Trying to build a PVM mage....

[Fourgotten]

Hello everyone! Well I am just returning to UO after a pretty decent gap in time and a lot has changed. Not saying that I was ever in the end game content such as multiple doom runs or what not, so I really never was on the up and up on things anyhow.

But i am trying to make a PVM Mage at the moment and I am trying my best to get as much info off of this site as possible.

My gear setup currently has the 2FC/6FCR, 100% LRC, 40% LMC, 36% SDI, and only 2 MR. And desperately trying to get all 70's resist and get my gear setup better constantly.

But my main concern is my skills... what my end goal for skills that i am currently going for is,
120 Magery
120 Eval Int
120 Med
100 Inscription
100 Spellweaving
100 Focus

And the rest I was gonna leave in Spell Resist. I am trying to max damage and survivablity as best as i can. I am just unsure what would be good for versatility in PVM.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

 

[[JD]]

Hello everyone! Well I am just returning to UO after a pretty decent gap in time and a lot has changed. Not saying that I was ever in the end game content such as multiple doom runs or what not, so I really never was on the up and up on things anyhow.

But i am trying to make a PVM Mage at the moment and I am trying my best to get as much info off of this site as possible.

My gear setup currently has the 2FC/6FCR, 100% LRC, 40% LMC, 36% SDI, and only 2 MR. And desperately trying to get all 70's resist and get my gear setup better constantly.

But my main concern is my skills... what my end goal for skills that i am currently going for is,
120 Magery
120 Eval Int
120 Med
100 Inscription
100 Spellweaving
100 Focus

And the rest I was gonna leave in Spell Resist. I am trying to max damage and survivablity as best as i can. I am just unsure what would be good for versatility in PVM.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

I'm going to take a stab you're compensating for your lack of MR2 with Focus. Wasted skill points unless you're a mystic. Fix your gear with MR2 on as many armor pieces as possible, and dump GM focus.

What are you doing for defense? Here are your choices.

1- For defensive wrestle, Dump GM focus for GM anat
2- For Legendary wrestle and specials, Dump GM focus, lower med to 100
3- To use a -20 Mage weap with DCI, have +20 Magery on your jewels to counter the -20 penalty.

Add to that you need 45 DCI once you accomplish any of 1-3. If you decide to PVP, you need to approach 70 DCI to counter HLD.

 

[Taylor]

Have you considered a necro/mage/weaver? I consider this to be the top PvM mage template. I recommend changing your template to:

120 Mage
120 Med
120 Eval
120 Spirit Speak
120 Weaving
105 Necro (or higher, depending on skill cap)

As JD mentioned, your mana regeneration is low. Ideally, your suit would have a minimum of 100 lrc, 40 lmc, 2/6 (preferably 4/6 for spellweaving), and 6+ mr. However, by casting spells in wraith form--a necromancy spell--you will be able to leech back mana based on your damage output (provided your enemy has mana to leech).

Spellweaving has the highest damaging spell in game: namely, word of death (WOD), which has a maximum damage of 666. If you cast WOD in wraith form, you can cast indefinitely thanks to mana leech.

Again, from my perspective, the necro/mage/weaver is the best PvM mage template in game. I think you should consider it.

Good luck!

 

[Fourgotten]

Thanks for the responses and it obviously shows i need a lot of work. I was really leaning towards the necro/mage/weaver route. But will i need a defense stat at all like JD was mentioning?

I am definitely getting rid of focus..i was going the route of Mystic but changed so that stat is gone.

But really thanks for the info i guess i really need to be working on my suit a lot more than anything.

Thank you

 

[Taylor]

Defense is optimal, but not vital. Basically, it will allow you to evade physical damage more often, which prevents interruptions to your casting.

My necro/mage/weaver uses a -20 mage weapon and 45 defense chance increase, as JD suggested above. If you would like to add a defensive option on this particular character, I would recommend going the mage weapon route, as opposed to dropping weaving for wrestling or anatomy.

