How To Build an Effective Melee Character

[Megilhir]

Although this appears to be a Warrior post it is not.

Suffice to observe, based on perspective, the pure UO Warrior is dead; –LONG LIVE THE WARRIOR.

That noted, what is your individual perspective or methodology to making an effective melee fighter. Not an archer but a weapon swinging, armor-clad, pounding brute capable of going toe to toe with…ummm, I don’t know, how about a Greater Dragon? The template that can wander into Doom and explore with a fair chance of laying low the Environment NPCs and gaining the “PhAT LeWtz” as it were?

A few polite considerations to frame this discussion please.

1. Linking to a page and saying “go look here” may seem effective but is not. It does tend to provide a measure of knowledge but I have not come across a simple, concise narrative, unfilled with jargon that is easily understood. That is this posts’ objective.

2. Negative, troll-like, comments do not forward the discussion. If you cannot help constructively and within socially competent parameters then please don’t bother. Just think of me as an uncultured noob who SuXxorzz and be on your way.

3. Realize that many who read this do not have extensive knowledge of the vibrant game-play, acronyms and every post listed on these forums for the past decade. Besides things change.

For a discussion departure point this is what I have gleaned across these forums thus far;

SKILLS
- 100(+) - Weapon type (Swords/Mace/Piercing)
- 100 – Tactics
- 100 - Healing
- 100 – Anatomy
- Xxx – Chivalry (get to at least Enemy of One skill)
- Xxx – Necromancy (get to at least Curse Weapon
- Xxx - Spirit Speak (to support Necro)
- Xxx - Bushido (Get to at least Lightening Strike.
Armor
- 70 Physical Resist
- High in all other Resists
- Lower Regeant Cost (LRC) – High as feasible (100)
- Other?
Weapon
- Swing Speed?
- No idea ---very confusing area for me. There are so very many varieties so this may be too hard to single out. Maybe a 2 Handed weapon?
The old template was easier: Undead Slayer – go hunt Liches. Now--well let us know what you consider.

Where to hunt for the solo-able “PhAT LeWtz” is listed elsewhere but feel free to advise as you see fit.

Thank you for the time you put into the helpful answers that the greater portion of this community generally provides. If this advice/guide is concise, accurate and effective enough it may be ‘Stickied’, which could help generations of players.

 

[Ls Jax Ls]

That noted, what is your individual perspective or methodology to making an effective melee fighter.

Figure it out like everyone else.

 

[Korik Bloodguard]

Start with the 2 basic princples:

- Kill things
- Stay alive

Your skill choices aren't that relevant as long as it facilitates these two ends, the particulars of which are tied up in how you want to reach those ends. You can kill things with many skills, so your choice is tied to weapon and armor availability, and stylistic preference.

Ultimately, unless you're powergaming, you can go choose any skills you want to fill your 7xx points.

 

[Sevin0oo0]

I think Sampire is all the rage right now. Doesn't matter what you do, at some point they will nurf it so bad that it will all become a wasted effort anyways, it's been like that for yrs. Pretty sure, but doesn't tactics only give some HCI? you can add that w/ imbluing
Damage increase from skills is laughable. Think item based instead

 

[Megilhir]

Figure it out like everyone else.

I find it interesting how your posts often have little in the realm of beneficial knowledge. Rather they tend to be inflammatory, confrontational of simply mean-spirited.

You are of course free to pursue whatever course you deem appropriate and the ToS find allowable.

I politely suggest you benefit from reconsidering your e-mannerisms and consider how the community at large view them. One easy and recent example is your flame-debates with Llewyn (SP?) which really do not enhance the community nor the people who may be considering joining or utilizing Stratics. And they led to the Thread being LOCKED.

Of course this is merely one person's assessment and may not reflect any broader perspective.

Though I usually attempt to read in detail people's posts to better understand their perspective, I am finding yours heading to the >>skip<< catagory. Should this occur across the community you may find yourself excluded. Then when you desire assistance or have a good comment, the likelyhood of either event being merely bypassed by the greater community is greater.

Just social food for thought. You may not or need not care in the least.

Intelligence + Intelligence = Reasoned Debate.

Intelligence + anything else = Why bother?


Thanks for the input Sevin and Korik.

 

[Victoria Navarre]

For a melee character I have recently made,I have put all my chips on getting hit to win a fight. You read right. I have made a template/suit that that allows me to "hit" my target up to five times if they hit me once. How I do it is with spell plague,blood oath,reflect physical damage,my normal melee attack,enchant weapon with hit lightning. Even though each single "hit" can be small damage wise,when all are "proc'd" it is a good way to bring down your target.

