How to "not die" by properly preparing yourself.

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MatronDeWinter
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How to "not die" by properly preparing yourself.

Post by MatronDeWinter »

I see people falling for the same tricks, day in, day out. Trying to recall through constant debuffs, getting ran-down with purple potions, and dying to some crazy explode-eq combo because they are frozen. There is really no reason to go like this, you can escape most any danger, and precautions can be taken to avoid the non-escapable ones.

We, (at cA) are constantly in your backpacks, the majority of people carry completely inadequate equipment, while the "leetest of pvpers" are usually only averagely stocked. I feel that by better informing people on what they should/could be carrying, it will overall increase the safety of everyone, as well as provide better loot for those who actually do get a kill.

To start this guide, let's take a look at the backpack of my least-stocked character. I will go over each item and their uses, as well as provide an alternative item (if applicable) to carry.

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1.) Potions : Greater Heal, Greater Cure, Total Refresh.
Sometimes you simply cannot avoid an unexpected sync from 4 mYm members (that seems to be the trendy PvP tactic as of late). Greater Healing potions will help you through this. It's always good to have a Greater-heal spell up, and after you use it, you can follow up with a potion. These are also great when you are on the run and taking constant damage. Cure potions are self explanatory, DP/LP can cause some serious damage if left unattended, and stopping to cast cure takes away from precious time. Out of all these potions Total refresh is the most important, you never know when your going to get boxed in, taking damage and unable to cast teleport/heal. Total Refresh will let you escape these situations. My most stocked character(s) alternatively carry Gstr and Gagil. Drinking a Greater strength potion before taking damage and healing yourself can help you survive longer by increasing your total HP. Set a macro to the primary 3 potions, and use them! They don't cost much.

2.) Greater Healing Wand :
This thing will save your butt. Set a macro to equip-pause-use this. It provides non-interruptible healing at the cost of about 350-500gp per charge. This is cheap insurance depending on what all you're carrying. If your getting debuff-spammed by one pk while another (or 2) dump on you, this can help you make it long enough for their mana to run low, or until another opportunity presents itself.

3.) Invisibility Jewelry :
I always have this. A dress toggle macro for this item can make you instantly disappear in the face of combat. This is a great item to have for any stealther, or bandaid user. Using a bandaid and then hiding can give you the time you need to heal, or stealth away. This is great to have coupled with the next item...

4.) Teleport Ring :
You can use this to instantly teleport anywhere without casting. Are you getting PK'd on that tiny island in shame with the chest? Use this to pop over to the adjacent island for a quick escape. You can use these while hidden, but beware that people can see where you teleport to by the smoke trail it leaves. It's best to use 3-4 charges at once to put some distance and then recall. Invis+teleport= Amazing. For stealthers, this will allow you to let someone know where you teleported to, and then stealth away before they can reveal you, keeping them completely in the dark of your location. Set a macro to use these rings!

5.) Magic Reflection Jewelry :
This is not really "essential" because you should always make sure you have this spell cast, but sometimes you face several casting opponents at once, or someone is trying to cancel your recall/spell with a weaken or clumsy. What you can do with this is spam it, on/off to keep reflect up. If they catch on and begin casting magic arrow, just stop until they prep a big spell. A great use for this is preventing recall interupt. Cast recall and before they can interrupt you, equip this item. They will weaken themselves and before you know it you will have a cursor up ready to target a rune.

6.) Tables or some other non-crossable object :
Why tables? Why not tables! Record a macro to drag these by type and drop them to your relative location (0,0). This has so many uses, I can only begin to explain a few. If you get into a long straight run (usually in the woods) and the bad guy is tossing potions or gaining on you, just start into a clear path, get him right behind you and deploy a table. This can get you valuable distance to recall/heal and confuse them. Another great use for this is coupled with local housing. Find a non-french door home or building, run in and deploy a table in the doorway, run around the corner and recall or heal. It's wise to keep the help-stuck gump open in case you get pinned inside, or to make a quick escape back outside. These are super-handy at the double balron room in t2a. My most prepared characters carry a wood box with 5-10 candlabras inside and an axe. The macro they use chops the box leaving the candlabras uniformly stacked and impassable. This is great for blocking people out of their homes (Joshua Lee) as well as many other uses.

7.) Magic Trapped Pouches:
Set these on use-once and DO make a macro, keep track of how many you use and when your down to your last one immediately cast magic-trap after using it. This is not only good for getting un-para'd, it can also be the greatest tool for bandaid users. Pop one of these, take 1 damage, and then use a bandaid before you think you will take damage to reduce your wait time. You can also use a Gstr potion for this effect initially.

