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Pally looking for some advice (build and hunting spots)

Gromda

Adventurer
Hello all --

I've recently come back to UO after quite a long time off (ten or so years?) and am trying to find my legs with my Swords Pally. I'd love to see some suggestions for my build, as well as some suggestions on places to hunt and gearing up options.

Right now I'm at (without gear/jewels):
120 Parry
115 Swords
110 Tactics
100 Anatomy
100 Resist
83.4 Healing
78.x Chivalry
(plan is to work Chiv up and once I use up my last 13.2 points of Focus I'll figure our what's next)

Str:105
Dex:100
Int: 50
(I assume I have too much Int)

Gear stats:
70s in resists
35/45 Hit Chance Increases
60/60 SSI
30/100 Damage Increase

I'm wearing a full suit of Knights Armor Replica (70s resist, etc.) and wielding a Soul Seeker sword with a semi-decent shield and whatever jewels I could get my hands on.

I'd love some suggestions on where I should be hunting for drops, as I really have no idea. I've done one partial champion spawn but my guild mate had to go so never finished. I play on Chesapeake so I'm not the huge population server that is Atlantic. Heck I wouldn't mind even having a clue what constitutes a good drop, as I know very little about the itemization of the game these days. I don't have an Imbuer/crafter yet so don't have access to making my own gear.

Also I'd love some suggestions as to where I should settle my skills. Should I drop Resist and take Bushido? Things like that. I do have a couple of Soulstones to move skills if needed.

Thanks for any advice, really appreciate it!
Gromda
Chesapeake
 
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Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
It really depends on what you want to do with the character. There's a few ways of building dexxers that are generally effective though nothing is off limits.

1. Sampire - very simple, Bushido and Necromancy for playing in Vamp Form you hit things and it heals you. Extremely common easy and lazy to play for the majority of content.

2. Wammy - (Wraith samurai) Bushido, Necromancy, Spirit Speak. In Wraith Form you drain Mana, you can also use Curse Weapon which will heal you for half of the damage you do. Obvious application is you can spam Armour Ignore.

3. Dragoon - similar to Sampire, only instead of having Necro for Vamp Form you rely on Hit Life Leech on weapons, and possibly whatever you used the 100 points you saved from not using Necromancy.

4. Paladin - 4/6 Faster Casting/Recovery, you heal with Chivalry spells.

5. Ninjitsu - 4/6, you survive and wear things down by being unhittable and auto defence from Mirror Images and/or Animal Forms for HP Regen.

6. Mystic - built around the character playing in Stone Form. Which in short means you can't be Poisoned or have stats lowered, which means it fits perfectly with the Healing skill.

Most templates use a combination of these styles.

Most people don't bother with Resist anymore.

Stats you need depend on template and suit. Without a crafter it's very difficult to plan. At the very least make a Smith/Tailor/Arms Lore/Imbuer, even at basic levels the ability to Imbue the right resist will be invaluable. Most suits cap everything including overcoming penalties from forms. Some further refined.

So much has changed in that time that it's hard to advise until you commit to a template. Which is hard to do without knowing what their like. Catch 22.

Dexxers further diversify by skill Mastery use, and special moves, there's only a handful that are useful.

You can also hybrid with Taming or Bard skills on most of these.
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Following on...

The way I usually plan is I think of one or more of the ways I want to play the character, so it could be what I'm intending to fight, how I intend to heal/cure/stay alive, or how I intend to attack.

If you go by what you plan to kill you have to factor in whether you'll be in Fel at all. At least so you can be aware of any weaknesses the template has so you know when to fight or run.

Aside from that people tend to plan for encounters; Champion Spawns, Peerless, Doom, The Roof, or an all rounder. They're quite a good indicator of difficulty. Champion Spawns can be done on most templates, Peerless are slightly more restrictive, Doom suits certain templates better than others, and so does Roof.

How you plan to stay alive comes down to; leech, regen, spell, bandages. Leech (whether from a Form or Hit property) is generally best, but some encounters have Tainted Life Leech which will kill you if using it. Regen is maint effective in conjunction with other things like Mirror Images, both it and Leeches have the pro that they can't be blocked by Poison/Mortal Wounds/Bleed. Spells have the obvious cons of being interruptible and blockable and casting time, but with the right setup can be faster, heal for more or let you heal at range. Bandages are also interruptible and blockable but work well where you can't rely on leeching (such as fights where leeching doesn't work, where you get frozen, or where you can't hit often enough).

Your plan of attack mostly comes down to Mastery's, Special Moves, hybridisation, or a mix of all three. If you haven't caught up that far yet, most if the skills in the game you can set as your 'Mastery' and gain two or three extra abilities. The main one people rave about on a dexxer is Onslaught from the Swords Mastery, as it knocks 20 off of the resist of the most prominent elemental damage type on your weapon. So if you have a 100% fire damage weapon you can drop the targets fire resist by 20 and do more damage. People combine this with Double Strike to get as much damage in while Onslaught is active.
Special Moves that are worth using in PvM can be narrowed down to; Armour Ignore, Double Strike, and Whirlwind. They're all fairly self explanatory by name.
By hybridisation I basically mean if you've got a Discord Wammy, or a Vamp Form Tamer Palladin you would factor their abilities into your offense.
 

Innoxicated

Journeyman
Homey you gotta ditch that knights armor asap (still cool for a mannequin or turn in points, tho). 70's resist is easy to reach now with legendaries (legendary artifact is the higher end tier of the new loot generation system).

