Starter Suit Advice

[DapperBadger]

Hello everyone,

I've recently returned from a 12 year break. I would like to work on my fighter now but his gear is atrocious.

Template-
These aren't final values either just what they currently are
Open to suggestion and criticism as well

Ana 105
Bushido 90
Chiv 75
Healing 100
Mace 115
Parry 85
Tac 110

I've got 100 necro/resist on a stone.

Now, my question is how do I get started gear-wise? I'd ultimately like to be a Sampire. The vendor search function is great but very overwhelming. I've only got about 20 mil. Should I be out somewhere farming for specific items? or crafting? what is my best best?

On Great Lakes.
Thanks

 

[Tabin]

Hello everyone,

I've recently returned from a 12 year break. I would like to work on my fighter now but his gear is atrocious.

Template-
These aren't final values either just what they currently are
Open to suggestion and criticism as well

Ana 105
Bushido 90
Chiv 75
Healing 100
Mace 115
Parry 85
Tac 110

I've got 100 necro/resist on a stone.

Now, my question is how do I get started gear-wise? I'd ultimately like to be a Sampire. The vendor search function is great but very overwhelming. I've only got about 20 mil. Should I be out somewhere farming for specific items? or crafting? what is my best best?

On Great Lakes.
Thanks

Good beginner template before switching to sampire is the bushido paladin: 120 swords, 120 tactics, 120 bushido, 100 anatomy, 100 chivalry, 60 parry, 100 healing. Later drop 100 healing for 100 necro. 120 tactics scroll is expensive so 100 tactics + 80 parry is fine too.

With your 20mil, I'd prioritize spending by: 6mil for armor + ring/bracelet (mix of crappy legendaries and crafted used gear). Then get stat scrolls and 110-120 power scrolls. Hopefully you'll have some gold left for an arachnid slayer and demon slayer weapon. Then I'd start collecting all the trash magic items and train imbuing on a crafter by unraveling bag loads of magic junk.

For a good suit, you just need 120 blacksmithing (weapons, armors) and 120 imbuing. 120 tailoring is optional if you want to wear studded armor which provides additional passive Lower mana cost but less stamina protection compared to metal armor. My PvM suit usually have 1 artifact (feudal grip or tinker legs), 1 or 2 legendaries, and the remaining slots are crafted.

For your weapons, you absolutely need to craft them yourself or buy crafted versions. You'll need blacksmithing + imbuing to craft them.

Here's the fun part....hunting monsters for your artifacts. You can buy them off vendor search too, but I really enjoyed hunting for most of mine. I'll try to order these from easiest to hardest. Difficulty is often subjective depending on party size and such.

Tyball's Shadow - get Shroud of the Condemned - Good robe with 5 int 3hp.
Narvey - get Tangle apron. Not needed for dexxers but it is a good place to meet people and learn some boss fighting skills since you don't need to key up for it.
Demon mini champ spawn in Abyss Dungeon - get Animated legs of Insane Tinker
Blackthorn Dungeon artifact turn in system - Mace and Shield/Crimson Cinture/Shroud of the Condemned/Mystic Garb
Medusa - get a slither if you're lucky...
Peerless bosses - start with Dreadhorn/Paroxymus - get Crimson Cinture and Paroxy Swamp dragon (regular armored swamp dragon with is better though)
Corgul - get Corgul's sash - this is a cheap item on vendor search. It is also not too difficult to obtain if you can steer a boat properly. Ideal with a party or partner in case you die on the island.
Doom - ideally you want the recipie drops for Gloves of Feudal grip and maybe Britches of Warding
Shadowguard - get cameos, minax sandals, ozy obi, hawkwind's robe, anon's boots, shanty wanderers, legendary items
Exodus - legendary items, stat scrolls

Finally, if you don't mind raids/pks in Felluca, champ spawns are great for earning gold. Just don't expect to beat a PKer with a PvM template.

 

[DapperBadger]

Good beginner template before switching to sampire is the bushido paladin: 120 swords, 120 tactics, 120 bushido, 100 anatomy, 100 chivalry, 60 parry, 100 healing. Later drop 100 healing for 100 necro. 120 tactics scroll is expensive so 100 tactics + 80 parry is fine too.

With your 20mil, I'd prioritize spending by: 6mil for armor + ring/bracelet (mix of crappy legendaries and crafted used gear). Then get stat scrolls and 110-120 power scrolls. Hopefully you'll have some gold left for an arachnid slayer and demon slayer weapon. Then I'd start collecting all the trash magic items and train imbuing on a crafter by unraveling bag loads of magic junk.

For a good suit, you just need 120 blacksmithing (weapons, armors) and 120 imbuing. 120 tailoring is optional if you want to wear studded armor which provides additional passive Lower mana cost but less stamina protection compared to metal armor. My PvM suit usually have 1 artifact (feudal grip or tinker legs), 1 or 2 legendaries, and the remaining slots are crafted.