8.) An empty freaking bag! :
A confusing backpack filled with crap can hinder your mobility, keep a bag for all of your junk. Put things into it that are expendable, do not put your stocked or essential items in this, just your loot et al. If you find yourself over-weight, drop the bag (behind a wall or something is good). An organized backpack can keep you from mis-targeting runes or other objects.

9.) Energy Vortex Scroll:
You never know when you have to kill some tamers dragons, or another high-level monster. If you can cast this spell, this comes in handy quite often.

10.) Default rune (or runebook):
Have one that is always visible, and near your recall icon. Also set a macro to recall to this rune. It should be marked someplace safe. This should not be your only defense, if you are getting attacked, do not sit there and spam this macro! If it fails once, take off running and try it again later when the opponent casts a large-spell or you have ample distance/LOS-blocked. Try not to have your runebook on you, but if it's really an inconvenience and you must carry one, have a backup copy before you ever leave the bank with it. Make sure the backups are marked in a different location.

11.) A key??
This is my newbiefied house-key, but it could be alot more. It could be the key to a box where you keep thief-proof items. It might be a house key to a trap-house of explosive boxes (have a rune with it), or it could be a key to nothing just to provide something which the looter would take priority in looting first when/if you die. What is important here is what is SHOULD NOT be. It should not be your house key, boat key, friends keys, or keys to anything important, ever. I don't care if you have a table barrier, if you change the locks routinely, it does not matter. Never let anyone get ahold of your keys.

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Those are some good recommendations for items to carry, I excluded the obvious items (regs, bandaids ect). You need to set a macro for these things and use them! I cannot say this enough, do not let your cheapness get you killed, use a charge or 5! It's pointless to carry all of this if you are not going to use it.

Who should be using this? Everyone.

Bards/Tamers/Thunters and other farmers, this little insurance will let you keep your gold that you worked for. Wasting a few K in magic charges is completely worth it to keep 10,000 in gold.

Thieves, 95% of you are a disgrace to the thief community (That includes DJ momo). You are naked, occasionally carrying 2 bandaids and a newbie spear. It is absolutely ridiculous. You don't even dye your hair when you use a disguise! You miss several opportunities to steal "good" items, because you spent every other 2 minutes dead at the healer waiting to res from that empty-bottle you stole. Set your priorities! Stock yourself with usefull items, and steal something worthwhile. I'm sure you get lucky stealing junk every now and then, but you can significantly increase your chances, outside of town.

(It's no wonder people make a thief and then never play it out of boredom)

LEET PVPERS OMGBBQ, If you have the proper items to escape, you can afford to carry decent weapons/armor. Stop carrying crappy GM trash, a few pots and regs! I swear, Chad/Pro/Cindrew are the best stocked LEETPVPERSOMG on here. I dont even really understand why anyone bothers killing the majority of you, only to loot your 30 regs, potion bag and Gm weapons.

What skills are good for "not dying"?

Hiding, is great, but quite frankly non-essential. Unless you have stealth, don't keep relying on this too much, all it takes is one purple potion. If you have to chose between hiding and something crucial like wrestle/resist. Ditch the hiding. If you have the room for it, it can be a great skill!

Mage/Med, even with low int, this is a great combo, spamming mini-heal can save your butt, as well as having the utility features (teleport, telek, invis ect).

Tracking. WTF do I need tracking for? Did those PEE-pirates stealth-kill you again? You would have known they were there if you had even a little bit of this skill. PK's this skill can save you recall regs/time. Lockpickers, this is essential for you, unless you like wandering into traps.

Wrestling. Yes, even dexers can benefit from this if they hope to recall in a timely manner. Unless you simply do not have room (or are a crafter) you want this skill. Dexers do not "NEED" it, and tamers don't really need it that much either. It depends on your play-style, if your tamer keeps getting hally-whacked, you need wrestle, or at least learn to use your pets properly.

Magic Resist.
This is a good skill. If you are fighting monsters or players, you want to have this. Bards can get by without it, as monsters don't really cast to often before you can provoke, but if you are poor at PK-avoidance, you might want to have it as well. If you are a dexer, and you plan to ever leave town, you MUST have this. Most PvPers will want as much of this as possible. The required amount of this skill is really dependant on what you do with the character.

Eval Int.
This is needed in mage-pvp obviously. Some players simply do not need that much of this though. For instance, a bard without eval will struggle to kill an ogre-lord at 4% hits. But, if you get even 50 eval, you can take it out in an EB or 2. This can help you save time by killing the last monster standing. 50 eval is also enough to do relatively decent damage to other players. Enough to make a difference, but let's face it, you aren't going to be fighting off PK's solo on your bard. A little eval can make your spells useful vs monsters, as well as make you useful in a group.

