New Bracelet

I did this one last night before I logged out. The Physical resist was already on it, but I'd already blown up a couple rings and another bracelet before so I was kinda in one of those self-destructive spellcrafting moods. The fact that it worked out to be almost exactly the same as my old bracelet, +1 Int, despite throwing on that LRC last (and therefore being stuck with whatever may've landed), I figured it was good enough. Yay for having GM resist even with Protection on.

Interestingly enough, I can go naked save this bracelet and my Undead pieces and still have 83 Physical resist. I call that a bit insane.

Being a Mage - Part 7

Or, "What the hell am I really looking for?"

That's a good question. The concept of "ultimate gear" is one that keeps me up at night sometimes. Mages get the short end of this stick, to be quite honest. It's so much easier for a warrior type to hit all of his necessary caps, including 300 total strength and 200 dex. Why is that exactly? Well, for one, most of their necessary mods are weapon mods; Hit Chance, Damage Increase, and Swing Speed. The caps for those are relatively low compared to the intensity of the mods we can add through spellcrafting, too. Artifacts are also heavy on these mods, which means that most of their suits don't even have to pull half of what they need since it's already on their weapon. This gives them plenty of room for other things that are less necessary but still useful, like LMC, LRC, FC/R, etc...

Mages don't remotely share this benefit. The mods we need are primarily only on jewelry or artifacts. Spellbooks also share these mods, but crafted books have them in such low intensities that there's no point in bothering, nevermind the 3 mod limit on books. On most of your books, one of those will be a Slayer property and, if you're using Protection, your other book would want some + Resist to make up that penalty (it actually does make a difference). That leaves you two mods to play with, some of which don't go above 6.

So what do you look for artifact-wise? Some of these choices will be easy, either because the best is quite clear or because there are no other options. Just to prove this, I'll list the two best options I've seen that are obtainable through quests or whatever else. Also note, there are a lot of other mods on these items, but as far as I'm concerned they're mostly gravy. DCI is the only other mod that we really care about.


Head: Paradise Reading Glasses.
Why you want them: 15 Int, SDI 15%, 15% LRC, 10% LMC, 5 Mana Regen, solid resists.
Where to get them: Draque's Quest, drop from Draque's Doom Dragon.

Head: Undead Pirate Hat
Why you want it: 10+ Int, 20+% SDI, 20% LMC, 20% LRC, 5 Mana Regen, 20%+ resist all
Where to get it: I'm guessing pirates.

It is somewhat hard to say which of these choices are the ultimate better choice. It really depends on how close to the 300 Int cap you get after all your other pieces. If you can hit the cap with the Pirate Hat, I might be inclined say it edges out; that SDI bonus is massive, and can save you a spot on your jewelry by itself. The mana regen is also an important consideration, but the cap isn't that high and Vampire does give you a bit of a bonus. The Glasses look better though.


Arms: Elysium Elite Arms.
Why you want them: 10+ Int, 5~15% SDI, 5~15% LMC, 5~15% LRC, 3 Mana Regen 1/1 FC/R
Where to get them: Grim's Quest in Elysium.

Arms: Arms of Compassion.
Why you want them: 5+ Int, 15% LRC, 5% LMC, 5 Mana Regen
Where you get them: Virtue Quest

The Elysium pieces are some that I've only rarely seen. The mods on what I've seen have been very strange, but all the pieces seem to fall into a certain frame (5~15), so I'm inclined to believe that it's random on drop. If not, then the numbers are just stupid. Either way, these two are your *only* mage-y artifact choices. Neither of them have stellar resists, but they're solid enough. Elysium arms win out even if the Int, SDI, LMC, and LRC are in a random range simply because the Int bonus is important, any armor SDI is good, and the other two are low cap or luxury mods.


Gloves: Gloves of the Undead
Why you want them: 8 Int, 10% SDI, 10% LMC, 8 Mana Increase, 3 Mana Regen, 1/1 FC/R Resists
Where you get them: Terragon Drop or shard donation item

Gloves: Elysium Elite Gloves.
Why you want them: 5~15% SDI, 5~15% LMC, 5~15% LRC, 4 Mana Regen, 1/2 FC/R
Where you get them: Grim's Quest in Elysium

Undead Gloves are the clear winner here. Their gravy mods are far better than the Elysium pieces, besides being more numerous. Standard "Elysium pieces are either random moded or stupid" condition applies as well. These are also the only real mage artifacts you'll find for the gloves spot. Gauntlets of Valor from the Virtue set *might* be an okay option for the 5 Int, but I'd honestly pass up on them for spellcrafted.


