A newbies cry for advice

[Bigcricket467]

Forewarning, long topic with multiple questions and highly possible grammar errors and run on sentences.

I'm planning on making 2 pvp characters. A melee and a mage.
(all skills GM unless otherwise noted)
Melee char.
Macing
Tactics
Healing
Anatomy
Resisting Spells
Parrying
Hiding

Here is my questions on the melee character. Previously I played OSI (trammel, lost lands, factions were the latest played) Now when I played OSI, a wonderful trick I used to do on my mage was boost targets highest stat (not STR) and lower lowest stat to create a larger differential and then replace any EB or FS with mind blast. For those that never used it this may sound dumb but, I was rolling off MB's for 40-50% if the target was 10010025. Properly debuffed/buffed I would reach 60%. Now, my damage vs a 90 90 45 stat char was noticeably different. I had no official statement to go by but based on my tests it seemed like mind blast took the difference in the highest stat and lowest stat and used that as a rough damage value. Granted I could have just completely been imagining that. What I was wondering was, does mind blast work the same way here and is it "exploited" enough to make losing 10 str/dex worthwhile.

Another question via melee character is regarding parrying. Is this skill worthwhile on here pvp? I always made good use on OSI but would like some vet backup for UOSA. If parrying is not viable then I will be switching it out for magery and going 909045 for some backup healing/curing since bandages can suck some times. Any thoughts regarding the need for Eval Int while using magery as a backup heal skill.

Also, does macing destroy armor like it was glass on here as it did on OSI. Should I reconsider going swordsman? I really like the potential of poisoned war axe/Quarterstaff speed for interrupts.

Mage set up (didn't use hally mage much on OSI but i can reconsider if needed)
Magery
Eval Int
Resist
Wrestling
Meditation
Healing
Anatomy

The healing/anat is interchangeable for swords/tactics if hally hits are the way to go.

I do like the idea of having back up healing with bandages. (as seen earlyer with my possibility of magery backup on my melee) If this option is just simply not viable because a timed hally hit is relatively the only way to kill someone here then I can sacrifice it. You wouldn't believe how much mana and spell casting time I saved on OSI by bandaging every time I even had 1 point of damage.

Do wrestle stun/disarm work here? If so, is that viable enough to spend points on arms lore?

Thanks in advance for any comments, advice or help. Even thanks for a "ur a noob for using healing on a mage" i'll make sure when i'm killing you later I repeat that phrase.

Jokes aside, any comments criticism or even a hey whats up is much appreciated.

PS. Any have any experience with "25ers" IE, buy tracking up to 25 for pvping or buy detect hidden up to 25 for quick use or what have you. any suggestions on good 25ers to use also?

[JoshuaLee]

Alright well for your dexxer template I would drop parrying for something else you could come up with. If your a macer parrying is a useless skill since you will be using black staffs but MOSTLY quarterstaffs. Just about no one here actually uses shield and one handed macing weapon, it just isn't even worth it. Any real macer pvper on this shard is going to be running around with a qstaff. So that leaves you with an open skill, and with the stat setup you got I would suggest something like, 100/80/45 and maybe your last skill could be magery for extra healing. You can just use a greater agility pot and boom you got 100 dex again. Or you could use it for like archery or hiding or something as well. My first char here was a macer/archery and it was a lot of fun. I would run around with a vanq light crossbow, shoot one do 30-40 quick damage then switch to staff and chase em down.

And yes macing does great damage to armor and stamina.


Yeah you are wanna go for a hally mage here. It's not like on hybrid where they have the stun heal mages and stuff like that. A mage having healing is basically worthless unless you just want to run around and survive. Like I made a idoc/pvm/mess around mage that I have a lot of fun with.

Magery
Eval
Resist
Meditation
Wrestling
Hiding
Item ID

I was going to put anatomy and healing on there but then decided there was no point since I needed hiding for camping idocs and wrestling is a requirement here if you want to get spells off when a sword slashing at your feet.

But yeah I would go for

magery
eval
med
resist
swords
tactics
wrestling

The hally hits are crucial here and the instant hit can make this template very lethal, making it a fast killer.

Also about the 25ers as you say. I would say Item ID, maybe tracking, magery, are very good 25 skills here. Item ID if your a bard or something and got an extra skill slot I like throwing a little item id on there to ID all the magics youll find so if its not good you can just leave it on the ground. Tracking I am pretty sure works even if you have 25 just might take a few tries sometimes. And if your a warrior having around 25 magery is perfect so you can do simple things like recall weaken magic trap and other spells, even have a somewhat moderate chance at marking runes with a scroll.

Hope this helps

Oh also I forgot I didnt see you had hiding in that macer template, yeah the AWESOME thing about running a macer template is you always have like two extra skill slots mostly to mess around with. So it'll be fun trying out a combination of things, some people even pick up an extra weapons skills to make up for the unpredictibility of staffs. They cannot be reparied so they can be more rare at times (power/vanq qstaffs) and you never know when they are gonna start missing a lot, sometimes it's smart to have a backup weapon skill so you can rely on something you can repair and know will hit good if your staff doesn't work.

Don't listen to anyone if they tell you one handed macing weapons are the way to go, they are simply not if you plan on being a pvper. Quarterstaffs are the key it's as simple as that, black staffs are alright as well but not nearly as strong.

[Bigcricket467]

Alright, good info. Thank you. Back before I discovered the goodness that was blessed free highest basic AR in the game shield (chaos shield) on OSI I did macer fencer. Carried a Qstaff/DP kryss. Later on after I joined a chaos guild I ditched fencing and worked up parrying and .... on OSI that is .... never regretted it. I found a large damage received difference between shield and no shield. Then had my qstaff for any mages. I always loved going up vs a dexer with no back up shield. Back and forth fight for all of 2-3 min and then his shield goes poof and hes dead like 20 seconds later. My pack set up had about 30+ Chaos shields in it using the trick where you get the shield drop it get another drop it get another drop it rinse repeat. Just for the times when I went up vs a macer. But a death ment 5 min of drag and dropping shields into a corner cuz my pack was one huge chaos shield.

anyway, rambling. Alright, i'll definitely go with swords/tactics on my mage. Sounds to good to pass up. Macer archer combo.... i like, ill have to check that out. I have never once used archery in UO (other than screwing around killing rabbits and mongbats)

Thank you.

[JoshuaLee]

Yeah if you decided to go macer/archer here's another tip. Only use light crossbows never regular bows and never heavy xbows. The reason for this is because not a lot of people know it but light crossbows are the best archery weapon in the game by far. I have experimented and battled with all three types of archery weapons and this is the best.

A light crossbow is both fast and strong. Which is why you will need to find a vanq light crossbow. You will serve massive damage and it will also be fairly fast. A regular bow is really not that much faster than a light crossbow to be honest. You run around with a +25 Vanquishing light crossbow and you will find yourself puttin the fear into most mages and some dexxers who don't have parrying or high armor. It's also good if you need to get the last shot off on someone that you are chasing, switch to your light crossbow and your attack timer won't be anywhere near as slow as a heavy xbow. (if your just using the heavy xbow for the initial instant hit)

In certain extreme situations you are going to feel really hindered with a heavy xbow, which is why its very important you find vanq light crossbows for your macer/archer.

[Bigcricket467]

good deal, i'd have never thought to use a light crossbow. to be honest, i forgot about them completely. i have never seen anyone use a light, its always the heavy or the bow. that sounds like a really good combo, especially considering UO has heat seeking arrows. (one of the best features about asherons call pvp was dodging projectiles)