Suggestion for new Mage and worker

Comments

• Rock Posts: 567

  May 2020 edited May 2020

  Welcome to UO, @Neptune !  One of the nice things about UO is that you can continually evolve your character.  If something isn't quite right, you let one skill drop (or put it on a Soulstone) and replace it with another.  Also, there are a huge number of ways to make fun, effective characters.

  
  

  Regarding your build, consider taking Anatomy instead of Wrestling.  It will provide (along with Evaluating Intelligence (EI)) the same defense at a cheaper skill cost.  The only time Wrestling would be the better choice is if you want to disarm or dismount your foe with its special moves.  EI and Anatomy work together to provide defense:

  • mage defense is (EI + Anatomy + 20) / 2

  Thus 100 points of Anatomy gives you 120 protection, the same as 120 Wrestling.  More Anatomy won't help.
  

  
  

  Another thing to know is that jewelry and mage books can contain skill.  Assume you have a friend who can Imbue.  He can make you a custom ring that includes, say, 10 Magery and 10 Eval Int skill.  He could also make a bracelet that includes 10 Resist and 10 Meditate.  With those, you would free up another 40 points to use elsewhere.  Note that wearables will not bring you over the limit (be it 100 or 120), but they are useful in reaching whatever skill limit you are capped at.

  
  

  A necro mage is certainly a useful build.  Spirit Speak has limited effect if you do not want to summon familiars, which without SS you cannot do.  It also affects duration and intensity of some spells, but not the various forms such as Wraith and Lich.  Also consider Spellweaving, which requires no "buff" skill like EI or SS.  Another good choice is Mysticism, which will require your build also include Focus (or Imbuing).  That's not necessarily a bad thing, because the Focus will add to your mana regeneration.

  
  

  First, if you haven't made your imbuer yet, start him with 50 Imbuing skill.  If you already made him, but he has less than 45.1 Imbuing, you might consider replacing him with a new character with the 50.  At less than 45.1 skill, you can only unravel magical items made up of just magical residu -- low end stuff.  At 45.1 you gain the ability to also unravel enchanted essence.  Finally, at 90.1 skill, you will be able to unravel everything, including items made of relic fragments.  You can raise the Imbuing skill to 120 by either imbuing items or unraveling them.  See:

  • https://uo.com/wiki/ultima-online-wiki/skills/imbuing/
    
  • https://www.uoguide.com/Imbuing
    

  Have your other character(s) collect magical stuff for you imbuer to unravel later.  This will be much more convenient if you own or co-own a house, or have all your characters friended to one.  Your guys will then be able to use common chests to conveniently share various stuff they have gathered.
  
  

  Rock (formerly Imperterritus VXt, Baja)
  
• Neptune Posts: 6

  May 2020

  Rock said:

  Welcome to UO, @ Neptune !  One of the nice things about UO is that you can continually evolve your character.  If something isn't quite right, you let one skill drop (or put it on a Soulstone) and replace it with another.  Also, there are a huge number of ways to make fun, effective characters.

  
  

  Regarding your build, consider taking Anatomy instead of Wrestling.  It will provide (along with Evaluating Intelligence (EI)) the same defense at a cheaper skill cost.  The only time Wrestling would be the better choice is if you want to disarm or dismount your foe with its special moves.  EI and Anatomy work together to provide defense:

  • mage defense is (EI + Anatomy + 20) / 2

  Thus 100 points of Anatomy gives you 120 protection, the same as 120 Wrestling.  More Anatomy won't help.
  

  
  

  Another thing to know is that jewelry and mage books can contain skill.  Assume you have a friend who can Imbue.  He can make you a custom ring that includes, say, 10 Magery and 10 Eval Int skill.  He could also make a bracelet that includes 10 Resist and 10 Meditate.  With those, you would free up another 40 points to use elsewhere.  Note that wearables will not bring you over the limit (be it 100 or 120), but they are useful in reaching whatever skill limit you are capped at.

  
  

  A necro mage is certainly a useful build.  Spirit Speak has limited effect if you do not want to summon familiars, which without SS you cannot do.  It also affects duration and intensity of some spells, but not the various forms such as Wraith and Lich.  Also consider Spellweaving, which requires no "buff" skill like EI or SS.  Another good choice is Mysticism, which will require your build also include Focus (or Imbuing).  That's not necessarily a bad thing, because the Focus will add to your mana regeneration.

  
  

  First, if you haven't made your imbuer yet, start him with 50 Imbuing skill.  If you already made him, but he has less than 45.1 Imbuing, you might consider replacing him with a new character with the 50.  At less than 45.1 skill, you can only unravel magical items made up of just magical residu -- low end stuff.  At 45.1 you gain the ability to also unravel enchanted essence.  Finally, at 90.1 skill, you will be able to unravel everything, including items made of relic fragments.  You can raise the Imbuing skill to 120 by either imbuing items or unraveling them.  See:

  • https://uo.com/wiki/ultima-online-wiki/skills/imbuing/
    
  • https://www.uoguide.com/Imbuing
    

  Have your other character(s) collect magical stuff for you imbuer to unravel later.  This will be much more convenient if you own or co-own a house, or have all your characters friended to one.  Your guys will then be able to use common chests to conveniently share various stuff they have gathered.
  