Chest: Tunic of the Undead.
Why you want it: 12 Int, 20% SDI, 2/2 FC/R, three strong resists
Where you get it: Terragon drop, shard donation item, 2 million gold at the artifact house

Chest: Elysium Elite Chest.
Why you want it: 10+ Int, 5~15% SDI, 5~15% LMC, 5~15% LRC, 14 Mana Regen, 1/2 FC/R
Where you get it: Grim's Quest in Elysium.

At first glance, the Elysium chest looks really good. However, the Undead Tunic has far better resists, 33 Str bonus, and 34% DCI, making it a much better choice. This is on top of the normal Elysium "either random or stupidly set mods" factor.


Legs: Legs of the Undead.
Why you want them: 17 Int, 12% SDI, 10% LMC, 10 Mana Increase, 3 Mana Regen, 1/1 FC/R, resists
Where you get them: Terragon drop, shard donation item, 4 million gold at the artifact house.

Legs: Elysium Elite Legs.
Why you want them: 10+ Int, 5~15% SDI, 5~15% LMC, 5~15% LRC, 3 Mana Regen, 1/1 FC/R
Where you get them: Grim's Quest in Elysium


Legs of Undead are the easy winners, for the same reasons as the Gloves; so many gravy mods, such high bonuses on them. There's a reason they're so expensive. Elysium legs aren't a bad choice by any means, though. If you can grab a pair, it's very likely worth it.



If you can pull the best pieces of those I listed (and the mods I saw on the Elysium arms are fixed bonuses), then you're looking at a great start to your gear. Assuming PRGs, Elysium Arms, Undead Tunic, Gloves, and Legs, you're looking at a total of: 67 Int, 68% SDI, 39% LMC, 22% LRC, 18 Mana Increase, 14 Mana Regen, 5/5 FC/R, and 113/102/56/92/57 resists. Your DCI will also be more than covered, as well as decent str, dex, and health bonuses.

You'll need to pull together a Ninja Belt Armor with 14 Cold resist and 13 Energy (18 Energy if you're an elf), or you could try try using Magic Reflect (you've sure got the physical resist to cover it). Your belt can get you another 4 Mana Regen, 20 Mana Increase, 25% LRC, and two other mods of your choice.

I would pull on a 10 Int Merlin's Robe, giving you 77 total. You'd need 9 more to hit what you need on armor to hit the 300 Int cap. If you managed to pull in Hastu's Smelly Shoes you'd get another 6 Int. If there's a such thing as a 10 Int Merlin's Cloak, I might consider wearing that.

Hastu's Smelly Shoes will also give you 1/2 FC/R and 1 Mana Regen, plus other bonuses. These are easily the best shoes on the shard. However, the Virtue set will also get you the Solarets of Sacrifice: 5% LMC, 15% LRC, and 1/1 FC/R. Both are great options, though Hastu's are easily better.

Assuming you got your hands on Hastu's and the robe, but no Int cloak, you're now at 83 Int, 68% SDI, 39% LMC, 47% LRC, 38 Mana Increase, 19 Mana Regen, 6/7 FC/R, and 70's resist. Everything but Int, SDI, and LRC is capped. You'll also have 73 Strength (seriously. Sick) and 52 Dex bonus. If you donated for the 340 scroll and kept 40 base dex, you've not only got your 80 dex for parrying, but a 13 point buffer for curses. Nothing will take you under that; it would require a 65% curse. That would be ungodly eval skill, and honestly the first damage spell would probably take you out anyway.

Your four pieces of jewelry need to pull in 67 Int (not possible), 57% SDI, 53% LRC, and whatever else you want. You can get 16 Int, 25% SDI, and 30% LRC on perfect jewelry; two pieces like that and your SDI and LRC is effectively covered (you'll technically be 7% short on SDI this way). That means that, other than Int on the rest of your jewelry, you're entirely open for what you add. I would recommend Strength on every piece for the health bump. Dex is a decent choice if you don't have the 340 scroll or if you want faster Healing with bandages. Hit Chance for times you melee for mana leech. Enhance Potions if you feel like bothering with those. Damage Increase if you think you'll get something out of it.

So now, with everything else, and assuming you run with two perfect str/int/dex/SDI/LRC jewelry pieces and two with perfect str/int/dex, you'll have a final total of:

147 Int
153 Str (Yup)
112 Dex
118% SDI
39% LMC (Close enough)
107% LRC
38 Mana Increase
19 Mana Regen
6/7 FC/R
70/70/70/70/70(75) Resists
+30 Resisting Spells.

Which pisses me off because we *STILL* didn't hit the Int cap, but we did hit the Str cap with some leeway. Oh, and the +30 Resist there is from the ridiculously rare +15 Resisting Spells ring and Bracelet that you would, in a perfect world, use to cover Protection's resist penalty.

