Guide to the Necro/Mage

[josephhartoon]

Heya everyone. I used to play UO (back in 98) and am now getting back into it. I was looking for a viable character that seemed fun to me to play all around (pvp and pvm) and the necromage seemed to fit the bill. So heres my template idea:

120 Magic Resist - With protection itll fall, and being newer i think id have trouble without running and magic resist.

100 Magery- Although a vital part to the necro mage, i really couldnt see a reason for me to have it above 100. With 100 i can cast all my spells, mayhaps with problems but i should be ok right?

120 Spirit Speak- This will increase the dmg an duration of my necro spells, also whatever i wither for i will get back as mana in wraith form. So with 120 i should get back enough to cover the cost of the spell?

100 Meditiation- Once again just for mana regen. Ive seen others posting about running less and saying they have more then enough.

100 Evaluating Int.- The dmg part of my magery...see no reason to increase.

110 Necromancy- Ive seen others post about revenants not being so good, others say its nice. Eitehr way with 110 necro i should be ok for my necro spells.

50 Focus- Just a little more help.

This template is just one ive put together form the information and posts above (I.E. see the first post ) Any thoughts or suggestions on how to make it more affective, or will it do decent for both pvp and pvm? Thx for help.

 

[Guest]

I have a question to the original template presentet by Mr.Wolf:

- if one go for the spell channeling/mage weapon route for defense, would not Tactics be a better seventh skill than focus?

I am able to squeese in 45 points of Tactics in the template and that means doing 95% of base dammage with the weapon (instead of 50% of base with zero tactics) would make it a bit more usefull than 45 points in focus?

(My smith burned trough 5 copper runics and got one warfork with SpellChanneling and - 24 mageweapon, no fc penality and 40% dammage increase. Also in a moment of madness i enhanced it with bronse...lo and behold it did not break, but got a nice 40% fire dammage to compliment the corpse skin...)

A last question to the "dream suit" that is outlined: The main difference between a 10 million suit and a 60 million suit seems to be the Ornament of the magician...at 40-45 mills its the most expensive piece. Have anyone gotten together a dream suit to cover the 80/70/70/70/70 resists, 40 LMC, 100 LRC, 15 SDI, 2 FC, 6 FCR, +22-26 magery (depending on wep), + 10 resisting spells WITHOUT an Orny?

 

[Janus69]

<blockquote><hr>

A last question to the "dream suit" that is outlined: The main difference between a 10 million suit and a 60 million suit seems to be the Ornament of the magician...at 40-45 mills its the most expensive piece. Have anyone gotten together a dream suit to cover the 80/70/70/70/70 resists, 40 LMC, 100 LRC, 15 SDI, 2 FC, 6 FCR, +22-26 magery (depending on wep), + 10 resisting spells WITHOUT an Orny?

[/ QUOTE ]

I highly doubt it.. I've been playing a necro/mage for 3 years off and on, and have been improving my suit the whole time and still don't have that.. I've got your dream suit covered and then some, except the 80 physical and the skill bonuses. I honestly don't see how you could do it w/o the orny, and maybe not even if you do. Then again, maybe it is possible to get all that in a suit w/o the orny, but you'd just have to be extremely, and I mean extremely, lucky to find the right armor and jewels.

 

[Guest]

Hmm...interesting... could you outline the suit you are wearing?

Ive been trying to solo the arachnid spawn but havent been able to get it higher then level 3 (the dread spider/matriarch combo seems to be to tough for a single necromage...i use to much time fighting dread spiders even with arachnid slayer spelbook). I also run out of mana regularly even in wraith form...cant see i notice i get much mana back when doing withers???

 

[Janus69]

I have different configurations on my suit, one for sdi/mana inc, one for dci, and one for general pvp. The only pieces that have been constant since the start are the Orny and Tunic. Anyhow, my current general use suit is 66/70/70/67/66, 100lrc, 40lmc, 10mr, 4hpr, 2/6 casting, 17sdi, int +10, dex +13, hp +10

Kasa of the Raj-in - Looted
Pendant of the Magi - Looted Ingredients
Totem of the Void - 2mil
Crimson Cincture - 17mil
Stitcher's Mittens - Looted Ingredients
Ornament of the Magician - 30 Mil(3 years ago)
Clainin's Spellbook - 1mil??
Tunic - 14% lrc 20/5/19/17/18 - Barbed Kit
Arms - MR 2 4/18/9/16/7 - Barbed Kit
Legs - MR 2 LMC 7 4/18/7/8/5 - Barbed Kit
Ring - Dex +3, FCR 3, LMC 4, Fire Resist 9%, Poison Resist 5% - Looted
Vet Robe and Cloak - 4 yrs of subscription fees

Despite not having any mana increase, I rarely run out with the MR, LMC and +20 bonus from being an elf. Saying I spent 15mil or so on Barbed Kits(spent alot more, but say 15 for those three), this suit actually cost me about 65mil give or take...