  

  
  Thanks for suggestion.
  
  About Wrestling Vs Anatomy, where I can found the formula of Mage Defence with Wrestling?
  I ask that because for raise strength I raise Wrestling too and I want to make sure before exchanging Wrestling with Anatomy.
  
  About Necromancy, If I use it without Spirit Speak, I can use Animate Dead without problem and it's good for PVM (i can use animate dead plus two energy vortex, right?).
  I can't use Summon Familiar, and It can be useful for Horde Minion or Vampire bat.
  I don't know other useful Spells of necromancy for a spell caster.
  
  So if I want to use Spirit Speak i can put this stat:
  
  * Magery at 120
  * Eval int at 120
  * Meditation at 80
  * Res Spells at 100
  * Anatomy 100
  * Necromancy 100
  * Spirit Speak 100
  for a total of 720
  
  With 80 Meditation an 100 Res Spells I will have substantial difference?
  
  Alternatively i can make a pure mage using incription and no Necromancy/Spirit Speak.
  
  About Imbuing and Tailoring I can make a new Player with 50 Imbuing and 50 Tailoring.
  For Imbuing i can start with unravel every useless thing that i found in dungeon.
  With tailoring i can put the pg on tailor and I can raise with raising difficult object. There is some object that I can make for raise the skill but don't lose moneies reselling the object that I made?
  
  Tanks a lot,
  Neptune.
  
  
• Rock Posts: 567

  May 2020

  While you have extra skill points due to not being max on everything yet, there is no reason not to raise Wrestling, Anatomy, and Strength all at once.  Later, when you need the hit points, set Wrestling to go down. For formula, see the bottom of this page:

  • https://uo.com/wiki/ultima-online-wiki/skills/magery/

  As far as I know, there is no relationship between SS and the Animate Dead spell.  You can check for yourself at the official Necromancy wiki page.

  
  

  Your goal build for necro mage would work well.  You can get extra mana regen in Lich form.  Since it has SS, you can also cast the Dark Wisp summon, and it will also help regenerate mana (so long as character has negative karma, which is easy to do for any necro build.  Just lock his karma at an ankh.  This will prevent karma from raising, but does not prevent it from lowering.
  

  
  

  Yes, if you go the Inscription route, you could consider being a "Nox Mage" by also adding Poisoning to your template.  This will strengthen both the Poison and Poison Field spells, and at GM levels can be very effective against large monster spawns.  If you haven't made your character yet, starting him with 50 Poisoning would be useful.  Its not necessary though.  But the skill to 24 or so from a Thief Guildmaster.  Then sit in shop with Alchemist and herbalist, sit down and poison some food or your dagger.  You can do this over and over again.  Buy 100 poison potions, use them up training, then sell the bottles back for more than they cost with the poison in them!   You can train yourself to 40 or 45 skill in an hour or so.  Also note that there is accelerated gain for Inscription, at the mage building in New Haven.  You can quickly  build inscription to 50 taking advantage of this.

  
  

  Making new character with 50 tailoring and Imbuing is excellent.  Consider making him a Gargoyle, because the get slightly increased success chance in Imbuing.  Not necessary, but useful.  I don't know best items to tailor and sell back.  For the most part I recycle the items made.  I.e, if you are making leather gorgets, cut them with scissors to get about half the leather back, for making more gorgets.  You can do this with cloth items as well.  You can automate this process by purchasing a Salvage Bag at any provisioner.  Stuff within the bag can be recycled all at once via a drop-down menu on the bag.  It works for cloth, leather, and even metal goods.  The one thing to watch out for is, prior to recycling cloth goods, transfer any unused cloth to your main bag first.  The Salvage Bag will turn cloth into bandages, which tailors generally don't want to happen.   You will eventually reach a range of skill where your most effective training item is Oil Cloth.  It only costs 1 regular cloth to make an oil cloth, and you can efficiently gain 20-30 tailoring points with this alone, once your skill gets high enough.  Salvaging oil cloth will turn it into bandages, useful to any healers and/or veterinarians you might have.
  

  Rock (formerly Imperterritus VXt, Baja)
  
• Neptune Posts: 6

  May 2020

  Thanks for the question of Savage Bag: for now i target the item one bye one
  
  About the mage defense you have convinced me: I prefer spent 100 Anatomy instead of 100 wrestling.
  
  About Necromancy I will train casting spells, but how i can train spirit speak ? The spells raise spirit speak too?
  
  I want to spent my 720 point in this way:
  

  Magery	120
  Evaluate Int	120
  Meditation	80
  Anatomy	100
  Ress Spell	100
  Necromancy	100
  Spirit Speak	100

  
  I suppose that a 10% of damage of inscription can be useful in PVP, but in PVM where I can evoke an enegery vortex or i can use raising dead, don't make a great different, isn't it?
  
