New to Ultima and looking to power game? Eager to farm enough gold for that first house? Feeling overwhelmed with choices and just want a viable character? This is the guide for you. The provoke mage is a powerful money maker that's useful throughout your Ultima career. With a few good macros, learning provocation and music costs almost nothing but time, making it perfect for someone starting out at UOR. Also, the base template (music, provocation, magery, meditation, evaluating intelligence) gives you a usable character quickly with the possibility of adding additional skills down the road. If you're a power gamer, building a bard is great because most of it can be done via macros that don't require much intervention--be sure to make use of your second and third accounts! * ProTip: start training a HealBot or collecting bandages (see below) The basic steps: Start with 50 magery, 50 provocation, 10/10/60 (str/dex/int) Buy up skills to skill cap (700) Stats to 100/25/100 (str/dex/int) Provocation/Musicianship: Frost Troll vs. Harpy at Moonglow Zoo to 69/74 Provocation/Meditation: Ogre Lord vs. Ogre Lord at Despise to GM or Wyvern vs. Wyvern in t2a Magery/Eval/Resist training Starting Out As with any new character you'll want to start out with the toughest, most expensive skills. In this case, that's 50 provocation and 50 magery. (If you're certain you'll be adding animal taming, then drop magery for taming.) For stats, choose 10/10/60 (str/dex/int)--you'll be helpless and weak, but it's the first thing we'll be fixing. Use Britain for a starting city as it has all the vendors to purchase your skills. Buy Up Skills You will need about 6000 gold for this step. Here's some methods to get some starter gold from Gharik, newme, and my own favorite. Besides the 2 starter skills (provocation and magery), you'll want to purchase some basic training. Because you only have 10 strength you can't carry much, so head to the nearest bank and unload everything into the bank, including all clothes. By running around naked, you're also showing that this is a character in training, so (hopefully) it's less likely someone will mess with you. Next, head to any mage shop and pick up meditation and evaluating intelligence. Head to the far Northwest corner of Britain to find the Conservatory of Music. Pick up musicianship, peacemaking and enticement (known as discordance here). Find the thief guildmaster near West Brit Bank and purchase hiding. Finally, you'll want to pick up some random, useless skills...anything to reach the skill cap of 700 points. Do not purchase camping or herding. Here's some more info on buying skills. Fixing your stats To see your stats, hit Alt-S or use the "Status" button on your paperdoll. Right now you're at 10/10/60 (str/dex/int). You want to get to 100/25/100. You will need exactly 34gp for this step. Put everything else in the bank. Head to the closest stable and purchase a shepherd's crook. Be sure you are at the skill cap (700), have zero skill in herding, and have the herding skill pointed up. Stand near some small animal (cat/dog/goat), double click the shepherd's crook, target the animal you want to herd, and target the same location where the animal is standing. As you'll be doing this a lot, it's much better to use a macro. Macro for herding Code: !Loop Assistant.Macros.DoubleClickTypeAction|3713|True Assistant.Macros.WaitForTargetAction|1 Assistant.Macros.AbsoluteTargetAction|0|0|34170|1511|1541|25|201 Assistant.Macros.WaitForTargetAction|1 Assistant.Macros.AbsoluteTargetAction|0|0|34170|1511|1544|25|201 Assistant.Macros.PauseAction|00:00:00.3000000 How to copy and paste a macro [Note: you will want to customize the 2 absolute targets. Once you have the macro loaded in Razor, right click the 3rd line "Absolute Target" and target the animal. Do the same for the 5th line "Absolute Target" and target where the animal is standing.] Using this method should yield 100/25/100 stats in a couple of hours. Once dexterity reaches 25, you can change it to locked by clicking the appropriate arrow. It's normal for your strength to reach 100 long before intelligence gets there. Once you have perfect stats, set all the useless skills to down. Note: there is another method, camping, which can get you to 100/25/100 quicker, but requires you to manually run it. With herding, you can be using another account to make some