UO Second Age

I want to build one, should I use the standard tank mage template but substitute swordsmanship for archery?

Archery
Wrestling
Tactics
Magery
Meditation
Evaluating Intelligence
Resisting Spells

Also, how good would this character be at PvM? I always liked playing ranged characters in games and I mostly PvM (not for farming just running around the world ridding it of evil) but at the same time, if I meet a red in the field I want to be able to give it a go instead of running away all the time.

If this char is mainly PvM, then you need Anatomy to complement the arhcery damage. I recommend dumping wrestling which is more useful in PvP situations.

Does tactics work with archery? I was under the impression that it didn't, since the accuracy bonus works differently on archery vs. say swordsmanship.

Yes, tactics works with archery. I think the magic bows modify archery instead of tactics in an attempt to try to keep bows from being able to one-shot noobs with 75 STR back in 1999. Just my theory.

No mage should ever be without wrestling. I'd drop resist before I dropped wrestling.

Archer-mages aren't really effective in PvP combat, due to the incredibly long time between shots. Hitting once with a heavy xbow will certainly put someone on the defensive, but for the most part you're hamstringing yourself against a typical swords mage.

I just finished my archery mage and will be testing him in the field for pvp. I will keep you updated how it pans out...he does not have wrestling

The real problem with archery and pvp is that archery doesn't cycle on the melee timer. This means you've actually got to have the bow equipped in order to cycle through to another shot. As Mikel says, you'll be able to put someone on the defensive with an xbow/ebolt combo, but good luck finishing without being able to efficiently empty your hands for an interrupt. My guess is that you'd get one shot off and spend the remainder of the fight trying to squeeze a fireball in between your harms and their gheals. And that's if the initial blow lands...if it doesn't you'll spend the remainder of the fight hoping they miss a swing with their hally.

Slowly getting back into building the archer. Decided to go with the following:

Archery
Anatomy
Wrestling
Tactics
Magery
Meditation
Resisting Spells

The logic being that I will rely on the bow for doing the damage and magery for defensive and healing purposes so evaluating intelligence is not as useful as anatomy or resisting spells.

Will let you know how it goes once I am done. Any updates on your archer mages are much appreciated

**Makes An Archer Just To See**

Robbbb wrote:I just finished my archery mage and will be testing him in the field for pvp. I will keep you updated how it pans out...he does not have wrestling

Here is an incomplete list of skills that are not useful on a PvP mage:
-Camping
-Mining
-Fishing
-Begging
-Archery

I have one archer, and am strongly considering dropping archery. I have simply not found one instance where it is useful.

Pirul wrote:I have one archer, and am strongly considering dropping archery. I have simply not found one instance where it is useful.

Stealth Archery is useful...
Works if you're pirating on the high seas!



-L/S

Was playing around against an archer/mage/swordsman yesterday, and archery is completely irrelevant. I like the idea of cycling between the xbow and a hally and then finishing with an ebolt of FS, but I just outran his shots and/or trotted around so he couldn't fire.

Contemplating dropping meditation for hiding because spell casting will probably be minimal and hiding is useful when doing PvM. Basically this is ending up more of a warrior than mage although it will have GM magic and Resist. Any thoughts?

nightshark wrote:Here is an incomplete list of skills that are not useful on a PvP mage:
-Camping
-Mining
-Fishing
-Begging
-Archery

LOL.

Also Pirul said he has not found a single use for archery, archery has a place in my UO heart because prior to T2A era it was great. I have fond memories of the platemail, heavy crossbow, tank mage template.

How about Archery on the high seas? I was planning on making a crew of 3 fishers and giving them each Archery to compliment their fishing. Is this at the least effective? I was thinking 2 would be 100str/100dex anatomy using archers. The 3rd would be more magery based but still able to open up with a heavy crossbow.

I agree with NS. My first tank here back in Dec. 09 was an archer mage and he could go toe-to-toe with tank mages until a series of patches I dislike made him basically useless. Now he is back to being a simple old hally-wielding tank mage.