Since it's probably safe to assume you aren't ready to shell out a few million per piece, I have a helpful suggestion! You want to prioritize +stam above all, and +stam dexter pieces that are regular old moldable leather are usually very cheap! This is because there are now perks to wearing studded/bone/metal armor, but you can worry about that later.

Drop int to 10-15, and put str up to 125. The rest in Dex, with enough +stam on your equipment to reach as close to 180 steam as you can get. This way you can swing higher base damage weapons as quickly as your swinging that soul seeker right now.

Lord GOD posted a fairly comprehensive list of dexter variants. His posts are very helpful, so I suggest mulling it over and making a decision as to which sounds like the most fun. Fun is an important part of the game that often gets neglected in the pursuit of efficiency. But fun keeps you logging back in, efficiency not as much!!
 

Gromda

Adventurer
I really appreciate the advice Lord GOD(GOD), you've laid out a lot of interesting options. When I came back I built him out of a sense of making a Pally type character but I'm starting to realize that sticking with that mindset might not allow me to do as much as I might otherwise be able to do if I broke from that old-school mindset and went with something I never tried.

I keep hearing about the Sampire and read quite a few threads on here with a variety of options and haven't quite grokked exactly what I'd build if I were to make one. Since I don't have access to 120 scrolls, nor the gold to buy them if they ever are available that is, nor the artifacts/crafting skills to mold gear yet, how would you suggest I go about starting to build him? If we go with my current template and I pull skills off him and move them to an alt to hold them how would you suggest I go forward?

I'd probably keep:
115 Swords (can't see a 120 coming my way soon)
110 Tactics
100 Anatomy

Is 120 Parry too much? I assume I can pull that off of him and move to an alt, the alt would be at 120 right? AKA the scroll isn't locked to the character that consumed it? I'd obviously need Bushido (as high as I can?) and Necromancy (again as high as I can?), would a Sampire make use of Spirit Speak or is that more for bumping damaging spells/debuffs?

I guess the brain-dead part of me right now is saying if you had that character above (having eaten a 115 Swords, 110 Tactics, 120 Parry scroll and a +25 stat scroll) and I'd say Sampire sounds intersting how would you go about rebuilding him?

Innoxicated, thanks for your thoughts as well. If I drop my INT to 10-15 how do I cast my spells? If something takes 30-40 mana I can't even cast it once, unless I have super high-level gear with LMC and +mana/int? I think that's the problem I'm having since I don't have a lot of knowledge about gear yet. I think I'm just not seeing the big picture I guess yet. I have built up about 2.5m gold, have an 18x18 house already and have worked up a mage type as well (nearly at 115 Magery, Eval, Med, Resist 110 Necro, SS) so I can farm with him if I can figure out a good place to go that is. :)

I'll get to work on a crafter as well, as it appears not having one is really something that'll hinder me going forward -- it's not the first time this was suggested to me. I'll make one in the mold of what you suggested. Heck I might just 'cheat' and get a mythic token to save some time grinding on him.

I've just always preferred melee characters (or archers) over casters I guess which is why I'm asking here about trying to figure out my Pally/melee guy I'd rather play. I think that goes to what you said Innoxicated, the fun part of it vs the most efficient. I really, really appreciate both of you taking the time to give me some advice. I admit I loved UO from 1998 when I logged in and played a metric ton of it through the years, but I'm so out of date and am finding myself foundering a bit trying to get back into it and break my mindset of how the game is based on my knowledge of 2002/4ish.
 
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Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
To be fair old school templates made a comeback. What I'd call solid templates (rather than ones that have lots if half skills and minimum levels) are effective in numerous situations.

I would build him in tandem with your Imbuer as you will want magic items to unravel for skill gain. Depending on vendors on your shard you can buy several thousand resources and work craft skills pretty easily. Tinkering and Carpentry are useful too.

There's not really anything stopping you from working spawns for scrolls. And if you collect 15s and 10s they can be binded to make 120s eventually. Scrolls do not carry over. You have to have eaten a scroll on both characters to transfer.

However if you want to starvation bit easier hunting wise I would suggest Mini-Champion Spawns in Stygian Abyss. Their a bit easier and you can get Imbuing ingredients that you'll later need.

Pretty much any information you need can be found on Uoguide.com just Google Uoguide and whatever term you want to know about.

The first and most vital part of building a Sampire is getting in Vamp Form. You only need Necro for Vamp Form (Not Spirit Speak). This is really easy to train up and can be done in a day with the right gear, which unfortunately you don't have, it may be worth sticking your casters suit on him to train. To begin with, raise Med and Focus while you train, with as many spare points as you can muster. Go to New Haven, a little pyramid shaped building outside the main town is where you will find the Necro trainer. Withdraw 400 gp and you can buy it to 40. Then take the quest from the same guy, for this you need to go to Old Haven to the East and cast Necro spells. The quest gives accelerated gains, so any time you gain it may be 0.2 to 1.0 until you reach 50 skill. At 50 quit the quest (completing it prevents you doing this again) from there follow Uoguides Necro page for skill training. If you have or can buy a scroll to increase your cap it gains faster.

It might even be easier to do the training on your caster then stone it over to save you changing stats.

Once you can put your character in Vamp Form do some low level stuff and see how you like it. The important thing to remember is you need to be hitting something to survive. So a macro for Attack Nearest is useful. Again Mini-Champion Spawns in Stygian Abyss are great for low level Sampires.