Stealth:
Everyone can use this skill, it is particularly great for merchant type characters who need to re-stock their vendors and such. (as well as the obvious uses)

YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE 7x GM
It's all about finding skills you can draw from to add an 8th or 9th skill. Some things you simply do not need to GM. Weapons-skills/Magery are not those things. But hiding? You do not need GM hiding. You have a great chance to hide at 80 if you break line of sight. Let's face it, the only reason to GM is to be able to hide 8-9 tiles away from an attacker, and realistically, they aren't going to let you get that far. Drop some hide, and break LOS. Bards, you can get by perfectly fine with 90 wrestle or so. That's 10 points that could be put to better use. Unless your building the "leet" PvP character, all you need to do is meet the requirements that you hope your character will fulfill.

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Re: How to "not die" by properly prepairing yourself.

Post by Mikel123 »

Ingenious move with the tables.

How do you get a newbified house key?

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Re: How to "not die" by properly prepairing yourself.

Post by MatronDeWinter »

Mikel123 wrote:Ingenious move with the tables.

How do you get a newbified house key?
They are no longer available, you might find someone selling one if you look around, but they arent common at all.

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Re: How to "not die" by properly prepairing yourself.

Post by alatar »

..................
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Re: How to "not die" by properly prepairing yourself.

Post by MatronDeWinter »

alatar wrote:..................
exactly?

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Re: How to "not die" by properly prepairing yourself.

Post by archaicsubrosa77 »

For a stealth archer/Mage....tables are also good cover to fortify a niche in the corner that will keep you from being brought into melee too quick. You can set up a few spots, or make them on the spot having them pre-marked and recall/ hide to them for your next shot.

This is good for oppurtunity kills or bounty hunting in places where PVP happens frequently.
Derrick wrote:I wish it were possible that a mount could be whacked while you are riding it, but to the best of my knowedge it is not.

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Re: How to "not die" by properly prepairing yourself.

Post by MatronDeWinter »

archaicsubrosa77 wrote:For a stealth archer/Mage....tables are also good cover to fortify a niche in the corner that will keep you from being brought into melee too quick. You can set up a few spots, or make them on the spot having them pre-marked and recall/ hide to them for your next shot.

This is good for oppurtunity kills or bounty hunting in places where PVP happens frequently.
Agree

People under-utilize UO's allowance of players to alter the environment around them.

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Re: How to "not die" by properly prepairing yourself.

Post by Pro »

you didn't even mention wall of stone what sort of guide is this?
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Re: How to "not die" by properly prepairing yourself.

Post by archaicsubrosa77 »

Pro wrote:you didn't even mention wall of stone what sort of guide is this?
Matron was talking about the items which you should carry that are useful but are rarely carried on people's persons and ways in which to implement them.
Derrick wrote:I wish it were possible that a mount could be whacked while you are riding it, but to the best of my knowedge it is not.

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Re: How to "not die" by properly prepairing yourself.

Post by marmalade »

archaicsubrosa77 wrote:
Pro wrote:you didn't even mention wall of stone what sort of guide is this?
Matron was talking about the items which you should carry that are useful but are rarely carried on people's persons and ways in which to implement them.
yea get good mark.

nice guide guide btw. liked the tables.
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Re: How to "not die" by properly prepairing yourself.

Post by JoshuaLee »

yeah you got me with the candelabra trick was good timing to
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Re: How to "not die" by properly prepairing yourself.

Post by Chad- »

5/5

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Re: How to "not die" by properly prepairing yourself.

Post by MatronDeWinter »

I wasnt really concerned with "tactics", just what items people should be carrying. Thanks for the positive remarks.

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Re: How to "not die" by properly prepairing yourself.

Post by Ironhide »

Awesome post.. Some of the best advice for this game I've ever seen and even some new stuff I didn't know! Very cool!
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Re: How to "not die" by properly prepairing yourself.

Post by Baldamier »

Great guide! I'll definitely add these items to my stock list.

Remeber that not carrying your house key is equivalant to not gating from inside a locked house. I picked up almost 5k boards because of this (thanks though!). This unfortunate person decided to gate east brit bank from inside his house while him and three guys were outside chopping wood. Stealthed my thief in the gate and waited a couple of hours. He even had an unattended character opening the door every 20 seconds and moving logs from a secure to a lockdown (unlocked and untrapped). I stealthed my mage in, gated, picked up the logs and used my click moongate macro to get out. Lucky for him I had to go to bed or he'd have lost a lot more.

Moral: Don't gate from inside your house. Also, don't think that someone can't quickly steal your pile of 5,000 logs because it weighs 10,000 stones.

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