SO I'm going to be a little rambly but I just came back from an extended UO break. I had just started playing UOR when RL got too busy so naturally I came back to it. I forget a lot of stuff, which is actually useful.. I'm from the EA servers originally and so I have to 'unlearn' a lot of what I already 'know'. Feel sad for me that I had no idea about UO until around 2005 and played EA servers until about 3 years ago. My history aside I didn't know what UO should be and now that I do I am back to how I felt that first time I logged in. Anyway I had a few noob questions I couldn't find the answers to easily and thought I would ask the community. I don't have time to read through all the forums, so if this is addressed easily somewhere please link it up! What are some 'standard' templates of the time? I see a large gap between survivability and RP. I guess I'm asking what a good balance is for a main toon? It seems to me that template diversity is a bit limited in terms of effectiveness. A 'stun mage' will probably be better prepared to deal with a PK encounter, but a RP toon is more fun and has a more organic experience, and a tamer seems to be the best of both but can get tedius. I don't need to be a min/max player but I'd like to know the general feel of what skills are more essential than others. I don't mind getting killed, it happens, but I'd like to have a chance to defend myself, so I don't want to invest time in skills that.. well suck. I see it as Magery being essential, making Eval Int and Med almost as well. Add in Resist over Parry since most everyone will be casting (guessing) and we are left with 300 skill points for.. the toon to figure out? I just want to ask for a baseline as to what would be considered the most valuable skills if you had to choose only a couple. I see this as being a decent baseline to make a toon, they can get around/heal/attack and then pick some RPish skills. Thoughts? I have a good grasp on Taming/Lore/Vet and I understand more and more why it's a main toon for both PvE and PvP but I'd like to distance myself from the non stop grind of a tamer. I enjoy it don't get me wrong but everyone needs a change from time to time. I also have one so this is about making a non tamer. On EA servers alchemy gives a nice boost to potions. I see that doesn't happen here, so my value of alchemy has been lowered, making it NOT a reliable source of healing. Accurate? Do I NEED a weapon skill or wrestling (On EA if you didn't have one and you ran into a dexxer you were toast, like 75% to hit you)? Inscribe makes protection/ RA / MR etc work better. Does it do anything else? Does Tracking work and does it work in dungeons? (EA it didn't work in dungeons). Poisoning : magery + poison = 200 for Level 4(5) fields? Interested in fields only, I saw lots on how the actual spell poison works. It's my understanding poison is very disappointing here. I guess it's a hard skill to balance. What are valuable support skills in your opinion? I realize this is noobie shit, but I'm from an item based UO so it's a little hard for me to wrap my head around this sometimes. And often the guides take for granted that you have played UO for 20 years, or treat you like a complete beginner. I have played for awhile but it was a different flavor, so I need a "this is what EA did wrong" guide. LOL. Thanks I appreciate any help you can give!
Yeah alchemy is just for making them. They're not bad, wouldn't rely on them as a primary source of healing on a warrior, but they can be okay for a quick self heal in a pinch on a bard or tamer. Defensive wrestling is a thing here, if you have GM Eval Int and GM Anatomy it gives the same defensive bonus as GM wrestling. You'll probably want it or wrestling itself on an offensive caster. Well, it makes scrolls and runebooks. Yes and yes, though it's not very effective on tracking players.
Take a look at these builds: http://uorforum.com/threads/cookie-...primer-on-character-archetypes-on-uo-r.20839/ From what i gather a provo mage is the "jack of all trades" you're aiming for.
ur using "RP" alot and Im trying to figure out "your meaning" Role Play is kinda a play style not a skill set, and "MVP" Monster vs Player is kinda the vibe I get when you use "RP" None the less Provo seems to be where you are gravitating. Not a grind, very easy to get money for all the various other projects you want to explore in the near future. Provo/Music takes only 200 skill, very open ended what you will do with the 500 remaining and honestly don't look for others to decide that. Do what you enjoy, I personally chose a dexxer and my decision was primarily based on my own opinion. I wanted a PvP mage as my 2nd project so I wanted a dexxer/provo to get a broader UO experience and additionally actual purpose in ID'ing and collecting magical armor/weapons. hope this helps sir.
