Need Advice, Returning Player, What am I doing wrong? (Sampire)

[Gyb]

OK, long-ish first post (in this decade) but I can't figure out why I'm struggling so much.

I started UO in the beta and played hard 1997-2002. Those were very different times and truth be told I was primarily a crafter, content to GM every crafting skill and make gold via NPC's. Most of my guild was the same and we were cool to just own a lot of property and be chill back in those days, with one notable exception. (Great Lakes, The Nobility, which was the guild that spawned Black Company, if anyone remembers those ancient times from that shard).

Anyway, I let everything lapse, lost my houses, then some friends of friends took over and played my accounts for a while, then lapsed again, then I had a brief resurgence in 2016 where I played long enough to get new property, GM the then-new-to-me Imbuing skill, and try to update stuff. I decided I needed to work for a living and make a true melee character. I heavily used the resources here (especially the CorwinXX guides) and built a reasonable suit, and used new-to-me skill stones to move stuff around to make a Sampire. Sold enough old crap in my accounts to collectors to make enough to get a 120 swords scroll. All in all I did OK, but I never maxed out. then got pulled away by life.

So I got talked into coming back yet again and now I'm having a hard time with the kind of later(ish) game content I feel like I should be able to engage with. On paper I have a suit and stats that I would say are between 70-90% "perfect" as far as what I read I should have:

Sword 120 / Chivalry 100 / Necromancy 100 / Bushido 100 / Parry 100 / Resist 100 / Tactics 100 (110 with Soldier Talisman)
Health is 128, Stamina is 187, mana is 58 before any potions (255 stat cap)
All resists are 70 in vampire form (I'm using verite plate if it matters) (OK, actually my cold resist is only 64 due to errors in my suit crafting but god damn it)
Swing Speed increase 20 (so with stam 187 it should be maxed for Double Axes and faster)
HCI 45, LMC 45/40, DI 100 (still using the 40 from weapon)
My DCI is only 5, I understand this is an area for improvement but I figured overall my life drain should make up for this.
I don't have the Mace and Shield glasses or equivalent, so I'm still using HLD on my weapons, but apparently Blackthorne's Dungeon is shut down?

So, my problem is that I'm trying to solo / two man various content and I just don't feel like I'm where I need to be based on guides/videos. For reference, my friend runs a bard/tamer with Discord so I feel even more stupid. I accept that there are some basic twitch reflexes and timing issues that I need to relearn after so long a break, but I am just dying too much. Tonight Rikktor dropped me 4 times, with zero deaths in all the spawn before that, until PKs inevitability showed up and drove us out when Rikktor was at 20%. If I hadn't died so much we could have done it in a much shorter window. What am I doing wrong?

Here are my guesses:
1. Weapons: Basically I have a Double Axe Slayer of each type with Hit Lower Defense 50, Damage Increase 40, Mana Leech 100, and then something random (usually life leech or stam leech). All my weapons are physical dam only. I use Consecrate Weapon religiously and EoO as I can. I didn't want to deep dive into making both double axes and bladed staves for every encounter type until I had the mace and shield (or equivalent) glasses and so didn't need to inbue HLD on all my weapons as well.
2. Lack of Defense Chance Increase: I only have 5 so dammit, sure I would like more, but again that seems like the least important of all the important properties? I should heal enough to not care?
3. Lack of artifacts. I don't have much/any named equipment, its all crafted and found. But like most artifacts seem to be about slightly more edge, not make or break.
4. Lack of power scrolls. My stat caps are mostly 100, I wasn't into power scrolls back in the day and now I'm limited to solo / two man on an aparantly active enough shard.
5. I'm just doing it wrong. Are there like basic "how to do this" steps that I am missing?

Any help is appreciated!

 

[Akiho]

Any help is appreciated!

My main observation here is that you are basing your results on Rikktor. He hits ridiculously hard regardless of your gear, he easy hits up to 50 damage and of course if you don't dodge/evade his earthquake ability it can and will one shot you (move away on the 4th breath sound or earlier to avoid EQ).

Using a double axe on Rikktor whilst possible is certainly not recommended partly due to his very high resists but also because he hits so hard your stamina is always taking a pounding thus reducing your swing speed and chance to leech life.
I would highly recommend a bladed staff for Rikktor as it is easier to maintain max swing speed. This also negates the need to reapply onslaught every 4 swings which can and will fail often preventing you from hitting your max damage.

