The Stats of Ultima Online Items

[donjn]

I am not a new player, but I still have issues when looking at two pieces of items and deciding which is better. I also am having a hard time deciding if I should continue crafting. My post will be all over the place so here are some random questions.

Item Stat Recognition
Is there some sort of hierarchy of stats on weapons and armor? Basically one or two statistics you see that makes it stand out from the rest? For example my Paladin has the Soul Seeker:

Weight: 9 Stones
Hit Stamina Leech 40%
Hit Mana Leech 30%
Hit Life Leech 30%
Repond Slayer
Swing Speed Increase 60%
Cold Damage 100%
Weapon Damage 12 - 14
Weapon Speed 2.5s
Strength Requirement 20
One-Handed Weapon
Skill Required: Swordsmanship
Durability 255

I know this is an awesome weapon. Is it the best in the game? And how would I tell? Is "Hit Life Leech 30%" they key stat that makes this weapon great?

Crafting
I have an alt who is a blacksmith. Why? My Paladin has the virtue armor set with the aforementioned Soul Seeker and the Shield Of Invulnerability. Can I ever craft anything better than that? I also have an archer with 70% physical resist. Should I even bother with tailoring on my alt?

 

[Basara]

The only thing really good about the virtue armor set is that it's a blessed all-70 suit.

You can crafted better non-blessed armor with horned or barbed kits (better bonuses, etc.) but you'd still be limited to the 70 resists maximum.

For weapons, it's typically the combination of properties that make them good. The Soul Seeker's best attribute is its 60% Swing Speed Increase, on a weapon already with a decent base speed. Then you factor in it has the leeches, and it becomes a great weapon. I've crafted a weapon of its type with better leeches and 40% DI (the Seeker has 0 DI), that doesn't have the Swing Speed Increase or the Repond slayer properties, and prefer it over the minor artifact - especially since I don't take double damage from undead with it.

 

[Bara]

Yes, you can make much better gear than the virtue set. Needs vary from character to character, but on my mages, I like to have high spell damage increase, mana regen and lower mana cost (lower reagent cost is a perk).

On my melee, I like high fire resists (because I'm a vampire ), lower mana cost and defense/hit chance increase, and plus to stats. (mana regen is a perk).

As you can see, the virtue set offers none of this (even the fire resistance is below my needs).


Regarding weapons, soul seeker is one of the best weapons for specific jobs. It's great all around, but there are other weapons I would rather have in many situations.

Often, I just want an ornate axe with high mana leech/stamina leech, swing speed and damage increase.

In pvp, weapon needs vary greatly.

I love the virtue set for my extreme miner.

So, yeah, your crafter is well worth working up.

 

[Uvtha]

The most important thing about weapons is dps. In other words how fast you can get it to swing. From there, it depends on what you want the weapon to do. If you want to pvp HCI, HLD and hit spell effects are best, where as on pvm items Leeches help to keep you alive in protracted battles.

Soul seeker is one of the best pvm weapons because it has all three leeches, and swings very fast, as well as having a whirlwind special. Is it the BEST pvm weapon out there? No. But its a relatively easily acquired standard that is very good.

As for suits, I don't play a prodo shard, so I'm not an expert on it, but really high resists are more or less a necessity, a launching pad if you will, for the suit. Then you shoot for regens, or luck, or stats, or LMC/LRC, or whatever.

 

[WildWobble]

For weapons soulseeker is a decent starter pick its all around a good choice for the beginner warriors though it is a long way off from being UBER sweet,
a smith worth his salt will craft 10x better weapons everyday yet have them all go to waste since most people have no idea how good they are because they are all blinded by the flash of Arti/Martie Junk

Weapons have many properties possible some of the more sought after mods include Hit cast fireball lightning / Leech's most notable leech's are stamina and mana leech life leech is ok but would rather many other mods myself / Hit lower attack and defence are both very useful mods to have on a suit Dmg increase 40 from exceptional and gm armslore is a must on a weapon. then depending on the type of weapon swing speed increase is very handy to have if its a slow weapon to begin with.

My dexxer runs around with about 7 weapons in her pack all get used and not one is a soulseeker i sell them to the noobies on my shard on my vendors i have loads of them and its very rare i take one to use not even for doing rat spawns.

