Runic Tools vs. Imbuing

[DLBarbar]

Hey folks.
Just got back to UO after something like 10 years off.
I've decided to go ahead and try out one of the new skills: Imbuing. A friend of mine has likewise returned, and gone the tried and true tailoring route.
Needless to say a huge deal has changed since I last played. I've done some significant amount of reading to try and catch up, but one place I'm left confounded is in the relationship between imbuing and using runic kits. Most guides don't seem to address this, and a couple of them in particular state that they have left this for other guide writers to handle.

At a glance, it would seem that, unless you are using the very top-end runics, and happen to roll tremendously well (on both property and intensity selection) you are better off going the imbuing route. I haven't seen it stated in such plain language, though. Furthermore, given the incredibly steep market values for runic tools, I'm inclined to believe I have missed something critical along the way.

Am I correct in my assumption that the properties bestowed by a runic tool, during creation, still count towards maximum imbue weight come imbue time? Can I imbue on top of a runic property to further enhance it, or will it overwrite said property? If a resistance is increase via a random runic property, does it count towards the 5 property limit?

I hope I'm wrong, given that my friend has spent substantial time hoarding BODs with the distant dream of acquiring a runic tool or two, eventually.

 

[Percivalgoh]

I think Bassara could pour out some numbers to explain this better but it seems that runic made stuff has properties that can go above what you can imbue however you can imbue and then enhance causing most of your items to go poof but then resulting in some really good gear. If you make something with a runic at the bronze runic level it may not be imbuable (is that a word?) already and even with lower runics some items you can barely put anything on them due to maxed out weight. I'm not so familiar with the tailoring stuff because I have only used horned runics since the imbuing came to be. I am sort of trying to get an idea still how to make best use of my runics. I can make something with a horned runic out of horned leather and imbue it to make a decent piece of armor (not the best but it seems like you can make an all 70 suit with lots of extras fairly easily) however the majority of stuff made that way has useless properties that take up weight. The other route is to imbue and then enhance which will cost way more in imbuing ingredients and at this point is too much work for me. The benefit of nonimbued runic stuff is that it can last forever while imbued stuff has a lifespan.

 

[DLBarbar]

Okay, I heard something in there that maybe clicked things into place for me.

When you craft a piece of your leather armour, with a regular tool, and some form of improved leather, do those additional resists that you gain from the leather, exc, and armslore contribute to the overall imbue weight?

Or, if I craft something using regular leather w/ non-runic tool, and then imbue it, if I later enhance it, can the resulting individual intensities be higher than otherwise possible?

 

[Percivalgoh]

Okay, I heard something in there that maybe clicked things into place for me.

When you craft a piece of your leather armour, with a regular tool, and some form of improved leather, do those additional resists that you gain from the leather, exc, and armslore contribute to the overall imbue weight?

Yes

Or, if I craft something using regular leather w/ non-runic tool, and then imbue it, if I later enhance it, can the resulting individual intensities be higher than otherwise possible?

If you imbue and then enhance you can get higher properties than you can imbuing. If you are using a valorite runic you can get higher properties than doing anything else without imbuing but they are random. You are wondering about barbed runics ..aren't you? I am not sure about the weights from stuff made with barbed runics. Can you make something with a barbed runic that can't be made any other way? I don't know. My guess is it boils down to burning lots of runics vs burning lots of imbuing ingredients and which you would rather do.

 

[DLBarbar]

Perhaps I wasn't as clear as I could have been.

If I create a normal leather, non-runic, item (could be normal iron, non-runic, doesn't matter), and then imbue it up to maximum weight (500 pts), can I then enhance it to go above the 500 point mark by adding material bonuses to said item? Also, how would those bonuses interact with already present bonuses, such as enhancing an item with the luck property into a gold item.

 

[Percivalgoh]

Perhaps I wasn't as clear as I could have been.

If I create a normal leather, non-runic, item (could be normal iron, non-runic, doesn't matter), and then imbue it up to maximum weight (500 pts), can I then enhance it to go above the 500 point mark by adding material bonuses to said item? Also, how would those bonuses interact with already present bonuses, such as enhancing an item with the luck property into a gold item.

Yes but it will go poof more often than not. Luck from enhancing with gold or spined leather is added onto the existing luck of the piece. When imbuing luck you can only imbue to 100. If an item is over 100 luck you can only lower the luck by imbuing. When you imbue it ignores the luck already present other than the weight of the property so if you imbue it to add 40 luck it will end up with 40 luck regardless of whatever it was before. So you can imbue an item to 100 luck then enhance it to 140 but it will be destroyed in the process most of the time so you have to repeat this process a bunch of times. Also once you imbue it you can't use powder of fortification so in addition to losing imbuing ingredients you loose POF that you used to bring it's durability up.

 

[DLBarbar]

Well, thanks a bunch. That's cleared up a lot for me. Have a good day!

 

[Percivalgoh]

Well, thanks a bunch. That's cleared up a lot for me. Have a good day!

I am not the most knowledgable on this subject. Right now if I am tailoring I make things with a runic using horned or barbed leather (mostly horned because I have lots from killing toxic sliths). I then look at the properties and try to figure out how to enhance them to make them useful pieces. I seperate them into warrior armor (strength and stamina properties and other warrior useful mods) or mage armor (strength and inteligence properties and mage useful mods) and mixed (the rest). I look at the properties and resists and try to enhance each individual piece into something useful. About 9 out of 10 pieces I scrap. I can make decent peices doing this (improvements over my characters current armor). This is not the way to make the best pieces but it may be the way to be most thrifty with ingredients.