Busbido training again use New Haven to 50. Then Uoguide.

Drop Resist completely. Transfer Healing to an alt.

Note that if you want to adjust your stats you're better off doing it while at the skill cap. For example to raise Str, lock everything, point Arms Lore to raise and macro using that skill at the skill cap it doesn't gain. For Dex spam Last Object after playing an instrument with Music pointing up.

Suggested template goal:
120 Swords
110 Tactics
100 Anatomy
120 Bushido
100 Necro
60 Parry
110 Chivalry

While hunting keep an eye out for LMC pieces with Stamina and Mana Increase and resists. Remember at some point you're going to need an extra 25-30 fire resist for Vamp Form and if you later refine. *Refining is a long winded thing to explain and isn't worth worrying about for now*

For jewellery look for pieces with Str, Dex, HCI, DCI, SSI, and DI. Or some of.
 

Gromda

Adventurer
Wow thanks again for the in-depth advice. I'll build exactly what you suggested. Ironically I just broke 100 Necromancy on my Mage today, could just stone that over to my Warrior and he'd be done in that regard and just work it up again on the Mage. I assume that if I put 100.4 on a stone and move it to the warrior it'd only move 100 if that were his cap?

So should I go with the stats as Innoxicated suggested?
125 Str
115 Dex
15 Int
(255 cap)

Of course that'd mean I'd have to have a suit of LMC/+mana ready to go before making the changes, but I could start working on that.

I didn't realize if you locked all your skills and tried the Arms/Music thing that you'd still gain stats. Awesome, that makes it a lot easier!
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Oh that's handy about the Necro. But no, if you haven't eaten a 105 or higher it won't let you transfer it. Easy fix is buy 4 gp of a random skill on your Mage to lower it back to 100 before moving.

Yes his advice is always good. Until you can plan/build your stats in a more deliberate way you want high Str because it determines your HP. HP is worked out as half your Str plus 50. So always have it on an even number in your suit (e.g. 125 Str gives no more HP than 124), then Dex up as high as possible, it's not for the Dex but the derived Stamina stat affects how fast you swing your weapons. Every 30 Stamina takes one tick (0.25s) off of the swing delay advertised on your weapon (before factoring in SSI). As such there are certain thresholds 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, 210. 179 Stamina swings the same speed as 150. Stamina loss from damage in battle will affect swing which is why Hit Stamina Leech on your weapon is desirable.
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Regarding gear. You probably remember the old Faction system, they replaced that a few years ago with Vice vs Virtue (VvV). This is a fighting system for Fel that I won't go too in depth on other than to say if you join it you can buy upgraded versions of high level artifacts straight away. The only downside to that is in Fel you will be orange to other VvV players and if they kill you, you will get temporary (few minutes) stat loss (which is really skill loss).

If your character is rarely going to be in Fel, or if the occasional death/stat loss doesn't bother you, then there's no reason not to get them.

As soon as you join VvV you get 2000 points. Which you can use at Silver Traders in town to buy the artifacts. They're about 500 each so you can get 4. They're only for you so you can't sell or trade them so pick useful ones.

Here's a list (Note this is the old Faction page, the item descriptions are correct but points needed are different)
Faction Artifacts - UOGuide, the Ultima Online Encyclopedia

I suggest getting the Crimson Cincture apron, Primer on Arms talisman, either the Mace and Shield Glasses or Spirit of the Totem (you're more likely to use the M&S glasses long term, but the Spirit has 15 HCI and 20 Str, compared to the glasses which are 15 Stats and 30 Hit Lower Defence.) For the fourth one either the Fey Legs (20 DCI and 6 HP) or Rune Beetles Carapace (15 LMC and 10 Mana).

While we're on the subject there are a lot of different item property caps you should be aware of. Here's a quick run down pertaining to dexxers:-
Resists 70, 75 energy on an Elf, you can overcap to counteract penalties (Vamp Form is -25 fire)
Damage Increase 100
Lower Mana Cost 40, certain armour gives an innate bonus letting you have up to 55. Read up on that on Uoguide.
Hit Chance Increase 45
Defence Chance Increase 45
Swing Speed Increase 60
Chivalry/Ninjitsu casting speed 4 Faster Casting, 6 Faster Casting Recovery
Str and Dex 25 (Not sure if Int does too)
HP Increase 25 (So the most HP you can have without Bard buffs or Forms is 150, 150 Str would give 125 HP, plus 25 HP Increase)
HP Regen 18
Mana Regen 30
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Oh also in case you're not aware yet, there's an in game vendor search, you have to be in a house or town, and not in heat of battle (2-5 minutes after you last hit something... and sometimes it's just down anyway), then just click on yourself and select vendor search. There's a lot of older or basic versions of artifacts that aren't commonly used that may be of use to you and are cheap enough for temporary use.
 

Innoxicated

Journeyman
If you're already set on a samp, that's a great choice. They are very versatile and have unrivaled survivability. But you dont necessarily have to scrap the pure pally theme you had in mind (if hes named Geoffery or Lancelot... the vampire), because a 4/6 pally is a template that sounds like a lot of fun to me, and is one I've been wanting to try.

You'll get very fast, strong heals with high karma/chiv on close wounds, very quick cures with cleanse by fire, and the most attractive perk IMO is spammable holy light. Also the need to occasionally cast remove curse, especially if you drop resist, won't be a curse in itself.

