Ok I've only been here about a month and I'm very slowly building my toons... but, reading the forums and IRC and some amount of experience in the world, here's what I have gathered... Tamers - most people agree these are OP af. 8 control slots to run around with 3-4 very powerful immortal tanks. A fully trained up tamer is difficult if not impossible to solo PK. People who play tamers have like 4 or 5 of them and play them all the time. People who don't want to take a week to build one, will always complain about how unfair it is. People who like to solo PK are (for some reason) mad that they can't easily gank a tamer 1-1. PKs - most people agree that PKs are part of the "true UO" experience. Killing naked tamers in training? No prob as long as it gets you cheap counts to stay red. Most agree these need to be stun mages to be really effective. Dexxer - Is a hobbyist class. You pay 500K for your sword and are still pretty much weaker than any other player you will come across. Those who love playing dexxers might argue otherwise. But even a very skilled dexxer is risking like a million gold worth of weapons and armor to go against a stun mage risking 5K tops (to be on even offensive/defensive ground). Thief - Thieves are the funniest situation. It seems everyone agrees they are UP. The mechanics don't favor them at all (easy to lock your regs and stuff in a box, messed up weights, too many fails at GM, guard wacking by NPCs from a screen away). However, when a thief waits for hours and pulls off a big score, everybody cries about that more than anything. These are the situations when someone will say "oh no all my scrolls are gone, I'm quitting the game altogether". Granted, these big house loots aren't using snooping/stealing, but they do use hiding/stealth and require a certain playstyle very different than mages or fighters or tamers.
The best thing to do is to not get overly involved in any drama or rants, play the game the way you like to play it, and not worry about what other folks are doing. That's always helped me to continue to enjoy things.
LOADS of effort. super interesting to see it splayed out in that fashion. Milky, as a thief-thug kind of dexxer who is not afraid to fight pvm tamers [notice I said pvm] I can admit that they are killable. and the ones I have failed to kill, I came damn close numerous times. in the end the tactical error was mine by becoming impatient or too bold and getting myself into bad situations. pvp tamers tend to utilize the para spell in high volume and burn me out of trapped pouches too fast. so I just avoid them. if I changed around my skills a bit I might feel braver with going after them.
That should be copied into a standalone guide @Gideon Jura so it doesnt get lost in the shuffle, great and informative read! Maybe add stat adjustment suggestions for dex int and str?
Great, detailed response Gideon. Thanks for taking the time to write all that up. I agree it should be a standalone guide.
Also you mentioned taming having 200 skill points but I would argue it's 300. Not sure how well a tamer would do in any format without vet.
Milky, I am one of the hand full that plays a pure LJ/DP dexer on this server alot (3 LJs currently) The damage is nuts, you are no squishier then a tank mage but the problem is you're most always targeted first for 3 reasons. 1. perception of being squishier 2. they want my aggy wheap 3. they can't handle the damage of the aggy wheap My full load out at full retail consists of 15 Blue 525 15 White 525 25 Red 875 25 Yellow 875 25 Oranges 1,125 35 Purples 3,150 1 5 Charge G heal wand 6,000 1 aggy 2 handed wheap 40,000 1 gold 1 handed wheap (on dp dexer 15,000) 1 full barbed suit 2,500 45 each reg 1,170 100 bandies 200 10 dp pots (on dp dexer) 1,200 LJ cost = 56,945 DP dexer cost = 73,145 Obviously if you cut to vanquishing wheaps the cost is drastically reduced. G heal wands are a MUST or you are super squish just like any other character. Both characters have the same templates 30 med 70 magery 100 LJ/Poison 100 Swords/Fencing 100 Tactics 100 Healing 100 Anatomy 100 resist LJs wreck the best of them, if you run around only healing you might not die but if you try and fight this template 1v1 and you're MB stats and not buffed you're almost certainty going to get 2 shot, I plug full armor mages for 40+ all day long with aggy plus throwing purple pots at them. DP fencer, LJs worse nightmare! 1 DP wheap with 10+ DP pots means there is NO way you have enough orange pots to possibly cure it all. Long spears although slower seem to be where its at. I toss purples on, especially when I land a para blow! The problem against mages is the damage output is not as consistently high as the axe and mages can case cure with less chance of being hit with wrestle. With either template when you're buffed and have a G heal wand plus yellow pots there is no way a 2 mage sync is going to kill me, a 3 mage will but it had better be synced really well and I not resist many of the spells. 110 hps (buffed) Explode max 42 / min 25 Energy Bolt max 42 / min 24 G heal wand 29-32+ Yellow pot 9-30 Heal Averages 110 - 33 -33 +30 +20 -33 -33 = +28 Additionally keep in mind tactics damage output is capped at 100 so even if you have 125 with a supremely accurate weapon you're still only getting the damage based on 100. All in all I have a way better time in pvp with my DP fencer although if I really want to lay people out I switch the LJ!
Fantastic personal template share there Ron. Really interesting read. I am fence anat tactics poison and thinling of switching to swords to use katana and axe. Even without LJ i feel i will get steadier dmg hits. Though it does seem worth it to keep fencing for para blow when i am out with friends so they can get synched bow shots off.