Since we're talking "perfect world" here, your Spellbooks, Slayer and general use book, would all have 6 Int and 9% SDI on them, which would cap those two stats. The general use book could have 6 Mana or 6% LMC (if you're that hung up on the 1%).

That's a lot of counting, adding, and flipping around. I'm still curious about how this would look with the PRGs swapped for the Undead Pirate Hat, but I don't care enough right now to bother.


I think it goes without saying, don't expect to reach this point very quickly. You can pull the Undead pieces with some real world cash, but otherwise you're in for a long, long journey for the rest of this. Grim's quest has a long restriction time between each attempt and doesn't award an item each time, just as an example. Good luck.

 - Update 06/12/10 -

I did the math, and Undead Hat is way better than PRGs for us. Right quickly, assuming UPH, EEArms, Undead chest, legs, and gloves:

63 Int, 75% SDI, 49% LMC, 27% LRC, 18 Mana Increase, 14 Mana Regen, 5/5 FC/R 113/107/65/97/62 Resists. A difference of -4 Int for equal or better in everything else.

Next we add:
Ninja Belt Armor: 25% LRC, 20 MI, 4 MR, [open], [open], 5 cold resist, 8/13 Energy resist
Merlin's Robe: 10 Int
Hastu's: 6 Int, 6 Dex, 5 Str, 1/2 FC/R, 1 mana regen
SC Ring: +15 Resist Spells, 20 Str, 16 Int, 15 Dex, 25% SDI, 30% LRC
SC Bracelet: +15 Resist Spells, 20 Str, 16 Int, 15 Dex, 25% SDI, 30% LRC
SC Necklace: 20 Str, 16 Int, 15 Dex, [open], [open]
SC Earrings: 20 Str, 16 Int, 15 Dex, [open], [open]

For a Total of : +30 Resist Spells, 143 Int, 149 Str, 107 Dex, 125% SDI, 49% LMC, 112% LRC, 38 MI, 19 MR, 6/7 FC/R, max all resists.

Spellbooks won't cap your Int this way, but Bless will. Your SDI and LMC will be capped without books, so that's a bigger plus. If you run with shields, Gwenno's gives 10 all stats, which puts you at cap. I can't remember if any others can do that too.  For all I know, it *may* be possible to get a UPH with better stat bonuses; a 12 in Str would cap you, but you'd need an 18 Int bonus for the Int cap (doubtful that'd happen).

Being a Mage - Part 6

Mages, like any character, have a number of choices they have to make that ultimately individualize the character. Since we can GM/Legend any skill on UOPF, the choices are cut down quite a bit, but there are still a few important ones to make.


Human or Elf

There are fairly decent bonuses to both sides of this one, but I tend towards Elf. I'll cover the mechanical benefits of both just so all the info is available to you.

Humans:

- Workhorse: Increased odds of gaining more resources when lumberjacking, mining, or skinning hides. This can be a noticeable increase in some cases and is probably the best benefit of being human. More resources is never a bad thing. In the case of mining, it seems to give you more swings per node, for lumberjacking it's more logs per hit.

Tough: Increased health regeneration. This isn't a bad bonus either, but it's one that you probably won't notice too much. If you have a little damage on you, you probably won't waste time healing it and won't really see the regen in effect either because you'll have gone on about your business. When you have a big hurt, you're going to heal it away anyway.

Strong Back: +60 stones to your carrying capacity. Without a doubt, this is a big bonus. However, it's of limited use. I can't imagine why anyone on Paradise wouldn't have 150 base strength, but even without that you'll very likely have tons of strength bonus on your gear. Either way, you're going to have enough strength to carry a full 400 backpack and your character weight without this bonus. Unless you have the Extreme Backpack, you probably won't even notice this little perk.

Jack of All Trades: This is the big one, a basic and free 20 points in every skill. You don't actually *have* these twenty points, it's just that where ever you *don't* have at least 20 points in a skill, your basic effectiveness at it is as if you had the 20 points. This makes training some skills that can't be bought a bit easier, however this is still a benefit of limited use. There's no skillcap on Paradise, so if you're doing things right you'll not see any effect from this after a few weeks on the shard.

Elf

- Night Sight: Elves get a permanent Night Sight spell cast on them. This would be great, except Razor comes with the ability to turn off the darkness layer and there's little reason, outside of RP, to not use it.

- Difficult to Track: Elves are harder to track that most other creatures. Again, not really a big deal. Monsters don't track and there's no world PvP; if you're fighting another player, it's a duel or maybe guild training so this doesn't ever matter.

- Perception: Elves have a bonus to detecting hidden monsters and players. Other than Doom Gauntlet, this is another lackluster benefit. If PvP was in play, maybe. But since it's not...