Either route you are really gonna benefit from skilling up an Imbuer, especially on a low pop shard. Loot every ring, brace, and gorget within sight. Up to mid levels of imbuing you will get a heap of gains with one click. Imbuing allows you to unravel an entire container, and a full backpack of 1-2 stone items will spam up your screen with gains. Epic number scroll in blue text.

Lord GOD has presented many different viable options for you, but if you havent noticed he hasn't let up about skilling an imbuer, as well. And he's right, Imbuing will be almost a necessity unless you have a friend who can imbue for you. You can get all the +stam you need for the samp, or the FC1 on ring/brace/shield/wep for the pure pally.
 

Gromda

Adventurer
Again, I can't thank you both enough for the advice and, more importantly, the time you spent giving it enough.

I guess before I make the big alterations to Gromda, the Pally, what exactly is the 4/6 pally template? I mean I did set out to make him a Glorious Lord Paladin type from the get go so perhaps leaving him like that and making a secondary character the Stampire is a good idea.

My guess on the Pally would be:
120 Swords
120 Parry
120 Tactics
120 Anatomy
120 Chiv
120 Bushido or Healing (?)

I do plan on making an imuber/crafter this weekend. I am going to be lazy and get a jump start by using a Mythic Token. I guess what five skills should I buy to 90?

Was thinking
120 BS (take to 90)
120 Tailoring (take to 90)
120 Imbuing (take to 90)
100 Arms Lore (take to 90)
100 Mining (take to 90)
100 Lumberjacking (so many trees should be easier to raise then mining, no?)

I must say I'm a bit of a coward when it comes to being in Factions. I'll ask around my guild/alliance on Chessy and see what faction life is like these days. :)

Again, thanks so much.
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Oh and to pre empt...

If you have Bushido AND Parry on a template you cannot (should not) use a shield as you will Parry with your weapon. Regardless of whether it is one handed or two do not equip a shield.

If you only have one (or neither) you can use a shield.

A lot of the time you won't anyway because as a Swordsman a lot of the best weapon choices are two handed pole arms or axes, but it's a point relating to Bushido and weapon Parrying that confuses people on here often.
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
4/6 Palladin can be on pretty much any build. You could have a 4/6 Sampire if you wanted but it's a bit overkill on defence.

My logic for using it is usually combining it with another skill that is 4/6, like Ninjitsu or Spellweaving. Or a template that is a hybrid or using a shield for 1 FC.

This is down to preference but it's important to know it changes how it feels to play the character. If you're relying on it to Heal/Cure you're kinda playing the character like a caster not a dexxer, and have to consider spell interruption.

For me the best PvM use of this is a Vamp Form Vet Tamer Palladin. This template is in my opinion the best template in the game. It's fun, powerful and versatile and works as Human or Gargoyle. It's very engaging and involved to play. It's a technical template.

I would use the Mythic for skills that use resources to train or that are a pain to train. Like all the craft skills, or Taming, or Cartography, Lockpicking (Treasure Hunter content coming out soon). Unless you like resource gathering I wouldn't use it for LJ or Mining. LJ is really easy to gain as you can raise it while fighting now.

Regarding VvV I would look at it like this: how often would you be in Fel? Probably not often so 95% of the time it wouldn't matter. The 5% that you are if someone wants to kill you they're going to anyway. Of those times, if they're a dexxer they're going to have a hard time hitting you because you're Bushido/Parry and are leeching massive HP from spawn (theres plenty of avoidance tactics you can use to get away). Murder counts are fairly redundant these days as there are items to remove them. So the 1% of time that you die to an orange character and go into stat loss... It's 2 minutes where your skills are lowered temporarily, in Fel it usually takes that long to leave and get res'd anyway. So it's no different to any other death. In exchange you get 4 free powerful Artifacts that are not only more powerful than their counter parts, free, if properly maintained will last ages, and at the end of the day are completely disposable (have no value).

Nothing wrong per se with the Palladin template you thought but note the post about shields use above, if you're using Bushido and Parry on a template you will lose the choice of a 1 FC shield, because you will need to use weapons only to Parry.
 

Gromda

Adventurer
How bad will I make gearing up if I go with Chiv/Bushido -- losing the FC1 option on the shield I mean? I'm not sold on having to have Bushido, but with Swords/Chiv/Bushido I can easily break that 300 mana reduction barrier. Otherwise I won't be able to. I'm still figuring out the gearing numbers, not so much the options as the intensities and how hard they'll be to find I mean. I think I have a handle on the skills now, thanks a ton, but man the loot system has a ton of options! :)

I must say I'm very curious about the revamp Treasure Map system. That's the one type of character I never did get to play around with back in the day -- a real T-hunter. I helped fight on maps with guidlmates, but never was the Hunter if you will. I assume a tamer is probably the best solo T-map person. I haven't built one since the early days, might have to break down and work on one I think since they are really the big thumpers still. Speaking of Tamers, a Vamp Form Vet Tamer Paladin sounds like a crazy combination of skills! :)

Good point about the time spent in Fel. Since I've been back I've been there perhaps half a dozen times and most of those were to go to a guild mates house.
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Depends on the rest of the template and how you want to play the character. You said earlier you're not big on casters.

I prefer Bards over Tamers on T-maps. A T-Hunter would definitely make suiting up, and training up a lot easier, as you'll have more items than you know what to do with.
 

