New/returning player looking for some advice

[Alacres]

Hey everyone, I just recently got a new account going and I'm in the process of re-assimilating myself with the game. I've played on and off for years, but since life complications were a constant for me, I never really had a chance to fully experience the game, even remotely. That said, I finally have the time to give the game a real chance, but I'm a bit confused and, needless to say, I've got a plethora of questions running through my mind hehe.

I've done a decent amount of research on the type of character I think I'd enjoy playing and so far it's a necro/samurai combination build. I've heard the name "Sampire" used to describe them, although it definitely wasn't my intention to use a cookie cutter template or anything. It's more of an "RP purposes" kind of thing lol. I've always loved the "dark knight" concept, so I'd like to stay the course with my character, regardless of how overplayed the build might be.

Anyway, here's what I had in mind currently:

120 Swordsmanship
120 Bushido
120 Parry
100 Tactics
100 Necromancy
100 Spirit Speak (for the heal mainly)
60 Anatomy

(Naturally, it will be a long while before I can ever reach the 720 point cap, with needing power scrolls and all, but I like to plan ahead )

My biggest gripe with this build is that I won't get the full benefit from anatomy and if what I've been reading is accurate, it adds greatly to melee damage.

That brings me to my first question - Does this seem like a stable build, or would it be better to sacrifice something else in favor of a greater level in anatomy?

I was hoping to keep spirit speak at a decent level because I'd like to be as survivable as possible, especially in solo situations. I figure the higher level it is, the better the heal. Not to mention, the bonus to necro spells.

And of course, with necromancy, it's got to be at at least 99 in order for VE to succeed often, unless I'm mistaken? I had actually intended to take it to 120 for the extra 4% life siphon but I figured it probably wasn't worth the loss of points from my other skills. I'm clueless about how this all plays out on the field though of course, so that's why I'm here - for advice from the true, gritty experienced adventurers!

My second question is about stat distribution - As of right now, I don't have any of my stats locked, so they're all gaining freely. Since I'm going a melee/necro solo/survival route, what kind of stat setup should I be shooting for? I read that they recently upped the Bushido skill Lighting strike up from 5 to 10 mana, so I can imagine that the more MP, the better. Being a melee enthusiast at heart though, I'd like to go primarily for a stat build that benefits a more "in the frontlines" playstyle, but I'd still like to have enough MP to keep myself up and running if possible. In other words, which stat distribution would best achieve an overall middle-ground that would accommodate that kind of playstyle?

Anyway, I'm sorry for the wall of text - I'm still trying to take everything in again. I'd still consider myself a new player more so than anything, so there's still a ton of stuff that I don't know about the game.

All of that said, if any of you could share with me some of that vast UO wisdom, I'd truly appreciate it. In any case, good to be back!

(Oh, and in case anyone's wondering I'm playing on Atlantic. IGN - Sen Vilan. Maybe I'll see some of you around.)

Take care

 

[Basara]

Anyway, here's what I had in mind currently:

120 Swordsmanship
120 Bushido
120 Parry
100 Tactics
100 Necromancy
100 Spirit Speak (for the heal mainly)
60 Anatomy

(Naturally, it will be a long while before I can ever reach the 720 point cap, with needing power scrolls and all, but I like to plan ahead )

My biggest gripe with this build is that I won't get the full benefit from anatomy and if what I've been reading is accurate, it adds greatly to melee damage.

That brings me to my first question - Does this seem like a stable build, or would it be better to sacrifice something else in favor of a greater level in anatomy?