This my own personal choice of weapon for Rikky and has never failed me yet:

Using AI means you dont have to spam consecrate or onslaught, with the 'Dragon' Slayer imbue you don't need to worry about using EoO or stacking perfection to achieve max damage. Hit Fatigue is certainly optional but is my preference and I certainly notice the difference to his attack speed after a good few hits.

I do champs often so I can assure you Rikktor will trip up the best of warriors on occasion. Best of luck!

 

[Gyb]

Thank you, that is a good point. I remember getting frustrated in 2016 as well but Rikktor was the first champ we tried now. It sounds like I need to focus on building up a bunch of bladed staves in addition to my double axe collection.

I think my other frustration is time, I see all these posts about people soloing champ spawns in like 30 minutes and it seems to take us well over an hour just to get the champ to spawn. Part of my problem was doing the spawn in T2A and all the damn ledges and enemies spawning in places I can't reach.

But all in all I'm probably just a cranky old man and need to practice more

 

[Xris]

Thank you, that is a good point. I remember getting frustrated in 2016 as well but Rikktor was the first champ we tried now. It sounds like I need to focus on building up a bunch of bladed staves in addition to my double axe collection.

I think my other frustration is time, I see all these posts about people soloing champ spawns in like 30 minutes and it seems to take us well over an hour just to get the champ to spawn. Part of my problem was doing the spawn in T2A and all the damn ledges and enemies spawning in places I can't reach.

But all in all I'm probably just a cranky old man and need to practice more

Use a macro to "open paperdoll". It aggros mobs on screen. Spam it. Make sure your using "hit area" weaps on spawn to hit as many as possible. People complete it so fast because they know the spawn points and have a plan.

Sent from my SM-J337VPP using Tapatalk

 

[chester rockwell]

Lot of little things to make it faster overall. Like xris said, open paperdoll in a big circle, get everything aggro'd on you, hit evasion, charge into the middle, whirlwind the crap out of all of it. Lather rinse repeat.
Hit area effect is a must for levels 1-4.

 

[Cork]

Use a macro to "open paperdoll". It aggros mobs on screen. Spam it. Make sure your using "hit area" weaps on spawn to hit as many as possible. People complete it so fast because they know the spawn points and have a plan.

Sent from my SM-J337VPP using Tapatalk

In the enhanced client you can change a setting to auto attack when you target something. Then all you need to do is have a macro that cycle's through target next enemy to aggro everything. It's a lot nicer than the paperdoll trick because it doesn't lag you up like opening and closing the paperdoll does.

 

[Xris]

In the enhanced client you can change a setting to auto attack when you target something. Then all you need to do is have a macro that cycle's through target next enemy to aggro everything. It's a lot nicer than the paperdoll trick because it doesn't lag you up like opening and closing the paperdoll does.

Yeah the EC is better in every way except graphics. If you can stomach it, then use it, it's much easier. I've tried many many times to switch from CC to EC, I just cant.

Sent from my SM-J337VPP using Tapatalk

 

[Cork]

Lack of Defense Chance Increase: I only have 5 so dammit, sure I would like more, but again that seems like the least important of all the important properties? I should heal enough to not care?

From what I've read and been told you want at least 20 but no more than 25 dci to effectively use Counter Attack. There appears to be two schools of thought on this topic. Some people will say you should be running 45 dci. I currently run 20 dci on my sampire.

 

[Cork]

Yeah the EC is better in every way except graphics. If you can stomach it, then use it, it's much easier. I've tried many many times to switch from CC to EC, I just cant.

Sent from my SM-J337VPP using Tapatalk

While I agree there are certain things like creatures that have a different image than the cc, it looks basically the same. I'm not sure what some people such as yourself are talking about that the graphics are so different. And EC is far superior when it comes to gameplay and the macroing system. After figuring out how to configure it there is so much you can do to make your life a lot easier while playing. That alone is worth using it. Not to mention I can run my resolution at 3440x1440 which is super awesome instead of that tiny window in CC.

 

[Xris]

While I agree there are certain things like creatures that have a different image than the cc, it looks basically the same. I'm not sure what some people such as yourself are talking about that the graphics are so different. And EC is far superior when it comes to gameplay and the macroing system. After figuring out how to configure it there is so much you can do to make your life a lot easier while playing. That alone is worth using it. Not to mention I can run my resolution at 3440x1440 which is super awesome instead of that tiny window in CC. View attachment 108133

It looks very different. Cu's are ugly, swampies ugly, it's very very different, I've tried and tried to use EC.

