Returning Mage

[Arilien]

I recently quit WoW, bounced around to a couple other MMOs and finally decided to come back to UO. Re-upped my account, logged in, and discovered that everything I had had been stolen. Someone, somewhere must have gotten into my account and took everything.

So I am starting over now. I have a 100% LRC with horrible resists that I managed to piece together. So I can atleast go out and start earning some gold.

My question is what is a good cast template now?

Right now I have roughly

110 Magery
110 Eval
100 Med
100 Necro
100 SS
100 Focus

Honestly cannot remember last skills. I was pretty ticked about getting hacked and I logged right back off.

Is this still a decent template? I am pretty much gonna be solo. I used to make money farming daemons, blood elems, and shadow dragons. Problem is it was mainly just a summon a couple EVs or EEs and let them do the work. Now I watched a couple videos on Youtube and I see mages hitting for 100+, saw one were they hit for 300 on Lady Mel. I hit for like 20-60 at the most.

Now the mages I saw doing this were Bards as well. Is it worth it to drop Necro, SS, Focus to get Music, Peace, Disco, etc.

I know I am gonna be hurting for a long time for gear, gonna have to rely on lucky paragon drops probably.

 

[canary]

Slayer spellbooks, and personally I'd opt for Mysticism over Necromancy, especially as you've got your Focus trained.

What shard are you on? If its GL I may be able to help you get a suit. Also, there are numerous imbuers about that are pretty decent price wise.

 

[Arilien]

I am actually on Chesapeake.

I will just have to work on getting everything back, if the prices are still as inflated as they used to be then it will just take awhile. Good news is I think I talked one of my friends into coming back so hopefully it wont all be solo.

 

[Arilien]

Ok so I got on tonight and checked my skills. Right now I have

110 Magery
110 Med
110 Eval
101 Necro
105 SS
59 Wrestling

So not real sure why the wrestling. Probably gonna drop that.

Any advice. I am not in love with Necro I basically use it for Animate Dead and Wraith Form.

 

[Taylor]

My favorite pure mage is still the necro/mage/weaver. This template combines the versatility of the mage, the powerful offensive/deffensive spells of a spellweaver, and the AOE spells and forms of a necromancer.

Skills

Magery - Your skill in magery determines your likelihood to cast magery spells successfully. Your skill level also affects the amount of hit points healed with magery spells.

Evaluating Intelligence - Your skill in eval determines the amount of damage your magery spells will do. (Note: this is true of every spell except for mind blast, which instead relies on your magery skill level and intelligence to deal damage).

Meditation - This skill causes you to regenerate mana more quickly.

Necromancy - In addition to two area of effect spells (wither and poison strike), necromancy allows the ability to summon creatures that do not require follower slots (animate dead). Moreover, the necromancy spell "evil omen" will enhance the effect of your next spell, allowing a mage with no poisoning ability to cast greater poison (as opposed to lesser poison). Most importantly, necromancy allows for the use of various forums - for example, wraith form, which allows you to leech mana based upon the amount of damage you deal.

Spirit Speak - In addition to providing you with a mana-free method for healing, spirit speak determines how much damage your necromancy spells will do.

Spellweaving - Spellweaving can be a powerful asset to any template, both in terms of damage and survivability. The Word of Death spell is the most powerful spell in the game: with a level 6 focus and spell damage increasing items, this spell can potentially deal 666 points of damage each time it is used. Spellweaving also provides more independence through greater survivability with spells such as gift of life, which allows you to self-resurrect, gift of renewal, which regenerates your health, and attunement, which absorbs a portion of the damage you take.

Templates

Standard Necro/Mage/Weaver
120 Magery
120 Meditation
120 Evaluating Intelligence
120 Necromancy
120 Spirit Speak
120 Spellweaving

Cost- or Skill-Effective Necro/Mage/Weaver
120 Meditation
120 Evaluating Intelligence
120 Spirit Speak
115 Magery
115 Spellweaving
105 Necromancy
25 [Whatever Skill You'd Like - perhaps focus for extra mana]

That said, if you really have your heart set on a mage/bard, I recommend the following:

120 Music
120 Provo
120 Disco
120 Eval
120 Mage
120 Med

Not as high a damager, perhaps, but still a solid template.