I appreciate the responses! 'Jack of all Trades' is the type I'm looking for and a provo mage seems like my best bet. Lots of flexibility. It's hard to know what skills 'work' and what skills don't. I don't have the luxury of the time I used to, so I can't test things out on my own as much anymore. I had a bard on EA servers that acted as one of my mains and I enjoyed it a lot. So I'll certainly give it a go. Does discordance and peacemaking work well too? I loved Disco on EA When I say Role Play, I do mean a bit of PvM, but more to say RP templates are often under powered vs a PK since they sacrifice combat skills. That's the beauty of it tho, it's what you make of it and the 'rules' you impose. It's also to gauge how well a crafter could survive out in the wilds. If I were to make a lumberjack carpenter who never goes to town, can using 200-300 skill points on non combat skills allow me enough protection to enjoy the experience? A dedicated PK temp would probably own me, but I don't know, perhaps the goal is to escape not to win. I don't mind some death and this server is pretty laid back and cool, but I would dislike losing every battle, especially if skills would make that much of an impact. I guess I'm trying to learn the ins and outs of this 'new' system of UO. I think I'm over thinking it as this is much different then I'm used to and templates seem a bit more limited and straightforward. RP is exactly what you make it tho and you understand that. Time in game will help me figure it out. Any tips/tricks or advice is welcome!!!!
Disco is great, like 20% decrease on a mob's stats and skills and it lasts until you leave combat with the mob. Peace is also great, targeted for a complete shutdown of a single mob, though it will break from damage a lot, seems to break more at lower hp. When it comes to PKs, it definitely helps to be able to escape quickly. Keep magic reflect up and have a macro to recall out. 30ish magery is enough to have 100 or near 100% chance at casting a recall scroll and a fairly good rate on magic reflect scrolls, easy to fit in almost any build.
Very cool, I'm happy to hear that a bard is strong. This shard has everything I love at its best I didn't consider that I can use scrolls for lower level spells. I always think Flamestrikes and Gates. 30ish Magery would give me 70 points for what tho? Aside from tracking what else is useful at low skill levels? Gives a lot of RP flexibility however. Also does Arms Lore help any crafting skills at all? From what I can see it goes with Wrestle to disarm (special) and some sort of a gump to see what people are wearing? Not sure looks kinda cool tho
Oh yeah bard is like... top tier PvE alongside tamers in a lot of content. Just useless in PvP. Really great as a bard/tamer hybrid, too. Healing, tactics, and whatever utility can have a few points taken out of it here and there without too much of a loss to get up to the 30 magery. Arms lore does not affect crafting skills at all. It does pair with wrestling for a disarm move, and at GM skill the gump will show you the durability of every worn item at once. Item ID has a custom feature as well where you can identify an entire container's contents at once with GM skill.
Welcome to UO (the "real" UO, or at least the closest you can hope to get in 2019)! As someone who played the game from around 1998-2001, let me tell you this server feels a LOT like the old game. The main difference is dungeons and towns are not quite as crowded, but that's certainly more than compensated in my opinion by the custom (and importantly non-silly, non-neon, non-"lets make the shard owner rich") content. The UO you played in 2005 was likely nothing at all like the "good old days". The template guide posted above is excellent and covers almost all templates. I think it might leave out a pure bard, and one player here @Tuneful has been extremely successful in all sorts of content using a pure bard. I'm sure some content AMIBs or w/e might have some limitations. But from your comments it sounds like you really enjoy barding and would like some alternatives to using a tamer. I strongly recommend you eventually build a few tamers anyway. You don't have to use them as your mains, but I would recommend giving taming a try on UOR. There is a reason they are so popular here. So back to the pure bard, you can make a provo bard (music, provo, magery, meditation, resist, eval int, wrestling or hiding) or you could replace either or both of the last two skills in this list with disco or peacemaking. Most PKs here are mages, but there are some dexers and so wrestling likely isn't a totally wasted skill. I also really like having inscription on one of my tamers. As mentioned it only gives defensive bonuses besides the crafting aspect, but I have had one of the shard's best PKs send me a message about how much a PITA it was for him to strip reflect when trying to kill me. For surviving magery dumps GM resist and inscription with reflect up is really powerful, however once your reflect is down the skill is useless during the cool-down, so keep that in mind (some players would prefer eval int instead for this reason). I'm not the foremost expert on templates, but I figured I would give you my opinions. I have quite a large number of "mains" because I like to be able to select whatever character best fits the type of activity I feel like doing. Like someone who collects fancy cars...."which car do I feel like driving today?" Or perhaps women and their shoes.