Sent from my SM-J337VPP using Tapatalk

 

[Cork]

Yeah some creatures look different for sure but that's about it. I really hate how lesser hiryu's look in EC.

 

[chester rockwell]

Your video resolution looks a lot better than mine. Might have to go tinker with it.

I run ec for some things and cc for some things. Graphics in the ec are the turd in the punch bowl.

 

[kaio]

Properly not the advice you are looking for but.
Make a new suit around M&S glasses / Cameo, get 20 ssi on suit / 180++ stam, 145++ HP.
Make new double axe 100% Cold damage,DI,HML,HSL,Reptile slayer,HIT 50 cold area.
Make new Bladed staff Dragon slayer, hml 75, (hll 100 or hla 50), hsl 75,di.

If you are short on gold, go the VvV route and join vvv, grab the VvV talisman +10 hci, 20 di till u can afford a reptile cameo.
Grab the +10 hpi, +10 dex VvV CC, till u can afford a real one.
Grab the +10 di, 30HLD, +5 dex, +10str VvV M&S glasses till u can afford the real one.
Try and get a decent pvp weapon, personally i use a hatchet with +20 splint, +50 hit lightning, +50 HLA.
Make hotkeys for mount/dismount
Carry heal pots, refresh pots, enchanted apples, and a trap box, make keys for these.
You will be orange in fel, but hey if u get raided they will try and kill you regardless of color.
Another advanced tip get a pet summoning ball for a backup swampy, in case u die.

Also optimize your template, having chiv in not optimal. Roll with something like
120 weapon
100 bush
100 parry
120/100 resist
100 necro
100 tact
100 ana / this one u swap to chiv when u do stuff like doom fx.

You also need to have your partner on an more optimized template, disco-tamer is kinda meh, an ABC archer is a good partner for rikkitor.
Anyways good luck in fel

 

[chester rockwell]

Lot of good points there.

I usually just log out to save my swampy and I run with 50 chiv for running sacred journey.

 

[Cork]

Your video resolution looks a lot better than mine. Might have to go tinker with it.

I run ec for some things and cc for some things. Graphics in the ec are the turd in the punch bowl.

I'm running 3440x1440 resolution

 

[skett]

Kinda ot but just simple things like spell scrolls are very washed out blurry in the ec they are far cleaner in the cc
Some monsters are far better looking in ec

 

[Gyb]

Thanks all some great points made. My brother and I set our sights lower and stuck to Illshenar spawns for a week and, when not facing Rikktor, were able to complete all of the others in decent times. Got a targeting macro on my mouse wheel which works very well to collect spawn when not dealing with the ledges in T2A areas. I made a dragon slaying bladed staff similar to the one posted above so am ready for next Riktor encounter. It does seem that proper crafted weapon choice is one of the largest success factors; I have a bunch of good "advance the spawn" weapons, but not good "finish the boss" weapons. I think I must have burned out after buying/wasting all the damn hammers getting to the point where I was back in 2016.

I should probably start a new topic, but any advice for a Sampire with the invasions that started today? I completed several and for the most part was able to hang just fine, but ugh those generals and such are hit point sponges. At best I was hitting for about 100-120 with double strike, less with armor ignore, and that was with Enemy of One. Seems like most of the other players were tamers. Are there specific weapon choices for these invasion peeps?

 

[Cork]

Thanks all some great points made. My brother and I set our sights lower and stuck to Illshenar spawns for a week and, when not facing Rikktor, were able to complete all of the others in decent times. Got a targeting macro on my mouse wheel which works very well to collect spawn when not dealing with the ledges in T2A areas. I made a dragon slaying bladed staff similar to the one posted above so am ready for next Riktor encounter. It does seem that proper crafted weapon choice is one of the largest success factors; I have a bunch of good "advance the spawn" weapons, but not good "finish the boss" weapons. I think I must have burned out after buying/wasting all the damn hammers getting to the point where I was back in 2016.

I should probably start a new topic, but any advice for a Sampire with the invasions that started today? I completed several and for the most part was able to hang just fine, but ugh those generals and such are hit point sponges. At best I was hitting for about 100-120 with double strike, less with armor ignore, and that was with Enemy of One. Seems like most of the other players were tamers. Are there specific weapon choices for these invasion peeps?

Unfortunately the Generals don't have a slayer vulnerability which sucks. I don't think a Sampire is going to keep up dmg with a mage tamer and a properly trained pet. But they are still good. I also find that energy damage works well against them. Sometimes fire depending on whether or not someone has discord and/or rune corruption on them.