 

[Gator461]

Great thread fellas. Janus and MrWolf, would you guys mind postering up your actual templates. Want to see what you did with teh numbers to get a better sense of direction of where I should go. Great thread guys, as always, UO has some fine people playing!

 

[Janus69]

<blockquote><hr>

I have a question to the original template presentet by Mr.Wolf:

- if one go for the spell channeling/mage weapon route for defense, would not Tactics be a better seventh skill than focus?

I am able to squeese in 45 points of Tactics in the template and that means doing 95% of base dammage with the weapon (instead of 50% of base with zero tactics) would make it a bit more usefull than 45 points in focus?


[/ QUOTE ]
Well, first off, you can cast devastating debuffs and deal out huge amounts of damage very quickly using your spells. To add a third source of damage would be redundant imo. Especially considering the amount of damage you'll be dealing without any hci and a low dex will be negligible.
Second, lets say you do take up tactics. In order to deal any damage with your weapon, you're gonna need to be right on top of your opponent. If you're facing a spellcaster, it's highly unlikely they're gonna stand still while you whack away on them with a weapon, which means you're gonna constantly be running them down. If you're running, you aren't casting. And if you're not casting, you're not dealing damage. Self explanatory.
If you're facing a dexxer, the last thing you want to do is go toe to toe with him. If you try, you're gonna be dead very quickly with the little defense you'll have against a dedicated dexxer.
You'd be better served imo to put your extra points in focus and lighten the MR requirements on your gear.

<blockquote><hr>

Great thread fellas. Janus and MrWolf, would you guys mind postering up your actual templates. Want to see what you did with teh numbers to get a better sense of direction of where I should go. Great thread guys, as always, UO has some fine people playing!

[/ QUOTE ]
I've been with the same template since I started playing a Necro/Mage.. The tried and true -
Magery 120
Eval 120
Med 120
Necro 120
Spirit Speak 120
Resisting Spells 120

Str-110 Dex-20 Int-125

It's done great and I've never really felt the need to change it. I soulstoned Resisting Spells for 120 Spellweaving for a time, but you really can't survive easily pvp'ing alot w/o resisting spells imo. And, I've never needed the extra focus because I've always had a high MR suit. If you don't have alot of MR, you might think about dropping Necro or one of the your other skills for some focus and just use skill bonus jewels to make up the difference..

 

[Gator461]

Thanks for the info!

 

[Azural Kane]

Excellent thread!

I'm just getting back into UO after a 6 year break, Necromancy wasn't even implemented when I quit.

This really helped me to understand the playstyle a bit more, I think I'll end up liking it.

The only real problem I'm having on my Necro/Mage is finding keyboard space for all the darn spells! :/

 

[Impact26]

Great thread!

I have recently restarted UO again and I am currently making a Necromage and I was looking for a decent template. I'm going to go with the one Janus suggested with the 6 skills with 120 skill points in each.

The biggest question I have is that even though I got a decent DCI at 30 right now on my current suit, I seemed to keep getting hit by archers and dexxers and even with protection on, I have to always go on the defensive and keep healing because I get hit every shot. It seems I may block 1 out of 30 shots (even with a Shield of Invuln and trying out GM Parry) and I am wondering, what's the best way to make sure you're not hit every time you're being shot at or hit by a dexxer?

I read something about the mage weapons, but most of the people I see running around Yew Gate have Scrapper's and a decent shield but don't seem to get hit every swing or hit by every arrow. I was wondering if Janus or MrWolf could help me out with this.

Thanks muchly.

 

[Jaimes]

If they're using a spellbook, they're either using Wrestling or the Anat+Eval formula.

Anat + Eval formula is (Anatomy + Eval + 20) / 2 = wrestling for defensive purposes.

