Provo-dexxer for ironman challenges: LJ-axer or macer with discord/resist

I've heard from many people that a provo-dexxer is the best choice for completing ironman challenges (I'm mostly interested in tmaps and xmas scrolls, I don't know the complete list of instance events).

First 5 skills are pretty straightforward.
1. Music
2. Provo
3. Anatomy
4. Healing
5. Tactics

Question: which last 2 skills are the best to choose?

Options:
a) swordsmanship + lumberjacking
b) mace fighting + discordance
c) mace fighting + magic resist

I'm curious what ends up killing monsters faster: sword + LJ or mace + disco. I guess that sword + LJ is probably better against two provoed mobs (you can hit them evenly to kill them at the same time) but discordance must be more beneficial against bosses.

As for resist: not sure if it's a good choice, but it probably helps against elf mages. Are there casting monsters and bosses in high-level tmaps?

Btw, this question arised when I looked at http://uorenaissance.com/hleaderboard
I was pretty sure that sword+LJ is the mainstream choice, but I noticed that 2 leaders of that board (Granny Flaps and Phallus Bigus) run mace + disco and sword + resist respectively. AFAIK mace should be better than sword without LJ due to a crushing blow, so probably sword + resist was chosen due to slayer availability.

Thanks!

i can tell you now that @Animal Control can out dps me all day and all night with swords. not only is the katana superior DPS but he can also used poisoned weapons which i cant. for santas lair i have a trick not involving using weapons at all that got me to the top with him. Finding a really good slayer quarter staff will put you in a comparable damage output range (quarterstaff is the highest dps mace weapon by far) - but they are very hard to come by.

if crushing blow damage was added before the slayer double damage i think war hammer would be superior but it does not.

i dont think i can beat AC or pill on any other instances - not that ive really tried but these guys kill a huge amount of minions really quickly

resist would definitely be great in certain fights.. i dont die to mage type bosses very often but it does involve a lot more running and healing. Flame strike is my mortal enemy. but then again a discorded mage usually doesnt cast flamestrike so if i can get that off the fights are much easier.

im certain that i can fight the melee based bosses significantly easier with stam drain from the mace and disco (which doesnt always work every fight on bosses)

if you want a mace fighting weapon that you can use on provod mobs so that you dont drain their stamina the war axe is good. it actually has higher dps than the war hammer too so thats a bonus! id like to run with a val warhammer AND val war axe but funds do not allow me to do so atm

The other thing to keep in mind is that both the warhammer and the q-staff are 2 handed. You need to deequip to drink potions. War axe and war mace are okay weps, and both one handed.

And as Smash said, katana>everything.

Having said that, swds + disco “might” be the way to go.

Personally, I run swds + Margery, that allows me to MReflect whenever, get me some GHeals for faster heals, and mostly the convenience of just recalling back home when done. I do admit that it is likely not the most efficient, but works for me.

@Smash so you're the Granny Flaps I assume?

It's pretty surprising for me to hear that katana > everything. Katana isn't getting an LJ bonus, right?
Which means that swords + disco or swords + resist might be the best choice.

Katanas are fast, and only if you can actually find/afford a good one.

yes @Twister i am Granny flaps

if you arent a vet running axes/katana is a daunting task having to bid against them for good weapons.

thats why i originally chose fencing and why im now using mace fighting.

(i dont mean that as a slight against the vets who can afford to shell out more for these weapons. if i had the money id be doing the same thing)

technically the double axe is the highest dps weapon in the game but then you forego the extra utility skill.... disco/magery/resist whatever. thats the reason some of the ironmen dont use LJ but there are several who do that are also excellent like evil dead and les claypool.

i dont really find drinking potions a bother using 2 handed weapons - razor will unequip and re-equip your weapon pretty damn fast. its never cost me my life at the least.

That might be a bigger problem for guys like me with ~200ms ping

Haha...I ping 300+....shitty 3rd world country internet.

@Pirul well, I can't really complain about my 7$/month internet in Ukraine (which is probably also considered a 3rd world country)


However, I'm approximately 10000 kilometers away from the UOR server, so

Yeah i ping higher than you twister dont worry.

Ok, so back to instance discussion: are there any other instances except xmas scrolls with strong casting monsters?
I heard that l7 tmaps don't have casters, or is it just spider's cave that doesn't?

Im not sure about the dragons den but the other 2 level 7s just have regular caster mobs but no "mage boss"

Then in amibs you have the quartermasters and the ghost bosses in purple/green but they can be provod

Ok, then I guess it makes sense to choose weapon skill based on slayer availability (it's also easy to retrain if needed).
And swordsmanship slayers are the most expensive ones...
Which means choosing LJ as 7th skill might be a waste before I'm rich and for now discordance is a better option in terms of DPS while resist is a better option in terms of survivability.

However, discordance makes monsters cast less / lower circles and lowers their melee dmg, so it might also provide comparable survivability boost, which ultimately makes it the best choice for 7th skill?

Everyone will be different in their playstyles unfortunately there is no 1 template to rule them all. I will say that the OS resist event is probably over or close to being over so maybe try disco until the next resist event comes around?

My experience is for amibs only, but I would go with disco and macing.

Mace weapons are super cheap, and qstaffs are one of the best dps around.

Keep in mind disco doesn't only debuff enemies, it provides a passive Provo success bonus. In my experience, that will save you more than resist.

GL

Keep in mind that it may take you a looooong time to be able to disco bosses. Some have very high barding difficulty, so just keep that in mind too.

Absolutely. Some boss fights i dont get disco off at all. Other times it happens first try

Its the disco lottery

This looks awesome!

Please give us a video of this character in action!!

as an FYI - im currently dropping disco for resist to see how it works instead.