For your weapons, you absolutely need to craft them yourself or buy crafted versions. You'll need blacksmithing + imbuing to craft them.

Here's the fun part....hunting monsters for your artifacts. You can buy them off vendor search too, but I really enjoyed hunting for most of mine. I'll try to order these from easiest to hardest. Difficulty is often subjective depending on party size and such.

Tyball's Shadow - get Shroud of the Condemned - Good robe with 5 int 3hp.
Narvey - get Tangle apron. Not needed for dexxers but it is a good place to meet people and learn some boss fighting skills since you don't need to key up for it.
Demon mini champ spawn in Abyss Dungeon - get Animated legs of Insane Tinker
Blackthorn Dungeon artifact turn in system - Mace and Shield/Crimson Cinture/Shroud of the Condemned/Mystic Garb
Medusa - get a slither if you're lucky...
Peerless bosses - start with Dreadhorn/Paroxymus - get Crimson Cinture and Paroxy Swamp dragon (regular armored swamp dragon with is better though)
Corgul - get Corgul's sash - this is a cheap item on vendor search. It is also not too difficult to obtain if you can steer a boat properly. Ideal with a party or partner in case you die on the island.
Doom - ideally you want the recipie drops for Gloves of Feudal grip and maybe Britches of Warding
Shadowguard - get cameos, minax sandals, ozy obi, hawkwind's robe, anon's boots, shanty wanderers, legendary items
Exodus - legendary items, stat scrolls

Finally, if you don't mind raids/pks in Felluca, champ spawns are great for earning gold. Just don't expect to beat a PKer with a PvM template.

All of this is excellent. Thank you very much.

At what point would you switch out healing for necro? Is there a stat minimum to shoot for?

The problem with buying gear or even crafting it is that I'm not really sure where to start or what stats I need where.
My current suit gives me 70 resists, 45 dci, 65 Di, 35 ssi, 15 hci, 40 lmc, and some stam/mana increase

For weaps I have an Exiler(demon slayer 2h) and a berserkers maul. Thats pretty much it unfortunately.

I do have 110 and 115 scrolls for most of those stats fortunately.

My smith is only gm so that is gonna be a while.

I'm typically a solo or duo player. How rough would that content you listed be for solo/duo?

You've certainly given me a push in the correct direction. That is exactly what I needed. I appreciate your input.

 

[kaio]

Join VvV and get 2000 points for free.
spend 500 on a VvV crimson.
spend another 500 on a pair of VvV M&S glasses.
Imbue the missing parts, and there is your'e cheap sampire.
You save 65mill...

 

[DapperBadger]

You're welcome to call me a scrub but what is VvV? and these points of which you speak?

 

[petemage]

You're welcome to call me a scrub but what is VvV? and these points of which you speak?

Vice vs Virtue - UOGuide, the Ultima Online Encyclopedia

Scrub...

 

[Tabin]

All of this is excellent. Thank you very much.

At what point would you switch out healing for necro? Is there a stat minimum to shoot for?

The problem with buying gear or even crafting it is that I'm not really sure where to start or what stats I need where.
My current suit gives me 70 resists, 45 dci, 65 Di, 35 ssi, 15 hci, 40 lmc, and some stam/mana increase

For weaps I have an Exiler(demon slayer 2h) and a berserkers maul. Thats pretty much it unfortunately.

I do have 110 and 115 scrolls for most of those stats fortunately.

My smith is only gm so that is gonna be a while.

I'm typically a solo or duo player. How rough would that content you listed be for solo/duo?

You've certainly given me a push in the correct direction. That is exactly what I needed. I appreciate your input.

You switch to sampire when you have
1) armor with at least 70/95/70/70/70 resistances so you can use Vamp Embrace and still be at max resist
2) decent double axe/bladed staffs weapons with HML HSL.
3) swing your weapons at max speed (1.25sec). For double axes, you need 180 stam and 20%SSI or 150 stam and 35%SSI. Cheapest and easiest way to get there as a beginner is to have 30% SSI on your axe.
4) 45% HCI
5) 40% LMC
6) 100% DI total (most likely 50% in suit and 50% in weapons)
7) 125+HP minimum. Eventually you want 140+.
8) not necessary but at least 20 DCI is ideal.

Crafted pieces will typically have 5hp, 8stam, 6-8mana, 8LMC, and resist imbued OR 5hp, 8 stam, 6-8mana, 8LMC with 5% HCI or 5% DCI. To get HCI/DCI on armor requires "reforging" which is another topic on its own so maybe save that for another time.

