Help me with Character Progression

[RavDragon]

Hello!

I'm coming back to UO with some goals this time. I think it'll keep me from drifting off or burning out. I have some established chars on Atlantic, but every time I come back and start playing with them again I get bored. I want to start fresh with a new challenge... It's been many, many years since I've played UO seriously, so I need some help on character progression!

Here are my GOALS:
-Start fresh on a new shard (still deciding on which)
-Create a melee or ranged melee oriented warrior (maybe Bush/Chiv inspired)
-Attain gear through play (drops) rather than handouts or shopping

My first thought was to train up enough to hit Despise and work towards a Virtue suit. All 70s with no bonuses. My skills should be much higher by the time that is done. Afterward, I would start branching out and hunting for other arties. But I have a couple concerns...

First is burnout. If it's going to take 3 months to farm a Virtue Suit, then no thanks! I'd rather find another progression route for my first decent suit.

Also it seems that the new Imbuing system is building more gear sets than arties nowadays. I have no idea... just the impression I have gotten. I think it's great that the player economy got a boost, but that means I'll be grinding for gold to buy a set (no interest in leveling a crafter)... and grinding for gold leads me back to burnout.

So my big question is this: If you were to start a fresh melee (Bushido/Chiv Warrior style) character today, what would your progression look like if you were going to try to play with my goals in mind? What locations would you hunt and for what items? What arties would you strive to attain first? Where would you try to end up longterm? I'm really trying to avoid buying gear because I get so caught up in shopping that I forget to have fun. I just want to play and earn it!

I know this is a broad question, but I was hoping that you vets could point me in the right direction!

 

[Viper09]

If I were to start anew, I would definitely work in despise. (that's the lizardman/ogre/ettin dungeon right?)

Not sure how long it would take to get the virtue suit, but if it's the one I am thinking of, the blessed suit, I don't think it's all 70's. Very convenient due to it being blessed and cool looking though. Shouldn't take 3 months to get it but it all depends on luck, the real luck not the stat.

From working in that dungeon you should be able to get high enough then start working on harpies in covetous, then back to finish it off on ogre lords. That's my technique and it worked very well.

Animal form in cat/dog provides good health regen and combine that with healing skills with aids and you should do well in extreme cases such as ogre lords since they hit hard.

 

[RavDragon]

Thanks for the input. Maybe the Virtue Suit is all 60s then? Must have misread that. Sorry... I'm so out of the loop. Ugh.

I see that you have a pretty good layout for skill progression there... do you think I'd be able to sustain myself on drops from these creatures? What skill gives you cat/dog form? Bush? Are you basically saying I can forgo the equipment by using forms and bandies? (Plus whatever Virtue pieces I have collected thus far?)

 

[Viper09]

Thanks for the input. Maybe the Virtue Suit is all 60s then? Must have misread that. Sorry... I'm so out of the loop. Ugh.

I see that you have a pretty good layout for skill progression there... do you think I'd be able to sustain myself on drops from these creatures? What skill gives you cat/dog form? Bush? Are you basically saying I can forgo the equipment by using forms and bandies? (Plus whatever Virtue pieces I have collected thus far?)

Not really sure what the stats are on the virtue suit to be honest, so don't take my word on that.

You can sustain yourself on those drops depending on what your needs are. If you just going for basic armor at first and whatnot you should be ok. Save up on the gold you get of course and after time you'll be doing nicely as you advance in monsters.

Ninjitsu gives you cat/dog form and for just that form you shouldn't need very high skill at all to get it as it's the first morph ability I believe. You might be able to forgo armor but don't forgo it. Your stats will be low as it's a new character so definitely suit up. The cat/dog form combined with bandies will just help keep your health high and safe. As you get the virtue armor you can slowly build your suit and replacing whatever suit you start with.

 

[Anne]

I second the plan of using Despise for training as it has almost everything.

the Virtue armor is all 70's and 75 energy (if you're elf) but only when you wear all the pieces. All parts are drops in Despise except the cloak which is a quest.

Here's a link: http://www.uoguide.com/Virtue_Armor

Good luck

 

[RavDragon]

Great. Sounds like a good starter plan. Thanks to you both!

Now I just need to figure out which shard. I'm an east coaster... I want a shard that is not low populated, but still has some decent housing spots. I guess the extremes on either side would be Legends and Atlantic? So neither are an option. Somewhere in the middle. Thinking about Great Lakes... maybe Sonoma or Chessy?

 

[Sergul'zan_SP]

It depends on what you call a decent housing spot. There are still a lot of locations available on atlantic but they are hard to find. I think if you are planning no sticking with UO for the long haul (or trying to) you should definitely pick one of the larger shards. Eventually the game is going to become boring for you if there aren't other players around to interact with.

I think you are following a very good strategy going for the virtue armor set. It's refreshing to see a player willing to take this approach to the game.

