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[Imbuing] Imbuing & Reforging FAQ, Updated February 2012.

Basara

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I cannot be held accountable for incorrect information in the following links that were not written by me. I can tell the others to update it, but I can't edit others' posts (or others' Stratics pages)....

This FAQ is actually an assembly of different posts related to the skill, to be transformed later into a full FAQ. However, we are holding off on doing that transformation until September, as Imbuing has been repeatedly changed to where relying on anything is still questionable.

Any of these links were suggested by Barry Gibb, OxAO and others.

Primary Documents:

Imbuing Overview
Version 3, this is an outgrowth of the original two attempts. The original "Petra's Guide" is obselete, thanks to the changes that allow easy unravel-based gains into the 70s skill levels.
Imbuing Page on Stratics
Imbuing Ingredients



Imbuing Q&A:

Q: What can I unravel Artifacts into?
A: http://uo2.stratics.com/skill-guides/skills-and-professions/imbuing/unraveling-list Note that results seem to be unstable, and are definitely affected by skill, the race of the unraveler, and which forge they are using. If you are unraveling an artifact, do it at the queen's forge, preferably with a gargoyle that has 120 skill.

Q: Can I alter Artifacts with Imbuing?
A: Not anymore, but you could prior to Publish 64, provided they had 5 properties or less (such as most minor artifacts). Some replicas, and artifact-like special loot drops that aren't listed AS Artifacts, can still be imbued.

Q: Can I completely remove a property from an item?
A: No, for most properties. Note that Self Repair drops off when you Imbue. There was also recently added to the game an EXTREMELY rare item (made by collecting the 3 parts of it from Shame dungeon bosses), the Whetstone of Enervation, that you can use on a single weapon to remove the Damage Increase property.

However, you can lower its intensity to the minimum that can be imbued, up to the maximum that would fit on an item (examples: Luck can be taken down to 1, Damage Increase down to 2% on weapons (1% on Jewelry), etc. If the total intensity on an item adds up to more than the cap (500 for jewelry and exceptional items, 450 for looted weapons & armor).

If you want to lower a property, and the item is over its weighted cap, you MUST lower it to where the weighted cap is legal for imbuing. For example, if you had an item with 90 luck, but was over its weighted cap by 43%, you could lower it to 47 luck with imbuing, but not to 75 luck (which would be 28% over the weighted cap) - at least not without lowering something else first.


Q: How does Swing Speed Increase work with Weapon Speed & Stamina? (kinda related, as you wont want to over imbue an item)
A: http://uo.stratics.com/content/arms-armor/combat.php

Note that you can't raise wood items to 40% SSI except by getting them to 30% (by crafting or imbuing) while made of normal wood, THEN enhancing the item with Ash wood after the fact.

If one tries to alter SSI on items with over 30% SSI (some event items), you can't go part way - you have to lower it to 30% (or less), or leave it as-is.


Q: What Are some good tips to optimize my training?
A: The remaining relevant parts of the original link that was here are as follows.

First, don't start crafting things for gains until your skill is in the 70s. Unravel for gains, instead (as this helps supply your actual training later with the residue).

Second, Become very familiar with the wandering Gypsies of Ilshenar.

This page has the locations of these spots. There were several other locations, but they stopped functioning between AoS & ML.

When the RANDOM gypsy camps despawn, and reappear, their prices reset to base. So, unless someone goes nuts and buys 25k of one gem, the gem prices from the random gypsy camp Vagabonds will always be reasonable. HOWEVER, not every such camp will have a Vagabond; the presence of Vagabonds, Gypsy Maidens and Iron Workers at them is purely random (a spot can have All, 2, 1 or none of them, and it changes when it spawns again, even at the same site). Note that if you're doing Smith BODs (especially to get POF for pre-imbue durability or Runics for Reforging), these sites when they have an Iron Worker are also probably your best shots at cheap BOD bribery in the new system.

Third, while you have to have 10,000 loyalty to use the queen's forge to Imbue, you do NOT have to have that loyalty amount to unravel there, and you still get the bonuses for using that forge.

