Lured back to UO!

[Wilis]

Nothing like coming full circle! Went off and played a bunch of other MMOs. I've been gone a good long while - somewhere around Age of Shadows I think. I've been back a time or two to buy expansions - bought 9th anniversary when it came out, but wound up not playing long.

Then a couple of weeks ago, I was on my level 70 WoW rogue fishing and thought - gosh why can't I get "goodies" doing this... why doesn't this game have housing... and the list continued longer than I want to bore you with! So here I am - again!

I took my characters out for a spin and discovered that (well WoW is easier for me for one...heh!):

1) I'm STILL awful at playing a tamer (am I truly the only one who is?! LOL)
2) My mage is still the easiest one for me to play but she's the Queen of Dying against - oh everything (my fighter wasnt too shabby tho - against the ettin outside my door...hmph)
3) I still love my crafter but I had moved some skills around before and now am not sure if I need two crafters?
4) I'm still crazy about fishing but can't handle a net toss without OooOo coming next
5) And, oh, yes, I'm still gold poor but now I'm gold poor and even sorrier at playing! LOL But it's my $12.99 so I can waste it if I want to!

After trolling the forums, I've decided to post my character templates here and ask for help. I'd like to have a character or two (ok, maybe three...four...) that I can wander the world with (and not die when a creature sneezes on me), fish without tangling myself in the netting, putter about a little garden and craft whatever my pixelated heart desires!

I know zilch about newer skills like chivalry and bushido and a "sampire" sounds like something I should ward my house with garlic for! My GM fisher was on my second account which I cant turn back on now so I'm hoping my second fisher can come up to speed. Here are my five characters... be gentle with them. They're feeling a little abused right now!

Coral (bard? fisher?)

Music 100.0
Med. 97.5
Magery 93.1
Peace 91.1
Provo 73.6
Fishing 68.2
Disco 36.2
M. Resist 33.1
Focus 26.9
Eval .6 (no clue what I was doing there...)

Wilis (Mage)

Magery 103.7
Eval 100
Inscription 100
Med. 100
Wrest 86.6
Alchemy 78.3
Mag Resist 66.4
Hiding 58.1

Felara (fighter)

Fencing 102
Anat 100
Tact 100
Healing 87.4
Mag Res 74
Parry 65.5
Bushido 46.6 (omg I must have bought that before)
Magery 40.8
Focus 39.5
Chivalry 33.4
Archery 30.8 (Possibly I was going to change from Fenching?)

Sul (Crafter)

Smith 100
Carpentry 100
Tailor 100
Tinker 100
Mining 92.9
Magery 79.2
Med 71.2
Music 45
Lumber 30.3

Honey (once a t-hunter... a poor one lol)

Detect Hidden 100
Cooking 90.7 (um...)
Med 81.1
LP 80.3
Mgery 69.2
Remove Trap 63.7
Hide 60.7
Stealing 50

There you have it - my little band of misfits! *bows & whispers* help...

Wilis of Oceania

 

[RenaLynne]

I would say you need to 120 your skills, that is if you want to be a comptetant fighter. Gm's ok for the lil stuff but doesnt really cut it anymore. Plus it looks like you need to organize. Why have fencing, archery, magery, and chiv all on one character? Thats just a waste of space.

 

[Wilis]

Yes, I think the last time I came back I was toying with changing my fighter to an archer and then a friend said no go pally... so there you have it

 

[Teeshy]

Oh, I've seen you a couple of times as I've run past Brit bank =) I'm usually on Ma I think =) Welcome back to the game!

I know pretty much nothing about character templates I'm afraid - I'm not the kind of person to go to 120 on a lot of skills, simply because I'm never quite sure what I want half my characters to be

I love fishing too (Ma is my fisher/treasure hunter/tamer/mage type character - see what I mean about templates? =D) And I actually have 2 crafters, cos I wanted to fit ALL the crafty type skills in (including cooking )

All that rambling, really all I wanted to say was, sorry I can't really help with template suggestions - but welcome back to the game! And if you see Teeshy or Ma feel free to holler at me if you need anything! Oh, and you know that if you want to find people, generally speaking on Oce, Luna would have a few more there =) Though there has been mroe people using brit bank lately =)

 

[Wilis]

Hey, Teeshy! Yes I remember seeing Ma too! Thanks for the welcome back. I'll be sure to say hi next time. If I dont respond its probably because I'm flipping back to the forums or the map trying to figure out... everything LOL

I'm glad I'm not the only one who waffles on templates heh!