Gromda

Adventurer
I don't hate casters really, it's just more I usually tend to enjoy/play Melee or Archer characters usually.

I did used to run a Bard actually quite a bit, I spent long hours on the Fire Temple island killing demons and dragons. Or rather giggling as they killed one another. :)
 

kaio

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Why not combine melee and ranged ?
I suggest a template like this.
120 sword
100 archery (120 with HH)
100 ana
100 heal
100 resist
100 tact
100 chiv

Iv'e used a template like this for spawns, with some modifications.
Suit can be build fairly cheap with or without vVv items.
 

Innoxicated

Journeyman
On when i said 4/6 pally i was just trying to emphasize the FC aspect, and make it sound appealing. I meant pure pally with 4/6, 120 parry w/shield. No bushido. Beauty of UO, though, is the rest of those skill points are really up to you. You can chiv heal/cure with 4/6, or use heal/anat and save the chiv for emergencies.

The melee archers are a cool idea. If you can handle a little skill redundancy in the damage output aspect of your template, You gain a great deal of versatility and weapon options.

My t-hunter is also a bard, solo lvl 6 maps with discord/provo easily. On the new tmap content coming up, they've stated they intend to make high level maps no longer soloable, or at least much more difficult to do solo. Considering right now my bard t-hunter has no problem at all with lvl 6, I wouldn't mind a little more challenge and even better loot... But I definitely don't want a fkn indirect bard nerf, when this is one of the few places left where they really shine as solo characters.
 
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Gromda

Adventurer
I'll be honest I'm still not sure which way to take him. I'm intrigued by both builds, Sampire and the more 'pure' Paladin type. I mean my gut is saying I started him out to be a Paladin, not a Necromancer so perhaps I should stick with that type of build. Decisions, decisions. If I go with the pure Pally build it'll be the one I started with just removing Resist and going to 120 in all six skills. It'll take some tweaking for sure.

I'm taking the advice about making an Imbuer, as it'll be extremely important moving forward, so am working on getting him going this weekend. My goal on him is:
120 Blacksmith
120 Tailor
120 Imbuing
100 Arms Lore
100 Mining
100 Lumberjack
60 Magery

Am I missing something I should have instead? It seems that covers all the bases on him. I figure I'll have a second crafter type to do the rest. Mostly Carpenter and all that's needed with him, along with Bowcrafting and Tinkering.

Thanks for the suggestion of adding in Archery Kaio, but I think I might just leave him a melee type and keep archery going on my fisher -- he might go beyond just being a fisher/archer in the end.
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Well you say that but how much of a Necromancer are you really being? The skill is only on there because it's required to stay in Form. It's not like you're casting spells constantly. You put the character in a Form then play it as a dexxer.

I'm not advocating for Sampires over anything else, just pointing out that what you should think about is how you actually PLAY the character, it helps clarify a goal.

4/6 casting isn't required to use the Chivalry offense abilities for example, only I you're relying heavily on it for your heals/cures. But one will feel like playing a dexxer the other like a caster.
 

Gromda

Adventurer
That's a good point. To be honest that's why I haven't rushed to tweak him just yet. Since I'm not 100% sure which way I want to go, it'll be one of these two options, I figure give it a beat while I do other things in game. I am putting my focus on the Imbuer and am just running my mage out there getting some gold and items (no luck there yet) gathered up.

I really, really appreciate all your advice. I'll post here and let you know what I end up doing later this week.
 

Gromda

Adventurer
The more I think about it, aka have been since I read your posts over again, I'm going to go with the Sampire.

Since I'll be dumping my 120 parry to 60 and dropping the shield for Bushido, any recommendations on a good 2h weapon to start hunting for -- or weapons?
 

kaio

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Just a note regarding you're crafter.
I wouldn't bother training mining/lumberjack.
I trained those skills 10 years ago and i haven't used lumberjack since, i used mining on my T-hunter, but i haven't mined in over 10 years.

What weapons you should pick depends on you're stam and ssi.
Normally you design you're suit around the weapons you want to use, and not the other way around.
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
As above, it does depend on your Stam/SSI, or you plan what you know you can reach/afford.

Though for the time being go by special moves... Whirlwind, Double Stike, AI. Look at what weapons have those that you can swing at the cap. Most people end up using Double Axes (Whirlwind and Double Strike) and Bladed Staffs (AI). You basically want Hit Mana Leech and Hit Stamina Leech, Vamp Form will take care of healing and most curing.
 

Gromda

Adventurer
Kaio the reason I was going to work on Mining and Lumberjack was because I'll need to level up the skills -- will be at 90 at best to start, on the Token skills that is. So lots of ore and wood will be required. :)

I'll keep my eyes out for a good Double Axe or Bladed Staff then. Thanks for the heads up. The Soul Seeker sword that he wields now makes heavy use of Whirlwind, but once I make the change I'll need that 2-hander eventually.

Still trying to find a good farm spot, am bouncing around a bit. Any tips that a Mage could farm semi-easily in hopes of getting decent armor/weapons?

EDIT: Already plan to delve into Lord Blackthorn's castle to see how that goes. I've also done a few Lady M runs and the fishing net fights, with no luck as of yet in terms of drops.
 
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kaio

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Kaio the reason I was going to work on Mining and Lumberjack was because I'll need to level up the skills -- will be at 90 at best to start, on the Token skills that is. So lots of ore and wood will be required. :)

I'll keep my eyes out for a good Double Axe or Bladed Staff then. Thanks for the heads up. The Soul Seeker sword that he wields now makes heavy use of Whirlwind, but once I make the change I'll need that 2-hander eventually.

