I know what exploit means. So you're basically saying that the devs designed a high lvl necro buff to be used by non-necros? That same argument could be used for any exploit. I don't see VE as a serious exploit and I certainly don't call people cheaters for abusing one of the 2 VE exploits. It IS an exploit, though.
I mean I could use your same logic to explain away several exploits just like this...
The devs designed a certain item, so it could be used to summon 2 familiars.
The devs designed item duplication into the game, so we could get infinite runic kits.
The devs designed vendors so you could buy from one and sell to another at a million + profit.
The devs designed the dark wolf, so necros could control cu's (a fixed exploit)
The devs designed the serpent familiar so players could control the yamanadon champ...
Yes, I gave extreme examples, but I'm still making a valid point.
The exploits you listed don't even vaguely resemble the use of Vamp form by bushido dexers.
All it is is somebody equipping enough items to cast a spell that has an affect on them! Comparing it to actual exploits is like a joke.
If my mage casts ressurect on someone and causes him to change form (Dead -> Alive), and then later, that mage takes off his +magery gear, does the person drop dead wherever he may stand? That example is more comparable with taking Vamp form with items than the list of game exploits to which you're senselessly trying to compare it.
Who are you to say how the devs designed VE to work? Especially when you consider the devs came out and said that they are going to make changes because VE isn't working as intended.
First of all, if you're referring to the town hall comments, Jeremy came on the forums afterward and for all practical purposes took back what she said in terms of it being taken as a real intent to do something nasty to the current use of vamp form.
Secondly, it's really damn easy to see how they intended SKILL ITEMS to work. Attempting to call this an exploit is beyond looking at Vamp form exclusively, its about +skill items and all of the things that they allow.
"omg look that person cast a spell and its still working even though he took his +skill jewels off" is a ******** thing to pancake about in UO, its EVERYWHERE. It's extremely prominent in TAMING and in terms of 'balance' it's not hurting a damn thing, it's been worked into the existing balance.
VE is powerful even if it requires you to have 99 real necro while in the form. It was designed to serve as a necro/warrior (shadowknight) template. It didn't get broken until players could use it with chiv + bushido without having a reasonable amount of necro on their template. If players had to have necro/ss on their template, they couldn't get the huge dmg buffs that chiv/bushi give you and the 75% leeching that is possible would no longer be broken.
I'll remind you of something you just wrote to me:
Who are you to say how the devs designed VE to work?
Vamp form on a non-hybrid "real" necromancer is a PIECE OF **** and you're coming off like an armchair warrior when you say otherwise. Wraith form real necro dexers on the other hand can work but some of those even carry chiv (oh nooooes not chiv+necro again!!!!).
Comparing a sampire's ability to tank to a tamer's is an apples to oranges comparison. Sampires do much more dmg,
There are SOME cases where a HIGH-KARMA BLUE CHIV BUSHIDO DEXER can outdamage a spectacular specimin, fully trained superdragon. The Vamp form has nothing to do with the damage output! To "fix" that, you must nerf bush or chiv or both.
So after you had them take away Vamp form and noticed that the (few remaining who didn't just leave for WOW) chiv dexers are still doing well but require teams of healers, would you be wailing to nerf Bush and Chiv too?
This goes to show you how misunderstood/mistrusted/jealousy-inducing the template is relative to the people who don't really, seriously build one and use it.
have higher survivability and tank better than pets.
This is bull**** and everyone who seriously uses the template understands how and why.
The fully-developed vamp form dexer is great at absorbing medium amounts of damage, but, it's still working with a base HP of around 135 - 150. Big hits murder it. Like....
- - monsters that can hit for large enough amounts of damage in a very short time will kill it. That's a vamp dexer's nightmare.
Wild undiscorded superdragons are bad - if you take a fire breath from one that's at nearly full health (evade doesnt always cover your ass there) you're in trouble. You're so hurt that if it happens to get a hit in right after, when you didn't have time to hit your pots even, you go down. Rends are like that too. Just, bad. I dread the idea of trying Rikktor on my bush vamp dexer without a mage healer VERY closely watching my ass with greater heal pre-cast.....
Taking rends and superdragons out with a superdragon works fine, though. they have the HP base to take big, consecutive like that and not crash to the ground. Rikktor is hell for everyone and everything, I think (actually too hard IMO).
- - BLOOD OATH OMG. Dark Father. Bushido critical strike + slayer + perfection + a blood oath with the wrong timing. I believe the Harrower does this too, but I've not had the joy of killing myself against a harrower yet. In Fel, another player is at least able to do the dexer the mercy of blood-oathing him himself so that the Harrower cannot do it to him.
Pets with a bigger hit point base than the player all carry this ace up their sleeve that a human does not match. They can take fast, consecutive, huge hits of damage, and they can survive being blood oathed long enough for someone to remove curse on them (or even try to heal them through it, although this is the harder way). The superdragon is the best example but other tanktype pets work similarly.
- - Paralyze if you don't have a box, or even sometimes if you do. The vamp form dexer does not heal as intended if it cannot hit. It also is not released from paralyze by all the monsters standing around trying to hit it, it's got so much friggin' DCI and parry that the stuff can't actually smack him. You can be paralyzed, standing in a hoard of monsters, basically helpless because you don't get broken out of it except when spells hit. If it's a crowd of rat mages all casting explode flamestrike nasties you can die that way.
You can take this discussion further and make a sampire/tamer like I did. LOL crazy char... a char that can tank AND control a powerful pet! Sampire/tamer can easily out-damage a discord tamer.
That's like total fantasy. The vamp form tank is insanely tight on skill points as it is. Pretending that you can throw 300 skill points into taming and have it work even close to properly is ********. Even if you skipped vet (and you couldn't bandie heal your pet through anything high-level like that, it would simply die), it doesn't work well with 220 skill points ripped out of the template. I can think of ways to get about 90 additional points onto the base form of the temp (I run mine like that in fact, vet account + lots of skill on the regular jewels) but not 220.