Wilis

 

[Obsidian]

Wilis, glad to have you back. I did the same thing... played 1999-2001 then took a break until last December. Lots of changes, but I like the game better now than before.

As for your characters, there are tons of things you can do. My first question is whether you reactivated your older account and have vet rewards options. If so, a soul stone would open the door for you to make all sorts of character adjustments. The other question is whether you have 5 char slots or more.

Anyway, I'll assume you have no soul stone. I'll put a * next to each skill I would remove from your characters and move elsewhere (preferably to a new #6 char if you have the slot).

Coral (bard? fisher?)
> I would go pure bard and remove the fishing (soulstone it if you have it)
120 Music 100.0
120 Med. 97.5
120 Magery 93.1
120 Peace 91.1
120 Provo 73.6
0 Fishing 68.2*
120 Disco 36.2
0 M. Resist 33.1
0 Focus 26.9
0 Eval .6 (no clue what I was doing there...)

Wilis (Mage)
> Nice char -- he just needs some tweaks. I love my mage/scribe -- your char is very similar
120 Magery 103.7
120 Eval 100
100 Inscription 100
120 Med. 100
120 Wrest 86.6
0 Alchemy 78.3* (soul stone it!)
120 Mag Resist 66.4
0 Hiding 58.1
20 Misc skill -- if you have bracelets I personally would add Chiv and push it higher for the quick healing - another option would be 20 poison to increase you chance for lesser poison

Felara (fighter)
> I hate to tell you this, but basic tank fighters don't do well currently in game. I had very similar fighter from my previous time playing. i don't use him at all because he requires such reworking. Anyway, this is what I would do.
120 Fencing 102
90 Anat 100
100 Tact 100
90 Healing 87.4
0 Mag Res 74*
120 Parry 65.5
120 Bushido 46.6 (omg I must have bought that before)
0 Magery 40.8
0 Focus 39.5
80 Chivalry 33.4
0 Archery 30.8 (Possibly I was going to change from Fenching?)
> This is a variation of the Samurai-Pally without the vampire part. It still works very well. The only big problem is that without magic resist you are vulnerable to magic attacks. You'll have to learn how to play with that limitation. Another option would be to remove the healing and put magic resist in its place. You can do good healing with Chiv and even Bushido's confidence. And if you get a life-leech weapon you'll get some there too. Lots of options.

Sul (Crafter)
> Nice char, you have to adjust to add arms lore - I'd move the carpentry elsewhere
120 Smith 100
0 Carpentry 100 *
120 Tailor 100
100 Tinker 100
100 Mining 92.9
100 Arms Lore 0
90 Magery 79.2
90 Med 71.2
0 Music 45
0 Lumber 30.3
> You can find a +10 magery and +10 Med spellbook to make those 100 each

Honey (once a t-hunter... a poor one lol)
> Personally, I don't know much about T-Hunters, but I personally would consider completely modifying this char. You can put your carpentry on this character and make it a second crafter and build your lumberjacking. Or you you go with any of the following: Doom Thief, ABC Archer, Tamer, or whatever else your heart desires. I guess you really have to do something with that carpentry. Unless you have a 6th (or 7th char slot) I guess you have to put that here. You do have the beginnings of a good rogue. Anyway, with no additional char slots, I personally would make this a second crafter:

100 Carpentry 0
0 Detect Hidden 100
100 Cooking 90.7 (um...)
90 Med 81.1
100 LJ 80.3 (Do you mean LJ for lumberjacking?)
90 Magery 69.2
xx Music 0 (whatever you need to make instruments)
100 Blacksmithing (to make house add ons with the carpentry
0 Remove Trap 63.7
0 Hide 60.7
0 Stealing 50
The rest of the skill points can go where ever.

You know, you may instead want to keep the carpentry on Sul and move the tailoring via Soul Stone to Honey. That solves the problem of needing smithing and carpentry on the same char to make add-ons. You'll just have to get your lumber through another means.