gold or explore the world. Provocation Training Part 1: Moonglow Zoo We'll actually be working on two skills in this step, Musicianship and Provocation. Provoking a critter actually requires you to pass two tests: first you have to be able to play your instrument (checking Musicianship), then you have to be able to provoke the critter onto something else (checking Provocation). Musicianship is obtained two ways: via directly double clicking an instrument or passively by using a related skill (like Provocation, Peacemaking, or Enticement). Provocation is only gained via actively using the provocation skill and is scaled based on the difficulty of the critters involved (see the Bestiary for these stats). You will need a few hundred gold for this step. Head over to Moonglow zoo. You'll find a moongate SW from Britain (use UOAM). When you stand on it you'll get to choose which town you want. Head north from the Moonglow gate to find the town. In the northwest end of town you'll find a carpenters shop where you can buy 8 lutes. (All the instrument types are the same. These NPC instruments are inferior, but they're cheap and work just fine for training. Using a player crafted "exceptional" instrument would give a 10% bonus.) Put everything but the lutes in your bank. Head back south, past the moongate to the zoo. Stand between the Frost Troll and the Harpy. Be sure you have set at least some of the useless skills to down--as you are at the skill cap you won't be able to gain in provocation until you drop something else. If you wanted to do this the hard way, you'd click the skills button on your paperdoll, then click provocation and target the 1st critter, then the 2nd critter. If you succeed in provoking the 2 critters, then you'll have to wait 10 seconds before you can try again. If you fail to provoke them, then you only have to wait 6 seconds. As it's going to take hundreds or thousands of repetitions, you'll probably want to use a macro. Music and Provocation Macro Code: !Loop Assistant.Macros.UseSkillAction|22 Assistant.Macros.WaitForTargetAction|1 Assistant.Macros.AbsoluteTargetAction|0|0|48511|4512|1384|23|30 Assistant.Macros.WaitForTargetAction|1 Assistant.Macros.AbsoluteTargetAction|0|0|48510|4512|1390|23|55 Assistant.Macros.PauseAction|00:00:01 Assistant.Macros.IfAction|4|0|succeeds Assistant.Macros.ForAction|2 Assistant.Macros.DoubleClickTypeAction|3763|True Assistant.Macros.PauseAction|00:00:06 Assistant.Macros.EndForAction Assistant.Macros.ElseAction Assistant.Macros.PauseAction|00:00:01 Assistant.Macros.DoubleClickTypeAction|3763|True Assistant.Macros.PauseAction|00:00:04 Assistant.Macros.EndIfAction How to copy and paste a macro Once you have done the copy/paste, you'll want to customize the 2 targets. In Razor, right click line 3 "Absolute Target" and target the harpy. Next, right click line 5 "Absolute Target" and target the Frost Troll. This macro will not only work up Provocation, it also maximizes your Musicianship by double clicking a lute during the downtime. In about 16 hours you should have GM Musicianship and around 68-72 Provocation. Dealing with Griefers Occasionally you will come across someone who wants to mess with you for no particular reason. In a perfect world, you'd just kill them and shame them, but you're often on a character that can't fight back or they mess with you while you are AFK or you just don't want to bother with these juvenile fools. You can try talking with them or let them know you are carrying nothing of value, but most of the time the best bet is simply to move on to something else. Give the griefer time enough to get bored of it...there's plenty of other things you can be doing too. * ProTip: if you're not training provocation, work on magery or hiding. Provocation Training Part 2: Ogre Lords At some point you will stop gaining Provocation when using the zoo, usually around 68-72 (depending on additional bard skills and/or exceptional instruments). It's time to move up to Ogre Lords. These are found deep in the bowels of the Despise dungeon. This is a much more dangerous environment, so don't take anything with you and strip down naked so it's clear that you're just training. Also, it's best to have everything setup before you head down into Despise. Buy 10 or so lutes and a magical wizard's hat. At Ogre Lords you'll be working up both Provocation and Mediation. There's