Pushdug'ula
Visitor
The user Mervyn, for all his trolling and headache-inducing flippancy, spent a lot of time on the UO Forum going over this build. Since I hope to one day learn how to PvP with a mage, I copied the initial post into a text file. Since then, there's a lot of discussion with the devs on the test center forum about nerfing this setup potentially. Also, this would be a more challenging suit to maintain on Siege. I copy the text here as a starting point for discussion and for awareness by the folks just returning.
Mervyn's text follows (edited for clarity by me):
What is very important is actually the suit, you will require the following:
45 HCI AND DCI
Reactive paralyze Shield
50 Enhance Potions [+25 hpi standard]
18 damage eater and hit point regen
150 strength, 80 dex, at least 125 int (more the better)
Utilize shield bash (Parry Mastery Special Move) and supernova potions, and ALWAYS summon a daemon vs warriors
Utilising summon deamon vs warriors and using supernova vs everyone was just my general advice, not necessarily specific to the template. You'll be surprised how much damage the deamon can do.
Here is also a full macro listing requirement for a parry mage (not sure what client you're using but this is described as if you're using CC):
last target: wheel up
target self: wheel down
DEFENSIVE:
weaken (also aggressive)
mini heal
greater heal
cure
arch cure
eat apple
invis
recall
teleport
wall of stone
drink heal pot
drink cure pot
drink refresh pot
(drink dex)
(drink str) - can make into one macro with uoa
bless
protection
magic reflect
dispel field
use item type trapped box
heighten senses
AGGRESSIVE:
disarm (also drag the special out of the book so you can see when it's active)
shield bash
supernova pot
conflag pot
curse
magic arrow
fireball
harm
lightning
poison
mindblast
e-bolt
explode
flamestrike
paralise
mana vampire
meteor swarm or chain lightning
earthquake
summon deamon
energy field
para field (defensive)
poison field
General use:
last spell, so it makes it easier to just cast the spells below more than once, the last spell macro won't count the spells that are macrod,
last object
all names
dismount self
mount
bandage mount
mount ethereal
dismount and bola
select next mobile (uo macro)
use skill tracking
use skill hide
opendoor
dress
arm
arm alternate (high sdi book or dragon slayer)
disarm right hand
bank guards recsu recdu
all follow me
all kill
all guard me
all stay
all stop
(mount name) stop, (mount name) follow me - in 1 macro - mervyn will explain why
Spells you can just drag onto the desktop and double click when you need:
dispel
mass dispel
res
energy vortex
nightsight
telekenisis
reveal
polymorph (for the piper)
Reactive paralyze on a shield makes parrying twice as good. When you successfully parry a blow, you have a good chance of paralyzing the opponent.
You can eitther get it through reforging, or through loot. You will need spell channeling and as many other mods as you can find (probably want DCI)
Wooden shields can be enhanced with frostwood to make them spell channeling.
with regards to disarm and shield bash activation, you have to perform them between the spell casts. Fortunately with 80 dex you'll have quite a high swing speed, so you'll want to really only use the shield bash when you've maged the target to low hp, then go for the shield bash, flamestrike supernova lightning.
Disarm is used only on warriors who are hitting you with melee attack, you don't want to bother chasing someone around trying to disarm them, just do it when they are up in your face.
With regards to base stats, i can 't help because it depends on what the + stats are on your armour.
Protection reduces faster casting cap by -2, magery’s faster casting cap is 2 so it does reduce the faster casting to 0 and this should be reflected on your character sheet. As a parry mage, the only time you want to put protection on is if you’re being really heavily interrupted, so if you’re dismounted and have many people attacking you, you might want to put protection on to cast heal. You won’t be able to kill anyone as a parry mage with protection on as the spells cast too slow.
this is a very old video but still applies today:
ignore the bit about the Keynames bug, was fixed years ago.
JCtheBuilder said:
Wow, I didn't know that if your spell is disrupted that there is a slight recovery delay. It must only be 0.25 or 0.5 seconds.
This is the keystone to mage pvp, i was asked to write an article for the official wiki to talk about it however i've been too busy trolling the forums.
Biff said:
Can I imbue onto boura tail shield? Or enhance it with spell channeling? Or am i better off making my own shield with reactive para?
I don't think you can imbue it, I don't know why Mariah mentioned the boura tail shield, it's not relevant for pvp.
Biff said:
Maybe someone who has used EC could confirm the delay thing in spell casting?
Okay the deal with the casting differences between the clients is this:
Enhanced Client casting is actually much faster than Classic Client casting but ONLY if you have the cursor set to target last/self automatically and NOT set to target CURSOR, if you set it to target Cursor the casting recovery is slower than classic client. This means that you're sacrificing timing skill for raw speed. People on enhanced client with target set to auto last/self are able to cast first circle spells on the run without even stopping.
I'm sure it's not supposed to be like that, but that is how it is and I've made the devs aware of this for years.
The 2 clients SHOULD be the same casting speed, regardless of target set type but they are not.
It's worth noting also that classic client (with uoassist) has the advantage of "range check last target" which is a feature no current ECUI has, (which is supposed to check that the target is still onscreen when you use last target so you don't have to recast the spell if the target is too far away) HOWEVER again because the devs messed up and made the EC movement speed FASTER than the CC, by the time the Classic Client/UOAssist has performed a check that the target is onscreen, you will still receive a message reading "target is too far away" and lose the spell when trying to target players who are running arround on the EC.