You don't need anywhere near that high of Bushido.You can probably move 20-30 points of it into Anatomy - and that's not even taking into account the additional skill points you can get from bracelet and ring (and possibly other things). The only real concern is that, for special moves, you need to have 90 real skill in both Tactics and your weapon skill. Some of my characters have 800+ points due to equipment, and 200-220 of those points being in non-combat skills (Cart/mining (swapped as needed) & LP for my melee Treasure hunting Paladin, Mining and 120 Blacksmith for my elemental-hunter "Holy Smith" template)

My second question is about stat distribution - As of right now, I don't have any of my stats locked, so they're all gaining freely. Since I'm going a melee/necro solo/survival route, what kind of stat setup should I be shooting for? I read that they recently upped the Bushido skill Lighting strike up from 5 to 10 mana, so I can imagine that the more MP, the better. Being a melee enthusiast at heart though, I'd like to go primarily for a stat build that benefits a more "in the frontlines" playstyle, but I'd still like to have enough MP to keep myself up and running if possible. In other words, which stat distribution would best achieve an overall middle-ground that would accommodate that kind of playstyle?

Bushido/Weapon/Parry will give you your -10 mana reduction for weapon-specific special moves outside of the Bushido "powers"/spells. So, you're good to go in that aspect. IF you can reconcile being elven with your RP aspects, most Sampires are elves, because of the +20 free mana (over and above your INT score).
Bushido has a substantial parry penalty if you use a shield, so you'll want to go either with a 2-handed weapon (get someone to craft you a Daisho, No-dachi, or one of the ML swords weapons - whichever meets your style and special move desires), or go 1-handed weapon with no shield (which allows you to use potions freely, such as for cures, agility, refreshes, and supplemental healing potions if needed).

Stat-wise, you will want over 120 stamina (swing speed is now stamina based, with each 30 points of stamina over 60 and/or Swing Speed Increase counting as a -1 timer tick (quarter second?) for faster swing speed). It doesn't have to be all from dex (Since you didn't take healing, dex is much less important than stamina, but keep dex over 80 for Parry, preferably 100 or more), so look into stamina increase as a property for armor pieces.
Strength totaling 100 is good - more is better. Again, there are plenty of equipment routes for this, including an artifact from doom (Spirit of the Totem) that gives you +20 STR (with +25 total being the cap for all weapons combined, if I remember correctly)
Everything else goes into INT, and be sure to use mana leech weapons.

There's also a variant of the necro-Samurai called the "Whammy", which is wraith form (leeches mana instead of life), that is a bit more forgiving in terms of stats. You can probably work as a Whammy building up your stats and gear, until you're ready to switch over to "Sampire" (if you ever do).

The people who actively play Sampires can inform you a lot better.

 

[Krinkle]

"100 Spirit Speak (for the heal mainly)
60 Anatomy"

Spirit Speak will be interrupted in melee. Healing will be rare due to this. The Healing skill would be a better choice.

To get higher Anatomy, reduce Parry. If you Add Healing, Anatomy will give you a higher 'base' damage as well as a bonus to you heals with Healing.

Most builds similar to yours use Chivalry instead of Parry. Higher damage will give you higher life leech. Its really the one thing that separates 'Sampires' from other warriors and allows them to defeat even Peerless when solo. In saying that, I've heard of people not using Chivalry anymore due to the semi-recent changes.

I wouldn't worry about preconceived template stigmas. The 'Sampire' templates were originally developed due to the need for people to be able to solo Peerless on low population shards or on shards where guilds full of people that think 'mob mentality' works on peerless. You do what you gotta do.

There is still a variety within template concepts. Your skill choice as well as suit choice will make your Sampire unique. The small group that I run with each have a Sampire and each are different. I tend to be more defensive to 'hold the line' while others provide more offence. I usually can stay alive better at the expense of doing more damage.

There are many, many threads and guides in the Warriors forum that explain all of this in detail. Look there if you need more information.

 

[Schuyler Bain]

Ahoy and welcome (back) aboard!

Your build seems fine to my eyes. There are a number of adjustments, a point here and a point there that you could make. I see a number of people only take Necromancy to 99, but I am not sure the extra point somewhere else is that beneficial. I think you may want to look into jewels. If I recall correctly you can gain up to 30 points in a particular skill between a bracelet and ring. You could pay to have both crafted to your specifications or find existing items and tailor your skills around what you have.

