So I ventured down to the dungeons for the first time. Tried Ogre lords and after roughly 1 minute a gank party almost instantly killed my poor 30 resist bard. Any (gank) survival guides around? Any general advice? I just realized there are no invis charge items so no invis recall which is 99.5% effective on "the other" shard. Is wrestling worth it? Better to drop it and do inscription for the extra protection? Do the gank squads roll with weps or is alchy/stun the cookie cutter template? Any advice appreciated!
2 words: recall macro Mine is shift+esc cast recall target bank rune. If you are alert you will never die.
You can still die while alert. But for the most part it's escaping the moment they show up, it's true. In my opinion, any sort of PvM type that isn't in a whole group of people or surrounded by dragons at the very least, should have wrestling, or "defensive wrestling". Without it, any 20 second old newbie fresh from the sweet dreams inn can kill you with their 50 fencing skill.
Ogre Lords are great because there's no magic users in that area. So if you cast a fresh Magic Reflect, there's almost no chance of having it at any less than full strength, should some enemy mages arrive. A Magic Reflect cast by a GM Mage will be able to reflect something like 8 spell levels of spells, which generally means it will completely negate the first flamestrike or energy bolt, plus any 1st-circle disrupt attempt. So you're almost invulnerable to a solo mage. Against two or more mages, you just have to hope you hit your Recall hotkey at least .25 seconds before the second targets you with a precast flamestrike or energy bolt. Reason being... the first one targeting you will be negated by your reflect. For the second one, it will damage you. But it takes 1.00 second from when you're targeted to when the damage is dealt and any spell may be disrupted. Recall takes about 1.25 seconds to cast. So as long as you start casting it .25 seconds before that second spell is targeted, it will finish casting before the damage is dealt and you have plenty of time to target your rune. Also, it is a very bad idea here to stand still and try to mini-heal through a dump, even from one mage. They could get lucky and get a stun on you, in which case you're a sitting duck. Finally, I'd get used to carrying and using at least one yellow Greater Heal potion. In fact, for all of you with Recall macros like Wise has, it really should be: Code: Cast Spell: Recall Drink Yellow Potion Wait for Target (timeout: 2) Target Rune Personally, I don't like the "Target Rune" part. I find in 99% of situations, I have plenty of time to manually target it myself. And in >1% of situations, I would have the wrong rune stored as an Absolute Target, and would end up dying while I frantically tried to target manually once I realized it was the wrong one.
In addition to what has already been said, I try to be very aware of where I am while farming; I try to always have an escape route. For example, if I'm in the ice feinds' room and I am being alert, I will usually never stand in the first or even second hallway. In general, I always try to have atleast two corners (so to speak) that an attacker would need to go around (line of sight wise) before they can hit me with a spell or weapon. This awareness of my physical location typically serves me quite well. However, on Snap's point, this whole plan is foiled if the pk has an awesome recall spot or gate spot that is deep within the farming location. My favorite story goes back to a legendary pk on "the other shard"--my damn memory escapes me--but I believe he rolled with Sin Cloud (MV) and Sinister. Damn, it really dissapoints me that I'm forgetting the name. Anyways, I was on the second story of the Ophidian Lair building using the strategy that I named above. Well, they didn't come charging in the front at the first floor level; they recalled right into the second floor and killed me. I was aware and I had a recall macro, but they were too cunning. I use that word in a complinmentary way because cunning translates to skill and skill is something praiseworthy. If pk's hunt, and I'm their prey, then they better outsmart me. Hats off then to the better of the two if they happen to kill me. I suppose I'll say this as my final piece of advice: know when you've beaten yourself or when the pk's have outsmarted you. Place blame accordingly as you get better and learn more about avoidance and survival. We all die when we're new; it's only concerning if we keep dying when we're older. Edit: Shallow Grave was the pk's name. I had to remember eventually...
Getting a wrong rune targeted has happened to me a few times which is why I always retarget the rune i want to use before heading out for a farming session. The potion advice is great, while I rarely even take damage from red when they show up I will definitely be adding it, just in case. Some red out there are so good they will drop a purple and dump whatever in 2 seconds. so you literally have just enough time to recall out. Forcing the game window size to be bigger helps. On my desktop at home (when its working) I have it to something like 1180x920 or something. This way you see the red well in advance and after a quick hit of the keys, poof, you're gone.
As a general rule for all villagers of Paws, our first strategy for survival is "don't die". I have found that in all cases where I don't die I have a 100% success rate for survival. However as a back up plan, when our general rule is impractical or temporally suspended, I choose to not die with anything valuable on me (i.e. When hunting solo I increase the frequency of bank visits in direct proportion of the known PK population multiplied by the derivative of the "unknown factor plus or minus three). Also, not coveting imaginary pixilated items has done wonders in reducing my uo stress levels. Jupiter Greystone
Awareness and a recall macro (Dalavar's suggestion is best, in my opinion, yellow potions are clutch) are really all it takes. You will likely get PK'd here and there, it's part of the game. With that said, I think awareness is really your biggest problem. It's hard to get PK'd at OL's. I was PK'd there before I'd taken the time to GM magery and I fizzled me recall. But PK's can't recall directly onto the island so you get a lot of warning as soon as that red name pops up on the screen. And, as mentioned earlier, you should have your reflect up since the mobs aren't casting on you. So get a recall macro and play a little more head's up but always expect a chance to get PK'd. It's part of what makes UO fun, after all.
Instead of absolute targetting the rune, if you target by type you should be sorted without having to reset your macro every time. Even if you carry multiple runes, as long as you recall somewhere far away from the PK's you shouldn't have any problems.
While this is true, if they manage to land some damage & DP you could die at the recalled destination and for people like me who carry multiple random runes on some characters that could be a problem. Overall though, I agree that with proper preparation and a steady routine you can automate the process quite easily.
Razor has a feature called "show names of incoming people/creatures. Turn it on. The Red names will pop up at the edge of the game screen and wiggle around before they come on screen. You'll usually have enough time to fizzle a recall and then succeed before they can get close enough to para-spam you. The Reds I've encountered on this shard telegraph their moves by opening a gate and sending in a ghost to check it out before they go through. So, if you see a gate appear in a heavy action part of the farming area (an unsafe spot) it's probably a Red coming through and is time to recall away. Other than that, it's all about the macro. I died to Reds a couple times before setting up my macro. Even fizzling recall I haven't died since, though I have recalled out at 10% now and then. You can also carry a runebook instead of runes. Set the default location in the runebook. Cast recall and target the book. You recall to the default setting.
Being hidden with reflect up is a great way to survive. You should keep in mind that when the reds come running in they have already tracked you and they already have spells prepared and are looking for you to target. The people that get away from me best are the ones that are hidden with reflect up when I come running in.
I have no magery on my dexxers so recalling to safety is pretty much a 0% scenario. To compensate I try to avoid high danger areas as much as possible or hunt at off-peak times to minimize risk. Typically I don't carry anything that I'm not willing to give up. About the only items I ever have on me that I care about or can't readily replace would be my weapon or perhaps a runebook. In that event, I can only hope to arrange a buyback with the guy that got me. It's really sorta silly for a red not to offer a buyback anyhow. They might get a few grand and some hardening armor off my corpse, but if I'm out with one of my better slayers, selling it back to me would greatly increase their profit from the kill.