Still trying to find a good farm spot, am bouncing around a bit. Any tips that a Mage could farm semi-easily in hopes of getting decent armor/weapons?

EDIT: Already plan to delve into Lord Blackthorn's castle to see how that goes. I've also done a few Lady M runs and the fishing net fights, with no luck as of yet in terms of drops.
Interesting, may i ask what you need all the ore and wood for ?
If i were you, i would pick animal taming and something else hard to train (instead of LJ,mining), if i were to use a mythic token. And then i would train the tamer, and go wrooof wrooof, get a drop, and buy all the resources in the world i would need for my "project" crafter + sampire.
but hey that's just me :)
 

Gromda

Adventurer
Oh, sorry, yea I'm not going to train LJ/Mining from the Mythic Token. I'm going to make use of my Soulstones and probably go with: Imbuing, Blacksmith, Tailoring and am still debating the last two -- do I take Bushido just to make the grind easier on my low INT warrior and then I'll take a fifth skill of some kind I can move.
 

kaio

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Oh, sorry, yea I'm not going to train LJ/Mining from the Mythic Token. I'm going to make use of my Soulstones and probably go with: Imbuing, Blacksmith, Tailoring and am still debating the last two -- do I take Bushido just to make the grind easier on my low INT warrior and then I'll take a fifth skill of some kind I can move.
Interesting question :)
I don't find bushido super hard to train, it does become harder the higher the skill is.
Since you are new to sampires i would highly suggest you train it, so you get a better idea about what bushido has to offer besides honor (witch is what "most" use it for)
Get a high mana leech weapon, buy bushido skill to 40 at new haven, and do the quest, goes really fast.
Then go to harpies nest in iish and bash away. You can also do low level champ spawns, many ways to train it (i went the spawn route last time i trained bushido).
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Cartography and Lockpicking would be good choices if you don't need Tame/Lore.

Demons should be easy enough. Then try Succubi, Balrons, Greater Dragons.

You might want to try weapons with Feint while you're still gearing up, as this halves incoming damage, and will make it easier for you to stay alive.
 

Gromda

Adventurer
Thanks Kaio, I'll do just that and save the mythic skill for something better. :) Last night I broke down and bought 5000 sovereigns so I have enough to do two characters -- just don't tell me wife it was for building two characters please. :)

One with be for the Imbuer. Imbuing, Smith and Tailor for sure and the next two skills can be moved to another character. I guess I'll make him a Gargoyle for the bonus and since he'll start at 90 the gains won't suffer too much since 90+ is pretty straight forward. I could just grab Carpentry and either Tinkering or Bowcrafting for my other crafter.

The second I'm still debating:
Do I do a Tamer finally, or a T-hunter Bard type. Decisions decisions. I'm not leaning either way and am very much open to suggestions. I'd think if I wanted the 'best' farmer type character I should just buckle down and make the Tamer. I'm still curious about a T-hunter, but am worried about the upcoming changes so am unsure if I should bother right now.
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Pick the most difficult skills.
Taming, Cartography, Lockpicking, Provoke, Discord.

Things like Animal Lore and Music can be easily macro'd.
 

kaio

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Thanks Kaio, I'll do just that and save the mythic skill for something better. :) Last night I broke down and bought 5000 sovereigns so I have enough to do two characters -- just don't tell me wife it was for building two characters please. :)

One with be for the Imbuer. Imbuing, Smith and Tailor for sure and the next two skills can be moved to another character. I guess I'll make him a Gargoyle for the bonus and since he'll start at 90 the gains won't suffer too much since 90+ is pretty straight forward. I could just grab Carpentry and either Tinkering or Bowcrafting for my other crafter.

The second I'm still debating:
Do I do a Tamer finally, or a T-hunter Bard type. Decisions decisions. I'm not leaning either way and am very much open to suggestions. I'd think if I wanted the 'best' farmer type character I should just buckle down and make the Tamer. I'm still curious about a T-hunter, but am worried about the upcoming changes so am unsure if I should bother right now.
Tamer, and t-hunter are both good templates.
If i were u, i would properly pick taming and discord, and make a discord tamer.
I do have a T-hunter and i think as of now they are fun to play, but as you know changes are coming to T-hunting, and atm it dosen't look good (my opinion)
T-hunting will properly get screwed over like they did doom.
For money making discord-tamer is one of the top templates to have. (also my opinion)
 

Gromda

Adventurer
So far I've made the Imuber and have started moving skills around to the Pally so that he'll be more of a Sampire.

Currently he's at:
115 Swords
110 Tactics
100 Anatomy
100 Necromancy
90.x Bushido (110 cap)
84.x Chivalry (110 cap)
120 Parry (pointed downward until it gets to 60)

Am just working on getting a suit of gear for him, haven't had any luck as of yet. Same with a decent weapon, but will keep trying.

Thanks for all the help everyone. Really appreciate it. Will keep updates coming here.

Since I moved the Necromancy off of my Mage I'm debating going with Spellweaving instead of Necro, seems like a viable play style
 

Keven2002

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
UNLEASHED
Spellweaving with Magery is a very viable play style. Great for team play style or solo. Word of Death is one of the most powerful single spells in the game for PvM (once the appropriate health is remaining on the target).
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
So far I've made the Imuber and have started moving skills around to the Pally so that he'll be more of a Sampire.
If you've Mythic'd Blacksmith and Imbuing you can already craft usable weapons. Don't forget you need Arms Lore on your crafter as it adds to base resists on armour, also 40 DI to weapons.