I also wanted to mention that all 70s resists is similarly optimal, but unnecessary. All of my characters have 60s resists and I have completed every PvM encounter in the game without issue. If you can fit all 70s, great! However, if you have to choose between (a) adding more mr, +15 or +20 magery skill to compensate for a -20 mage weapon, and 45 dci, or (b) all 70s resists, I would pick option "a".

 

[Fourgotten]

Ok i really appreciate the help. Its really helpful to have people point out various options since i never really thought about the mage weapon option. I guess as i am getting my stats up i will just have to look out for better gear. And i also realized as far as resists go that other stats will have to take presedence over them if need be.

But again thank you very much for the help

 

[NuSair]

Spellweaving has the highest damaging spell in game: namely, word of death (WOD), which has a maximum damage of 666.

Since when?

 

[Taylor]

Spellweaving has the highest damaging spell in game: namely, word of death (WOD), which has a maximum damage of 666.

Since when?

Stratics' spellweaving guide doesn't have a cap recorded, but UOGuide does:

Word of Death - UOGuide, the Ultima Online encyclopedia

 

[NuSair]

Stratics' spellweaving guide doesn't have a cap recorded, but UOGuide does:

Word of Death - UOGuide, the Ultima Online encyclopedia

Then either they are not taking into account SDI or they are wrong. I've gotten over 1k damage with it before and just to make sure I went to Navery and was hitting it for 723.

 

[Taylor]

Congrats.

 

[Obsidian]

I never can get a focus so I recommend the pure necro-mage:

120 Magery
120 Eval Int
120 Necro
120 SS
120 Resist
120 Med

You could swap the sw and resist back and forth with some soulstones if you are undecided. I use my char at champ spawns most of the time. I love not getting poisoned by all of the level 3 spawn and can tear through most levels with wither. I do run protection (with + resist skill items) to ensure I am never disrupted.

No matter what you do, for a PvM mage you want to use wraith form with some SS for mana leechback. With this, 40 LMC, and some slayer spellbooks/high sdi you will always have mana to keep casting. There are a few exceptions, but not many.

-OBSIDIAN-

 

[NuSair]

If you are on Atlantic, just shoot me an IM and I'll log on my other accounts to get you a focus.

 

[Quilnn]

Drop Focus, boost spellweaving and magic resist. This is a cap of 700.. an extra 20 points in weaving may increase your output damage for certain spells and high resist for defensive stance against spells.. Don't see how wrestling or anatomy will fit, so just pop on a weapon with -20 when pvping dexxies and if they disarm, run as fast as you can

120 Magery
120 Eval Int
120 Med
100 Inscription
120 Spellweaving
120 spell resist

 

[Chad Sexington]

Drop Focus, boost spellweaving and magic resist. This is a cap of 700.. an extra 20 points in weaving may increase your output damage for certain spells and high resist for defensive stance against spells.. Don't see how wrestling or anatomy will fit, so just pop on a weapon with -20 when pvping dexxies and if they disarm, run as fast as you can

120 Magery
120 Eval Int
120 Med
100 Inscription
120 Spellweaving
120 spell resist

Yeah, this is basically my template, but I always like Hiding on my PvM guys. It's my pause button. It also lets me log out wherever I want, log back in, and continue doing whatever it was that I was doing. With Crystalline Ring, I go with:

120 Magery
120 Eval
120 Med
120 Resist
120 Spellweaving
100 Hiding
60 Focus

And yeah, it sucks not finding anyone to get a focus with.

Some people say Resist isn't worth it, but I like shrugging off paralyzes and poisons. I also use it for resists. It just went for max SDI. On my suit I have SDI +78%, but my resists are really terrible: 44/44/53/44/70. That's also part of the reason why I have Hiding. I really saves my butt sometimes.

 

[Taylor]

Hiding on your PvM mage? You've been playing a thief too long.

 

[Chad Sexington]

Yeah, I keep on changing my mind.

Hiding keeps alive when I kill paragon lich lords. But I might just switch to Inscription again. I'm not dealing enough damage.