Welcome back!

 

[RavDragon]

Thanks, Serg. I think part of it is that although I haven't played a sandbox game in a long while, I've enjoyed the progression in games like Vanguard or EQ2. But being ushered from zone to zone (ala WOW) has gotten really stale. I wanted to try to apply some of the typical progression tactics to a sandbox game like UO. Although it isn't really set up that way, I am hoping I can make it work. Sustain myself through gameplay and grow a character to higher tiers. It's how we did it in the beginning, after all.

Most importantly, I want to have the satisfaction of getting the drop myself. Not searching a site to find the cheapest Luna vendor. Maybe if I stick with the game long enough I'll start involving myself more in the economy... but for now I would love to earn it through drops and luck!

Anyway, back to shard research!

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

Welcome back.

May you have more patience than I did when I made a new character and tried to do the same thing; I ended up having him "meet" my main character and get some equipment.

The Virtue Armor is all 70s. It'll take 3 months at least to get all the pieces on your own, but you can get gold and assemble it.

You are 100% correct that most suits are built using Imbuing these days, even moreso than conventional crafting. If you do not want to have an Imbuer yourself, find a vendor with good stuff you can buy ad hoc (look outside Luna as well), and/or talk in Global Chat to see who the prominent for-hire Imbuers are, and what their prices are.

Your biggest problem by far in terms of building a suit from loot alone will be jewelry.

Here is a progression you might want to try.

• New Haven. Get the Noob Artifacts by completing the skill raising quests and fighting critters in the ruins of Old Haven. That'll take you through 50. After that try elsewhere on New Haven island, and will get you a blessed suit that's nearly viable. There's an Ettin spawn that's nearly neglected.
• Despise. You'll get some Virtue Artifacts, including pieces of the Virtue Armor, to supplement your Noob Artifacts and looted suit. Lizardmen, then ettins and trolls and ogres, then earth elementals, than ogre lords.
• Then, try the Painted Caves to do some old-fashioned gold farming on new-fashioned critters. I know you don't want to buy stuff, but you will find that the Soul Seeker will help you immensely if you are a Swordsman.
• Also try Champion spawns in Ilshenar; these are of surprising use in skill gain. If you can stumble across a crew working one, and you can help them complete it (the odds of a new character finishing one him or herself are extremely small, that gold can be a cash infusion to not be believed if you're quick.
• Eventually you'll want to go to hell. (No, that's not an insult; I mean it literally.) If for no other reason than that the Imbuer you hook up with might want you to come up with the components yourself.

You will find that your Fame and Karma will go up way faster than your Skills, which will go up frustratingly slow.

Do not take unnecessary risks until your primary skills are at least GM. You can die a lot faster than you think you can. Get worried if your health is at half.

Rune libraries are your friend.

The most powerful solo PvM warrior template is undoubtedly some variant on Samurai-Paladin, especially ones that incorporate Necromancy as well. But plenty of variations exist, and some, such as myself, delight in bucking the conventional wisdom.

You will also find that I don't know what I'm talking about, that my name should be spelled "Gay-lan" (get it?! ho ho! so clever my detractors are), that I'm a Trammie noob, that I don't understand risk vs reward, that I'm a "*****," that I am afraid of PvP.....

And, most importantly that ____ works better for you than anything I've suggested.

If this is the case, then do ____. Different things seem to work for different people, and the same systems can, in defiance of all lows of math and logic, have different results with different players.

Good luck, welcome back.

-Galen's player

 

[Jhym]

There are quite a few good housing spots on Chessie, I wander by them all the time. However I like my plot as it is so I think the only way I'd move is if it is an 18x18 and close to the water or near some important landmark. Or if a castle spot opens, but those are so rare I really don't expect to ever get one.

Not to mention all the player towns and the EM is pretty good, he seems to keep things going.

... and if you were willing to accept a few things, there are those of us that have legendary blacksmiths who could make you a nice set of basic armor to start off with. But I'm sure you could find that on any real shard you go to.


Truthfully, if you want to keep yourself from getting bored with the virtue armor grind (you are aware you'll get the other things too, right) then I'd say take one or two nights a week and go exploring, or hit a player town, or just try one of the other dungeons and see if you can get further. Or pick some odd, alternate skill that isn't just for fighter types and see what you can do with it. Like herding or carpentry. But if you're just all about the best warrior I guess that wouldn't be fun.

You might also hit one or more of the player towns and see if there are any others in the mid-range on skills that could help you out, or higher-level folks that may want to let you do all the monster bashing but just keep an eye out for you on health or getting overwhelmed. Or just sit and watch and offer encouraging banter:

"You call that a hit? My sister's unborn child can hit harder"

"So... would you like a fork to go with that butter knife you have?"

"I can't believe how COOL you are!"



lol, have fun buddy.