a cool trick for gaining mediation by repeatedly using a magical wizard's hat. To setup this next macro you'll want a magical wizard's hat (available at any mage shop). Copy/paste the macro below. Meditation and Provocation Macro Code: !Loop Assistant.Macros.DoubleClickTypeAction|3763|True Assistant.Macros.UseSkillAction|22 Assistant.Macros.WaitForTargetAction|1 Assistant.Macros.AbsoluteTargetAction|0|0|58713|5515|837|45|83 Assistant.Macros.WaitForTargetAction|1 Assistant.Macros.AbsoluteTargetAction|0|0|58711|5517|835|60|83 Assistant.Macros.PauseAction|00:00:01 Assistant.Macros.IfAction|4|0|succeeds Assistant.Macros.LiftAction|1075620030|1|5912 Assistant.Macros.DropAction|0xA6D4|(0, 0, 0)|6 Assistant.Macros.PauseAction|00:00:09 Assistant.Macros.ElseAction Assistant.Macros.LiftAction|1075620030|1|5912 Assistant.Macros.DropAction|0xA6D4|(0, 0, 0)|6 Assistant.Macros.PauseAction|00:00:05 Assistant.Macros.EndIfAction How to copy and paste a macro Next, you'll want to customize lines 9/10. First, using your paperdoll, put on the magical wizard's hat. Next, in Razor, right click line 9 "Lift 1 - 0x401CA8BE" and chose "Remove Action". Do the same for line 10 "Equip to 0xA6D4 (L:Head)". Now right click line 8 "If(SysMessage "succeeds")" and chose "Begin Recording Here". Using your paperdoll, lift the hat and put it right back on. In Razor, click "Stop". Last, you'll want to customize lines 13/14 using the same procedure as above. Ogre Lords Setup The best way to get started here is to ask an experienced bard to give you a hand. It's a lot easier have a veteran bard get them provoked so that they will not attack the rookie. If you're doing this on your own, leave your bard up top and use an alternate character to lead one OL down below. Let the OL attack your bard. Next, lead the second OL up top and have you bard attempt to provoke the two of them. It will probably take multiple attempts. Paralyzing the top OL can help. Once the are provoked, they will stay provoked for as long as the bard remains nearby. The only real difficulty is that they tend to migrate east and eventually fight each other to the death. If you position your bard in the precise spot show above, it will lock them in place. You can use your bard and alt to nudge the top OL into place. Getting to GM Provocation is going to take 24-30 hours, but you don't have to sit around watching the macro run. You can have up to 3 accounts at UOR--make use of them! Also, using the Ogre Lords for training means other people can't use the OL spawn for farming gold, so if someone asks to make use of the spawn, it's courteous to let them. Ask how long they will be and go work on magery. * ProTip: At some point, you'll probably get killed. There's a shrine to the west, but if you want a quick return to town, just stay a ghost and go to your paper doll. Select help, stuck and choose your town. You will be transported within 2 minutes (or if alive, within 10 minutes). This "help, stuck" feature can only be used a few times per day. Wyvern Isle While Ogre Lords are effective and don't require any assistance, there is an even quicker method to work provoke from 70 to 97: wyverns. North of Papua in t2a is a great spot, but it's often flooded with boats. The best bet is to ask around to see if someone will let you make use of their boat. As shown in the picture below, if you can get one wyvern on the south side and one on the north side, then they will stay locked in place. Because there is a small gap, the wyverns can't attack each other. Occlo Sailors Due to a recent addition we now have a new spot to train barding (thanks Wil). On the northwest side of Occlo island are a few buildings and a dock. By teleporting to a single spot you can avoid melee damage while working provocation. From Dalavar: "You actually have to teleport diagonally to the position I'm in... but the oars against the building stop the pirates from killing you, and the pirate in the middle stops the end pirates, who you provoke, from killing each other:"
