"Back in UO:R there was an out cry to balance dexers. Back then special moves were related to skill and certain weapons. No buttons needed to be pressed. It was all random. The mage community pointed out that it took no skill and no mana to perform these moves and they were right."
Warhammers did Crushing Blow.
Long Spears did Paralyzing Blow.
Axes and Bardiche/Halberds did Concussion Blow.
Your chance to perform a Special with the right weapon was 1/5 of your Anatomy skill, if you had GM Anatomy you had 20% chance to do a special with every hit.
Macers were the Kings of Melee PvP because not only could they do Crushing Blow with a Warhammer (Which did a huge amount of damage and almost always busted Shields or Armor), but also because they busted the hell out of armor with almost all Macing Weps (Excluding Q-Staff), and they knocked the crap out of your Stamina (Especially Q-Staffs).
GM LJ Swordsmen were the Kings of Mage Slaying. Not only did they do a large amount of damage each hit with a Axe/Bardiche/Halberd (Not as much as a Crushing Blow from a Warhammer though, but close), but also because Concussion Blows back then halved the victim's INT for about 30-45 secs. Back then, with LMC/MR/+Mana non-existent, most Mages couldn't kill someone at half Mana, they practically had to Mana Dump (A now Archaic term) on someone who had even half-decent Resist to kill them. Practically the only way to kill someone who had decent Resist skill when you were at 1/2 Mana was to use the Mindblast Trick on them.
The original function of Mindblast is that it did damage based solely upon the difference of INT of the Caster and the Victim, whomever had the least INT took the damage. So if the Caster cast it on a person with higher INT than him, he would end up damaging himself. This was changed because MB was almost always spammed on Warriors, which dropped them in 2 or 3 MBs. This was changed around UO:R.
With MB changed after UO:R came out, it did damage based on the difference between the Victim's highest stat and lowest stat. So the "Mindblast Trick" was that when using it on a Warrior, you cast Strength on them, then Feeblemind, to make the difference between those stats larger, then to spam them with Mindblast, would take like 2 or 3 MBs to kill someone with it. Against other Mages you cast Cunning and Clumsy, then spammed MB.
MB was once again changed when AoS was introduced to where it's damage is based upon the caster's INT/Magery, and it was made to do Cold Elemental Damage.
Another popular thing for Mage's to do was for 2 Mages to pretty much insta kill anyone within a second by using Glacial Staffs. By saying "In Corp Del" while wielding a Glacial Staff, a person could do a Ice Strike, which would completely consume the wielder's Mana, and do 1 point of damage for every 2 Mana consumed. A single Mage using it would do 50 Damage. Which is why some Mage's would team up and invoke the Ice Strike power at the same time on the same person, doing 100 Damage, which 100 Health was the max back then. Instant Kill.