 

[Old Man of UO]

... I have made a template/suit that that allows me to "hit" my target up to five times if they hit me once. How I do it is with spell plague,blood oath,reflect physical damage,my normal melee attack,enchant weapon with hit lightning. ...

Interesting! How is that working against the renowneds, champs and bosses? Does it work better against one type or another?

 

[Victoria Navarre]

... I have made a template/suit that that allows me to "hit" my target up to five times if they hit me once. How I do it is with spell plague,blood oath,reflect physical damage,my normal melee attack,enchant weapon with hit lightning. ...

Interesting! How is that working against the renowneds, champs and bosses? Does it work better against one type or another?

I have yet to take that character against anything harder than a ogre lord/normal,four-slot,dragon.I have had good success against both and will see how things go against the bosses later. The next trek will be against paragons in Ilsh.

Edit: Oh and I forgot the usual pain spike/strangle attacks as well which adds a type of d.o.t. so thats six clicks of damage possible against my target.

 

[Klapauc]

The most important thing is, choose a template you have fun with. Get good with it , learn to use everything that is in game and can give you an advantage.If you get killed by something, find out why you got killed and what you can do to prevent this.
Put everything important on hotkeys. Read about game mechanics and weapon specials.
Since imbuing came out its easy to build good melee chars if you know what you are doing. A necromancy based char is not really needed to solo peerless stuff these days. A sampire really shines at 2 things, one is champ spawns, the other thing is flexibility. But there are templates that can do some things easier or faster than a sampire.
Start with something that is well known to work, be it sampire,wammy, paladin or a non necro samurai with bandage healing. A ninja abusing mirror images and bandage healing+pots also works well for some things.
Go with highest possible weapon skill you can afford, add at least 90 tactics for all weapon specials and a reliable healing method of your choice. Think about a defensive ability, optimize damage output.Do not underestimate the power of potions and apples,against hard encounters they make a very big difference.

For most builds it comes down to be able to hit as often as possible to keep mana,stamina and probably life leech going.
For weapons, go with something that you can swing at 1.25 sec most of the time and has mana and stamina leech , then hit lower defense. There are of course exceptions to this rule. Some people love heavy axes for the big hits, others kill peerless using a kryss. Use what works for you.
Oh, and dont listen to people that talk about ogre lords, these can be killed with less then 300 skillpoints.

 

[Nyses]

Most opinions are that a Sampire is by far the most effective melee char you can build. They come in a couple of flavors. Additionally, Mystic Warriors, when played right can solo most of UO.

I am going to refer you to the Warriors forum, as there is far too much info for me to convey here, and I don't feel like typing that much.

EDIT: One more thought, I could spell out for you in Great detail the Sampire build that works best for me, but it may still do you little good as there are fractors such as macros, Reflexes and Playstyle that all factor in. Point being, we all need to figure out what works best for each of us.

 

[ikaikaman]

Parry is great.When use Sign of Chaos for humans,of course parry,and absorb many many MANA by Soul charge.moreover you can heal by bandage .will become Tank.

SKILLS
- 100(+) - Weapon
- 100 – Tactics
- 100 - Healing
- 100 – Anatomy
- 100 – Parry
- 100 -Bushido
- 75– Chivalry

 

[Victoria Navarre]

Oh, and dont listen to people that talk about ogre lords, these can be killed with less then 300 skillpoints.

*"All kill" and target the ogre lord*

We're talking about melee characters here;not tamers and their pets.

 

[Uvtha]

Standard Sampire build...

120 Weapon (preferably swords probably)
120 Bushido
120 Parry
100 Necro
100 tactics
100 anatomy/resist. (Have both, keep one on a stone use resist for casting monsters)
60 Chiv.

Get a swamp dragon, armor it, get into vampiric embrace the life leech from it is what will keep you alive.

You want to keep your stamina high, (theres a swing speed calc here on stratics for getting weps to 1.25 swing or as close as you can) use radiant scimitars for spawns (whirlwind gains damage with bushido, so its great to clear out lots of monsters) daisho for single targets.

Weapons must have: Slayer (if applicable to what your hunting), hit mana leech, SSI as much as is needed to swing at max speed.
From there mix and match with hit spells, damage increase, HLA, HLD, etc. Hit area effect is great for working spawns.