Anyway, there are tons of options, those are the ones that came to mind when I read your templates.

BTW -- 120 power scrolls are crazy expensive. Start with 110s and buy the 115s when you find bargains. You'll eventually get to where you want to be.

-OBSIDIAN-

 

[Wilis]

Hi Obisdian! Thank you so much for all the ideas! I did have enough gold stashed in the bank to drop my new home down and start sorting out whatever goodies I had left on my characters. Turns out I have exactly one soulstone and a couple of tokens for fragments. I did reactive an old account and it tells me I have two rewards. So there is another soulstone and something pretty for the house - unless I get soulstone fever!

I think I'll start with Wilis and the bard (and offload Fishing/Alch to soulstones. I think I was doing alchemy to have potions for the garden - is that a lost art now? Or is buying them best?). I love your suggestions for those two. It seems like the easiest place for me to start. As for poor Felara, if that's the case with tanks, I'll shelve it for now or at least until I'm more comfortable with the game again.

I do have a free 6th character slot, so I'm going to play with the two crafter idea there. Between Sul, Honey and the new one, I'll have some space to park those wandering skills.

Thanks again the help!

Wilis

 

[Teeshy]

Oh, if you're going to go 2 crafters, I'll show you what I've done with mine, just to give you an idea =) Bear in mind, mine aren't really equipped to defend themselves at all (mongbats maybe! =P) they are just because the "crafty" side of the game is what appeals to me the most =) And all numbers are what they're working towards, not what they have yet

Serenitee: (my main crafter, and house decorator )
Arms Lore - 100
Blacksmith -120
Carpentry - 100
Mage - (whatever's left - I can use spell book to up it a bit too)
Mining - 100
Music - 15 (I use jewels to get her to 45, though if she was an elf, I think there's a piece of armour she could use as well, to make this lower)
Tailor - 120
Tinker - 100

Ylana: (second crafter and gardener)
Alchemy - 100
Arms Lore -100
Bowcraft/fletching - 100
Cooking - 100
Inscription - 100
Lumberjack - 95 (she uses Melisande's corroded hatchet to give her a +5 LJ)
Magery - 120 (maybe, one day, I might be able to afford a 120 - but for now, 110 =P)

I tried to work them out so that I had all the complimentary skills together on Serenitee, can't remember what exactly, but I know that those skills all relied on each other at some point =)

Just cant help at all with regular fighting type characters, I don't know enough about them (what's an ABC archer Obsidian?) I worked more on my crafters than any other "template" =D

 

[Wilis]

Hey Teeshy! Yeah, I pretty much craft in any game I've played - that and fishing Thanks for the feedback on the crafters, I've unloaded some skills to soulstone fragments and have been drafting up some ideas. How in the heck do you keep yourself in resources with all the mongbats around?! I've kept the magery on my little crew to get around and to fight so I could gather. What's your secret? heh! Buying things seems so expensive to me now. When I left I had two million gold and I thought I was doing well! Oh inflation changes everything! LOL

I wondered about that ABC archer myself - and the Doom Rogue! What are those Obisdian?

 

[GFY]

Hi,

A doom rogue is a thief that runs around in doom and steals items that only respawn rarely, like inquisitors resolution (doom artie).

Now an ABC archer is one of my favorites. It is basically an archer with Bushido and chivalry. This template is one of the most powerful in game for killing monsters and not to shabby in pvp either.

Archery 120
Bushido 120
Chivalry 80
Tactics 90
Anatomy 100
Healing 90
Resist 120

You want 90 tactics to be able to use weapon specials.

Anatomy 100 for damage bonus.

Healing 90 and enhanced bandages are almost (not quite) as good as 100.

I have 120 resist because I pvp and HATE being paralyzed.

This can be expensive to put all together but you can still do quite well at 115 and these scrolls are no where near as expensive as 120's

For gear you want a bow that has good mana leech, DI, and SSI. As for armor you want pluses to get you as close as possible to; 150 dex, 45 hci/dci, 40 lmc, and as much MR, & mana increase as you can get.

I've played my ABC archer in doom, peerless, and pvp without top of the line gear and I've managed to do fairly well, especially in pvm. The more you pvp the closer to top of the line gear you'll need.