Thanks Leopold! Years ago I had a guild and a group of friends on Diablo 2 and we met a dude in a PvP game who was really friendly and a great pvper. We got to chatting and he told me about UO, the real UO and how it was a magical yet brutal and harrowing experience. He played beta to about 2002 I think he said. I was hooked just from his description! We became good friends and I went off to try UO a little later that year. I got hooked on the EA version, even watered down UO is an amazing experience. So anyway when I finally logged into UOR all these years later, I saw the game that he described to me! I've been waiting for this for years! Haha But yes the EA shard is about items and how to make the numbers all jive. I don't want to have a spreadsheet to make a suit of armor. I may not even want to wear armor! It should be more about how you interact in the world, not what you wear. I digress however.. Anyway, I did see that connection for a 'pure bard' and the comment about using magery to cast recall scrolls made me rethink how to make a toon a bit. I love the pure bard and certainly will be trying something like that soon. I know myself and I love to cast spells so Eval Int will be on it. I typically shy away from Peacemaking, but it maybe worth a go here. I was thinking Disco/Music/Provo Mage/Eval/Med/ then resist or wrestle. I like the idea of hiding also but I'm not sure yet. My first toon was a tamer, he is basically 7xgm and while it's fun and very effective, I find it annoying to deal with the dragons all the time. I can do it, but I need a change from it. It is fun and I worked hard on him, but I also want to try something less..easy mode.. and also to help me learn more about how this server works, the ins and outs of the systems, etc. I think the bard will scratch my itch! Good to know about the Magic Reflection also, I was considering a scribe just for scrolls and books
Yeah it was US east, my clan was KREW and it stood for each of my buddies last names. LOL I was in middle school i think. We were not that good or competitive but that guy was a lot better than us and showed us a few tricks. Slow missile was crazy the first time it was used on me, double lightsabers against a light sorc, rising sun ammy for fireballs, showed us some timing things. We didn't play it long, Diablo 2 got very repetitive after a bit. It was LOD expansion so it was a lot different then vanilla diablo 2. But he told me about UO and got me to try it. I don't know his Diablo name but he goes by Agamemnon now on EA. Or he did last I heard, we don't talk much anymore. Fucker won't leave EA servers. A few other buddies won't leave their custom free shards. But that's life in general, you don't get together with your friends as much, you spend more time working and less time doing fun stuff, your 'extra' cash goes to pay for the dogs vet visit. LOL. I always wanted this style of UO so I am here. Just a bit frustrating that my 'learning curve' is forgetting stupid stuff I picked up on other shards.
Ooh.those days. A slow missiled fire sorc was actually kick ass... just spam a train of fbs and tele in front of it... anyways. Welcome to UO. This game is more complex and challenging by a long shot compared to good ol d2
Hi Tol, I'd like to recommend a few templates and having a total of 15 toons it's possible to have everything you can think of! The Bard Dexer. Tactics Anatomy Healing Magery Music Peace or Provo Melee skill My preference is to have peacemaking and fencing, single target farming and fencing for paralyzing hits. PvP tamer (eval and resist) Animal taming Animal lore Vet Magery Meditation Evaluating intelligence Resist An all round tamer / mage that can be used for taming dragons or pvp survival etc. Holiday tamer Animal lore Animal taming Vet Magery Meditation Tracking Hiding Hiding is a skill that can be changed, I use it in this template for the ability to use EV's and such then hide. Or simply to go afk while running about. Holiday events on UO:R normally have monsters spawn all over the map, so track them and kill them! Apart from the above. There are many templates that are common here and easily researched on the guides. Battle miner Crafter Bard tamer Stun mage Lumberjack Etc. Good luck. Nusir
So tracking was given 'life' by the random spawn of creatures? I like that and will certainly make a tracker soon. It's a great RP skill too for a woodsman/hunter. Speaking of RP are there any masks aside from Orcs? I never was a big Orc RPer, but I love that there is a language created by Raph Koster and masks to make them look and act like an Orc. Thanks for the tips Nusir, I have started a 'pure' bard so hopefully that will work for me!
It's meant to be like the Orc mask however it should work with undead. It's not active currently. @Tol tracking is mainly used for holiday events or tamers looking for quest pets. It's not so great for tracking players.
That would be pretty cool to have undead not attack you. I wonder if it would be too strong against lich or something tho? Good to know about tracking. Quest pets as in the bonded pet scroll? That would be very helpful indeed.
I'm hopeful that the mask will work with lichs. Yes the pet collected to fill the quest scrolls, there is good money with collecting them