Lastly, you want to minimize training costs by only crafting on a player-crafted forge, or at the one without bonuses in the Holy City (the undead infested city). And, it would also be cheaper to train as a human, then either soulstone the skill over to a Gargoyle or then use a race change token, in order to get the gargoyle bonus to Imbuing after training is done. The bonus of the gargoyle race and of the two forges in the Royal City, mean that your gain chances are reduced on the same items as compared to a human of the same level, because you success chance is higher. That means that for the same gain chance you have to make higher intensity items, and therefore use more resources (or make more of the lower items, and similarly waste resources).

Q: Where can I get a Power Scroll for the Imbuing Skill?
A: The Public Soulforge in the town square of the Royal City has a group of Quest Giver NPCs around it. These give quests for power scrolls (and also have a very small random chance to drop the runic tools for Masonry)


  • One will give a 105 Power Scroll for 50 Magical Residue
  • One will give a 115 Power Scroll for 50 Enchanted Essence
  • One will give a 120 Power Scroll for 50 Relic Fragments
However, the LAST thing you'd want to do is use your hard-to-get relic fragments for a 120 Power Scroll.
The MUCH CHEAPER method is to do the 115 Power Scroll quest TEN TIMES (total expense, 500 Enchanted Essence). Then, find a player scribe (or their vendor) and acquire a "Scroll Binder". The Scroll Binder can be used to merge the 10 115 PS into a single 120 PS.

There have also been reports of 120 Imbuing Power Scrolls dropping in Felucca champion spawns, but I've not confirmed it.


Q: What skill levels do I need to make my own Soulforge?
A: 100 Carpentry & 75 Imbuing, and a 50% success chance at that skill, before adding in any normal Carpentry Bonus talisman, or bonus from using and other applicable items (such as the workbench that was sold by Mythic on their UO game code store - not sure if it is currently available, and where, with all the changes surrounding the move to the Origin store).
The Ingredients are 150 Boards, 150 Ingots, and 1 Relic Fragment

Q: What Properties replace each other on an item?
A: Consult the following

  • Self Repair disappears on imbuing
  • Any Hit Proc that can result from Runic Crafting will replace any other such Hit Proc (Dispel, Harm, Magic Arrow, Fireball, Lightning)
  • Any Hit Area will replace any other Hit Area
  • Any Slayer will replace another Slayer. If, by some chance, an item has TWO slayer properties (some older items, especially AoS Paladin starting quest reward swords, and early ML items before crafting items that gave a slayer property was nerfed), the top-listed slayer will be the one replaced. Note that one can imbue (only 450 intensity) a Juka bow, prior to altering it with gears, and end up with a double slayer that way.
  • There are 5 skill groups (see the link below). If a Jewelry item has a skill from a specific group, any attempt to imbue another skill FROM THE SAME GROUP will overwrite the previously existing skill. For example, as Magery, Musicianship and the melee weapon skills are all in the current Skill Group 1, you cannot have both Magery & Musicianship on the same crafted item. Nor will you find, Swordsmanship and Mace Fighting on the same crafted item.

Q: Can you explain the skill groups on jewelry more please?
(related to above question)
A: http://uo2.stratics.com/skill-guides/skills-and-professions/imbuing/imbuing-guide Interestingly enough, prior to Stygian Abyss, previous Developer Teams had the skill groups numbered in the opposite order than the current Imbuing system. (Skill group 1 was Skill Group 5, etc.) We know this from discussions in 2003 with Hanse or Mr. Tact, where there was a 2003 bug that made the Magery/Music/Weapons group spawn 1% of the rate as the other 4 groups, and other references leading into 2005's Samurai Empire, discussing where Bushido & Ninjitsu were going to fall into the skill groupings. Some old references might still be floating around using that older system.

Q: What are the ingredients and where can I find the high intensity ones?
A: Consult THIS TABLE for the ingredients for each property. Note that the Basic Ingredients are consumed on both failures and success, while the High Intensity Ingredients (that only come into play if the target intensity is 91% or higher true intensity) are consumed ONLY when you actually succeed in the attempt.

