Requesting Advice on Picking Seventh Skill for Axe Warrior Template.

Hey everyone, I was hoping you guys could help me choose a final skill to use for my Axer Main, he uses the following skills.

Swordsmanship
Tactics
Anatomy
Lumberjacking
Healing
Resisting Spells

I am currently struggling to chose what to add as my final skill to this template. I have some solid possibilities in mind, I will list them, and their pros. I would be interested in hearing any advice about any other skills other than Magery and Hiding, This character is an honorable Warrior, other than using potions, I'd like to keep using magic at a minimum, and not have to run away from Murderers.

*Alchemy
Pros: I could make various potions without having to rely on a player vendor for essentials like, Greater Cure, Strength, Agility, and Refreshment Potions. I could also make Explosion potions to throw at enemies.
Cons: I could find a trustworthy Alchemist to be a steady client for, or even make a crafter as a support character to supply my main with all potions I might need, making this skill useless for my main to have.

*Archery
Pros: I could have both ranged and melee attacks at my disposal, dealing damage to monsters skill as I bandage myself or a friend from a distance. It might also help with PvP situations, again being able to attack with range and melee.
Cons: Arrows/bolts are expensive from what I heard, and I'd need to rely on another player or a Crafter Support Toon to keep myself supplied and armed well.

*Fencing
Pros: Having the ability to use the faster weapons in the game could be extremely helpful in a pinch, such as PvP versus magic users. The special attack to paralyze foes would also be extremely useful in PvP.
Cons: I already have two skills into melee weapons, dealing monstrous damage with axes. I think it's possibly point-less to have another melee skill when I have already committed two skills for axes.

*Animal Lore
Pros: I could keep track of my horse's stats, loyalty, and hunger. I could keep track of training my horse if I decided to train it.
Con: I could easily pay a tamer to tame and train the best horse they could find for me, making this skill useless if I found a willing player.

*Veterinary
Pros: The ability to heal your steed as well is pretty good, especially if I were to train it. Having a well trained steed to fight alongside me and keeping it patched up so it wouldn't die would be pretty cool.
Con: I would never dismount during combat unless I go out of my way to, and that would leave in a vulnerable spot if I needed to quickly retreat.

I would appreciate any advice you guys could give me on which would be the best skill to use here, thanks for reading this post!

May-Jah-Ree!

Edit: I read you wanted to use "little" magic so my suggestion may not be for you but I think it's the most useful skill to have with an axer template. But I suppose you could go with Archery to have some range options.

Archery is nice, especially during events where there are 50+ dragons and 20+ players crowded around one monster, being able to attack at range is incredibly useful.

Alchemy is nice too, but you would need to carry potion bottles, reagents and a mortar/pestle in order to get the maximum use out of it, and considering you aren't getting magery, it would mean carrying a lot of unnecessary regs.

I wouldn't bother with fencing as you have lumberjacking and all it would mean is that you have to carry around more weapons that deal significantly less damage than your primary weapon. The para hit is nice, but by the time you swap weapons to your main, it will probably have worn off.

Animal lore is a bit of a waste on a non-tamer, as long as you feed your pet once every blue moon it will love you.

Again, veterinary is a bit of a waste on a non-tamer, all the pets non-tamers can ride have quite low HP and will likely die before the 6sec timer hits in most PvP/PvM situations.

So I'd suggest picking archery if you are set on one of the above skills... If not you can always pick up something more situational like detect hidden, tracking or blacksmithing.

Of those listed if they are the "only options" and painted into a corner, archery.

Alchemy doesn't give a bonus to purple pots on this server. It has no purpose on a fighter.

Animal lore and veterinary are useless without taming.

You don't need fencing you already have swords.

Archery is super nerfed here.

I would recommend getting 60 magery and 40 med so you can get around. I think running everywhere would be super lame.

From my understanding, you can recall with zero Magery with a runebook and scrolls in this shard.

Not sure I think it's possible but takes like 5 or6 tries each time. Plus the OP didn't want to make a crafter to make pots so will he want to make one for scrolls? Plus being able to mark a rune is really nice to have.

Yes, with int bonus you'll have a few "free points" in the skill and have about a 30% chance to cast with a recall scroll.

So how good of a chance will I be able to recall with 25 int? I honestly am leaning towards Archery at this point, but if I can't reliably recall... That might be a serious problem.

