Help with Assassin Template:

[johttenn]

I've decided to transform one of my current characters into an assassin. It's a character I really like to play and don't really want to make a new one. The current template is as follows:

100str
100dex
25int
GM Anatomy
GM Tactics
GM Archery: (I really like switching to arrows for the dispatching blow, plus it makes it easier to fight higher lever mobs)
GM Fencing
84.5 Poisoning
70.5 Healing
60.6 Resisting Spells
44.5 Hiding
32.3 Tracking
7.6 Magery

First thing, I know I'll have to adjust stats, and I have no clue how to balance them; my chars are usually 100/100/25 or 100/25/100. As for skills I'm torn with the following.

GM Tactics
GM Archery
GM Fencing
GM Poisoning
GM Resist
75 Magery, grants no fail 4th, great rates on 5th, possible 6th and 7th, plus entrance to Wind
80 Anatomy (Damage bonus and res, but do I even need res?)
80 Healing (decent fail rates, good cure rates, res: do I need res?)

Now you see the problem, that's 735 as it is and I must be able to fit hiding in somehow:


Any help or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

[Mikel123]

I would go:

100STR/100Dex/25Int

100 Magery
100 Resist
100 Fencing
100 Tactics
100 Anatomy
100 Healing
35 Hiding
65 Tracking

Have Poisoning on another character, and just carry a few poisoned kryss' with you to swap between if one runs out of poison charges.

A true assassin in UO is awful difficult, because in order to stealth you have to be on foot, and you just can't really do enough damage with one stealthed strike to get anywhere near killing someone. They're likely on a horse and they'll be long gone while you're starting your second swing.

The closest to an assassin you can get might actually be a stealth archer: magery, eval, archery, anatomy, tactics, hiding, stealth. Stealth up to someone who's not at 100% health, fire a heavy crossbow bolt at them and an ebolt and see if that will do it. If they're surprised, you can probably get two ebolts off before they're offscreen.

[Caswallon]

Why go 65 tracking? 25 is equivalent to GM isnt it due to the RUNUO bug?

For whats it worth:

GM Hide
GM Archery
GM Fencing
GM Tactics
GM Poison
GM Magery
GM Resist

Drop healing/anat imo, if your jumping people you should be trying to inflict as much damage as possible straight away, if your doing this people should be trying to escape rather than coming at you causing damage, and you still have magery to heal. As Mikel mentioned due to your being on foot if you stealth, and most people are on horse, its probably worth dropping stealth tbh.

[Mikel123]

Why go 65 tracking? 25 is equivalent to GM isnt it due to the RUNUO bug?

For whats it worth:

GM Hide
GM Archery
GM Fencing
GM Tactics
GM Poison
GM Magery
GM Resist

Drop healing/anat imo, if your jumping people you should be trying to inflict as much damage as possible straight away, if your doing this people should be trying to escape rather than coming at you causing damage, and you still have magery to heal. As Mikel mentioned due to your being on foot if you stealth, and most people are on horse, its probably worth dropping stealth tbh.

Anatomy gives you an extra 4 damage or so on a heavy xbow hit. Not a ton, but not bad either. I hate wasting 100 skill points on Poisoning, which can be used 90% as effectively on your mule.

My testing has shown increased tracking to be increasingly useful on here. I haven't tried precisely 25.0 real skill, but I've used 25.0 displayed and it's near useless. I fail tracking people who are on the same screen as me. I've heard of the Tracking bug on other shards (well, actually I heard it was like that on OSI as well, which is why it was like that in RunUO) but my informal testing tells me it's not the same here.

[Caswallon]

I agree but if you want to poison in the field, or the ultra l33t assassins title, you gotta take it . I never fail at 25.0 real skill tracking, and if picks up everything nearby.

[johttenn]

GM Hide
GM Archery
GM Fencing
GM Tactics
GM Poison
GM Magery
GM Resist

You know Caswallon, that looks really nice. I appreciate the explanation with healing. It was hard to drop based on how hard it was to raise to the level it is currently. So, first thing I'm dropping anatomy and healing to train magery and med. Then I'll drop med and finish macroing off the skills.

What type of stats should I use, though? Obviously I want as high dex as possible, but will need more mana for healing, traveling, reflect, etc. Of course, I have an alchemist so I will run with pots. I won't drop poisoning because I do want to be able to reapply in the field and actually carry the title of assassin. But with only 25 I won't be able to cast higher level spells, which would be a waste with gm magery. I may keep magery lower, but I'll probably train it up to gm at least in the beginning b/c once I drop med it'll be impossible to raise again

[Caswallon]

Maybe med warrior type stats like 100 STR 80 DEX 45 INT. Drink agility potion to get 100 dex, 45 int will allow 4 gheals. I would go on test and make a char with 45 int/0 med, drain your mana to 0 and see how quickly it passively regenerates. It will be quite slow though, somewhere around 1 point every 5 seconds or so.

