New Player Advice

[Sir Funk]

Hi guys!

I just started on this server yesterday and I'm really excited to play UO again! I'm pretty much a newbie to the game. I played originally a little before T2A originally came out and during T2A for about 6 months in total. Since then I played for a month or two on another free shard a couple of years ago. So while I've played a bit before, I've never played at any particularly advanced level (I don't think I've ever had a 7x GM before).

Right now I've got a couple of characters macroing. I've decided I wanted to try some Treasure Hunting because it's something I've never done before and it sounds like fun. My first character, Sir Funk, I started as a Bard but I think he will be my Treasure Hunter. The skills I think he will have by the end will be:

• Music
  Provocation
  Magery
  Meditation
  Hiding
  Cartography
  Lockpicking

My other character, Old Man, is my Fisherman that will go out and fish up MiBs. His skillset will be:

• Fishing
  Archery
  Tactics
  Healing
  Anatomy
  Magery
  Eval Int

Does this sound good? I probably won't do any PvP because I imagine I suck compared to people who have been playing 10+ years. Right now I just want to do some treasure hunting, acquire wealth, get a house, etc.

My Bard is GM Music and probably about 80 Provoke by now (no other skills other than the 50 Magery I started with). Should I continue macroing provoke until I GM it, or is this enough to go out and do some fighting to make money to start getting my Magery up? If so, where are some good places to start? I'll probably head to Moonglow's Graveyard since I'm based out of Moonglow, but if I can handle some more lucrative monsters, I'd like to!

Thanks for your help, I'm sure I'll see you guys out there!

[Pirul]

You can probably macro successfully at glow GY with your skill, but definietly leave a provo macro running over night at the zoo provoing two animals in separated pens on each other, or one on to you (as long as you're in a safe spot, meaning the animal can't get out). That should GM you overnight (or get very close to it).

Profitable places to provo...everywhere!!! There are tons of places to provo, here are some of the most recomended:

Fire Temple is decent barding territory if you're quick, lich lords, elder gazer, etc etc. Destard is nice, but use the back room or deep into the second level. Ultimately, being a bard is about getting in and getting out fast with your gold. I also suggest the evil mages in shame because there is a poison ele spawn there. The best part about evil mages is that its a multi-tiered house, which means you have plenty of time to spot incoming PKs. For the PKs who have runes inside the complex (unlikely) there is plenty of furniture and other obstacles in the compound to give you time to smash that recall button.

I suggest the following emergency recall macro::

/cast recall
pause 500
Wait for Target (timeout=2)
/targetbytype rune

....and carry just one rune on you at all times (to a safe place).

On my bard I recall in, drag all the life bars, provoke everything I can then invis myself. At the first sign of a red name I mash my emergency recall macro, but until I see a red I constantly update my provoke targets to keep life levels falling evenly. I bank at about 9-10k gold, or 5k with a large gem count.

Good luck!!