 

[Wilis]

Hi GFY. Thanks for the info on the ABC archer! I'm thinking when I square my crafters away and free up the soulstones, I'm going to put away Felara's fencing etc and give that a whirl. My gear is abysmal compared to what it seems I'll need lol. So anything that helps me survive with less than stellar gear is awsome. I've never been a pvp-er (Yes, I'm a Trammel carebear and proud of it! LOL), so pvm entertains me just fine.

Anyone have a template for the Doom thief? (the LJ I mentioned above on Honey should actually have been LP for lockpicking). Might be kinda fun to do the sneaky thing.

Choices, choices! *takes out pen and paper* I'll be back... hehe!

 

[Obsidian]

Yes, I agree... so many options. I have not tried a ABC Archer yet, but I actually have a similar template on my list of things to try. My only difference is I dropped healing entirely (heal via chivalry, confidence, and life leech) and buffed up Tactics. It also gives you the option to throw on some necro and (with items) go Vamp form. Of course, there is a huge debate on this right now. We'll have to see if the devs adjust this capability.

I'm glad you are having fun with the soul stones. They really open up the options. You can build each skill on a mule and move it... or whatever you want to do. Many many options.

-OBSIDIAN-

 

[hawkeye_pike]

One little thing:
I absolutely do NOT agree that it is necessary to raise any skill to 120. To my opinion, raising the main skills to 110 is enough (like fighting skills, magery or meditation). It will not only be cheaper (as 120 scrolls aver VERY expensive) but you'll also have more skill points left for other important skills.

 

[GFY]

One little thing:
I absolutely do NOT agree that it is necessary to raise any skill to 120. To my opinion, raising the main skills to 110 is enough (like fighting skills, magery or meditation). It will not only be cheaper (as 120 scrolls aver VERY expensive) but you'll also have more skill points left for other important skills.

I can't agree here. I've played UO the slow time consuming way. Play your template, work up skills as you play, and acquire scrolls as I can. I have very few 120 skill, and while 110 is a good intermediate skill level 115 and finally 120 is (IMHO) much better. Don't get me wrong you can have a lot of fun and kill just about everything in game at 110, but 115 is better and 120 is MUCH better.

By all means play your templates you can have a lot of fun killing ogres, titans liches, etc... As you get more proficient and your skills rise you'll have even more fun. Just handing someone a template with all 120's doesn't mean that player can play the template well enough to do much of anything. You still need to learn technics that work best for each template.

UO is a journey enjoy the ride!

BY the way Wilis (What you talkin' ABOUT!) (sorry I couldn't resist )

What shard do you play on?

 

[Wilis]

LOL GFY! That still makes me laugh. Believe it or not, I didn't even think of that when I named Wilis and I'm certainly old enough to remember that show! I play on Oceania. I was with some Aussie friends who are long gone to other games or RL now. It's very quiet out there! I'm in Central USA time and don't play at the times I did before so that makes Oceania a bit lonely for me. I was thinking of moving at least one of my characters someplace else but wasn't sure where to go. Might have to start over and check some other places out. I'm open to suggestions!

Hawkeye, I'll keep that in mind. Wilis' magery is only 103 and if I recall it was a 105 top that she hasn't reached yet. I'm definitely a slower player anyway and I feel REALLY behind now. I went to wander Shame a bit. I put on some cheapy gear that I didn't bother insuring as I knew Death would find me shortly. I hope the earth ellys enjoy it... hehe!

I should sign myself -

Wilis, Deathrobe Queen

 

[T_Amon_from_work]

LA is amall but good folks around ... I'm East Coast and LA is classed as West Coast shard. Broadband connect with little to no problem.

 

[GFY]

I've played Atlantic since '99. There are a lot of players here and there's almost always something to do and someone to do it with.

If your interested in moving Atlantic is worth a look. There are a large number of big guilds here that offer all types of game play and people willing to help you relearn the game. Housing is available (you may need to look for a spot but there are some out there) you may need to start small and work your way up but there are spots and houses available.

If you do make the switch look up my guild. We hang out at Empath Abby (on the roof) and someone will probably be there to help ya out. You can also check out our web site at www.llts.org.

One last thought with a mage you can cast never fail 7th level spells at 106. You will need 120 however to cast 8th level and not fail.