- Infused with Magic: Adds a +5 to your normal Energy Resist cap, giving you a 75 instead of 70. It's a small thing, but seeing as all casters use at least Magery there are two big spells that apply here; Lightning and Energy Bolt. Things that do Energy damage in melee become slightly easier as well, I suppose (though mages shouldn't melee). It's a gravy benefit really, but it is a nice one.

- Knowledge of Nature: Increases the special resources you gain, such as colored ore and logs. This is a great benefit. I often find myself pulling veins of ore without any iron at all, if the vein is low enough. Even on Valorite veins, I typically pull 10/18 Iron/Valorite, and that ain't terrible either. The easy 115 Smith/Mining PS is a Valorite small BOD, by the by.

- Wisdom: +20 mana to your max. This is where it's at. I loves me some mana, and even warrior types can't deny how nice this one is. Unlike Human's weight benefit, this is one you'll see every time. Even with my 330+ mana, I'm still known to get low on it in Champ Spawns or against bigger monsters; having another 20 mana is basically the same as another three fireballs.

In-Play benefits

To make matters worse, Elves have some things that they can do that Humans can't. The most important of them is the Cu Sidhe. This is easily my favorite pet ever. It has solid HP (about 550~600), 1K strength, high resists, over GM skills, and does both Bleed and Lethal Poison on hit. They're also riddable, which is very nice. They take three control slots, which means you can have two of them without the donation slot *and* as soon as you're able to tame them. Barring high stage Evos, I haven't seen anything that compares. Two of these guys can bring down and Ancient Dragon with minimal healing.


Karma: High or Low

On the one hand, this might seem like a no-brainer choice, especially since I recommend Necromancy so enthusiastically. There are a few good points to high karma. Most of them related to Chivalry.

- Remove Curse. This will sound like a minor point to some, but it's actually very useful. At Legendary Eval, anything that Curses for over 13% will require more than one Bless to overcome. Or one Remove Curse. It casts quick enough and is a much better way of getting over the big Curse hits from Terragon Ancient Liches than the alternative; don't forget, every -2 to Strength is 1 Hp that you can't just heal. Blessing over it takes more time, but ignoring it altogether is just reckless. Necromancy curses and Mortal Strike are also removed by this, as is the Paralyze spell (?).

- Better Chiv heals and cures. You can still use Close Wounds and Cleanse by Fire at low karma, but both of these benefit from higher Karma.

- Holy Light: You'll lose out on Wither, but Holy Light is a popular alternative. I haven't used it much, so I can't say how they compare in terms of damage.  Holy Light is Energy instead of Cold, for what that's worth.

- Dispel Evil? I've never thought to use it when I had high Karma, but it sounds like a spell that might have some use against high spawns or the Black Liche. I'll have to test it out later.

- Random Blues don't attack you. This doesn't apply to many creatures, mostly those that were introduced with UO:R, but if you're looking for a Unicorn or Ki-Rin, you'll want high karma just to keep the rest of them from trying to kill you.

The biggest high karma drawbacks are mostly minor. You lose out on Wither (which I don't suggest high use of anyway), Strangle, Evil Omen, and Corpse Skin. This means your only choice for Lethal Poison is through weapons or Lethal Poisoned Shuriken. Corpse Skin is the hardest to lose, because high resist all enemies are generally best dealt with by CS + Fireball. In the case of things like Ancient Dragons you can get away without Corpse Skin, but as the enemies get bigger so too does the usefulness of Corpse Skin. Strangle is likely your best poison damage, so seeing it go is a bit of a hurt as well. You'll be okay without it, though.


Shield or none?

I tend to err on the side of none. It doesn't feel Mage-y to me, but you don't have to agree. Before you have some of the better artifacts, shields are a great way to make up some mods. Guardian Crest is an easy one to get your hands on. Relic of the Church is an even better one, and if appearing Mage-y is a concern it can be 'use item in hand'-ed to Poly into an Ethereal Warrior. If you pull together the Virtue Set, you'll get Dupre's Shield which is pretty popular and has some nice enough mods. Gwenno's Shield and Shield of Salvation are easily the highest of the high-end shields; count yourself fortunate if you pull one of those.

In any case, if you run with a shield then you will find it a good plan to get rid of your Bushido; with Bushido in play, your Shield parry really eats it. You can throw it on a Skill Totem (quest) or Soul Stone (30K at Paradise Mall). You'll also want to make sure you pull together the 80 dex for full parrying bonus, as well as a solid buffer so that curses don't take you below 80.


