UO Second Age

Are hybrid builds that useless?

Obviously mage tank is the go to build for this era - but in the field exactly how screwed are you? It's been awhile (2000?) since I played so have just been getting my characters up to speed.

What I got now is pretty much a mage archery tank except with hide instead of wrestle for now.

100 magery
100 resist
100 eval
100 med
100 tactics
100 archery
100 hide

I first envisioned having mixed stats to utilize archery for more than just the initial or killing blow... but seems like the consensus is that you have to go 100 25 100, or 100 100 25 or you're just a gimped tank mage bottom line, full stop.

If I'm always pounding str/agi pots is it possible to get away with less than 100 str? What amount of dex do you start to see a turn around in speed for archery? Or is it not enough to account for the hassle of having less than full health/mana?

I could drop hide for wrestle, med for anatomy and eval for heal - but until I get back into the swing I like the ability to teleport hide and I don't want to get rid of meditation or eval quite yet unless I'm sure of where I'm headed. If the only way to do this is to be a swords tank mage then I will do it.

I just want to be able to do a mix of PVE/PVP - not looking to be top end at either, rather a character I can utilize to travel around and get used to how things used to be haha.

JR

You absolutely cannot go without wrestling. On a mage, it's the second most important skill behind magery. Seriously.

You will die frequent, horrible deaths to dexer PKs, pretty much every time they spot you. You're a sitting duck.

Archery is not a great PvP skill; it is a big disadvantage, but at least you can still play.

I'd definitely go 100/100int/25dex. Some folks do 90int and 35 dex, but I think that's for weapon cycling which is sort of an advanced tactic that you shouldn't worry about yet. You need 100 strength though. In fact, you really need 120 strength, for competitive PvP. There's a lot of ways to do 90 damage in a very short amount of time in this game. There's not really any way to do 120.

Hmm point taken..

So you're saying drop hiding and go GM wrestle and essentially be a tank mage archer? And just suck up to the fact I can't go toe to toe with hally mages?

Definitely heed Mikel's advice for anyone doing a hybrid mage character. I got stomped a bit without wrestling

jerryrelease wrote:Hmm point taken..

So you're saying drop hiding and go GM wrestle and essentially be a tank mage archer? And just suck up to the fact I can't go toe to toe with hally mages?

Archery's only real use on this shard is to have a heavy crossbow equipped and get your first insta-attack with that, and hopefully get a large hit. On a mage, you then follow up with a prepped explosion and bunch of energy bolts and hope the person you're trying to kill just stands there and takes them.

The fire rate with 25 dexterity is insanely slow, and isn't really even viable at 100 dex.

I'm all for variety in templates, but halberds hit so much harder and faster than any other weapon, even warhammers, that it's not really possible to deviate from the standard hally mage and be that successful.

If you're looking to be different, you could try macing though. Quarterstaves, even at 25 dex, hit pretty hard and fast, and sap stamina. Plus, you're able to equip wands and gnarled staves of greater heal and lightning, and score hits while you're running someone down and bolting them. You're still at a disadvantage against a hally mage, and gheal and lightning staves aren't cheap (though they really should be, as no one really uses them), but at least you're mixing it up and you can surprise people. Plus, when someone is running away from you, I believe lightning staves can do damage faster than purple potions, since you cast about three lightnings in the time it takes you to use one purple potion, wait for the timer, and throw it.

I used this on my PK mage a while back:

Magery
Meditation
Wrestling
Eval Int
Magic Resist
Macing
Tactics

With an Earthquake scroll, Explosion, a purple potion, and a gnarled stave of lightning, and a good macro, you can do 100 to 110 damage in a VERY short amount of time. It's actually very effective as a blue, too, when attacked in a 1v1 situation, by a mage or a dexer. They go on the offensive while you're casting the earthquake, as they see you standing still, but if they interrupt the earthquake you still keep the scroll and can heal up and try again. Search for my Tips & Tricks post for more info.

Play around on the test server with the spec before you do it on the main server. I checked archery vs swords last night and it just wasn't cutting it.

Mage template with 100 Tactics and 100 Archery:
Heavy Crossbow did average 27 damage per hit but the wait time was truly ridiculous with 25 dex.
(without tactics it was pathetic.. maybe 12 damage)

If you do not want a hally mage you could use a axe or go macing as the other guy said. If macing though I would use a war hammer not a qstaff.

You could always roll the other way in the template and see <shrug>.
100 Weapon Skill
GM anat, tactics, resist, magery, evalint, and either Gm healing or meditation
Run a: Str 100, Dex 80, Int 40

This is actually something I am playing around with on test right now. Just remember you can make anything you want... hally mages are nice but that halbred has a tendency to 'swoosh' instead of hit to frequently for me when you really need it to hit.