12409-dius-fidus-guide-enhancing-create-improve-neon-weapons.html

Cheers

Oz

**EDIT**

Oh by the way, if you succeed the enhance, the colour will probably change straight away, but the properties won't show, throw it in a box and pick it back up and it should 'kick in' the new properties so you can see them.

 

[HD2300]

Do you have HLD (Hit Lower Defence) on your weapon or have Mace and Shield Glasses? It makes a HUGE difference.

 

[harry_mccreature]

Aye, DC hammers, make with iron ingots and look for the coloured ones... 100% weaps are possible right off the bat, but unlikely. However, also look for some that arent pure neon, but have some damage remaining in phys. You can enhance these with another metal to change this remaining phys damage into an elemental damage type... Good metals to use for irk would be Bronze for 40% more fire, or maybe Agapite for cold and energy.

Of course, once you make some neons, you gotta hope they have SSI HML HSL or something you can use. All the damn 100% Fire weaps I make seem to have Mage Weap, UBWS, Luck & Spell channel crapness.

This is a great guide, and still works:

http://vboards.stratics.com/uo-craftsman/12409-dius-fidus-guide-enhancing-create-improve-neon-weapons.html

Cheers

Oz

**EDIT**

Oh by the way, if you succeed the enhance, the colour will probably change straight away, but the properties won't show, throw it in a box and pick it back up and it should 'kick in' the new properties so you can see them.

HEY BUD

What a helpful post this was! I went and bought 20 dull copper runics. Only spent 218K total so not a huge financial loss, especially considering it only took me TWO hammers to craft a double axe that was

20% Phys
20% Fire
40% Cold
20% Poison

It also had 42% HIT LOWER DEFENSE which one or two other posters in this thread recommended against Irk. Well, as per that awesome link you posted I enhanced with Bronze and now it's:

40% Fire
40% Cold
20% Poison

I'm gonna POF to 255 and probably imbue HLD up to it's max of 50%, but maybe not. I have relic frags to use for SSI. HML and HSL always come last when i make a weapon.

I'd like to thank everyone that contributed to this thread. Was very helpful. I have a feeling I'm gonna be killing Irk much easier from now on. I'll post updates with next attempt.

 

[T'Challa]

I enhanced with Bronze and now it's:

40% Fire
40% Cold
20% Poison

I'm gonna POF to 255 and probably imbue HLD up to it's max of 50%, but maybe not. I have relic frags to use for SSI. HML and HSL always come last when i make a weapon.

I've been out of the loop for 6 months but I thought you couldn't imbue an item after enhancing. You need to imbue first, THEN enhance...or so it was when I was playing...

 

[Lynk]

I've been out of the loop for 6 months but I thought you couldn't imbue an item after enhancing. You need to imbue first, THEN enhance...or so it was when I was playing...

You can now imbue enhanced items.

 

[Myna]

when your suit has 20 or 30 lmc there is no need for an elemental weapon. i am always able to use consecrate weapon ... even mana drained most of the time and my pool is only 46 using a leafblade. my suit is really average compared to the woodland ones

even when i fight irk and spite/guille together ....

i think fighting irk is not a suit issue .... its an issue of practice

but of course an elemtal weapon can help but its not really necessary

 

[harry_mccreature]

Okay so I'd like to post an update. I now have the keys down to a science. I can get the keys and do the dreadhorn within an hour and change, without dying a single time.

I have revamped my suit. I use the Quiver of Infinity, Trinket, Crimmy, and Corgul's Sash as clothing accessories. The suit itself I only use the mace and shield glasses, the rest being crafted barbed studded leather. Max resists. 41 Stamina, 40 LMC, 32 Mana Increase. Arty armor is really overrated I've found.
For jewels I have a total of +19 Necro, 16 Strength, 16 Dex, 30 DCI, and 16 HCI.

Total stats:

130 Strength/125 HP
149 Dex/190 Stamina
29 Int/81 Mana

Okay so usually the double axe works well for Irk, but to be sure, I now use a regular non-enhanced valorite daisho with HLA, HLD, Stamina and Mana leech with 40 DI. She gives me no troubles now. The dreadhorn itself is easy as well. Feint works wonders, especially combined with an exceptionally armored swampy. If for some reason the Dreadhorn ever gets me around half life, which happens once or twice during the battle, im only two double strikes away from being back near full health. It's nice being able to spam double strike now, due to the LMC in my suit.

To get the keys, Im ALWAYS at max honor. But I don't honor myself right away. First I get the thorny briar, make my way up to Gnaw, clearing changelings out of my way with the double axe mentioned earlier in the thread. I hang out in the cave til I get the Fang. Then I honor myself, go grab the blighted cotton on my way down to sabrix and lissith. Usually the honor is long enough to get both the eye and the silk.

Now once I have just Irk to go, I take my time. I exit the dungeon and visit the Fan Dancer Dojo, heading to the 2nd basement and then I begin farming Succubus. This is by far the fastest way I've seen to quickly build honor. Within 10 minutes I am once again a knight of honor. I quick head back to Twisted Weald, honor myself, equip the daisho mentioned earlier, and 3 minutes or less I have the brain. I have been able to do this now twice without dying. The timers on the keys are so long you have plenty of time to build honor back up. We're talking hours.

Moral of the story: Artifact Armor is overrated when building a sampire. Mace and Shields with the rest being crafted is my suit of choice now. Also the Daisho is an amazing weapon. Feint is a miracle move. I've also solo'd Paroxysmus with this weapon, but that's another thread.