Strongest solo PvM build?

[dabrixmgp]

Thinking about returning and want to start a new character. Just wondering what the strongest solo builds are. I am trying to decide between a Tamer and Sampire. Also which would be stronger tamer support skills, a Bard or some type of Mage/Caster? Have never played a tamer before so how much babysitting do pets need? Do you have to constantly heal/cure them once you sic them on something? Also back when I played the only good pets were Dragons. What pets do most people use now and what are they capable of killing?

 

[Ang7]

sampire will generally be the strongest for solo pvm. That said, it is expensive to gear and be able to solo the end game content. A few hundred million to max out your sampire. But even a budget sampire can work well.

tamers can be inexpensive and handle most content.

If you have the gold I would go with sampire

 

[Merlin]

In my opinion, there are four strong PVM builds to consider, depending on the content you're looking to do:

Sampire - Swords, Tactics, Parry, Chivalry, Necromancy, Bushido, Resist Spells
Mystic Mage - Magery, Eval Intel, Mysticism, Focus, Spellweaving, Meditation
Mage Tamer - Magery, Eval Intel, Animal Taming, Animal Lore, Veterinary, Spellweaving
Wraith Archer - Archery, Tactics, Anatomy, Chivalry, Spirit Speak

Some high level summaries....

Sampire is very survivable warrior, leaches back tons of life, can tank most content in game, can hit hard depending on exact nature of the build. As itemizaiton has let to power creep over the past ten years, you can make a warrior that is very very durable. Exact skills will vary depending on playstyle, i.e., some people will go with more power and pick Anatomy instead of Chiv or Resist or Parry. One of the downsides is that to play this build at the highest level, it's one of the more expensive builds to make - although considerably cheaper today with all the legendary gear available compared to a decade ago. There are alot of different theories on how best to build a Sampire, but as long as you get it to fit you're playstyle, you will be fine.

Mystic Mage Spellweaver - Powerful spell casting build, capable of doing loads of damage and also playing role of group healer. Word of Death gives nuking capacity, especially if you can get lots of SDI into your build. Offense might be a little slower than sampire for content like spawns and ToT events, but works very well in alot of peerless encounters, the roof, bosses like Scalis and UWB. An "all-around" type build capable of participating in all content in the game.

Mage Tamer - Similar to Mystic Mage, except uses tamed beasts for tanking and offensive capabilities. Best build for the roof. Allows your pet to do melee damage and you to do casting damage. Changing up your pets for different content and different roles gives you lots of versatility. Not great for champ spawns, but can participate at high level in most other content.

Wraith Archer - Probably not one most other people are going to consider, but for some content, this is going to be the build where you will do the most damage per second. Theory here is that you're going to use a Composite Bow for Armor Ignore. With Wraith form, you will leach back significant amount of mana. If you go with high Spirit Speak, the mana you leach back increases drastically. You need atleast 20 Necromancy in order to cast and maintain Wraith Form - which is covered if you're a human from the passive Jack-of-all-trades benefit. Once you're hitting AI and leaching back ton of mana in the process, if you time it up right, you can basically chain AI non-stop, cast any necessary Chivalry spells that help you out, and do a tremendous amount of damage. I also run Focus on my build for even more mana regen. The big drawback to this build is that Wraith form moves VERY slowly. This build is meant for combat what you can get into a stationary position, sit back and just keeping hitting AI and your Chiv spells. It's otherwise very squishy and will have tough time surviving any content where you need to move around alot and can be garbled up by mobs.

All these builds have their own threads in their respective profession sub-forums here:
Ultima Online (UO) Professions | Stratics Community Forums

 

[Anon McDougle]

Bard used to be on this list