Ninja and Bushido

Mirror Images are the number one suggestion for taking out just about anything on the shard, which I feel is weak character. You may disagree and want to fit them into your combat style. They won't pull much damage if you're holding a spellbook, but if you have a full suit of Aquas leather or better, they'll very likely have full 95% resist all which means they'll tank like no one's business. You can use animal forms to travel around instead of mounting and dismounting for every fight; if you're moving when you cast animal form you'll automatically try to assume the last form you used. Wolf is a good choice for the bonus health, Unicorn gets low-level poison immunity. You can only cast mirrors and animal form while in Animal Form and if you're currently using another form, even Vampire, you can't use Animal Form.

Other abilities that could help you in general, regardless of mirrors, include Focus Attack and Death Strike. From time to time, you may need to use a mana leech weapon and Focus Attack can help with that. Death Strike is good for mobs that are already running away from your. Ki Attack is also valid for jousting, assuming you have that much freedom to run around.

Bushido's Evasion is a great ability that I almost never remember to use (requires a weapon in hand, which a spellbook is not). It can block even things such as firebreath. Confidence can earn you healing if you're forced into melee (mana leeching) through parrying attacks, and includes a flat regen bonus to health and stamina for 4 seconds. If you have no HCI bonuses, Lightning Strike will get you HCI-capped hits; thus, you have even more reason to ignore seeking HCI bonuses. Obviously, Bushido allows parrying with a weapon as well, which can be more worthwhile than shields for we wand using Mages.


Overall...

Essentially, your choices come down to how much of a mage you really want to be. Pure Mages largely eschew shields and high karma to do as much damage as possible. Tank Mages will likely depend a bit more on Chivalry and Shields. Petless Mages may want to use mirrors as their tanks. A Druid type might favor Spell Weaving and Animal Form more than anything else.

Your choice may change depending on how you play; if you have friends that mostly use pets, you may find high karma a good choice to keep them curse free, control the crowd, and have multiple healing methods. If your friends run mostly mirrors, you're better off going full aggression with low karma Necromancy. Running solo, it's really a judgment call as to which is the best, though I can see a strong case for Shields; spellbooks don't Bushido Parry, so as long as you only have Parrying a shield can do you good in those times you get hit with a powerful paralyze. In the end, you're free to fit whatever you want into your Mage game. Just be careful; on a shard like Paradise, the line between Battle Mage and Dexer with few spells is very thin.

Magic Tactics - Creature Feature 3

One of the more common enemies people have trouble with, at least the first time, is the Black Liche. Sadly, the *only* solution I ever see for him is, of course, Mirror Image. Last night someone mixed it up and added in Wither, but Mirrors were still the initial suggestion. This is completely unnecessary, and it makes me sad to see that there are otherwise intelligent people that can't figure other methods of dealing with these creatures. Mirrors are *not* required to beat the BL. Intelligence and knowing your Necromancy is.

I use two different methods for dealing with this jerk.

Solo Method

This is the most dangerous method because the BL will be focused on you. However, this doesn't make him anymore dangerous than Terragon Dragons or Balrons either. Firstly, he *will* Flamestrike you. A lot. At 70 resist, it does around 60~70 damage to me, so be ready to heal often and quickly. Lots of FC/R and a one-button hotkey for your heal are your best friends here. Secondly, he *will* use Blood Oath on you at some point. If you're not paying attention, you will kill yourself. Watch your health closely, and if you see a sudden drop from something that isn't a Flamestrike, *stop* casting. He'll also hit you with Mind Rot from time to time, so you'll have to keep an eye on your mana if your regen isn't great.

Those are your biggest concerns, Flame Strike and Blood Oath. You're a mage, so I don't think I need to tell you to stay out of melee; otherwise, he'll turn you into a Skeleton. I'm not certain the exact effects of this on us, but it's unkind either way. If this does happen, you can break it with a quick Polymorph (the namesake spell or a Necro Form are best, but not Reaper form because it's too slow).

Corpse Skin + Fireballs is the way to finish him off. Take your time with it, don't get too spam happy; at 4/8 FC/R, I've been able to have two fireballs sailing when he Blood Oathed me and wound up eating the damage from both. You'll have to figure out the proper casting routine for yourself, but trust me; it's there and it's easy.

What about his spawns, you ask? Ignore them. As long as you keep moving, it's entirely possible that you'll be out of their range before they even think to aggro. If they do, a Fireball is generally enough to take them out. It's ultimately a non-issue for us. Though do be a responsible hunter and take them out *after* you kill the BL if they don't disappear.

Pets Method

Taking out the BL with pets is even easier. You will have to accept that they're going to be turned into Skeletons, but that's not really a big deal. You'll be partially on healing duty for this, but you do have a few key things that need to be done.