All the content I listed is possible to solo except Exodus. Shadowguard, you want to go with a small team and get experience before you attempt to solo it. You will find that some encounters, it is better to have 100 healing instead of 100 necro (Corgul/Blackthorns/Exodus)

GM Blacksmith is honestly enough to craft exceptional weapons. You ideally want 120 so you can enhance weapons to 100% elemental damage with low risk of breaking it. If you hate crafting like me, then you can just vendor search for your 100% elemental damage dble axes. Often times, people sell them for 500k so then you just need imbuing skill to put the HML HSL and slayer on it. 120 imbuing is easy if you unravel bag loads with Scroll of Alacrity buff...make sure to log off ASAP to preserve buff.

 

[DapperBadger]

You switch to sampire when you have
1) armor with at least 70/95/70/70/70 resistances so you can use Vamp Embrace and still be at max resist
2) decent double axe/bladed staffs weapons with HML HSL.
3) swing your weapons at max speed (1.25sec). For double axes, you need 180 stam and 20%SSI or 150 stam and 35%SSI. Cheapest and easiest way to get there as a beginner is to have 30% SSI on your axe.
4) 45% HCI
5) 40% LMC
6) 100% DI total (most likely 50% in suit and 50% in weapons)
7) 125+HP minimum. Eventually you want 140+.
8) not necessary but at least 20 DCI is ideal.

Crafted pieces will typically have 5hp, 8stam, 6-8mana, 8LMC, and resist imbued OR 5hp, 8 stam, 6-8mana, 8LMC with 5% HCI or 5% DCI. To get HCI/DCI on armor requires "reforging" which is another topic on its own so maybe save that for another time.

All the content I listed is possible to solo except Exodus. Shadowguard, you want to go with a small team and get experience before you attempt to solo it. You will find that some encounters, it is better to have 100 healing instead of 100 necro (Corgul/Blackthorns/Exodus)

GM Blacksmith is honestly enough to craft exceptional weapons. You ideally want 120 so you can enhance weapons to 100% elemental damage with low risk of breaking it. If you hate crafting like me, then you can just vendor search for your 100% elemental damage dble axes. Often times, people sell them for 500k so then you just need imbuing skill to put the HML HSL and slayer on it. 120 imbuing is easy if you unravel bag loads with Scroll of Alacrity buff...make sure to log off ASAP to preserve buff.

All of this is spectacular. Thank you

A couple more questions and I'll be all set.

You mention double axe and bladed staffs. Are those the outright best weaps to use or are there any mace variants that work well? I could switch to swords relatively quickly or just find weaps with "use best weapon skill".

For the crafted weaps and armor, do I want a specific ore type to bring out those stats?

I appreciate the input from everyone. That should be the last of my questions for a few days ha.

 

[Tabin]

All of this is spectacular. Thank you

A couple more questions and I'll be all set.

You mention double axe and bladed staffs. Are those the outright best weaps to use or are there any mace variants that work well? I could switch to swords relatively quickly or just find weaps with "use best weapon skill".

For the crafted weaps and armor, do I want a specific ore type to bring out those stats?

I appreciate the input from everyone. That should be the last of my questions for a few days ha.

No problem and you're welcome! This game is incredibly complex so definitely don't be shy to ask questions.

There are three main special attacks that are typically used for PvM. Whirlwind (AOE attack), Double swing (2 hits at 90% damage each) and Armor Ignore (1 hit that ignore monsters resistances at 90% damage). There is also a swordmanship mastery ability called Onslaught which reduces a monster's resist by -20 based on the elemental damage of your weapon. You will need an item called "Swordsmanship Mastery Primer III" which costs 10+mil.

Double axe does Whirlwind and double swing. Bladed staff does armor ignore. Now that you know which three special moves to spam, next is figuring out which weapon to use for the specific boss. Whirlwind is self-explanatory, use it for spawns and areas where you get surrounded by weak mobs. Armor ignore is for monsters with all 65s or higher resistances. Double strike + Onslaught with the appropriate elemental damage is ideal for any monster that has lowest resist at 65 or less.

You can run a sampire with mace fighting or fencing. It does less damage because it lacks Onslaught but it has a more defensive fighting strategy. Mace fighting mastery skill reduces monster's swing speed by 60% for 10 seconds. Fencing mastery is also really powerful....in 3 hits over 30 seconds, the monster's stamina reaches 0 and now it will swing super slow. If you're struggling to kill a certain boss, sometimes it can actually be easier to switch to fencing or mace fighting. If you are properly geared and prepared, you shouldn't have to switch out of swordsmanship.

"Use Best Weapon" is certainly an option but I generally advise against it unless you are experienced and understand crafting concepts. "UBW" takes up an imbue slot and your limited to 5 slots per weapon so you have to make a sacrifice to get it. Also, if you equip a "UBW" double axe, you can't use Swordsmanship mastery skill Onslaught (assuming you have skill points in mace). I'm not 100% sure if you can use your mace fighting mastery ability with a UBW double axe, but I'm pretty certain the answer is no.