Your plan calls for 60 Anatomy. You can bump that to 90 by adding a bracelet and ring with +15 anatomy each. There are other items that can add to your skill as well. Anatomy is fairly easy to gain so perhaps you pick the most difficult skill to gain or the one you need sooner than later and use the jewels to add +30 to that skill?

I know some players have been very creative at maximizing extra skill points and I am sure you can get more than +30 if you work at it.


Good luck!

 

[Alacres]

Hey, thanks for the great info . My apologies on the long response time.

After reading through each of your posts (as well as a few responses from uoforums) I think I'm actually even more confused as to what I should do lol. I was under the impression that you want parry at 120 so you can take advantage of the 40% parry rate as well as the benefit to Bushido.

For RP purposes (and because I also plan to have a "paladin" type character with Chiv) I didn't really want to include it in this particular build (as was suggested as a replacement for parry), especially now that I hear you almost "need" it high level to truly benefit from it, due to the recent changes.

As far as Spirit speak goes, I had no idea that melee attacks interrupted it. I guess considering that I want this character to be a melee fighter primarily, going with healing really would be the better option. I'm curious though - how much exactly does spirit speak benefit necromancy? Will the spells be way less effective without it?

With Bushido, I had always heard that having it at 120 was worth the boost in effectiveness, but I guess with the recent changes it's not 'necessary' anymore? What exactly did they do to it? Would taking 20 or 30 out of it and putting it into anatomy instead be a fair trade-off overall?

Arrg, so many questions hehe . Considering that items and gear can also add to the skill cap makes creating a template plan even more arduous. I guess the best thing to do is just to take it slow and see how things pan out. Worst comes to worst, I can always back track thanks to the flexible skill system UO sports.

For now I'll probably go with something like this:

120 Swordsmanship
120 Parry
100 Bushido
100 Tactics
100 Necromancy
90 anatomy
90 healing

Does that seem like a decent starting build? I figure I can raise healing and anatomy through accessories (or whichever skill would net the most benefit) later on.

I'm not sure what I want to do about the race thing. I'm really not a huge fan of elves to be honest, but it almost seems insane not to go with them considering the bonus mp. With the right build and equipment, would playing a human sampire really be that much different in the end? I'd like to stick with the character I already created, but I guess if the mana boost is very significant later on than I might end up re-rolling. While I'm on that subject, do humans get any decent racial traits?

Sorry for all the questions and rambling in there, I just want to make sure I start off on the right foot. Thanks again for all the help everyone .

 

[Basara]

They've slowly been taking away the human bonuses away, claiming "balance" when all it does is continue to make the elf stronger and stronger.

There's also quests that allow you, given an hour or so of play time, to convert back and forth between human and elf, so starting human and switching to elf later is no big deal. One could look at it as your human necromancer having unseelie fae ancestry, later choosing to fully embrace his evil elven ancestry.

Also note that while the base damage is raised 1% for every 2 points of anatomy, the difference between 90 anatomy and 100 anatomy is 10%, because there is a 5% bonus for having 100 or more in Anatomy. So, finding 10 points of skill on equipment, to allow anatomy to go to 100 eventually (either naturally or from the equipment) might be worth it.

 

[Alacres]

They've slowly been taking away the human bonuses away, claiming "balance" when all it does is continue to make the elf stronger and stronger.

There's also quests that allow you, given an hour or so of play time, to convert back and forth between human and elf, so starting human and switching to elf later is no big deal. One could look at it as your human necromancer having unseelie fae ancestry, later choosing to fully embrace his evil elven ancestry.

Also note that while the base damage is raised 1% for every 2 points of anatomy, the difference between 90 anatomy and 100 anatomy is 10%, because there is a 5% bonus for having 100 or more in Anatomy. So, finding 10 points of skill on equipment, to allow anatomy to go to 100 eventually (either naturally or from the equipment) might be worth it.

Ha, that's a huge load off! I had no idea about the racial change quest. It's great to know that even race choice is not set in stone. I guess I'll just stick with my human for the time being and if I have mana troubles in the future I can give the elf a try.

Thanks again for all the info. I'm feeling much less confused already