Get DCI/HCI 45 (HCI/DCI very important for high level stuff), +mana, +stamina and +health high as you can get it, all 70's with fire above 70 to compensate for vampiric embrace. Try to get damage inc from items to +100% if you can as well. You'll have to mix and match obviously. To keep it simple focus on HP, Stam, Resists and DCI/HCI and damage. Plug in mana where you can.

I'm on siege so I don't gear up as fancy as regular shards so, id seek advice from others for peak gearing.

Process:

Spawns: Pretty simple, whirlwind your nuts off, if you get in trouble evade, if you get int too much trouble, run and use confidence. Keep stamina up with divine fury if needed.

Single big baddies: First and foremost honor. You need that damage increase to keep your leeches up. Feint, lightening strike x3, feint etc. Run off and confidence if you get in trouble.
Dragon + Feint will drop the damage a great deal, and the leeches will keep you alive.

This is the basic set up, you can tweak it or have different variations but this is the trusty standard. You can solo pretty much anything with this set up, and some practice.

Warriors forum has lots more in-depth guides and template ideas.

 

[G.v.P]

What's with all the dexxer threads on UHALL? ... there's a forum called the UO Warrior forum, gosh, lol.

 

[Victoria Navarre]

What's with all the dexxer threads on UHALL? ... there's a forum called the UO Warrior forum, gosh, lol.

You can get faster replies here.

 

[Vaelix]

*"All kill" and target the ogre lord*

We're talking about melee characters here;not tamers and their pets.

120 Wep
90 Tactics
70 Chiv

 

[Victoria Navarre]

*"All kill" and target the ogre lord*

We're talking about melee characters here;not tamers and their pets.

120 Wep
90 Tactics
70 Chiv

I hope you have alot of dci/70's suit and alot of mana regen to heal because the OL will hit you almost every time with that 1/3 template.

 

[Vaelix]

Orge lord has a Wrestling of : Wrestling 90.1 - 100.0.

100 Versus 120 (With 0 DCI) Thats a 42% Hit chance.

(And Obviously your going to have a good suit on.. )

Hell with Mana/Life Leech, Nice base damage, Good swing, 70s, 45 Dci, X LMC, X MR, X HPR, you should be able to easily out-heal an orge lords damage, considering they are quite weak compared to other "End Game" monsters which are just as easily soloable due to Chiv.

 

[Victoria Navarre]

Orge lord has a Wrestling of : Wrestling 90.1 - 100.0.

100 Versus 120 (With 0 DCI) Thats a 42% Hit chance.

(And Obviously your going to have a good suit on.. )

Hell with Mana/Life Leech, Nice base damage, Good swing, 70s, 45 Dci, X LMC, X MR, X HPR, you should be able to easily out-heal an orge lords damage, considering they are quite weak compared to other "End Game" monsters which are just as easily soloable due to Chiv.

I can agree with this of course. Your statement about the ogre lords being end game isn't quite true anymore. Oh well,they are still a good test to see if our attack/defence tactics are sound.

 

[G.v.P]

You can get faster replies here.

Maybe so, but a lot of people over at the Warrior Forum have worked hard building FAQs on how to power game every kind of dexxer known to man. It be nice if people took time to read all that work. Just reinventing the wheel on UHall.

 

[Uvtha]

Maybe so, but a lot of people over at the Warrior Forum have worked hard building FAQs on how to power game every kind of dexxer known to man. It be nice if people took time to read all that work. Just reinventing the wheel on UHall.

Agreed. The info there is very good and very varied. It's one of the most in depth of all the forums really.

 

[Farsight]

When building your character (melee or otherwise), you have to ask yourself a few questions.

The most important question is, "Will I be hunting alone?" And slightly behind that one is, "Will I be hunting top end creatures (Peerless, Doom, etc)?"

The two things which can make or break your character are the damage you deal combined with the damage you can heal. Dealing damage means that fights end more quickly, thus the healing would become less important. The damage you heal is critical against high end creatures, since no matter how much damage you put out, the fight won't end quickly.

Lets take the arctic ogre lord, for example. With the skills swordmanship, tactics and chivalry, you can cast consecrate weapon, hit it with an ogre slayer axe and the fight is over in at most 5 seconds. It could take a little bit longer with the normal ogre lord, but not too terribly much.