Mervyn's text follows (edited for clarity by me):
What is very important is actually the suit, you will require the following:
45 HCI AND DCI
Reactive paralyze Shield
50 Enhance Potions [+25 hpi standard]
18 damage eater and hit point regen
150 strength, 80 dex, at least 125 int (more the better)
Utilize shield bash (Parry Mastery Special Move) and supernova potions, and ALWAYS summon a daemon vs warriors
Utilising summon deamon vs warriors and using supernova vs everyone was just my general advice, not necessarily specific to the template. You'll be surprised how much damage the deamon can do.
Here is also a full macro listing requirement for a parry mage (not sure what client you're using but this is described as if you're using CC):
last target: wheel up
target self: wheel down
DEFENSIVE:
weaken (also aggressive)
mini heal
greater heal
cure
arch cure
eat apple
invis
recall
teleport
wall of stone
drink heal pot
drink cure pot
drink refresh pot
(drink dex)
(drink str) - can make into one macro with uoa
bless
protection
magic reflect
dispel field
use item type trapped box
heighten senses
AGGRESSIVE:
disarm (also drag the special out of the book so you can see when it's active)
shield bash
supernova pot
conflag pot
curse
magic arrow
fireball
harm
lightning
poison
mindblast
e-bolt
explode
flamestrike
paralise
mana vampire
meteor swarm or chain lightning
earthquake
summon deamon
energy field
para field (defensive)
poison field
General use:
last spell, so it makes it easier to just cast the spells below more than once, the last spell macro won't count the spells that are macrod,
last object
all names
dismount self
mount
bandage mount
mount ethereal
dismount and bola
select next mobile (uo macro)
use skill tracking
use skill hide
opendoor
dress
arm
arm alternate (high sdi book or dragon slayer)
disarm right hand
bank guards recsu recdu
all follow me
all kill
all guard me
all stay
all stop
(mount name) stop, (mount name) follow me - in 1 macro - mervyn will explain why
Spells you can just drag onto the desktop and double click when you need:
dispel
mass dispel
res
energy vortex
nightsight
telekenisis
reveal
polymorph (for the piper)
Reactive paralyze on a shield makes parrying twice as good. When you successfully parry a blow, you have a good chance of paralyzing the opponent.
You can eitther get it through reforging, or through loot. You will need spell channeling and as many other mods as you can find (probably want DCI)
Wooden shields can be enhanced with frostwood to make them spell channeling.
with regards to disarm and shield bash activation, you have to perform them between the spell casts. Fortunately with 80 dex you'll have quite a high swing speed, so you'll want to really only use the shield bash when you've maged the target to low hp, then go for the shield bash, flamestrike supernova lightning.
Disarm is used only on warriors who are hitting you with melee attack, you don't want to bother chasing someone around trying to disarm them, just do it when they are up in your face.
With regards to base stats, i can 't help because it depends on what the + stats are on your armour.
Protection reduces faster casting cap by -2, magery’s faster casting cap is 2 so it does reduce the faster casting to 0 and this should be reflected on your character sheet. As a parry mage, the only time you want to put protection on is if you’re being really heavily interrupted, so if you’re dismounted and have many people attacking you, you might want to put protection on to cast heal. You won’t be able to kill anyone as a parry mage with protection on as the spells cast too slow.
this is a very old video but still applies today:
ignore the bit about the Keynames bug, was fixed years ago.
JCtheBuilder said:
Wow, I didn't know that if your spell is disrupted that there is a slight recovery delay. It must only be 0.25 or 0.5 seconds.
This is the keystone to mage pvp, i was asked to write an article for the official wiki to talk about it however i've been too busy trolling the forums.
Biff said:
Can I imbue onto boura tail shield? Or enhance it with spell channeling? Or am i better off making my own shield with reactive para?
I don't think you can imbue it, I don't know why Mariah mentioned the boura tail shield, it's not relevant for pvp.
Biff said:
Maybe someone who has used EC could confirm the delay thing in spell casting?
Okay the deal with the casting differences between the clients is this:
Enhanced Client casting is actually much faster than Classic Client casting but ONLY if you have the cursor set to target last/self automatically and NOT set to target CURSOR, if you set it to target Cursor the casting recovery is slower than classic client. This means that you're sacrificing timing skill for raw speed. People on enhanced client with target set to auto last/self are able to cast first circle spells on the run without even stopping.
I'm sure it's not supposed to be like that, but that is how it is and I've made the devs aware of this for years.
The 2 clients SHOULD be the same casting speed, regardless of target set type but they are not.
It's worth noting also that classic client (with uoassist) has the advantage of "range check last target" which is a feature no current ECUI has, (which is supposed to check that the target is still onscreen when you use last target so you don't have to recast the spell if the target is too far away) HOWEVER again because the devs messed up and made the EC movement speed FASTER than the CC, by the time the Classic Client/UOAssist has performed a check that the target is onscreen, you will still receive a message reading "target is too far away" and lose the spell when trying to target players who are running arround on the EC.