18-20% success rate (with scroll)

You can be as honorable as you want of course. I find anyone following the virtue system here to be very commendable. I'm a fan of the whole system.
However, this is not OSI UO... very very very far from it. If you intend to spend a considerable amount of times in dungeons (alone) you are going to face not one but 2-5 pk's on a regular basis here. The players that don't go into it acknowledging this ahead of time ... well, to put it bluntly they just don't last long.

I'd consider a more charitable path and just leave your gear by the entrance if you go with no magery. I'd also say with your template as listed, going with partial magery is going partially prepared. Of the skills listed none compare to the utility of GM magery.

Your template is a great one. You asked openly for advice and I'm sorry for my contrarian position.

I acknowledge that my statements are indeed, not facts.

G'luck to you and a belated WELCOME TO UOR!

I 2nd. Magery or Hiding which you refused both, can be a life saver.



Fun fact: When you're PK'd Help -> Character Stuck. [1st time is 1-2 minute wait], [2nd time+ is 5-10 minute wait with an eventual cap to make it impossible to utilize the feature.]
Just figured I'd share since you don't like Magery.

Magery is what youll want. Even if just for recalling like stated above.

OF the options listed, I believe archery would be your best bet as well for the same reasons as Daecon listed.
Dont take lumberjacking and use any other weaponskill other than swords and archery.
Youll go from hitting for 30-50 a hit, giving people concussions like a madman and saying yay...
...then switch to a spear and do 5-20 and go booo

Alternatively, you could forgo lumberjacking completely and go Archery/Fencing and still have that 7th skill for anything you want as well.

You could even go something like 20Magery / 80 Tracking

...or GM Archery

...or take Cartography and solo low level maps

..or take 20 magery / 30taming / 50 cartography and solo low level maps, recall with scrolls without having to commit seppokuu, and tame all the horses/llamas/ostards you want, yourself, for free!!!

...or GM Fishing. Fishing is nice here.

All that said. Have a wonderful time and I hope you have fun.

From what I read here, it is clearly not in my best interest to go without magery if I'm planning to go solo. I just personally have a dislike for it because requiring it for even a pure warrior feels like the truest form of "over-powered". I wanted a character that is different and seperate from that "Have Magery or accept death" mindset. However, I do plan to be playing with a friend from work who wants to play as a mage/tamer. Perhaps I could go with Archery and just have some Mage buddies to play with.

First off, I wouldn't worry about a lone dexer with a small amount of magery being overpowered.

You will get very tired of always waiting on your mage buddy to gate you around, and you will have no escape plan when you get rolled on by pks. It's very nice to have a hotkey to disappear when you're suddenly outnumbered.

If you are piggybacking off a friend's gate, can you really claim you're not using magery? You might not be casting it but you would certainly be using it.

Anyway if you have young status, go without magery. The young dungeon is a few steps from Occlo bank so you won't need it. You can always add it later.

I think you misunderstand, of course a dexxer with some magery isn't over-powered. The problem is that requiring Magery for a Warrior template in order for it to be a good toon makes Magery over-powered. I have no problems using recalls and gates, but I don't want to be throwing fireballs, lighting strikes, and paralyze like everyone and their mom. Decidating an entire hundred skills just to recall reliably is just seems like a forced choice than an option.

Its not that Magery is "over-powered". It just as a wide range of utility uses, ie quick healing, quick escape, offensive capabilities, minor buffing, etc, that you may find yourself wishing you had magery at different points. It is not a game breaker to forgo the traditional use of the skill, so enjoy UO in your own way. It is one of many reasons this game is great. Choose your path and live out your days.

I see what you mean. Yes, magery can be considered over powered. No doubt it's the one skill I think every character requires - mages, tamers, fighters, crafters. It's a huge part of the game. You don't have to cast offensive spells for it to be useful though.

Anyway you don't have to dedicate 100 points to it. 60 should be enough. That leaves you 40 for tracking or whatever.

Actually if you were going to cast attacking spells you would need to devote 300 points (mage, med, eval). Without eval those spells are useless. 60 skill points to not have to run all over the map and be able to escape pks is worth it imho but it's up to you.

I'm gonna be the odd ball and recommend Mining - become a Battle Miner! Great money and only requires gargoyle pickaxes, which can be had cheaply from the trade forums. It'll add an extra dimension and farming source if you don't feel like being in a dungeon.

Poisoning

I orginally wanted posioning, but you can only posioned one handed bladed weapons. It's honestly fair, because having the ability to posion an axe that could potentially 22+ damage would be obscenely OP.