But if you want to fight Sir Patrick in Bedlam, you need more damaging and more healing skills. This is where the question, "Will I fight alone?" comes in. If you're fighting alone, you need fast methods of healing which can't be interrupted. Sir Patrick will hit a lot, does area effect damage and often brings "friends" to the fight. This means that chivalry healing won't help much, since you'll be interrupted a lot. Also, spirit speak won't help unless combined with curse weapon (thus necromancy too), and curse weapon is difficult to cast in a crowd. Bandages, when alone, are far too slow to heal and get interrupted a lot as well, causing less damage healed. But with a friend, you can cross heal and get through the fight.

This means that with a friend, you need at least healing, anatomy, tactics, chivalry and swords (or another weapon) against most named monsters (Miasma, Bedlam undead, Thrasher, etc), unless you plan on hunting alone a lot, in which case healing may not help as much as you'd like.

This is where the sampire comes in (template mentioned above by Uvtha). With the damage leeched, and the leeching damage that can heal through mortal strike, poison or whatever, you will have little trouble surviving with only a weapon skill, tactics and 99 necromancy. Any other skill just adds support to the first three skills.

This is where the confusion and debate starts. Some people like parry, some don't. Some like healing, others don't. A few even use mysticism and focus for things like rising colossus and stone form (combined with protection cast from scrolls and a cross healer), which is VERY effective against anything in game (literally).

My sampire account has recently been cancelled, but my personal everything-killer had fencing, tactics, bushido, healing, anatomy, necromancy and chivalry. It has little trouble against most bosses and works well in a team.

 

[Night]

Here's my sampire build:

120 Bushido
60 Chivalry
120 Mace Fighting
50 Necromancy (100 with jewelry and midnight bracers)
120 Parrying
110 Resist
50 Spirit Speak (80 with jewelry)
90 Tactics

Jewels (imbued) have FC1 +Necro +SS HCI DCI

For spawns I've got a wicked war hammer with big hit area, life leech, mana leech, DI, SSI and it's relatively easy to get spawns to 3rd level after which the damage I take generally outstrips what I'm leeching and everything slows down.

For solo mobs I've got a one handed mace with leeches and SSI so I can chug and use healing stone.

I like the sampire for it's solo capability but it's a lot of work, gear, repairs and running around..if I do spawns now I generally go for the necro/mystic/mage following up with archer/tamer.

 

[Megilhir]

Maybe so, but a lot of people over at the Warrior Forum have worked hard building FAQs on how to power game every kind of dexxer known to man. It be nice if people took time to read all that work. Just reinventing the wheel on UHall.

Foremost, thank you for the reasoned replies, very informative.

Second; I have read the warrior forums.

Their point of depart is often from advance indepth game knowledge. This I have lost (or not gained) since my 1999 entry into UO.

My intent is surmised in the Original Post:

Realize that many who read this do not have extensive knowledge of the vibrant game-play, acronyms and every post listed on these forums for the past decade.

Please do not assume laziness on my behalf, though in today's culture that misassessment is understandable. In reading the warrior forums they twist and turn like a twisty-turning thing and use a lot of acronyms and jargon that a casual player (such as I deem myself) merely gets lost in.

Perhaps this is the main problem?

One anchor or cornerstone of Fantasy MMOs is the simple myrmidon (which, if we follow the entimoloy and evolution of the term means a people as numerous as ants...meaning warriors should be the most numerous and possible the simplest to perform well at. But are they in UO?

Anyone recall the original D&D? " I swing..."

A bit off the topic and for that I apologize.

The intent of this post is to provide a simple, coherent thread for the new or fledgling player who simply wants to go explore Britainnia with a weapon and some armor while not having to cast XX, then YY, then stand on one leg while kicking their posterior with the other.

If this does not exist then I politely forward the consideration that melee in UO is vastly out of kilter with the essence of fantasy MMOs.

To me, and this may be just me, a melee dependant character should be able to put on some metal armor, grab a weapon and be able to have innate abilites (because they are melee based) which give them a reasonable chance of survivability in most encounters. Not a sure thing, but reasonable. After all, somethimes the dragon wins.

Lasty, what is up with that anyway? The metal armor thing. I have five shards I visist. All have GM(+) Tailors/Smiths. I cannot honestly recall the last time I used the Smith to craft a useable set of armor. Everyone you see is running around in either Spined, Horned, or Barbed leather. Metal armor should provide the most protection, that is historically (and in fantasy) why that evolution from animal skins occurred. I can understand some scale variant, but mere leather? And lastly, before we devolve, I understand completely the reality of boiled curaisses and so forth, having made real armor myself. (Please see avatar next to this post for an example set I crafted).