  About Scroll of power, there is simple boss that i can make for drop it?
  Because I paly with my girlfriend (an Archer) and i ask if there is easy champion that we can kill in two player. 
  
  Another question is how kind of dungeon I can do for make some money with mage? Because I need to make money for tailoring
• Rock Posts: 567

  May 2020 edited May 2020

  I find it useful to have an inscriber.  He can make rune books, spell books, and spell scrolls for your other characters.  But with 6 characters per shard, you can have both a Necro mage and another mage with inscription.  (Magery isn't even required for Inscription.)

  
  

  Power scrolls are obtained by doing champion spawns in Felucca.  Two, advanced, experienced characters can do a spawn, but it will take longer than having a larger party would.  These spawns are specifically designed to allow for PvP.  I.e, sometimes other players will wait for you to complete the spawn, then attempt to PK you and steal your scrolls on your way out.  That doesn't mean don't do them -- just know up front there is an element of risk.  They aren't even being jerks.  Stealing scrolls is another legitimate way to get them, and is part of the game design.
  

  
  

  Also, you and your girlfriend should both consider making tamer characters.  While I find it boring as heck to train up a tamer, the end results are well worth it.
  

  
  

  Here is the official list of dungeons, with links to an overview of each:

  • https://uo.com/wiki/ultima-online-wiki/world/dungeons/

  Some are specifically designed for mid-level and even low-level players.  The Despise dungeon in Felucca is that sort of "easy" dungeon.  (The Trammel version involves more of a quest than being a typical dungeon.)  After entering, you can go up and fight lizardmen.  This is easily done by characters who have completed their training quests in New Haven and have at least 50 in their major fighting and/or magic skills.  Or you can go down and fight ettins and earth golems.  Here you probably want your skills to be at least 60.  Both are great for training and steady income.

  
  

  That said, the Tailoring skill need not be expensive.  Gather wool from live sheep, turn it into balls of yarn on a spinning wheel, and convert the yarn into cloth on a loom.  The sheep in Felucca give double wool, and south of Yew are some sheep pens which make gathering wool very efficient.  Leather is obtained by fighting, killing, and skinning animals and monsters with hides.  This can be bears, giant snakes, drakes, dragons, and many other foes, including the afore-mentioned lizardment.  Resource-gathering is another aspect of the game.  If you take the time to engage in it, many "expensive" occupations become relatively cheap.

  
  

  A great place to gather regular leather is outside the Deceit dungeon.  There is an endless supply of non-aggressive polar bears, walruses, and other animals with hides.  The only danger is the appearance of an occasional arctic troll, but if you have 60-level magery or other fighting skill, it is easily taken down.  (This is also a great place for training bards and tamers.)  Again, the Felucca version has the advantage of double-leather per skinned animal.  You'll likely want to bring a pack animal or rideable beetle.  Both can carry 1600 stones, although you won't be able to ride a beetle that is carrying its max capacity.  First skin each  carcass and transfer its leather to your backpack.  Each hide weighs 5 stones.  However, you can immediately cut a pile of hides with scissors, converting them to leather, which only weighs 1 stone apiece.  Thus one trip to the outside of Deceit can result in having 1800 or more leather in 20 minutes or so  (1600 on pack animal and 200 that you carry yourself).
  

  
  
  

  Rock (formerly Imperterritus VXt, Baja)
  
• Neptune Posts: 6

  May 2020

  Hi Everyone.
  Finally I have made my NecroMage and for now is:
  
  Magery 106, target is 120
  Eva Int 112, taget is 120
  Meditation 80
  Necromancy 100
  Spirit Speak 100
  Resisting Spell 100
  Anatomy 100
   
  And I wear a Horned Leather Armor imbued with lower reagent cost that raise all my protection near at 70/70.
  In addition I have a spellbook with Spell damage increase 43%, Mana Regeneration 3, faster casting 1, and some unexpensive bracelet/ring which I have found in mob.
  
  
  I'm near the end of my skill and if i go to Greather Dragon, it kill me in two hit (i suppose fire magic).
  if i go to Vermine Horde Spawn, at third type of spawn (rat magician and wolf who use fire magic) they kill me in like 30second.
  
  My tattics it's to use Energy Vortex+Animate Dead and cast spell like CorpseSkin+FlameStrike. Or at Vermine Horde i use WraithForm+Wither.
  
  Sometime I use a Lowland Boura instead of energy vortex (I tame It with bracelet+ring with Animal Taming)
  
  Do you have any suggestion for a better (no more expensive) equip or tattics?
  
• Rock Posts: 567

  May 2020

  Some monsters should be avoided solo, and greater dragons are definitely included.  Large spawns of upper tier and fast moving medium tier monsters are also quite tough for a lone mage.  I'm not saying these can't be done, but it will likely require hit & run tactics and take time.  With the greater dragon, having armor with 70 resist in at least physical and fire is very important.  With the spawns, work from the fringes, sometimes drawing foes away from the crowd before fully engating them.
  

  
  

  See if you can find an active guild and/or adventuring friends who tend to play at the same time you do.

  Rock (formerly Imperterritus VXt, Baja)