Namely, his spawn. This time it is an issue, as your pet will be tanking and keeping the battle stationary. Wraiths are not that big of a threat alone, but letting the BL summon too many can end a fight quick. There are two ways of dealing with them. Firstly, you can drop a quick Meteor Swarm each time they spawn. If you're quick enough, you can get them all in one shot and deal some damage to the BL at the same time. Alternatively, you can liter the area around the BL with Fire Fields. With the BL as the center, generally two in front and two behind make a big enough box that anything that spawns will immediately be caught in it. Even if not, should the Wraiths target your pet, they'll move into the field and burn up quick enough.

Depending on your pet, you may have plenty of leeway to nuke between heals. Cu Sidhe are rockstar for this (they rarely aren't rockstar, honestly). The Cu is a caster as well, so you can somewhat count on him to take care of himself; unless he gets Lethal poisoned or the creature he's dealing with poisons on hit, you can generally leave curing to him. Having two Cu Sidhe (if you can tame a Cu, you can use the Taming Potion for 7 Slots; a Cu takes three. Do the math) is a good way to take down just about anything in short order.

Mercs are also good against the BL, with high resist gear on hand. Fire resist is a great idea to dull down those Flamestrikes. Tutivillus might also be a solid tank, but be careful with him. I wouldn't take a Stage 3 Tordit or Stage 2 puppy against the BL; their resists and health are a bit too low for my liking and you may burn out all of your mana just trying to keep them alive. At higher stages, however, these also could be strong pets for a BL due to the sheer damage they can do even at low stages, along with Mortal Strike. I haven't played with my Evo dragon in a while, so I can't really say how he would work against the BL; I would err on the same side as the Tordit/Puppy in the Dragon's early stages, though.

If your Merc/pet can deal Fire or Poison damage, then Corpse Skin is still in the 'definite' column. If they use mostly Energy, you can still go for it. Pure Physical or Cold damage, however, you'd best leave it alone. You'll still most likely want to Fireball when you have the chance, but Lightning is also fast and powerful so you might consider it as well. Healing and Curing is your first priority, however; you don't want the Pet Method to turn into the Solo Method on *his* terms.

Mage Tactics - General 4

Continuing from a previous post, we'll go over the pets worth taming. Unlike my other posts, I expect this will be a short one. Most of the custom tamables are for skill over GM. I currently have 110 Taming, so I haven't tamed them all. I won't cover pets I haven't had or haven't seen in play.

At GM skill, you have a few options. Dragons, White Wyrms, Rune Beetles and Nightmares are pretty much the best of them. These can get reasonably powerful, but don't expect anything more than what standard UO offers from them. They haven't been buffed in any way, so custom enemies on UOPF will make a mess of them most of the time.

Tutivillius is a custom tamable (92.0). It cannot bond to you, so you'll have to be a bit careful with it. It is a pretty strong pet to own, however. About at the 1K mark for Strength, 650+ health, high resists including 100% Poison and around 70% physical. He (somehow) deals 100% Physical, 25% in all the others. Skill-wise, nothing over GM, but high out of the gate. Three control slots.

The over GM pets aren't often as good as Tutivillius. The ones that I've gotten so far are the Silver Steed, the Phantom Steed, Frost Steed, Fire Steed, and Cu Sidhe.

Silver Steeds (103.1) are re-colored horses. Don't expect anything more from them than you would a horse. One control slot.

Phantom Steeds (105.1) are basically Nightmares; slightly higher strength scores, 450 health, about 35-/+ in each resist other than Physical, which is around 50~60. Three control slots though. I haven't trained one to high skill, so it's possible that they can go over GM skill somewhere but I doubt it.

Fire Steeds (106.0) are the same as UO Standard. Lower than Nightmare stats and resists. High Fire resist and skills. The do come with pack instinct Daemon. Two control slots.

Frost Steeds (110) are recolored Nightmares. They have a frost breath attack, but for all other purposes they're the same as far as I can tell.

Cu Sidhe (104.1) are easily the best tame I've ever had. The majority of it's skills are over GM, it has 1K strength, 550-ish health, resists very high (over 60 on all of them, 80's for cold and poison). It uses spells, bleed attack, and deals lethal poison. As if it needed to do anything else, it is also a mount. I'm unsure if you have to be an elf to tame and ride these like UO standard. Unlike UO Standard, it doesn't use Healing skill. Takes three control slots. (Note, as of Jan~Feb '11, this information is somewhat obsolete)

Clay Puppet: Grabbed one of these a couple days ago in Elysium. Not sure the tame skill required. They're weak pets, though. Over 100 hp, low resist, no magic. I haven't used it much, for the reasons mentioned.

Kodiak: Another Elysium pet that I'm not sure of the skill needed I'm estimating near the 110 mark because it took a lot of tries to finally get. A world better than the Puppet. Nearly 900 strength, high magic resist, decent resists, and solid health. It won't replace a Cu, but it's a good stepping stone to the Cu if you don't have one yet but want to see what one might be capable of.