Magery Magic Resist? At this point you have musicianship, provocation, and meditation done and Magery half way there. GMing magery will also get to at least the mid 90s in both evaluating intelligence and magic resist. Before working on magery you should decide if you want to get magic resist. MR is one of the most expensive and time consuming skills in the game. If you don't want MR, then training magery is simpler because doesn't require a 2nd account or any healing (but it does require the use of a house). If you do want magic resist, then you're going to be casting spells and targeting yourself for damage, so you'll need some means to heal--usually this is a 2nd account using a character with the healing and anatomy skills. For most people, it's a good thing to go ahead and take resist as it's basically free and makes gold farming a little bit more efficient. Magery without Resist 50-86 Invisibility 86-GM Earthquake Detailed Guide Magery with Resist 50-62.8 Lighting 62.8-80 Energy Bolt 80-GM Flamestrike Guide by HateCrime Guide by Gharik * ProTip: if your goal is to GM magery and get in the field quickly then use the above numbers for magery. If your goal is to GM magic resist, then use the above numbers for magic resist. Setting up a HealBot If you don't already have an experienced dexxer, create a new character on a different account from this provoke mage. Start with 50 healing and 50 anatomy. This new character has one function: healing. You're also going to need cloth for bandages, lots of them. The cheapest way to get bandages is to make them yourself. Otherwise, they are available from player vendors for around 1.5gp each. Shameless plug. * ProTip: you can make your healbot more efficient for free. Bring your healbot to a bank or other safe, confined area with NPCs. To make your character follow an NPC, hold down alt and left click on the NPC. Now run a macro that uses the anatomy skill on that NPC every 10 seconds. Increasing anatomy means that each bandage can heal more damage. Simple Healing Macro Code: !Loop Assistant.Macros.DoubleClickTypeAction|3617|True Assistant.Macros.WaitForTargetAction|1 Assistant.Macros.AbsoluteTargetAction|0|2|3767|4470|1150|0|401 Assistant.Macros.PauseAction|00:00:05 How to copy and paste a macro To customize this macro, change the "Absolute Target" to your bard. In Razor, right click the "Absolute Target" line, choose "re-target" and target your bard. If used at a bank, the bandages do not need to be on your healer, the bank box just needs to be open. If used in a house, the bandages do not need to be on your healer, they can be put on the floor near your healer. Templates In addition to the base skills (musicianship, provocation, magery, meditation), here's a few solid templates to work towards: Farming Bard (my favorite starter) evaluating intelligence magic resist hiding You have to stay near anything you provoke or they will stop fighting, so hiding can be handy while waiting for critters to fight it out. In crowded areas, hiding can be handy to break contact and get setup for the next round of barding. Hiding can also reduce the chances of getting PKed. Evaluating intelligence gives your spells some punch when there's nothing nearby to bard with and magic resist give a bit of defensive insulation. Bard with a Bite evaluating intelligence magic resist wrestling Adding wrestling means around half of melee swings will miss you. Taming Bard animal taming animal lore wrestle/resist/hiding Pure Bard peacemaking discordance wrestle/resist/hiding
Thanks for the guide bud. This should definitely come in handy for new players. I'll be sure to link it to anybody with questions.
Very thorough guide, thanks. If you run into problems from people interrupting/harassing you at Despise Ogre Lords, you can also train at Wyvern Island in the Lost Lands from a boat unattended. That gets you to ~99 Provocation skill, and you'll likely pick up the last point naturally as you farm.
Great guide, top notch. I would advise against Despise Ogre Lords from low 70's to GM though. 1) You'll encounter far fewer griefers at Wyvern Island; 2) Wyvern Island can take you nearly as high just as fast; 3) Ogre Lords is a good hunting spot and even players who wouldn't normally PK will eventually get tired of noobs hogging the OLs for hours and hours over several days.
Wyverns won't take you all the way to GM. What they will take you to is dependent on their stats (because that determines barding difficulty). Also, with the Ogre Lords, when they are drawn all the way to the corner like that they won't block the spawn on the island because they are far enough away. I've spent some time on the island killing freshly spawned Ogre Lords while someone was macroing.