 

[Arilien]

I am all for a Mage/Necro/Weaver. I actually had started on this at one point but had an issue in that I play solo or with 1 other most times so I am not sure how I can get a high focus.

Correct me if I am wrong but doesn't a high focus take multiple weavers to make?

 

[Taylor]

Aye, it does. I sometimes forget that I play on Atlantic in a large guild. This may not be as readily available for folks on less populated shards. Very good point, indeed.

 

[Arilien]

Yea I jumped into the General Channel to see if there was any chatter about Weavers wanting an Arcane Focus....yea not a single person said anything in over 30 mins.

So is Weaving pointless without a Focus?

If so would a more pure mage template be good? Pure being:
120 Mage
120 Eval
120 Med
120 Resist
120 Wrestling
100 Inscription

Or sticking with the Necro would just adding Inscription be good?

I am hoping to have a Sampire with me 90% of the time I play. My friend is planning on coming back, so hopefully wont be to bad.

Yea on a side note went down to the Shadow Wyrms that I used to farm, go owned hard. Decided to go to Spirituality and fight Daemons/Blood Elems. Yeah was going fine till a Blood Elem Paragon died 7 times. Finally gave up.

That is the one problem I have always had with a mage is staying alive. Cannot take on much higher than a Daemon or Blood Elem.

Probably my biggest issue right now is no resists and no slayer books. Both of which are gonna take a good amount of money to get. I unfortunately do not have any crafters worth a darn, course I don't even know if crafting gets you anything good anymore or not.

 

[Taylor]

Have you looked into mysticism at all? There is a new summon called "Rising collosus" that is pretty impressive, not to mention a host of powerful spells (including more area spells). I'm not a mystic/mage expert, but if I couldn't use a necro/mage/weaver, this would be the next template that I would look into.

 

[Arilien]

So long story short, an account I had like 7-8 years ago that I thought was wiped out during a server wipe was not. I just did not remember the username for it and after working with support for like an hour I got it back.

So I now am alot better off then I was on the other account.

I have a mage with:

110 Magery
110 Med
115 Focus
110 Eval
89 Necro
89 SS
78ish Inscription.

Now what I was planning on doing per your last post was going to be picking up Mysticism. Is it worth it to drop Necro/SS and get Mystic then finish Inscription?

Not sure what else I can do that would not involve me dropping Focus and from what I read you need either that or Imbue for Mystic.

Also does Imbue work better for Mystic than Focus? Or is there more advantage to having Imbue over Focus. Honestly not really even sure what Imbue does.

 

[Taylor]

Imbuing is an incredible asset for crafting purposes, as it allows you to choose which mods to put on jewels, armor, weapons, etc. Imbuing is the great equalizer: it has made top-of-the-line suits available to all players who are willing to invest the time to collect the necessary ingredients. Then again, if this toon is purely for fighting, focus will give you stamina and mana regeneration.

Do you use inscription a lot? If not, I think that there are better skills to choose from.

 

[Arilien]

This guy will be purely for Fighting. I have a crafter on the account I am on now with GM BS and Tailoring so putting imbuing on him will be better.

I am not in love with Inscription. I was working it up I think for the 10% SDI and for the chance for Slayer books. Unfortunately I do not have any slayer books on this account and all the ones I had on other account got stolen.

I would just have to shop around for slayer books if I drop Inscription. I do have a Soulstone on this account so I could dump it in there for now. Although it has 107 Provo in it so would rather keep that.

What skill would you think if I dropped Inscription? I would not mind Spellweaver but I do not think I will have much luck getting a focus on this server. Not sure if Spellweaver is good without a focus. If it is ok then would have.

110 Magery
110 Med
115 Focus
100 Mystic
100 Spellweave
110 Eval

Other than that the only thing I could think of would be to get Resist.