 

[Janus69]

<blockquote><hr>

The biggest question I have is that even though I got a decent DCI at 30 right now on my current suit, I seemed to keep getting hit by archers and dexxers and even with protection on, I have to always go on the defensive and keep healing because I get hit every shot. I am wondering, what's the best way to make sure you're not hit every time you're being shot at or hit by a dexxer?

I read something about the mage weapons, but most of the people I see running around Yew Gate have Scrapper's and a decent shield but don't seem to get hit every swing or hit by every arrow. I was wondering if Janus or MrWolf could help me out with this.

Thanks muchly.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah like he said, these guys you see running around w/ books and such more than likely have wrestling and dci, which gives you the same defense as any other weapon skill. You basically have two main options on the table for defense w/ a Necro/mage template.

1) Mage weapon. Your best choice for this is of course the Staff of the Magi, but if you can't manage that one, the Swords of Prosperity do fine. Another route some have been going, and I've considered doing this myself, is to use a one handed mage weapon with as small a negative as you can find (-20 or -22 magery is ideal), and make up for the lost points by wearing the Crystaline Ring(+20 Magery) or other jewels/items w/ bonuses to magery. Using that setup allows you to chug pots without having to disarm, which can be a huge plus.

2) Wrestling. However, in order for you to use wrestling on a template like this, you will have to either drop Resisting Spells or Meditation. You can manage without either, and work around the disadvantages, but sometimes it just plain sucks. When you find yourself trying to get through a field grinder or something without resisting, it's a pain. You can either use trap boxes, or sometimes I'll bring lesser poison potions and poison myself to get through the parafields, spirit speaking to heal as necessary. Most people will see that you're poisoned and won't bother to hit you w/ more, not knowing it's only ticking for 1 or 2 every second or two. As for not having meditation, that's trickier.

Go without meditation at your own risk, especially with the recent nerf to MR and with such a mana-intensive template. Couple of things you can do to work around no meditation is to go to wraith form and wither the hell out of spawn, or evil omen/Mana Vampire someone or something with a large mana pool. Either one will get you some mana, but they aren't always easy to implement.

Either way you choose(I'd go the mage weapon route), have as much dci as you can manage.

 

[Azural Kane]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

The biggest question I have is that even though I got a decent DCI at 30 right now on my current suit, I seemed to keep getting hit by archers and dexxers and even with protection on, I have to always go on the defensive and keep healing because I get hit every shot. I am wondering, what's the best way to make sure you're not hit every time you're being shot at or hit by a dexxer?

I read something about the mage weapons, but most of the people I see running around Yew Gate have Scrapper's and a decent shield but don't seem to get hit every swing or hit by every arrow. I was wondering if Janus or MrWolf could help me out with this.

Thanks muchly.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah like he said, these guys you see running around w/ books and such more than likely have wrestling and dci, which gives you the same defense as any other weapon skill. You basically have two main options on the table for defense w/ a Necro/mage template.

1) Mage weapon. Your best choice for this is of course the Staff of the Magi, but if you can't manage that one, the Swords of Prosperity do fine. Another route some have been going, and I've considered doing this myself, is to use a one handed mage weapon with as small a negative as you can find (-20 or -22 magery is ideal), and make up for the lost points by wearing the Crystaline Ring(+20 Magery) or other jewels/items w/ bonuses to magery. Using that setup allows you to chug pots without having to disarm, which can be a huge plus.

2) Wrestling. However, in order for you to use wrestling on a template like this, you will have to either drop Resisting Spells or Meditation. You can manage without either, and work around the disadvantages, but sometimes it just plain sucks. When you find yourself trying to get through a field grinder or something without resisting, it's a pain. You can either use trap boxes, or sometimes I'll bring lesser poison potions and poison myself to get through the parafields, spirit speaking to heal as necessary. Most people will see that you're poisoned and won't bother to hit you w/ more, not knowing it's only ticking for 1 or 2 every second or two. As for not having meditation, that's trickier.

Go without meditation at your own risk, especially with the recent nerf to MR and with such a mana-intensive template. Couple of things you can do to work around no meditation is to go to wraith form and wither the hell out of spawn, or evil omen/Mana Vampire someone or something with a large mana pool. Either one will get you some mana, but they aren't always easy to implement.

Either way you choose(I'd go the mage weapon route), have as much dci as you can manage.

[/ QUOTE ]

Can you dive into this a little deeper?