My favorite blade for spawning is

Radiant Scimitar
50 hit fire area
60 Mana leech
45 stamina leech
40 Dmg increase

That sword was made with a bronze runic hammer and works very well at a spawn one whirlwind will do 100x more dmg then a soulseeker ever could.

Armor on the other hand is most important and should never be neglected
Virtue set is well ok its not a bad choice for some. no need to repair no need to worrie about death costing you gold. but truth is it is very limited for a warrior to deal with the more high end monsters out there in the game,
A good warrior outfit trys to incorporate alot of defence chance increase hit chance increase and many other mods like mana regen lower mana cost for more special moves along with the 70 resist max and in some cases like vampires with well over max resist on fire to combat the penalty's of being a vampire and even more to combat some curses that lower your resists.

All in all if your new and want a good outfit to help fill your bank full of gold virtue and a soulseeker will do you well

 

[Storm]

I use the virtue set on my pvm thief it does not seem to effect my steeling and if i get cought and killed i lose nothing same with my blessed weapon the only thing I carry is bandaids and eggs oh and it does not hinder stealthing at all for me!
and it is kinda funny to walk around in a virtue set and be very unvirtuess lol

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

What items are useful depends, almost 100%, on your needs of the moment, upon your preferences, and upon your playstyle.

Almost everyone will give you a different answer.

Any time that it looks like a consensus is being formed, that consensus can be challenged.

For example....Consensus for a long time was that the artifact bow Frostbringer sucked.

Back when Galen was an archer, though, I found it to be a very good default PvM weapon; I'd switch back and forth between it and the Dryad Bow for PvM, and used the Dryad Bow for PvP.

For another example, most people would say that the Righteous Anger sucks. But I know of a fellow who uses it as his default PvM weapon, and his very happy with the level of damage it affords him. He's also used it in PvP with some success.

I think that the Soul Seeker is over-rated. Yet, almost no one agrees with me, and the weapon is extremely popular. I use the Blade of Insanity on occasion. I get laughed at, but you know what? It can be a very effective weapon, especially on Undead in conjunction with the Conjurer's Trinket. It's also good against champs. For a long time, I used it to good effect in PvP as well.

Yes, you can definitely craft suits that most people would agree are better than the Virtue Armor. But a lot of people use the Virtue Armor, way more than I'd ever would have guessed! Every once in awhile I see someone with a jaw-dropping weapon and wearing the Virtue Armor. The contrast makes me smile at the great variety of this game.

I also see the Virtue Artifacts used way more often than I ever would have guessed.

Find something you like, something that works for you. If you're not sure about something, ask here, or at UOFORUMS.com, or plug it into UOGUIDE.com.

-Galen's player

 

[donjn]

Thanks for your replies. I found a good page here:

http://uo.stratics.com/content/guides/loot.shtml

But I see nothing for "Hit Harm". I assume Hit Harm is a super stat to have?

 

[donjn]

Actually here is a nice database:

http://uo.gamesentry.com/properties.php

 

[Stupid Miner]

The best properties are almost completely relative. Certain templates need certain properties more. If you don't have a reliable form of mana regen you need mana leech on you weapon. If you're a samurai and you PvM, you'll want a weapon with Whirlwind because you can use it more effectively than a template that does not have bushido. The thing that matters most in PvM is a combination of high damage, fast speed, and good special moves.

Hit area can be amazing combined with whirlwind, but only against low to mid-level monsters. Against high level monsters it wont do much good. It's used best when surrounded by enemies.

Life leech tends to suck ever since they nerfed how much life you can leech back with it. Be sure to check out uoguide.com to see how all the properties are calculated and such.

Yes, you can craft better than a Soulseeker, it's main deficiency is it has no DI, and it'd be better with some HLD or HLA. Much of the 60 SSI is kinda wasted because you can easily swing it at max speed anyway, 30 SSI really isnt any loss.

 

[donjn]

Good info, thanks.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

Thanks for your replies. I found a good page here:

http://uo.stratics.com/content/guides/loot.shtml

But I see nothing for "Hit Harm". I assume Hit Harm is a super stat to have?

Hit Harm, like the other spell effects, "casts" the spell from your weapon, against your target.

Harm is distance-based. So on a bow, it'll be pointless. On a hand-to-hand weapon, it can do alright, against things with weak cold resist.