 

[Gamma Zulu]

Hi all,

I'm thinking about returning and checking UO out again. I've been out for 6 years, though looks like my posts in the Magery and Inscription FAQ are still there 10 years later.

Looks like a lot has changed in 6 years, spellweaving is new.

Is Great Lakes still there? I've paid for my account to keep going, so supposedly my house might still be up in Fellucca. I left Gamma Zulu as a deep red mage due to defending guildmates from spawn raiders, so I imagine I'd have to wait out several hundred hours to turn him blue again so I can update his template.

How's the inflation? I probably left with only 40 million or so in the bank. I'm probably totally broke in comparison.

Cheers,

Gamma Zulu

 

[Taylor]

Imbuing the the great equalizer. These days, you could get a couple of pretty impressive suits out of 40 mil.

 

[Podolak]

Hi all,

I'm thinking about returning and checking UO out again. I've been out for 6 years, though looks like my posts in the Magery and Inscription FAQ are still there 10 years later.

Looks like a lot has changed in 6 years, spellweaving is new.

Is Great Lakes still there? I've paid for my account to keep going, so supposedly my house might still be up in Fellucca. I left Gamma Zulu as a deep red mage due to defending guildmates from spawn raiders, so I imagine I'd have to wait out several hundred hours to turn him blue again so I can update his template.

How's the inflation? I probably left with only 40 million or so in the bank. I'm probably totally broke in comparison.

Cheers,

Gamma Zulu

As far as casting spells go Spellweaving and Mysticism are new. Spellweaving with Mondains Legacy (2005) and Mysticism with Stygian Abyss (2009).

I am not sure why you would want to go blue but if you have your heart set on it they have these items in game called forged pardons that remove a murder count. You get them from other players or t-hunting.

You don't need to be blue to change your template. Working skills isn't difficult as a red and you would work off counts in the process. You can also buy starting skills on a blue character and soulstone them over. There is no cool down timer on soulstones like there once was. I suppose another option would be to buy the power scrolls you have used and create a new character, soul stoning the skills you want to keep to the new character. Assuming the skills you would want to stone over are Mage/Eval/Resist that is about 22-25 million for the legendary scrolls. It would be cheaper than forged pardons if you have hundreds of counts. My vote would be to stay red though. If you want to do non-fel stuff make another character as you would probably just go red again otherwise.

Good luck.

 

[Arilien]

So quick update and a couple more questions.

The Arcane Focus thing, yea I was in the Help Channel the whole time, which is why I was never able to get one. Got in the right channel and had a level 6 within 5 minutes.

My character is setup like this right now:

110 Mage - Capped
110 Eval - Capped
110 Med - Capped
103 Necro - 120
102 SS - 110
100 Spellweaving - 110

Now I keep hearing great things about Mysticism. That it is almost better than Magery. So I was thinking of switching to it, even went so far as to drop SS and get Focus, however I now notice I run out of mana ASAP.

I don't have the money for a decked out suit. Talking have less than 200k after getting some power scrolls, etc..

Is Mysticism worth it? I know I will not have as much of a mana issue when I get a 40% LMC 6+ MR suit but that is gonna be awhile.

In Necro I mainly use Animate Dead, Corpse Skin, Wither, Wraith Form, and Minion. I don't really use to much else, and maybe that is my problem I might be missing out on some good stuff.

 

[Krinkle]

Is Mysticism worth it? I know I will not have as much of a mana issue when I get a 40% LMC 6+ MR suit but that is gonna be awhile.

Mysticism is an incredible skill. Do you need it? You can do well with a Necro/Mage/Weaver. Mysticism does solve some problems and will provide you with some nice options. It really depends on what you plan on doing in the game. The new peerless are tough, but kill-able with your template.

I would suggest completing the Abyss quest and start getting the 'new' ingredients for Imbuing from the mini-champ spawns. You can get enough gold fairly quickly to do what you want by selling the ingredients.