I'm planning on going for the Sword of Prosperity as I'm not going to have room for a weapon skill.

I've heard it somehow is converted into 120 weapon skill if you have 120 magery... this is somewhat confusing to me in concept.

I may be confused but I thought somehow that if I got the Sword of Prosperity I'd still need another mage weapon? But looking at it, it's already a mage wep with 0 skill loss.

Sorry if I'm just not getting the obvious here. :/

 

[Hector12]

What shard are you on? I would love to have a duel with your necro/mage. I also play a necro/mage with high DCI but I need the shield to get DCI to its max.

I am playing Alt.

 

[Jaimes]

Swords of Prosperity and Staff of the Magi are both -0 Mage Weapons. This means that they will act like your magery is the weaponskill. At 120 Magery, holding Swords of Prosperity will act like 120 Swords except for the fact that you cannot use the specials on a mage weapon unless you have the actual weapon skill and sufficient tactics skill.

 

[Azural Kane]

<blockquote><hr>

Swords of Prosperity and Staff of the Magi are both -0 Mage Weapons. This means that they will act like your magery is the weaponskill. At 120 Magery, holding Swords of Prosperity will act like 120 Swords except for the fact that you cannot use the specials on a mage weapon unless you have the actual weapon skill and sufficient tactics skill.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ok excellent, this makes things clear, thank you for the good explanation.

This brings me to another question though

- what, mainly, is the weapon for? It gives bonuses to fast casting but surely it's not to be used in an offensive melee manner, so what's it do, just keep you from taking as much damage when being attacked by a full melee template user?

Also secondly... is there a limit to fast casting? I keep hearing about 1/3, 1/2 jewelry etc, is this related to fast casting or completely not related? This sort of stuff didn't exist at all when I last played the game.

Could you perhaps fill me in a bit here? Many thanks for the input and help!

 

[imported_Skrag]

Your chance of being hit by any given melee attack is based largely on your currently used melee skill.

If you have 120 swords but 0 macing, you'll be very hard to hit while holding a sword, but easy to hit while holding a mace.

If you have 0 fencing but 120 wrestling, you'll be simple to hit while holding a fencing weapon, but hard to hit while holding no weapon at all.

The Swords of Prosperity will let you use your magery as if it were a melee skill. In other words with 120 magery, you'll avoid being hit as if you had 120 swordsmanship. That's all they're "for". You're not really going to hit anyone with the swords, they just keep you from being hit without forcing you to put a melee skill on your template.

 

[Jaimes]

Azural, you're playing Siege right? If you're gonna be using the Swords (and, as a necro/mage, really your only option is to use them, or use throwaway spell channeling no penalty mage weapons, which would get VERY expensive, or, squeeze in some Anatomy so you can use the Anatomy/Eval defensive evasion bonus and run with a Scrapper's.. which is what I do, and it works well).

If you're gonna be using the swords, keep in mind that whenever you get disarmed, you lose the FC1 from them AND the defense they give you. If a dexer disarms you, run fast and start chugging those potions, because with 1/5 or 1/6 casting on and him having 100% chance of hitting you, you won't last long.

Personally, I ran with 65 anatomy on my Necro on Siege along with 115 eval, which worked pretty well for defense. Sure, I didn't have 100% revenants or energy vortexes, and my med was lower, but it worked pretty well and the ability to chug potions is amazing. Hell, being able to hold a scrapper's is amazing too, well worth the tradeoff of lesser skills for gaining LMC, SDI, and 1/1 casting which is permanent and stays with you forever. I think I'm the only Necro I've seen doing this, but I'm pretty average when it comes to PvPing, so take what I say for what it's worth.

 

[Janus69]

<blockquote><hr>

What shard are you on? I would love to have a duel with your necro/mage. I also play a necro/mage with high DCI but I need the shield to get DCI to its max.
I am playing Alt.

[/ QUOTE ]
Currently on Legends. In all fairness, I'm not much of a dueler atm. I just returned a couple months ago from a year off give or take, so my pvp skillz are a bit rusty. But, it's kinda like riding a bike

<blockquote><hr>

If you're gonna be using the swords, keep in mind that whenever you get disarmed, you lose the FC1 from them AND the defense they give you. If a dexer disarms you, run fast and start chugging those potions, because with 1/5 or 1/6 casting on and him having 100% chance of hitting you, you won't last long.