Im posting an edited razor script for provocation (only) training in moonglow zoo. I had huge problems with script mentioned above (Razor kept falling including client etc...) : The script: Code: !Loop Assistant.Macros.UseSkillAction|22 Assistant.Macros.WaitForTargetAction|30 Assistant.Macros.AbsoluteTargetAction|0|0|113271|4510|1384|23|30 Assistant.Macros.WaitForTargetAction|30 Assistant.Macros.AbsoluteTargetAction|0|0|113421|4509|1390|23|55 Assistant.Macros.PauseAction|00:00:01 Assistant.Macros.IfAction|4|0|succeeds Assistant.Macros.PauseAction|00:00:10 Assistant.Macros.EndIfAction Assistant.Macros.IfAction|4|0|fails Assistant.Macros.PauseAction|00:00:06 Assistant.Macros.EndIfAction Assistant.Macros.IfAction|4|0|too far Assistant.Macros.DoubleClickTypeAction|3762|True Assistant.Macros.PauseAction|00:00:04 Assistant.Macros.EndIfAction The setting : Loop! is not counted as a line... Line 3 - re-target Harpy Line 5 - re-target Troll Line 14 - redefine your instrument...lute is default Hope it helps and is okay
Training provocation on Ogre Lords and Wyverns is doing it the hard way. 1. Get a house on Ocllo. 2. Go to the west coast of Ocllo and let 2 pirate sailors follow you to your house. 3. Hit one till it runs to a corner. Box it in and lock em down. Repeat for the other and the other corner. 4. AFK provoke from the center of the house all the way to GM provocation. Pirate sailors are melee only monsters. Locked into corners they can hit neither you nor each other. Their barding difficulty is 104, so you can GM off of them. In theory, you could do it all before giving up Young player status.
Great tip! This would also work on disco as long as you can manage the the cooldown timer for it, right?
That didn't come out right ... Let me rephrase it. Is anyone here planning to lock up some seamen in his house for training ? I would love to assist and maybe have my provo mage join !
Not entirely true. I have GMed 2 bards at wyvern isle. Not sure if it was a stats issue, a music issue or what, but it definitely is possible.
Couple things... One, I don't think you need a Provo difficulty >100 to GM. I have been told that the Provo difficulty is the level at which you succeed 50% of the time. I have no idea how it scales, but really you just want a monster with provo difficulty such that even at GM Provo, you don't succeed 100% of the time. Two... placing a house in Ocllo is basically winning UO. If you can manage that, we're all playing for second place. After this thread I ran around for about 20 minutes and failed miserably. But there is hope! There is a great spot in which three sailors are crammed, and you can be out of melee range of them and anyone else. You actually have to teleport diagonally to the position I'm in... but the oars against the building stop the pirates from killing you, and the pirate in the middle stops the end pirates, who you provoke, from killing each other: The only down side is that a pirate archer spawns on the bridge, and he'll kill you if he sees you macroing there. I try to lead them out off of this bridge embarkment and onto the mainland... in such instances, I had about a 50% chance of surviving the night macroing. Really it's 95%, except that some adventurous newbies occasionally will kill the archer, leading another to spawn in its original spot on the bridge.
There are some placement spots on occlo ... I did place a house last week and already re-deeded the house again. It did take me about an hour to find a spot close to the pirate camp. The location was pretty useless for anything but sailor provocation though.
Only four sailors spawn in the Pirate Camp, the rest are Brigands. I have a house near by the pirate camp and I will friend anyone who would like to do some bard training. Contact me via PM and I will let you know how to setup the sailors for best training. If you have muiltiple chars to train, bring them in together. I'm afraid you can't train discord and peacemaking in parallel - correct my if I'm wrong. But several people can train provo on the same sailors ... so my goal is to make this a group party
Hi! Thanks for the guide! Once we have our bard and magery skills, how do you play the character to farm gold? Obviously we provoke creatures to fight each other but could someone briefly explain which spells are most effective in PVM. Or is a dexxer more appropriate for pvm farming along side these bard skills? I would really like to know why mage is the choice. and if a dexxer is better, which combat style? fencing, maces or swords? I am not new to UO but I am new to this shard Thank you! Biff
