MarkeeDragon wrote:
PvP Tactics
Part I (Mage)
Mage vs. Mage
Don't tie your PvP style to one tactic. You are like a football team. You need several plays in your play book. Be versatile and well practiced with several different tactics.
(This section posted with permission of Tim of GL)
This is a guide intended for the mages who wish to become better at PvP. If you are attacked and do not wish to fight back, then recall out when they cast explosion, ebolt, or flamestrike. Recall has a lesser delay and so you will make it out. For those of you who want to fight back/ want to be able to attack people and actually kill them, then read on. Also, I may make a group PvP guide. Finally, you can bitch at me over this guide by e-mailing me.
NOTE: This guide is somewhat based upon Redrum's over at UO Powergamers. His guide is very well written, however, I will expand upon his tactics, give you some new ones, since his mage v mage guide is written for a mage that uses swords. Mine uses macing, and so I will make references to what to do if you are macing. Enough of the legal/pre-guide BS on to the good stuff:
Things to Remember:
Use the instant-hit with your weapon whenever possible (instant-hit= where you arm your weapon right after you cast a spell on your opponent---with pre-casting gone remember to target first!!!---then run up to your opponent with weapon in hand. This is a bug that lets you get a free hit off, with no delay. So use it while you still can.). Second, Try to preserve your mana as much as possible (more on this later). Finally, with pre-casting gone, almost all of the tactics revolve around the use of the greater heal spell, so let's hope OSI decides not to f*ck with it
The Fight:
To start things off, cast Harm on your opponent to knock of your reflect. Harm is better than Magic Arrow in 2 ways. First, if harm does get through, then you will hopefully lower your opponent's attributes, where as in Magic Arrow your opponent would take 1 damage. (NOTE: If your Harm goes through in a fair 1 v 1 match, chances are you are dealing with an idiot, since it means that they did not have reflect up). Second, if Harm reflects, it will reflect back immediately with no delay, where as in Magic Arrow has a slight delay and could end up disrupting your next spell, which would suck.
Next, go for the instant-hit with your weapon (if macing, I suggest the War Hammer, for swords, go with the halberd). Now come the scenarios:
* Your opponent casts an offensive after your instant-hit: If he shrugs of your instant-hit like its nothing, and casts an offensive spell, then cast an offensive spell of your own in response. I like explosion here, since after you cast it you run in for another instant-hit, and with luck they will hit at same time, and your opponent will be dead since he didn't heal earlier. Any offensive spell will work fine, though. Just remember to go for the instant-hit afterwards. If your opponent tries to heal afterwards, should he not be dead, then cast something to disturb his heal (weaken, harm, clumsy, feeblemind),
then try another instant-hit, and run after him with your main weapon (quarter staff or katana), in which case my advice turns over to the next section. Originally, when your opponent casts his offensive spell right after the fight starts, you can cast greater heal in response, however you will most likely lose, so you are advised to not heal until you are at 50-60% life, so you can get the most out of your greater heals and mana.
* Your opponent casts greater heal in response to any of your offensive spells (explosion, ebolt, FS) during the fight: In this case, if your opponent casts greater heal in response to your off spell, then cancel out the spell and arm your main weapon (again, quarter staff or katana) a and take it to them. Why? First off, if you let your offensive spell fly, your opponent will simply let his GH once you do your damage, and you would have pissed away 20 or 40 mana and some reagents (and in these post-precast days fights may come down to who runs out of regs first). Second, if your opponent doesn't cancel his GH, when you start to whack him with your weapon, he cant arm a weapon himself because pre-casting is gone. So all he can do now is let you whack on him and let his heal go. Eventually, if this continues, he will run out of mana and victory will be yours. When your opponent loses 50-60% of his health, disarm and cast ebolt on him. If he heals, then its going to be a llllllloooooonnnnnngggggg fight

If so, then follow the tactics laid out above, remember to heal when you lose 50% of your life, and try get in instant-hits after your offensive spells. Also, stick with them so that they cant get their instant-hits off, plus with high wrestling you may disturb their spells and do some free damage.
Other Possible Tactic:
* This is one that usually doesn't work against mages, especially if they are carrying trapped pouches. Harm then paralyze instead of instant-hit. Then throw a greater explosion potion, cast explosion, and cast a flamestrike. If he is still alive, and equip your halberd or war hammer to give the final blow. Odds are they will die
GOOD LUCK and pray that it doesn't come down to whoever runs out of regs first.
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Words of Wisdom.
o
Always use Deadly Poisoned weapons when possible. Regardless if you use a Sword or a Fencing weapon, carry 2 of the weapon with you. One is to be the one with the Deadly Poison and the other is the one you fight the fight with following getting your opponent poisoned. For the sake of costs, there is little added value in the Deadly Poisoned weapon being special, not even GM quality. It just needs the poison on it. If you want to use magic weapons, then I would put Deadly Poison potion on the most accurate weapon I had. Just change weapons after the target is poisoned.
o
Before the fight, cast protection on yourself to temporarily give you armor.
o
Before the fight, cast reactive armor on yourself to disturb their concentration if they try to cast anything, and to add more damage when you hit them with a combat skill.
o
Before the fight, cast bless on yourself and cast heal on yourself to temporarily give you more stats.
o
Before the fight, cast curse on your opponent to temporarily decrease their stats.
o
Before the fight, guzzle a greater agility potion, and a total refresh potion to add more stamina.
o
Also before the fight, guzzle a greater strength potion, and a greater heal potion to add more hit points.
o
If you get to 50% life or lower, and can't drink a heal potion, or you've run out of heal potions, un-equip your weapon, and cast a greater heal on yourself.
o
If you have heal potions, drink them when you lose 20-30% life.
o
If you're fighting a mace fighter, don't drink a total refresh potion until all or most of your stamina is run out, because total refreshes can refresh your 25 stamina easily. If you keep drinking total refreshes, no matter what you're stamina is at, you'll be wasting them and will eventually run out.
o
If you're almost dead (20% life or lower), and can't get a greater heal off without getting disrupted, drink a greater heal and cast regular heal, because it cannot be disrupted no matter what.
o
If you see your opponent casting paralyze, and you don't have any magic trapped containers; cast magic arrow, and target yourself when you get paralyzed - you will be free to move again