[/ QUOTE ]
And that's no joke... I sometimes run without my Staff, but usually only when I know I'll be holding up a grinder and fielding. If there's any chance of having to hold off dexxers at a choke point, or running into them in the open field, the Staff or Swords are a must.

On a side note, I'm changing up my template so as to be more effective at spawning and 1v1 encounters both. (at least I hope) This is my proposed template, and I've actually got a question for those of you that have played a Nox Mage, or might know something about them. Say for instance, I have 80 poisoning and 105 magery. If I use a Tome and get a +15 bonus to magery putting my skill at 120, will I still get DP? I'm putting poisoning on my necro/mage template, and this was one thing I wasn't sure on.. Never played a Nox Mage. Anyhow, template looks something like this.

120 Magery (105 +15 Tome)
120 Eval
120 Resisting
105 Necro (100 +5 Bloodwood Tally)
120 SS (110 +10 Bloodwood Tally)
85 Meditation
80 Poisoning
If you don't get dp with this setup, I'll keep my magery at 120 and just drop med to 65. As for my reasoning for the template change, DP fields will either make you or break you when raiding/defending a spawn, and our guild don't have enough nox mages on recently to suit me.

Plus, I think dp will greatly enhance my solo capabilities when running Yew or whatever. I haven't done any testing, but I believe if you evil omen and then poison, your poison will be bumped up to lethal as long as you're within a couple tiles of your target. That being said, I think a Corpse Skin/EO/Poison and then some spammed fireballs or poison strikes would make for a devastating combo. Like I said though, I haven't tested any of this, so we'll see. If any of you have any nox experience, I'd be glad to hear about it.

 

[Hector12]

<blockquote><hr>


120 Magery (105 +15 Tome)
120 Eval
120 Resisting
105 Necro (100 +5 Bloodwood Tally)
120 SS (110 +10 Bloodwood Tally)
85 Meditation
80 Poisoning


[/ QUOTE ]

Don't forget you don't have a defensive capability holding the tome w/o anatomy/wrestling.

Poion fields are fun however they almost negate the para fields. For calling target, para fields are more effectivev since that split second is enough for 3 ppl to release their pre-casted FSs on the poor target.

 

[Janus69]

<blockquote><hr>

Don't forget you don't have a defensive capability holding the tome w/o anatomy/wrestling.

Poion fields are fun however they almost negate the para fields. For calling target, para fields are more effectivev since that split second is enough for 3 ppl to release their pre-casted FSs on the poor target.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I realized that today while contemplating this template.. Looks like I'll be keeping my magery at 120 and using the Staff.

As far as poison/para goes, we are often outnumbered when defending or raiding a spawn. So when whatever guild is raiding us shows up, yeah the para fields will slow them down, but when they breach the grinder, they usually do so en masse and we don't have enough people there to take advantage of them being tripped up in para fields.(Most of the people we fight now carry trap boxes even though they have 120 Resisting and they get through para fields relatively quickly). Now if you blanket the area in dp poison fields, yeah they can fight and cast, but they're doing so while constantly dp'd, taking damage, and unable to heal. Add in corpse skins and meteor swarms dropped on everyone by the rest of the necro/mages and mages and they're hurting very quickly. At least that's how the strategy should go. Of course even the best laid strategy can be shot in the a$$ pretty quickly, particularly if you have no teammate coordination(our current issue it would seem =/ ). But hey, that's life in Fel. You win some, you lose some.

 

[Janus69]

On another side note, I wonder where Mr. Wolf has gone? He hasn't posted in this thread in almost a year. =/ He's really broken down this template into a science with all the precise details. He's the real expert on this template imo.. Wonder if he even still plays

 

[Janus69]

/bump Wish this would be stickied :/

 

[moxas]

I always thought a good necro/mage template would look something like this,..

Mage 120
Eval 120
Spirit 120
Necro 100
Med 100
resist 100
Chiv 60
The template may seem a little strange, But the shard i play on is a little different from most, I would use Swords of Prosperity for the Defense and try to keep on fc/fcr jewels to keep my necro up. The Chiv is used to remove those annoying Strangles after my apple is used. The template requires you to farm to keep the Karma up, but that only takes a few minutes.

 

[RandAlThor]

I have tested the evil omen poison combo and yes it does leathal them.
It also works with darts and ninja stars if you have ninja and no poisoning.