New custom tames are added fairly often, including special limited-time tames. I can't comment on any of those. As I gain better skill and tame some of these new additions, I'll update this post.

As right now, I wouldn't waste my time on any tames other than Tutivillius at GM skill or a Cu Sidhe over GM.

Mage Tactics - General 5

Batman is a better super hero than Superman: Fact.

Superman survives because he's nigh-invulnerable, save for a very gimmicky weakness; completely boring.

Batman wins because he's a crafty dude who both adapts to situations and plans ahead.

"Where does he get those wonderful toys?"

I'll tell you Joker; he's rich and crafty.

Interestingly enough, so are we on Paradise. So there's really no reason we shouldn't have a few useful toys of our own.

Fire Horn: Okay, granted, these aren't the most impressive of tools. The damage is based on your four Bard skills, tops out at about 70~80 damage, has a "you must catch your breath" delay, has to be used within 3 panels, and consumes 4 ash each use. However, it's an area of effect attack, and often just enough to clear some of those weaker spawn from around you (If you've ever used the travel stone to get to Blood, you know what I'm talking about). You can create a macro for it that removes ash from your reagent crystal for you then uses the item. You could also set it to target a relative location right at your feet if you want, but I prefer to target it myself. It as a 95% chance of success, 4% chance to fail, and 1% chance to fail and break.

Bolas: Again, another item that has limited use on Paradise. There are only a few mounted enemies in the game and dismounting them has limited effect anyway. Really, the best use for these is if you're wanting to steal a Ridgeback from a savage. But honestly, you can find those elsewhere.

Shuriken: Now we have something. Something I just recently learned, you do *not* have to wear the leather ninja belt to use Shuriken. Each belt can hold a maximum of ten shuriken. At 120 Blacksmith skill, I make them exceptionally 100% of the time and get 2 per attempt. They can be deadly poisoned and thrown at any enemy within three tiles, just as with Firehorns. However, if you're willing to work a bit harder, they can also be Lethal Poisoned. There's a questgiver in Occlo that will give you a Lethal Poison potion for every 20 beetle venom (or whatever) you give her. This item can be looted from Rune Bettles. Lethal Poison shuriken are a great alternative for high karma players who want to skip using Evil Omen to get Lethal. Their chance to hit is based on Ninjitsu, last I heard.

Wands: My new favorite item. Unlike On Hit: Spell effects on weapons, Wands take into account your skills and item bonuses, i.e., a Lightning spell from a Wand will do exactly the same damage as a spell you cast. Wands do have a delay between uses, but they also use 0 mana. This means that even if you're stuck chain healing one of your pets, you can still use a wand to damage between heals without worrying out running yourself out of mana. Likewise, if you find yourself getting low on mana you can pull out a Greater Heal wand to pick up the slack while your mana catches up. Wands also work for defensive macing and benefit from Bushido Parry despite having 0 speed. Because of the 0 speed, wands will not swing. This makes Taming that much easier, as you don't have to worry about angering or accidentally killing what you're trying to tame.

Smokeballs: These are nifty little items to have on hand. I previously said that Wall of Stone and hiding was the quickest way to make a fast escape, but these have changed my mind. They're based off Ninjitsu firstly, to determine if they work. If they do, you make an immediate Hiding check as if nothing has line of sight to you. You still have to deal with skill delay, so you can't use a smokeball and follow it with an immediate Stealth check, but if you have the skills and want to get away, this is a good item to keep around.

Potions: These are great to keep around, and easier to keep in bulk if you have a Gardener's Bucket; it will hold Greater Cure, Heal, Agility, and Strength potions for you. All you need is a macro that will pop one out and use it when you need it. Ancient Alchemy on Paradise expands this a bit further. There are now Mana potions, Super Potions (+10 all stats), Invisibility and Stealth Potions, and Revitalize Potions (completely refill Health, Mana, and Stamina).

Pet Leash: You can also use Shrink Potions (from ancient alchemy) for the same effect. Either one lets you shrink your pets, putting them in your main backpack and freeing your control slots once again. These are good to keep on hand if you're training pets, only keeping a pet around for one big mob, or planning to run the Doom Gauntlet. Likewise, if you're a serious tamer or doing a quest, you may like to have the bigger use leashes around when you do heavy taming sprees.

Scrolls: These are another thing worth keeping around thanks to special holders on Paradise, in this case the Scribe's Tome. If you have less than 120 Magery or Necromancy, there are certain spells you can't cast at 100% chance. In this moments, have a scroll around is a great time saver. Rather than recast a couple times hoping to succeed, you could pop out a scroll; scrolls cast as if two circles lower than what you can cast. In the case of 7th, 8th, and high skill Necro, at GM skill you can use any spell from a scroll at 100% success.

