Help with Build (Part 2: turbo edition!)

[Mr.Fernandes]

Having taken comentary to heart, I am currently leveling the skills on the following build:

Magery 120
Necromancy 100
Evaluate Intelligence 120
Spirit Speach 100
Resist Magic 120
Poisoning 80
Meditation 60


Obviously the build calls for a mage weapon.


I have never tried out poisoning before and thought I would give it a shot. This buidl does beg the question, however: how useful IS poisoning, really, with only the ability to deliver it by spell? To be sure, class 5 poison hurts (possible, if I'm not mistaken, by way of Evil Omen, or whatever its called), but Poison can be resisted, and cured by spells, and potions, and paladins (oh my)!

 

[Mr.Fernandes]

Bump!

Don't everyone impart the wisdom of your experience all at once.

 

[EvilIan]

The first problem here is the fact that you can't cause lethal poison with a spell. With 80 poisoning and exactly 120 magery, your poison spell and fields will cause deadly poison 100% of the time.

The second problem is that cure potions are so ubiquitous that deadly poison isn't really all that effective as a deterrent. People just drink one of their 85 cure potions they are carrying.

I use the following template and think you would get more use out of the extra damage from strangle, 100% casting on Vengeful Spirit, and extra mana regeneration.

120 Magery
120 Eval
120 Spirit Speak
120 Necromancy
120 Resist
120 Meditation

Vengeful Spirits are surprisingly effective as psychological warfare and can't be removed by drinking a potion.

 

[Mr.Fernandes]

Ostensibly, Evil Omen will rais ehte deadly poison from the Poison spell to lethal levels, though I may be misinformed.

At any rate, that is rather what I was afraid of. Someitmes it is, as they say, ****ty being right all the time. I will do as you suggest adn ditch poiosning for more meditaiton, and other abilities. Revanents are fun, I agree. I have never been conbince dof how much damage they really do, of course. Is it really worht it to go up to 120 necromancy, particularly as it means I will not be able to go up 120 meditationÉ

 

[Larry]

I think you under estimate the combo of Revenent -> Weaken spam

But really, poisoning in today's UO is pretty much pointless. Arch cure is fast, plus cure pots... its just not worth the points for a little more damage in the rare event your poison ticks before cured.

 

[EvilIan]

I went on over to test and gave it a try. Apparently you can cast lethal poison with a spell.

Even so, what I said about cure potions is still true. Greater cure potions are ridiculously effective at curing lethal poison. Plus, as I'm sure you know, you have to be within 2 tiles in order to inflict anything more powerful than lesser poison. How often does that occur in practice?

If I had to choose between 120 necromancy and 120 meditation, I'd probably go with meditation. Mana is your lifeblood.

 

[Mr.Fernandes]

Thank you! I think I have already decided to drop poison from the template. At the moment I am certain to either go straight necro-mage, or drop necromancy in order to take Spellweaving and Wrestling. Spellweaving seems less useful to me - necromancy is clearly tops when it comes laying on the damage - but still nice, and wrestling would be good to have - relying on mage weapons FTL.

Of course, it would be nice if I could find some reliable information on what Spelllweaving spells DO and whether they're affected by higher SW levels in terms of effectiveness, but c'est la vie! May just have to try it out and see.

Ultimately I just figure out how these new-fangled Soul Stones work (and where you get them) and store the extra skills there so as to switch depending on the (expected) situation. Not too hard to keep a mage weapon in reserve at the bank, after-all.