-Galen's player

 

[Chiera]

nice, 10 replies about 11 opinions But I think it really kind of reflects what can be said about 'usefulness' of item properties. It really depends on the template and what it is used for. So as templates and caps change the usefulness of properties change as well. See for example lmc and MR before and after the cap or diminishing returns respectively.

So the best thing to do as a vendor is to keep in touch with the latest fashions in template building and figuring out where the weaknesses in the standard arties are. That way you'll notice pretty quick what might be a useful piece and what not.

 

[Kratos Aurion]

Like others have said, it's a multi-factor analysis.

Depending on your needs at the time usually determines how good a specific weapon is for your toon.

Armor usually plays the largest role in my weapon choice. If I decide to build a template and use a suit gear toward mana, life or stamina, my weapon will reflect those mods (soul seeker example).

If my armor reflects those above examples but yet I want to go further and add damage increase, I would just use a player crafted weapon with high DI and high damage class.

Then you evaluate your purposes.
-what is the purpose of this char?
-what mods do I NEED?
etc.

For example if you used a spawn char in the mix (PvM based), you would look for weapons that deal high damage, maybe a hit area damage attack, support leeching capabilities and support your template needs (does it need to be fast? multi-target damage dealer? etc).

So to answer your question the answer is actually yes and no. To you a certain weapon may look like junk (-magery, sc, dci weapon) but to others (PvP mages) the weapon is godly. It just depends on you and your needs/wants.

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

It all depends on how much knowledge you care to apply to your setup. It helps to know the caps of everything most of which can be found here: http://www.uoherald.com/guide/itemproperties_0.php

For example, stamina determines how fast you swing your weapon. Every 30 stamina removes 1 tick (0.25s) from the speed shown on the weapon. As it works in 30's you know that 59 stamina doesn't swing any faster than 30. 192 is the most you can get not including the one weapon that has 8 on it, but 180 is the highest amount that reduces the delay between swings.

1.25s is the swing delay cap, and 60 ssi is the ssi cap. The soul seeker swings at 1.25s with only 30 stamina due to its low base swing speed and max ssi property. However because it has 0 damage increase and most dexxers don't have 30 stamina it's not entirely practical to assume its a good weapon. It's fairly over rated (I agree with Galen), it gets the job done but then so do most things.

Also it's a repond slayer so you take 50% more damage if you use it against undead. You also take 50% more damage from repond if you use the undead trinket. They don't cancel each other out.

Its also 100% cold damage which isn't right for everything. Although consecrate weapon lets you target the lowest resist, not every dexxer needs or uses chiv, plus you may not have mana for it etc.

Its leeches aren't literally that amount, the information in the link at the top of this post explains that they are out of other %'s of the damage you do. They are halfed again on ranged weapons (archery & possibly the upcoming throwing skill with SA).
The literal amount a soulseeker leeches is:
Stamina, 40% of your damage, 40% of the time.
Mana, 12% of your damage, 30% of the time.
Life, 9% of your damage, 30% of the time.

The number on the weapon is also the frequency in which it hits.

So what does the soulseeker have going for it?
Whirlwind attack, this is the best or second best special move in PvM. It has a really low mana cost so you can easily chain it, hit leeches/spells/area all land on multiple opponents for large damage/leeches... the soulseeker is also the only one handed weapon in the game that has whirlwind which is handy for using potions or a shield. However runic crafted radiant scimitars will generally be better as you can have damage increase and swing and higher leeches.

The other best special move in PvM is feint, this halfs all the damage you take from an opponent for about 5 seconds. Chaining it can be difficult which is why people often use it on wraith form templates with high mana leech weapons, this allows them to fight things that would normally hit too hard.

As another posted mentioned DPS - damage per second outlines that some weapons are just better than others. There are better DPS weapons than soul seekers but as above it depends on stamina, ssi and in a lot of cases availability. The black staff is probably the best weapon in the game, but as it can't be crafted and its two handed they're hard to get and not right for everything. Elven machettes are better than radiant scimitars when it comes to DPS but their specials are not good. Ornate axes, hatchets, leafblades, spears, diamond maces are generally the best DPS wise. (per class, 1 & 2 handed)

You can play characters as simple or as sophisticated as you want, mod wise you can do a whole lot better than the virtue suit but for some things it isn't necessary.