Mage Tactics - Creature Feature 2

I'm posting this one because I had to leave the shard for a few days, just to be reminded of why I feel like I have it so good on UOPF. I'm generally fairly accepting of the fact that, when it comes to high-end custom content, the shard is not balanced for mages. Sometimes this is in our favor, more often it isn't. At the best of times, it offers an even greater challenge and sense of success for pulling through.

Then there's Gwenno.

So the Gwenno quest is in Elysium, the shard's custom facet. It's a short quest; get a guy his arm and he'll open a gate to Gwenno, who you can fight for a shot at some nice artifacts (for dexers, of course) and fulfill the quest for Sir Kenshin's cloak as well.

The first part of the quest is easy. The guy who has your questgiver's arm is a pushover. So much of one that I was deluded into thinking I could solo Gwenno as a Mage. So I proceed into the portal to Gwenno, jump another hoop or two, and our fight begins.

It starts off pretty tame. I went in with Mirrors going because I was expecting something like Dread Horn or worse. I sic them on the dead king, throw down a fire field on him, and mostly watch what's going on while mixing in a few fireballs. The mirrors aren't doing a ton of damage to him, and neither are the fireballs honestly, so I'm putting his (Fire) resist at around 80~85, same as Ancient Dragons. (He's human and I only have 115 Animal Lore, so I can't get exact numbers) I try throwing a Corpse Skin on him, but it doesn't change the fireball damage at all.

He's also not exactly melting the faces off my mirrors, so I'm fairly sure he doesn't melee very great. This is confirmed when I toy around with him and he hits me for about 40~ish. That's all well and good, but I still don't like being melee'd, so I change tactics. Out comes my Cu Sidhe. He also isn't doing great damage, but we're finally seeing a bit of red on the life bar. I'm healing him pretty well, but I still have a lot of time for fireballs. Gwenno is apparently poison immune, or so damn resistant that he might as well be, and he loves the Heal spell. Still, things are okay, we're making progress.

Then he WTF-one-hits my Cu. This is, at the least, 600 damage to a creature with 70-ish in all resists (some a bit better, some worse). I'm stunned by this and, having dropped my mirroring, left alone with this guy. So, figuring it was some sort of special move, I start my standard run-n-gun style Magery. He's not super fast, so I'm not having trouble playing keep-away, but his heals are better than three of my fireballs, so this is pretty much a losing battle at this point.

Then he WTF-one-hit me. With HP-based Firebreath.

Son of a...

That's it. That officially ENDS any chance I have. You will not beat Gwenno as a mage.

It was enough when he had crazy Resists, Spell Resist, and spammed a strong heal, but now he also has Firebreath? It's over. You can't compete with that. In the time that you get res'd from being hit with it, he will have healed all the damage you did (I know this for fact; he chain cast heal like six times when I died, right back to full health).

You will not beat him as a Tamer. This fireball either ignores resists or does such massive damage that even at 95% resist you would still need a boatload of health on your pet for it to survive a hit. Then you have to full heal the thing before it gets HPB'd again. If you can find a pet that can take a hit like that, please let me know what it is because I don't believe it exists. *Maybe* a stage 7 Merc?

The only realistic way to beat this guy is to have full DI, HCI, DCI, SSI, and whatever else dexers use, and spam Mirror Image. You'll also need Mortal Strike, assuming it works on him, to keep him from healing. Unless I've missed my guess, Skullthunker just happens to be a scepter, which has Mortal Strike.

GG, Dexers. GG. /quit


- Update 06/10/10 - 

I've put some more thought into this fight, and I stand by the 'no Mage can do it' thing. However, this is working off of my definition of a Mage. If yours includes Mirror Image then you can make it work. It just requires spamming MI and Fireballs. You'd simply need to keep stocked on a massive amount of Mana Potions (I sometimes forget they're on the shard because I don't have a PS for Alchemy yet). This is the only way you'll have the fuel to burn him down and avoid still the HPB.

Still, for as much "strategy" as that is, you might as well just go dexer all the same. It's really a stupid boss and I don't foresee myself doing this one again unless I can bring my second account in with me to act as a second Fireball cannon. Maybe give it a "If Mana < 15 drink pot / else / Corpse Skin / For Loop 15 Cast Fireball / End Loop / End If" macro and let turn him loose. I could add in Mirrors with him just to be safe, but he would only have three and that would take more mana off him for little gain. It would be far easier and faster to just let him blaze and handle the mirroring myself. Gwenno doesn't kill them on a fixed schedule. I actually had a few time out in my fight with him.

I really don't expect I'll bother. I already have (and don't use) a Kenshin Cloak and I don't care about the sword or shield. Like so many other things, it's really a no-gain thing for me.