Well, well, well... So we meet again UO.

[Hank the Hick]

Been away for a little while. Moved to SB back in '03. Jumped to GW then on to WoW. None of it was ever as satisfying as running UO. So here I am, back again after 9+ years.

I must say, I am completely overwhelmed right now looking at all the changes that the game has gone through. While I am miffed that the game hasn't become F2P yet, I'm giving it at least 3 months to change my mind.

I have multiple high-end chars (dating back to my leaving), which means they are completely outdated and worthless (I suppose). With the exception of my Tamer and mule, the rest of the bunch looks like they need major overhaul.

I know that personal preference and playstyle is a large factor. But I need some suggestions about viability and ease of change (i.e. not making 5 skill changes). I know I am asking a lot here, but if some of you could direct me with a way to go, I can figure the rest out myself (battle tactics, skill training, and templates). Here is a list of my old chars:

1. 7x Stun Mage (Med, Mage, Eval, Resist, Wrestle, Anatomy, Healing)
2. 7x Fencing Dexxer (Fencing, Tactics, Anat, Healing, Resist, Magery, Poison)
3. 7x Disarm Thief Dexxer (Stealing, Resist, Tactics, Anatomy, Wrestling, Healing, Fencing)
4. 7x Tamer/Mage (Med, Mage, Eval, Lore, Taming, Vet, Wrestle)
5. 7x Mule (Alch, Arms, BS, Carp, Mining, Tailor, Tinker)
6. Newbie dexxer (mid 60s in 10 skills, Music/Provo)

As you can see, what used to be a well-rounded account with a tower on Ice Island is now a joke. Sadly, I have nobody that I used to run with wanting to come back with me. So I will be soloing for a bit. I am turning this account into a PVM account and will explore PVP after I get back on par with my competition. Here is what I am thinking about doing with them:

1. Add Necro/SS, drop Anat/Heal
2. No idea what works.
3. Again, no clue.
4. If it still works as is, I'll keep it as is.
5. Need to pick up Imbuing I suppose, what do I drop?
6. Can't decide.

Also thinking of picking up 7th Slot/Storage increase from the shop. One of the dexxers will become a Sampire, and the other two will battle it out for whatever else works. I would like to make a support-ready character to play if I can find a guild or group of players.

Again, I thank anyone who will respond with feedback. I don't know what I am doing exactly, but I think I have a strong foothold on what direction I need to take. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

 

[Ron Silverbeard]

Wwwweeeeeellllcoooooooooooooome baaaaaaaaaack!

 

[DerekL]

4. 7x Tamer/Mage (Med, Mage, Eval, Lore, Taming, Vet, Wrestle)

First off, welcome back! I'm just recently returned after a five year sojourn away too... Except in my case it was City of Heroes.

Your tamer is still mostly viable, but could be much better... I'd drop Med for Focus (which refreshes stamina as well), and drop wrestling and raise the core taming skills to 120, which lets you control the most powerful pets and hunt in the more dangerous areas. (The overland new areas are much more dangerous than overland Fel or Tram. Some formerly safer(er) areas are now more dangerous than in the past because you're soloing in what used to be a crowded area.)

 

[Petra Fyde]

By all means pick up imbuing on your crafter - but don't drop anything, get soulstones.

 

[DreadLord Lestat]

I know that personal preference and playstyle is a large factor. But I need some suggestions about viability and ease of change (i.e. not making 5 skill changes). I know I am asking a lot here, but if some of you could direct me with a way to go, I can figure the rest out myself (battle tactics, skill training, and templates). Here is a list of my old chars:

1. 7x Stun Mage (Med, Mage, Eval, Resist, Wrestle, Anatomy, Healing)
2. 7x Fencing Dexxer (Fencing, Tactics, Anat, Healing, Resist, Magery, Poison)
3. 7x Disarm Thief Dexxer (Stealing, Resist, Tactics, Anatomy, Wrestling, Healing, Fencing)
4. 7x Tamer/Mage (Med, Mage, Eval, Lore, Taming, Vet, Wrestle)
5. 7x Mule (Alch, Arms, BS, Carp, Mining, Tailor, Tinker)
6. Newbie dexxer (mid 60s in 10 skills, Music/Provo)