Don't over think what you need. Just try and get HML and HSL, SSI if you can. And you should be able to hit Mini-Champ Spawns now to get Imbuing ingredients. Either to use or sell. See what the best sellers are on your share using the in game Vendor Search, it'll probably be the ones for LMC.

Since I moved the Necromancy off of my Mage I'm debating going with Spellweaving instead of Necro, seems like a viable play style
Depends how effectively you play it. I think any caster for PvM that isn't using Wraith Form is at a disadvantage in most scenarios. You don't need full Necro/SS for that either. I'd probably go 40/60 or 60/60. Being able to Omen combo is powerful.

*buggered up the quoting*
 
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Gromda

Adventurer
Yea I'm thinking Necromancy is still the way to go. After I posted that I thought more about what I'd be missing out on, the mana-regen and debuffs. I'll probably end up going back to it once I start leveling him up again. Right now I'm just raising Chiv for my rebuilt Pally-to-Sampire character on my Mage as having more than the low mana on the Sampire makes it easier.

Just curious which mini-champ spawns do you suggest trying on a lower geared Sampire?

EDIT: Oh meant to say, haven't even really begun serious work on the Imbuer yet. I made him and used the mythic token on him and am just getting him setup. Long way to go until he can make anything really useful. :)
 
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Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
If you've used the mythic token and got 90 Blacksmith/Imbuing you can make stuff you can use a helluva lot easier than trying to find it as loot.

Mini-Champs - UOGuide, the Ultima Online Encyclopedia

The Lava Caldera one drops the ingredient for LMC. You could also do the ones that drop for HCI/DCI/SSI/FC/FCR as they will always be useful. Alternatively overland Boura for pelts that will let you Imbue resists.
 

Innoxicated

Journeyman
Glad you didnt use the mythic on the imbuing, haha. It's a little pricey to train with the cost of gems, opposed to wood or ingots, but the great thing about training imbuing is complete control of the success/fail rate. It raises very quickly for that reason alone, not to mention the batch gains you get from unravelling containers of trash items. You can also recycle many of the items you trained on by reimbuing to match your need for a higher difficulty.

As mentioned in numerous posts above, with chiv and honor the only weapon properties you'll need for your dps is hit stam leech, hit mana leech, ssi where applicable ([edit] as ssi on the weapon decreases your mana leech %, you only want the minimal amount to match your stam and reach swing speed cap [ssi on other equipment is free, tho]), and most importantly slayers.

You can probably imbue those as your skill stands right now, just imbue the expensive stuff first. Assuming you aren't gonna pop a whetstone, a helpful tip is to first imbue your damage increase to 1%, freeing up imbuing weight, which increases your success chance. You can imbue DI back on when you're done, because the mats for damage increase are among the cheapest. You can also use the public soulforge at the gargoyle city for an added 5% (i think?) success chance, or farm rep with the gargoyle queen (very easily done camping navery) to use the soulforge in the palace for double that.

OH, and for any weapon you want to keep, always powder of fort *and* insure before you imbue!! For one you cant PoF an imbued item, and for the other it is very easy to transfer that shiney new weapon you spam-imbued to your main, forget to insure, die, and lose it.
 
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Gromda

Adventurer
Some more great advice, thank you!

I really do appreciate all the tips as there's just so much I don't know about crafting and the parts of the world I really haven't explored. Heck this morning I was working on Chivalry for the Sampire on my Mage and figured instead of spamming in my house I'll just go run around the world and look at places I've never been to. So much out there that I had no idea about.
 

Innoxicated

Journeyman
There are a lot of new places to check out, and I hope you have a lot of fun running around and familiarizing yourself with it all. Fortunately a samp can run very well on a purely crafted suit, so you dont need to worry about finding the right place to farm drops. But for your imbuer, ceck out the stygian abyss and the mini-champs, they're also a good spot for training your player skill and do have a chance at some good arti drops.

Before you dive in to soloing roof and peerless, you can have a go at the unbound EV's at the bottom of 'new' shame. The wind elementals are a notch easier. Both have good loot tables. You have a good chance of finding some clean(-ish) swing speed jewelry, but prepare for a grind before you find anything really great.

Miasma is a good spot for the aspiring sampire, but that's probably not new to you. Scorpion slayer and if you can lockpick the chests the maps are a good source of income. Always camped out on ATL, but you might be in luck.

Navery night eyes in the underworld is good, too. Ol boy hits pretty hard in the melee, but there are usually other players there. Spider slayer is good there, so you dont have to worry about honoring him to maximize your leeching.

Buy some white pearls for your new imbuer and get shucking!
 

Gromda

Adventurer
Thanks Innoxicated. Some really excellent, and specific advice. Much, much appreciated.

I haven't tried Miasma on my Sampire yet, I did go there solo as my Mage and just wasn't fast enough with my EVs and died a few times. Will just take some practice. I think I might try to go back tonight. On Chesapeake it seems a lot of spawns are pretty empty -- I guess it's a given as the shards population is probably tiny in comparison to Atlantic.
 