Q: Do the weighting modifiers apply to items when determining their score for unraveling?
A: Currently, weighting modifiers do not affect unraveling.

Q: What bonuses do gargoyles get over humans & elves?
A: See the overview link, above. However, it is not certain that is the most up-to-date information.

Q: What is the difference between soul forges?
A: The Queen's Forge gives the best bonuses (and even gives the bonus to unraveling to those with insufficient loyalty to actually craft on it), with a lesser bonus at the public forge in the Royal City that has the powerscroll quest givers. The Holy City forge does not give a bonus, nor do player crafted forges. The exact nature of the bonuses is complicated, to say the least.
Crafting: The Queen's Forge gives a +2% success chance to craft, but requires high loyalty. The Royal City public forge (with the PS questgivers) gives a +1% bonus to success chance.
Unraveling: The math is vague. It is, though, known that a 120 skill Gargoyle can unravel items over 400 true intensity at the Queen's forge for Relic Fragments, while a 120-skill human using a soulforge with no bonus requires items of 450 true intensity to get relic fragments returned. Between these two extremes, the soulforge used, user skill and user race are modifiers that determine what intensity level will result in relics being returned.

Q: Do I need any other skills to Imbue Items?
A: No. Though being able to craft your own items to imbue or gather your own materials would not be a waste of effort. Runic Reforging is a new (Publish 73) Imbuing subskill, for example, that uses other skills' runics to take non-magical items and alter them into highly magical items at a soulforge with imbuing. The result is a cross between Imbuing and the other skills, with the possibility of properties that neither skill could add with normal imbuing.

Q: Do I need to have Item Identification skill to use Imbuing?
A: No. Item Identification can be used to determine what quality of Imbuing Ingredient (Magical Residue, Enchanted Essence, or Relic Fragment) the item will yield when unravelled. Item ID does require a skill in Imbuing to determine what the item will unravel to.

Q: What does an Unravelling Bag do and where can I get one?
A: There used to be a bag specifically for unravelling, similar to a salvage bag. The option to "Unravel Container" was added to the imbuing menu, shortly after the release of SA. The bags do not exist anymore, as they were all converted to normal bags.

Q: Is it possible to craft items that will unravel to Relic Fragments?
A: Most ways discovered early on have now been rendered useless. Ways that are currently known are as follows:
1. Unraveling rejects from crafting with Gold & higher runic hammers, Barbed runic kits, and Heartwood runics (saws and fletching kits). However, this can be a bit unreliable (not to mention expensive)
2. Crafting certain Mondain's Legacy recipe items with mid-range (copper, bronze and gold) runics, specifically for unraveling. This will require a supply of the large gems used by the recipes and some imbuing properties. One of the best items to craft in this manner is the Knight's War Cleaver, as it has 150% intensity of a property that normally does not spawn at all on weapons. Add in 70-80% intensity Damage Increase (from being exceptional), and all one has to do is get 3 more properties from the hammer of sufficiently high intensity to total about 230% or more, using iron ingots. Even a human Imbuer will get about 1 relic fragment for every 2-3 items unraveled this way, and the ratio of items to relics given will be significantly higher for a gargoyle. Do it with colored ingots, and the bonus for unraveling special material items can make it near certain. Note, however, that ingots that add additional properties other than changing the elemental damage spread might be counter-productive, due to an intensity penalty for unraveling items with 6 or more properties.
3. Imbuing high-end items, then enhancing. This is much harder than it seems, from the 0.7 modifier for unraveling an imbued item. In other words, the unraveled item has to have an intensity OVER 600% for there to be a chance for even a gargoyle at the queen's forge to get a relic back. The last one of these methods to work was woodland armor, enhanced with bloodwood, and I believe it has been "fixed" to not work since the previous FAQ Update.


Posts & Pages helpful to Imbuers:

Property Weights
Magical Effects Table
 
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Basara

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Reforging FAQ (Imbuing), Work in Progress

Reforging FAQ:

Q: What is Reforging?
A: Reforging is a new subset of the Imbuing skill added in Publish 74, in that it adds properties to existing (non-magical) items, using the Soulforge of the Imbuing skill, in combination with the Runic Tools of the conventional crafting skills.