1. Add Necro/SS, drop Anat/Heal Unless you are going to be PvP'ing fairly soon, you won't need wrestling either. Invest in soulstones or fragments and store the skills instead of losing them.
2. No idea what works. You can stone magery for chivalry (heals, recalls, cures, melee damage). Poison and Healing are depending on your playstyle. For PvM they can stay or go. I am sure that you can find some more worthwhile skills for PvM though.
3. Again, no clue. With item insurance and how quiet fel is, not as many targets for thiefs though you can target champ spawns and go for scrolls after they drop the boss. You can also go the route of stealing from NPC mobs in Exodus and places like that.
4. If it still works as is, I'll keep it as is. Decent template still though wrestling can be stoned if you aren't going to PvP right away.
5. Need to pick up Imbuing I suppose, what do I drop? I would drop mining or carp. Most people prefer to buy stacks of potion bottles rather than kegs so carp isn't very necessary for alchemists any more.
6. Can't decide. You can be a bard/dexer or you can take the stoned magery from your fencing dexer and add to this guy and make him a mage/bard. Plenty of options here.

Also thinking of picking up 7th Slot/Storage increase from the shop. One of the dexxers will become a Sampire, and the other two will battle it out for whatever else works. I would like to make a support-ready character to play if I can find a guild or group of players.

Again, I thank anyone who will respond with feedback. I don't know what I am doing exactly, but I think I have a strong foothold on what direction I need to take. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Welcome back! If you play on Chessy, I would be more than happy to help you in game.

 

[jeza]

Welcome back

- Imbuing : It doesn't need to be on your mule as it's not dependent on any other crafting skill to work.
You could easily stone it and use it on any of your chars just when needed and back on a stone after that.

Also Gargoyles get a bonus while using it, so if you ever plan on making one (if you wanted to try throwing for example that only works on a gargoyle) it would be best for that char to be the one using it.


-Your tamer for PVM you got good advices :
Drop wrestling (stone it)
Go 120 on all 6 other skills
Change med for focus (120 skill). Not only it gives stamina on top of mana regen (less mana regen then med though) but it doesn't need your armor to be medable to work. If needed you can add mana regen on your suit to compensate... Or keep meditation and add some stamina regen on your suit, depends mostly of your play-stile I guess.

Still there is an option with only 110 taming/115 lore as this allows you to control all pets ingame, even the hardest, the greater dragon.
But there is a drawback, you would then need another tamer with 120 taming/lore to tame the pets for you or have a lot of luck while trying yourself, because with 110 taming/115 Lore you have between 10 and 35% chances to tame the most interesting pets.

Finally, the pets most tamers use :

-Nightmare : still works well, but paired with a rune beetle, alone it would be fully trained against mid level mobs only, and this is taking in account that you'll be fighting also. Same goes for the next one, the bake kitsune.

-Bake kitsune : that one you have almost 40% chances to tame at 100 taming/lore and can then control without problem.
He also has to be paired with a rune beetle or at least with a nightmare or another bake kitsune.
It looks like a fox and is a spellcaster. More mana than a mare but weaker so shouldn't take the aggro when possible.

-Rune beetle : hard to tame because of the place where you find it and his high poisoning level.
He's a spellcaster and poisoner with a poisoning skill level that can go up to 125. Not that many HP (more than mare or bake though so it has to tank), is best coupled with a nightmare/bake kitsune for extra punch as it won't be able to take the aggro for very long on high level mobs, even with a lot of vet/healing.
This is the last of the pets you have even a slim chance to tame at 100/100 taming/lore and 99% chances to control.

-Cu sidhe : Wild is not aggressive against positive karma chars so it helps for taming (invis is enough to break the aggro of a failed taming attempt, can be lured in the entrance of the dungeon where it spawns. As only positive karma mobs are there it's a safe place to tame).
But only elves can tame it. If your tamer is human he'll need another elf tamer to get him one, he then can control the Cu side but if he wants to ride it he'll need the pads of the Cu side (artifact you wear instead of shoes).
This pet is a 4 control slots so can't be paired with anything else but lets you ride an ethy or charger while he fights. For traveling he can be ridden.
He's not a spellcaster but has a decent HP pool (in the 550 ish up to 600 for the best ones) and decent phy resists, good cold/energy resist and can heal, himself and you. Healing skill can go to GM but it's a pain to raise, generally tamers train it to 90 healing.