Anyway. I fear the intent of a consolidated thread has not been realized. I do wish to thank the number of informative posters. Specifically Uvtha. Spot on mate, well done. For a human-animal chimera you posted quite eloquently.

NOTE: There are other great posts as well, the praise of Uvtha was not meant to exclude these fine posters (Night...Farsight etc.. But you have to admit, being a chimera Uvtha probably has a difficult time with the key-board and mouse, those talons and claws and all.

 

[Klapauc]

Im baffled now.

I understand completely the reality of boiled curaisses and so forth, having made real armor myself. (Please see avatar next to this post for an example set I crafted).

Im sure you had to gather a good amount knowledge to be able to do this. And you got to practice in the needed craftsmanship before.
The same is true for melee combat in uo. You need some knowledge and practice to create a well working char and to craft the right equipment for him. And some day,you will be ready to face the big bad bosses alone.

For knowledge, there is the warrior forum on stratics. You cannot possibly condense all the little tricks and details buried there into a single thread. A lot of people did spend a lot of time, gold and grey robes to find things out.

For what you did ask for, a sampire is probably the right thing. Follow a cooking recipe to build the char and sit down and watch him killing dangerous monsters without pressing a single key.But you will never ever see or reach the full potential of your char this way, its the same with any other warrior build, be it pvm or pvp.

Oh, and there is not a single reason to not use metal/dragonscale/wood armor on a pvm warrior. Im using dragonscale and metal parts on my sampire because he is human and its easy to build a very good suit using that, but the absolutly best suits are made using wood armor.

 

[Skrag]

If you're a newb without much specialized equipment or certainty as to what you want to be, work these skills.

Swordsmanship
Tactics
Anatomy
Healing
Focus

Substitute fencing or mace fighting for swordsmanship if you like, and add two more skills that appeal to you. Bushido, chivalry, necromancy, parrying, resisting spells, whatever suits you.

You probably won't be solo-killing bosses this way, but that takes a billion times better gear than a newbie has anyway. With those 5 basic skills raised, you can plug almost anything into the remaining 2 slots and have a decent functional warrior.

And when/if you decide to specialize into some other template like Sampire or whatever, you have a nice developed base to work from.

 

[Lynk]

Pretty sure, but doesn't tactics only give some HCI? you can add that w/ imbluing
Damage increase from skills is laughable. Think item based instead

Wow.

I really can't think of an appropriate comment that wouldn't result in an infraction.

 

[Taylor]

Pretty sure, but doesn't tactics only give some HCI? you can add that w/ imbluing
Damage increase from skills is laughable. Think item based instead

Wow.

I really can't think of an appropriate comment that wouldn't result in an infraction.

I'll respond. I'm nice.

Tactics determines your base damage. Based on the way the equation works, having 0 tactics results in a -50% base damage penalty. Having 33.4 tactics results in neither benefit nor penalty. Having 120 tactics results in +170% base damage increase.

As a result, tactics is highly critical to the average warrior template.

 

[G.v.P]

Please do not assume laziness on my behalf, though in today's culture that misassessment is understandable. In reading the warrior forums they twist and turn like a twisty-turning thing and use a lot of acronyms and jargon that a casual player (such as I deem myself) merely gets lost in.

If it was too difficult for you to ask questions regarding acronyms then you are fairly lazy. Have fun with your "casual" results.

 

[Uvtha]

If it was too difficult for you to ask questions regarding acronyms then you are fairly lazy. Have fun with your "casual" results.

I'm a fairly casual player, and I understand that board perfectly myself. I mean if you don't understand things they will answer questions over there. A cursory glance at the posts shows that.

But then again I do read about the game when I don't play. I read and talk about UO far more than play it heh.

 

[Lord Frodo]

You can get faster replies here.

Maybe so, but a lot of people over at the Warrior Forum have worked hard building FAQs on how to power game every kind of dexxer known to man. It be nice if people took time to read all that work. Just reinventing the wheel on UHall.

Ummm Have to agree with the OP. 14 peps on warrior forum (1 member, me and 13 guests) and UHall 149 (45 members & 104 guests). Very few peps are using the other forums because you get faster answers here.

 

[Skrag]

Please go humor one of those barely-used subforums so Stratics can pretend it's whole existence isn't just Uhall + 400 things nobody cares about. Hurr.

The warrior subforum is a bunch of guys blabbing about their boss-soloing sampires and PVP templates, there's very little useful newbie information there.