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[General] How Many Characters does it take to Screw in a Light Bulb?

Alkaseltzer

Journeyman
I've been away from the game for a while(years) and was doing some reading about new BODs, imbuing and having to have arms lore now. And was wondering how many characters does it take now to craft everything now? Or does everyone just soul stone. And what about Item ID, is that even needed?

Oh yea, and BOD rewards, should I take the reward right away or bank(save) it? Should I unravel all loot I get? or should I keep some? And that's another thing, what makes good loot any more?

Thanks
 
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Basara

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Item ID is not needed for anything.

Typically, depending on how you group crafting skills, 2 or 3 characters work better than soulstoning (and a lot less risky).

A good base build for a primary mule would be

120 Blacksmith*
120 Tailor
120 Imbuing
100 Arms Lore
60 Magery
Pick Two - 100 Carpentry, 100 Fletcher, 100 Tinker, 100 Alchemy, 100 Mining, 100 Lumberjacking**, 100 Cook. You may soulstone between these.

* (note that there are reductions in the number of Iron BODs on the armor side, at 110 and 120 skill, so that at 120 it's 50% weapons, 45% colored armor, 5% iron armor)
** (note that lumberjacks no longer need carpentry to make boards, but can simply axe the logs to do so - so there is no longer a need to have carp on a LJ)

For Music craftables, it's possible to get all 45 points of music from Jewelry and equipment. (skills can be up to +20 on loot, or +15 imbued, for Jewelry, and there is a +5 Music Library talisman, +5 craftable weapon (singing axe), and a +10 craftable elf-only armor. That's before really expensive stuff like a barding skill Mark of the Travesty, or a rare Dryad Bow from Doom). At worst, you can go 55 magery and 5 music to make up the difference.

Similarly, there's magery jewelry (though, as music and magery are in the same group, you won't find both on a single item), and spellbooks with up to +15 (event items - crafted books can only have up to +13). So, you wear your magery gear most of the time, only putting on the music stuff when needed to craft instruments.

Other Crafters/support options:

  1. Due to its effects on casting (especially the hidden SDI), and that casting skill over GM allows crafting of spellbooks with additional properties, you probably want to have Inscription on a dedicated Caster. 100+ Magery can create Magery books with properties, 100+ Necro does Necro books the same way, as does 100+ Mysticism for its books.
  2. Unless you're planning on creating a bunch of glass swords for a gargoyle for RP purposes (there's many other weapons and garg-only versions of traditional weapons), you can probably put Alchemy somewhere other than on your main mule. If you are going to make alcoholic beverages, you'll want cooking and alchemy on the same character, as the fermentation barrel you can get as a BOD reward (for making fruit wines) makes its success check against combined cooking & alchemy.
  3. Not having Mining on your mule limits your ability to recycle items (but you can always use soulstones to move it over when needed), but it's probably better to have a dedicated resource gatherer - say an Axer (so they get the benefits of the LJ bonus to damage), that also mines. There's a Fire Beetle now that you can use to smelt in the field. And, of course, anyone capable of hunting large monsters can gather leather in the field, or grow Flax to spin for cloth (currently, flax is bugged to give cotton, not flax, but it still works).
  4. Some people have Fletcher on their Archer, for repairs on the fly (soulstone over Arms Lore as needed for crafting). The field repairs are more important if using brittle or antique bows.
OPTION 2:

Another option would be to have a dedicated Imbuer/Blacksmith/Tailor character (with Arms Lore, Mining, and (choice of Tinker or Fletcher), and the remainder in a travel-capable skill like Magery or Chivalry), then run a second mule as follows:

70 Blacksmith (enough for colored BODs, using an ASH +10 or Hammer of Hesphaestus to get to 80 for Carpentry add-ons)
70 Tailor (enough for colored BODs and Carpentry add-ons)
100 Carpentry
100 Arms Lore
80 points split between Magery and Music
Pick THREE - 100 Fletcher, 100 Tinker, 100 Alchemy, 100 Cook. You may soulstone between these.

As with the other suggested templates, Inscription is best kept on a true caster, and Lumberjacking on an Axer.

*********

I personally use option 2, but option 1 is good for someone trying for most crafting skills on 1 character, plus soulstoning.

And, I can't emphasize enough how important it is to have Inscription on a character with their casting skill they want to craft books for scrolled and trained to 120, so I'm going to remind you a third time...
 

Basara

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Now, Part 2: BOD rewards.

The simple answer is that it varies.

The BOD counter now ticks every 6 hours, and you can get up to 3 BODS, if you've not claimed any in the last 18 hours. Also, for each completed BOD you turn in, you can immediately request a new one.

The BOD point banking system sucks. But, it's better than getting swamped by rewards you don't want.

So... If you need the low end rewards (tailor cloth, smith mining tools, and the 250-charge sewing kits and hammers), by all means turn in without banking.

For everything else, look at the possible rewards for the point value.

If there's a reward for the point value or less you want, turn in for the reward.

If there's not, and you don't see any of those rewards being useful in the short term (worth saving the BOD to turn in later), bank.

The problem with Banking, is that small BODs only bank TWO PERCENT!!!! of their point value. Larges bank TWENTY percent.
A 250 point LBOD (say, a Tinker jewelry LBOD) banks for 50 points.
A 250 point SMALL BOD only banks for FIVE POINTS.
most non-colored small BODs are worth only 0.2 - 1.0 points if normal quality, 2.2 - 5.0 if exceptional (depending in the skill), when banked, instead of 10-50, or 110-250 if directly turned in.
Most skills, when you get to 400-500 points (varies), have at least one item you'd rather claim, than bank a fraction of the points - especially ones that have colored smalls worth that much.

Note also, that there are additional rewards (fame, and possibly still gold) for direct turn-ins, but when you bank, you only get the fame when you spend banked points (and claiming a 500 point reward might give 100 fame, but that's a fraction of what the point would have given).
 

Cinderella

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Loot? if you need the resources from unraveling then I'd do that.
but if you don't you could always throw it in the trash for cleanup points.
There are cleanup officers at Britain and New Haven
you can get some pretty awesome items from cleanup points
the lucky charm talisman is awesome & I love the void natural dye (used it on the dragon tile that you can get from the store)

if you're wanting good armor to loot, usually people look for legendary items
 

Spartan

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Bods do put gold into your bank. My smith did a few BODs - iron to shadow - and dropped about 4K gold into the bank in doing so.

I normally do not bank the points, but I did recently and saved up for a 120 Blacksmithing scroll. Then I went back to "gimme now!" setting. <grin>
 
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