-Greater Dragon : Very hard to tame, usually people use honor (raise honor first then when finding a GD they want to tame,invis and then honor self before taking aggro and you'll have some minutes when nothing will attack so you can tame in peace and safety. Once the GD tamed other mobs will aggro him still even if you're always under the effect of honor and safe).
He's a strongest version of the dragon, meaning he doesn't have other skills but can go to 120+ in wrestl, tactict, resisting spells and magery. he also has the more HP of the lot (900 ish to 1000 on a good one) and good resists, specially phy and fire.
Though it's the strongest of the lot he's not necessarily the best choice in every situation. A fully trained bake kitsune/rune beetle combo can be much more effective, or even a cu sidhe, depending on the weaknesses of the mob you'll fight.
The GD also takes 5 control slots so you're on foot with this one.


But you could also use a bake or nightmare / White Wrym combo instead of the rune beetle, or make use of the pack instinct of the fire steeds and use 2 when high fire resist/ fire damage is useful.

There is a new category of pet named Boura in tel Mur, there are 3 different kind of it and if you look on the tamer sub forum you'll find some posts of people that have used them with great success even against high end mobs. The great advantage is that you can tame those with 100 taming/lore, but as I never used any myself I don't know more about it.

Check also this website http://www.uocraft.com/taming/ as it has some extremely useful tools for a tamer.
The power pet calculator that rates tamed pets so you can know if you got a good one or not.
The best battle pet tool that tells you for each mob which pet is the most appropriate to fight against it, or for each pet which mobs he can fight efficiently.

Finally check the above pets on stratics hunter's guide http://uo.stratics.com/hunters/index.shtml to know what to look for when choosing one, some pets loose skill level/str when tamed and depending on the level they had wild they can be trained over Gm or not (Rune beetle and Greater Dragon specially). That will also help you know where to find them.

 

[Padre Dante]

1. 7x Stun Mage (Med, Mage, Eval, Resist, Wrestle, Anatomy, Healing)
2. 7x Fencing Dexxer (Fencing, Tactics, Anat, Healing, Resist, Magery, Poison)
3. 7x Disarm Thief Dexxer (Stealing, Resist, Tactics, Anatomy, Wrestling, Healing, Fencing)
4. 7x Tamer/Mage (Med, Mage, Eval, Lore, Taming, Vet, Wrestle)
5. 7x Mule (Alch, Arms, BS, Carp, Mining, Tailor, Tinker)
6. Newbie dexxer (mid 60s in 10 skills, Music/Provo)

1. Add Necro/SS, drop Anat/Heal
2. No idea what works.
3. Again, no clue.
4. If it still works as is, I'll keep it as is.
5. Need to pick up Imbuing I suppose, what do I drop?
6. Can't decide.

Actually, your builds aren't half shabby. You'll probably need to do some work on how high each skill goes (i.e. 100 or 120, or...or...). I am not a power gamer by any means, but based on my own moderate successes, I might be able to make a couple comments...

4. Tamer - like most have said, I would immediately drop (or stone off) wrestling. Many have claimed success while adding spellweaving to their tamer builds. Personally, I run 115 lore, 110 taming/vet, 100 magery, 120 music/disco, and the remaining (45) in meditation (focus would also be a popular choice here).
5. Mule - you probably want to keep the BS, carp, and tailoring together with arms lore for the weapon and armor bonuses. As others have said, imbuing doesn't have to go on the crafter, but it generally fits. Currently, I am working on 120 tailor/bs/imbue, 100 arms/carp/fletching, and 60 tinkering. I also have a gatherer/mage that will be 120 fish, with 100 in LJ/mining/magery/eval/meditation with another 100 currently invested in forensics, but really is a rotating door of trying out different skills.

Good luck and safe travels!