Q: What can be Reforged?
A: Items with NO Magical properties can be reforged.
This means that only the following items can be reforged:

  1. Items that have absolutely no properties
  2. Items with only the bonuses that are given from Exceptional Crafting
  3. Loot Items with elemental Damage but no other properties (items that have elemental damage from Materials CANNOT be reforged). For example, a 100% Poison sword you pull off a random monster, and there are no other properties on the item.
  4. (Untested): Iron weapons made with Dull Copper runic hammers before the change to not count elemental damage towards the property count, that only have elemental damage and Damage increase from Exceptional quality, SHOULD be capable of being Reforged - but I don't have one to test (if it can be, the menu will come up - if it can't be, then it will tell you without opening the menu. Anyone care to test?


Q: Does Reforging mean that only Smith-made items can be reforged?
A. No. Any item with a corresponding runic can be reforged, using that runic type.


  • Runic Hammers: Blacksmith items
  • Runic Sewing Kits: Tailor items (unlike Runic Crafting, you CAN Reforge hats, and reforge Gargish cloth armor*)
  • Runic Fletching Kits: Bows & Crossbows
  • Runic Dovetail Saws: Carpentry items
  • Runic mallet & chisel: Masonry/stonework items
* Reward cloth items will retain their color so long as you do NOT make them brittle or cannot be repaired.


Currently, Tinker-made items and Glass weapons cannot be reforged.


Q: What is combining Runic tools for? How is it done?
A. Combining runics is done by someone with the Imbuing skill, standing at a soulforge. If you double-click a runic to bring up the targeting circle (as if to reforge) and target another runic of the exact same type (ex. clicking a Bronze runic, and targeting a different bronze runic), as long as the result is 100 charges or less, the tools will be combined into one. This is to allow remnants of runics to be combined for Reforging, but also serves as a way to reduce lockdowns/secures in your house.

Q: What Properties can be added?
A. Without using prefixes/suffixes, property assignment is pretty much random. With the prefixes and/or suffixes, you spend more charges in order to have more control over the properties applied, though you still are dealing with there being more properties in those categories, than what will actually be applied to the item.

  • Typically, the properties added will be about the same number as those the runic would give during crafting.
  • Some of the properties added may be ones from the new Loot generation system currently used in Shame & Wrong, as the prefix/suffix system was introduced there. Therefore, reforging can add properties that cannot be gotten from normal runic crafting, such as Hit Fatigue, Hit Mana Drain, Casting Focus, etc.
  • In addition, properties might be significantly higher in intensity than runic crafting would allow - even more so if you use the options to make the item "Brittle" and/or "Cannot Be Repaired".

(more to come as we test)
 

Synbad

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what can actually be imbued? can i imbue loot like leather armor off of monsters or do the armor/items need to be player crafted?
 

DJAd

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what can actually be imbued? can i imbue loot like leather armor off of monsters or do the armor/items need to be player crafted?
If the loot has room to imbue then yes you can imbue loot items. Generally if the item has more than 5 properties you cannot imbue it.
 

Synbad

Sage
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thank you! is imbuing alone and imbuing looted items as good as imbuing player crafted items... i realize the properties will be random on loot vs. player crafted items
 

Synbad

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i guess what im getting at is im trying to get around craft skills lol... too time consuming for me
 

LowdownandShifty

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is imbuing alone and imbuing looted items as good as imbuing player crafted items...
No. Exceptional armor/weapons get +50 points to their imbuing weight cap. Together with the general 5-property limit, the intensity weight cap limits the total magical intensity possible on an item. See Imbuing Mechanics for more details. The Knuckleheads Imbuing Calculator allows you to calculate imbuing weight with/without Exceptional.
 
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Shadeweaver

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What is the minimum of another skill like tailoring, that you would need to reforge an item. Let say I have 120 imbuing but only 55 tailoring, could I still reforge the item?
 

Thargor

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i dont think it matters, only imbue skill applies but... check on test shard first
 

Basara

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Only Imbuing matters - the only time the other skills come into play is making the base item, and that can be done by another character.
 
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