 

[Smoot]

If your able to, and its kinda gold dependent, try to get about 12 or 14 manna regen. For resists on armor yeah 60s are fine, but i like to have fire at about 85 (for corpseskin attacks etc.) That way you can lower med alot and not see a huge difference. For pvm, i really dont think 120 resist is worth it. Around 80 is usually fine to avoid death from curses, blood oath, etc.
For me, i like gm anatomy alot on my necro mage. with 45 dci you can stand in the middle of a buch of mobs and just wither and earthquake them down.
If you're going for pure damage tho, or hunt mainly in group settings you dont have to worry about dci or anatomy at all.
I wouldnt use a mage weapon for pvm, because you get so many stats from spellbooks, especially slayer.

Id do (with 10 to 30 skill points on jewels)

120mage
120eval
80med
80majic resist
110 necro
120ss
100anat or 120spellweaving

 

[Chad Sexington]

If your able to, and its kinda gold dependent, try to get about 12 or 14 manna regen. For resists on armor yeah 60s are fine, but i like to have fire at about 85 (for corpseskin attacks etc.) That way you can lower med alot and not see a huge difference. For pvm, i really dont think 120 resist is worth it. Around 80 is usually fine to avoid death from curses, blood oath, etc.

Gold really isn't an issue, I'm just a mana junkie.

I have mana regen 17, 120 meditation, and 60 focus and I still want more. I like being able to open with Arcane Empowerment + double Energy Vortex and then chain Flamestrikes.

A lot of times I use Protection so that drops my Resist to 90.

But I'm still messing around with a couple things. Should I just switch to Mysticism? I haven't been able to play that much since Stygian Abyss. I know the Colossus is good, but what else for PvM?

Thinking about just going straight up 6x:

120 Magery
120 Eval
120 Med
120 Focus
120 Mysticism
120 Resist

Also, has anyone ever tried dropping Eval? Are there enough damaging spells from Mysticism to use it exclusively?

 

[Chad Sexington]

Wow, this forum is dead. Why didn't someone tell me Mysticism was awesome?

After a little playing around, I've decided to go with this:

120 Mysticism
120 Magery
120 Spellweaving
120 Resist
120 Meditation
120 Imbuing
40 Focus

Game Designer #1: I have an idea, let's make a skill that has the best Healing spell, the strongest summon ever, and a cold-damage version of Flamestrike that deals area damage. Oh yeah, and let's add an unlimited greater heal potion and the ability to pre-cast a single spell indefinitely.

Game Designer #2: *high five*

• If it weren't for Recall, Mark, Invisibility, and Resurrection I'd probably drop Magery too. Even Spellweaving is almost useless, but I'd spend 120 skill for Word of Death alone.
• I went with Imbuing because I have 40 extra skill with a Crystalline and they'd just be wasted. I've also always only played 1 character at a time. More stuff to do.
• I've also been playing a mage with a free hand already. I think mages look stupid with shields. The Healing Stone and Spell Trigger just give me an excuse to never wear one.

 

[Night]

After a little playing around, I've decided to go with this:

120 Mysticism
120 Magery
120 Spellweaving
120 Resist
120 Meditation
120 Imbuing
40 Focus

I know you said you were a mana junkie but why would you miss out on the strong RC ? I'd swap focus and med around on that template, it might take you a little longer to regen (gear will help) but your RC will be battering everything while you do so

 

[Taylor]

After a little playing around, I've decided to go with this:

120 Mysticism
120 Magery
120 Spellweaving
120 Resist
120 Meditation
120 Imbuing
40 Focus

I know you said you were a mana junkie but why would you miss out on the strong RC ? I'd swap focus and med around on that template, it might take you a little longer to regen (gear will help) but your RC will be battering everything while you do so

^ This. Although focus will not regenerate your mana as quickly as mediation, it determines the spell damage and effectiveness of your mysticism spells. Next, stick imbuing on a soulstone and add 120 eval, so that your mage spells will also affect damage.

 

[Night]

Mmm..looks like Imbuing will also augment the RC's strength, not something I've tried and feels weird on a combat char. I'd still be tempted to swap Med and Focus around and instead stone off Imbuing for Wrestling or something else more useful than a crafting skill, or even have Med and Focus at 120 and a bit of something else.