UO Second Age

Let me start this off properly - I am not the best pvper out there, but I hold my own most of the time.

Recently I dueled a qstaff wielding mage on my hally mage and had a tough time with him. Went through 20+ red pots and a lot of frustration.

While it does not deal the damage of a hally, the qstaff isn't too bad and swings faster.

Given the ease of changing wep skills, I switched to mace overnight and entered the 1v1 tourney yesterday w/ a qstaff. Needless to say, I lost to Sandro in the second round in about 20 seconds and he laughed at me, which was probably warranted. A few others heckled me a bit for even attempting to bring a mace to a 1v1 tourney.

I recall reading a few thread from Mikel123 touting the mace, but from what I know of his characters in the same post, he doesn't use mace.

Is a mace wielding tank mage a viable option, or is there a reason that 99% of all tank mages, including all of the most successful don't use it? I forget the guys name, but there was a pk on yesterday with a high kill count that used mace. Other than him - I haven't seen much of it except for GY dexers. Part of me just wants to be different - but not at the expense of dieing more than I already do.

Thanks in advance!
Jim

I do use a mace tank for a PKer. Largely for the novelty of it, but there are some advantages. For example, lightning and greater heal wands. I don't know if these are allowed in tournaments. Additionally, aren't red potions unlimited in tournaments?

It seems like for tournaments, most of the advantages are negated. But for actually playing UO, there are plenty of pluses to it. Not the least of which is, if you're on a budget, a +25 vanq war hammer hits equally as hard as a halberd of vanquishing (with no tactics mods). And I'd imagine the war hammer is substantially cheaper.

mikel has, naturally, offered his own take on this, but these are my (decidedly not I337) observations:

The Qstaff-Dexxer aimed to quickly dummy a Hally-mage out of Refresh potions (in-era not everyone carried enough of these, in tourneys, or in the field): against low-AR, the damage output is almost fearsome, and the improperly-prepared opponent is soon rendered incapable of kiting; a true fanatic Dexxer combining GM Maces with Swords/Fencing, and switching in/out a DP'd katana/dagger could be a real menace ...

I'll mention that "the unusual" can often spook people, and cause them to panic; in UO, panic = "ooOOOOOooooOOO ..."

Qstaff-mage is not really a duelling build, but an alternate (Anti-) PK-build: the traditional KO combo is weakened a little by using a Gnarled Staff, but it's a Gnarled Staff with Lightning charges, and drops an LBolt on the victim's head ...

Against the higher-ARs to be expected on a dungeon-farming victim, and considering much-lower Resist skills on characters in-era, that LBolt+*whack* could drop more (and more-consistent) damage than the standard halberd hit on its own, and a second LBolt will finish the victim off even if he manages to run.

SS

if you play a macer you'll need to use a qstaff with higher dex.

you won't be able to out compete a hally mage with 25 dex and a warhammer because you'll be swinging at the same speed as them, but with less damage. 45 dex and a qstaff is fine though, just don't drop strength for dex.

So, admittedly I'm not a great tank mage fighter, but unlike most people here I do have some experience playing the template.

As I said above, in real UO, not trammel tournies, one is often constrained by cash. So against other people who are constrained by cash, you're very likely to actually be able to hit HARDER than them because your 5k bought you a +20 vanq warhammer and their 5k bought them a +5 power hally, or something.

You also have to take into account the wands and staves. It's real hard to lose a duel as a mace tank when you have a Greater Heal wand on you, since with it equipped you'll countinue to have a 50% dodge rate. Halberd tanks that try to use one against a dexer only make this mistake once, because the dexer can deal out damage just as fast as they're healing, since their 0 macing skill makes them get hit 100% of the time. (although I'm not sure how this interacts with the new swing timers)

I'm pretty certain that overall you're better off playing a hally mage. It has a number of advantages (wide damage rolls being a big one). Playing a mace tank is much harder. But at least it's novel, and I think someone who is a good mace tank player would be somewhere between 90% to 105% as effective as a good hally tank player. Just my opinion.

Actually I laughed because the double-hit killed you from 100% hp with no spells.

Macers are good on both the field as well as tournaments.

On the field be sure to drink agilities and have plenty of red potions/food to keep your stamina high. If you have 35 dex you'll have 50 when you drink the agility, just carry lots and you'll never have to worry about people spamming clumsy just a waste of mana for them.

Sandro - that wasnt intended to be a jab at ya, I was cracking up when the screen went grey. Wish I lasted a bit longer than I did... but for a first tourney, I was happy to get out of the first round. I don't much about the upper levels of pvpers around here, but I do know you are #3 in the tourney scene and probably not my best matchup to try a new wep/build.

To the responses - I appreciate it. Mikel123, I have always loved that you support mace while many bash it.

I like the idea of agilities... I already carry a boatload of reds. I have already made the jump, so maybe I will give this a shot before jumping back to hally.

Ya never know... maybe I will dominate and change the face of the game forever. Or not.

Thanks!
Jim

Who's 1 and 2?

spanky/chad respectively

JimmyTheDriver wrote:Is a mace wielding tank mage a viable option, or is there a reason that 99% of all tank mages, including all of the most successful don't use it? I forget the guys name, but there was a pk on yesterday with a high kill count that used mace. Other than him - I haven't seen much of it except for GY dexers. Part of me just wants to be different - but not at the expense of dieing more than I already do.

Hah, I was feeling the same way

I'd like to do some more testing with macing as well with the combat changes

I think i started one a while back but didnt finish him because the previous combat system left all other weapons aside from the hally obsolete

Got rid of my archer as well because of this

http://my.uosecondage.com/Status/Player/77413

Although I do not win tournies I do make the mages sweat at the keyboard.

i've never lost a fight against anyone who plays a tank macer. its a shit build because the hally is just going to deal 50 damage and then kite you for the next 3 seconds until it is ready to deal another 50 damage, making your damage output just plain inferior. the stam loss is meaningless unless you're fighting a scrub with no TRs

nightshark wrote:i've never lost a fight against anyone who plays a tank macer. its a shit build because the hally is just going to deal 50 damage and then kite you for the next 3 seconds until it is ready to deal another 50 damage, making your damage output just plain inferior. the stam loss is meaningless unless you're fighting a scrub with no TRs

Yup, T2A is about hally mages, anything else is a waste of build or you're roleplaying.