Of course you could drop resisit and go 100 anat 80 heal 20 magery, just get a load of magic reflect jewellery or scrolls. That way as Mikel says you would still keep anat damage bonus, trap pouchs and recall from scrolls Im a resist/magery whore thou, have it on almost every character that isnt a mule/crafter. Its a tricky template to get right tbh, its one of those that could always use another 100 points.

[archaicsubrosa77]

Fencing
Anatomy
Tactics
Magery
Resist
Healing
Poison

Just go in hard, don't even bother with the hiding archery crap if you do you'd have to make a specialist template that would utilize hiding,evading, and distance attacks which with poisoning would be difficult though not impossible but definately it would be gimped. It seems you want this temp to be PVE...so I really don't think you have time to hide, no I think with your temp you want to keep them running.

[johttenn]

Caswallon, thank you for the stat information. I'll run with that now and can always adjust them later. When I started macroing magery and med earlier I set int up and dex down and am just a few points away from that. Post are no problem, but I don't want to run with too much reflect jewelry or scrolls, just a load of pots.

archaicsubrosa77, you've given me alot to think about. I haven't dropped healing yet, just anatomy which is easy to raise. I'll probably drop hiding instead so that way until I settle on a final template I'll have the flexibility to pick healing back up. The only problem with this suggestion is the lack of archery. I've already gotten a few kills on the character and the bow shots were great for running them down at the end. My connection isn't the best and comp is really low specs so I'm a little on the slow side.

Hmmm...decisions, decisions. I like the hiding because I tend to lurk in dungeons and camp, watch things for a little bit and just wait. See something and spring. I guess I could invis, but I'm not sure how long that lasts...

...

Definitely a pve template, want it to be as versatile as possible and fun; especially if they ungimp dp

[johttenn]

Basically, what you two have in common is:

Fencing
Tactics
Magery
Resist
Poison

Those are the required, leaving me with two choices for the other two skills:

Archery/Hiding or Anatomy/Healing

I'm really leaning towards archery/hiding, but would the lack of anatomy/healing with magery and gheal pots be too gimped? Those final bow blows have been really handy with my slower connection, its really hard to chase someone down but with a bow and lighting? Or spamming smaller spells to interrupt their cures?

[archaicsubrosa77]

You need some kind of easy healing...you could even do wrestling meditation and kick up intelligence to 70-80 with dex at 40-50.

you could do healing without anatomy but you need to GM healing before you drop anatomy. That would leave you with healing and archery or healing and hiding, maybe even healing/meditation.

You wouldn't be able to heal poison which would be a major drawback however. Every time you got poisoned you'd need to chug a pot or cast.

You have to ask yourself is this a group oriented character or a soloist. Is this an oppurtunist killer or an in the heat of it melee fighter.

It all depends on your playstyle, and what company you keep.

[Forsaken]

I originally wrote out a different template, but I don't think that would work too well here, being stealth = no mount = you're not killing anyone 1v1.

100 Fencing
100 Archery
100 Tactics
100 Hide
90 Resist
85 Anatomy
85 Healing
40 Magery (Use scrolls for; MR, Recall, etc)

Primary use: Fencing + DP + Exp pots
When target runs: Heavy Xbow + Exp pots

Could go 80 Heal, 80 Anat, 100 Resist. I would probably do that, being I'll already be using gheal wands, but it's always nice having a bandage going.

[johttenn]

OK, for now it's going to be:

Fencing
Archery
Tactics
Magery
Resist
Poison
Meditation

Not sure on the stats, will play around and tweak those. If I have problems healing, with med/mage and gheal maybe I won't, I may work back in healing and anatomy. Gonna train this up and run with it for awhile though and see how it works out. Can always use invis for short hides.

[archaicsubrosa77]

Dump archery for wrestling and put dex to 35-40 in order to cast to heal in melee. I would carry both a long spear and a kryss. Wrestling would go hand in hand with insta hit with the spear and the kryss is when they start spamming attack last.

I can see doing an opening shot with archery, but with low dex bows are slow as it is.

[johttenn]

Dump archery for wrestling and put dex to 35-40 in order to cast to heal in melee. I would carry both a long spear and a kryss. Wrestling would go hand in hand with insta hit with the spear and the kryss is when they start spamming attack last.

I can see doing an opening shot with archery, but with low dex bows are slow as it is.

That's a really good point. Wrestling has saved a few of my characters' asses more than once. I was planning on opening with poison and switching to bows when they run. Once other skills are trained though I may throw on wrestling when all is said and done.

Thanks for so much good advice