Gromda

Adventurer
Finally got a few Miasma kills in on my Mage, still working on the timing to kill it with EVs. Boy that bugger is fast. I honestly can't see my Sampire surviving against that poison. I had planned to go try but no luck on finding a Scorpion slayer weapon that'd suit him and haven't gotten around to tweaking up my Imuber yet -- life getting in the way. Will keep trying.
 

Innoxicated

Journeyman
As long as your combat skills are gm+ you should be allright, as it would be a good place to train your weapon skill, tactics, and bushido to cap. If you're not quite there yet, you will probably die, yes. lol

The idea of the sampire is you will out leech any incoming damage, and that includes miasma's poison. The trick is to not run away in terror, lol. Get used to being "in extreme pain!" Because you do not necessarily "require immediate aid!" A sampire is easy to survive with, that's true, but it takes some getting used to. Being an old player of uo, you are good at dodging enemies I'm sure. But a sampire who runs, dies. A sampire who quits hitting dies. It's easy to play because you just sit there and macro, but sitting there in itself is not easy for everyone to do.

If you dont have the imbuing up and going yet, get a good energy damage or weapon with AI and just use enemy of one. And allways, always honor first if you aren't using a slayer.

Also in situations where your survival seems threatened, evasion is your friend. Even after minimizing your parry skill, you can evade those hits miasma is poisoning you with (also works against damaging spells), and you will leech your health back even when mortal wounded.

Another solid option is a fencing weapon with feint, which lowers all incoming damage you receive from your target, or maybe even a ubws just for that special. Fencing weapons have much lower base damage, but feint is a very good special move particularly for someone still getting their feet wet.

Another suggestion is an altogether different build, the whammy, which is not much different than your samp but includes spirit speak. That way you cast curse weapon for a good duration. With curse weapon on, I challenge you to go *try* and get killed.
 

Gromda

Adventurer
Oh boy Innoxicated challenged me to try and get killed ... proves you don't know me! :) I'll have to give it a shot, will see if any guildies has a decent scorpion slayer I could at least borrow. I took my Sampire out to Trogs for a bit and gained a few points of Bushido, so that was nice and simple. Might be worth trying to gain a few points and then give the death that is Miasma a shot. I really do need to get my SSI up higher, just haven't had luck and with the lack of time to work up the Imbuer haven't made gear yet. He's only in the 120/130 range Dex-wise. So I'm not hitting enough just yet.

Again, really appreciate the tips.
 

kaio

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Oh boy Innoxicated challenged me to try and get killed ... proves you don't know me! :) I'll have to give it a shot, will see if any guildies has a decent scorpion slayer I could at least borrow. I took my Sampire out to Trogs for a bit and gained a few points of Bushido, so that was nice and simple. Might be worth trying to gain a few points and then give the death that is Miasma a shot. I really do need to get my SSI up higher, just haven't had luck and with the lack of time to work up the Imbuer haven't made gear yet. He's only in the 120/130 range Dex-wise. So I'm not hitting enough just yet.

Again, really appreciate the tips.
try and get 150 stam, 5 ssi. (use city bonus to get 5 ssi for free)
Then use a hatchet to kill maisma.
You can kill it without a slayer just EOO+honor and u be fine.
Hatchets are one of the most underrated weapons in UO. It has AI, and can be reforged to get 96 hit mana or life leech.
I used to kill medusa with a repond hatchet with 96 hml, HLD, hsl (didnt have m&s glasses back then)
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Every weapon skill except ranged has weapons with Feint. For Swords you would use Daisho.

Poison is a non factor as leech is not blocked.

Named monsters in Mondains Legacy dungeons (like Miasma, Rend, Swoop etc) are sometimes Paragons without the colour change. That's why some are a lot harder.

Use a fire weapon, scorpion or arachnid slayer. Consecrate weapon will also make it so you are hitting its weakest resist (usually fire).
 

Innoxicated

Journeyman
Daisho is a good suggestion, I forgot about those. Conveniently 2 handed, too, so a very good option.

Miasma is weak to energy and fire, but fire is easier to get on Smith weapons due to bronze enhancing. Fire would also be a good general arachnid slayer, as navery is much weaker to fire than other elements.

Since you havent gotten that far into the crafting side of things, I was attempting to break things down to a level you can probably roll with. Since you are not currently able to craft 100% fire damage weapons, or imbue slayers at all (should get the ball rollin there, dull as it may be it will help you tremendously).

Like kaio said enemy of one + honor, and a good base damage weapon with AI will partially negate the need for an elemental weapon, and should allow you to do enough damage with leeching that you would probably survive even with a suit that is well below optimal.

The damage bonus of enemy of one scales up with your chiv skill, and since you can't yet imbue +skill jewelry, you would benefit from having chiv at gm+. You might also want to use divine fury, and get used to casting it a LOT, as its ssi bonus would also help offset any shortcomings in your equipment.
 

chester rockwell

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
I went with an energy double axe, scorp slayer, hit lightning, mana/stam leech, and ssi. I had 100% di on my suit. All you have to do is sit there and double strike the miasma. Ride a beetle to throw t-chests in. Fill yourself up with t-chests. Go to house, lock them down, back to miasma. When my house lockdown was maxed, id unlock, untrap, pick all the chests. Pretty much dump the crap maps for 25k and sell the fel ones for a mil. If you stockpile a large amount of maps, 100-500 of them, you can sell them here on stratics for 1.5m per or so. People dig the bulk..........it's why all y'alls moms are so popular.
 
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