About armor, repairing and dungeons

[Fass]

So, I've been back to UO for almost 2 weeks and I still didn't figure out some things. So I will try to list them in questions, hoping someone can help me figure them out.

1) Is there a reason for wearing leather/studded armor besides their low STR requisite?

2) I don't see blacksmiths offering their services. Is it okay to just trash the armor that are about to break or am I losing too much money for not repairing them myself? I've been using bone armor because I've stacked a lot of them from cemiteries, I am not sure if they break faster than chain mail, but they break too fast. My heater shield also breaks fast.

3) What are good dungeons for warriors to solo? I did Covetous first floor and it was OK, but it seems to be a busy spot for other players (and maybe PKs). I also tried the Orc Fort beside Cove, but the respawn rate is so high that I can't get past the little cave near it, I just drag one orc at a time to be safe. These were the places I knew well when I played 10 years ago, I don't know a lot of the other dungeons and I don't remember much about the couple others I visited. Where else can I try? I'm looking for the highest gold income possible for a solo player. I already GMed my combat and healing skills so I'm ready for anything that doesn't need another player or a high resisting spells rate.

4) When is using Plate Mail worth it? I'm full DEX but I don't feel comfortable about losing 20 points for armor. Question number 2 is the other reason. But sometimes I feel I could use the extra protection when fighting orc lords.

5) Can I buy a rideable llama from a stable or should I look for a tamer selling them? I had one horse that was murdered when I was PK'ed and never bought another because it was always tired. Maybe the llamas can run longer?

[Mikel123]

1) you can regain mana faster in studded leather than in metal armor, and faster still in leather. If you're a warrior though, and don't really use magery except for recalls and a few random other instances, you will likely find yourself best off in ring/chain/plate mail.

2) there may be a bug regarding selling an item to an NPC and then re-purchasing it at full repair. Search the forums; I'm not sure the status on this. In any case, it will cost you some gold even if it works, since they'll charge you more for the item than they paid you for it. But if you have some nice magic armor, or even GM armor, it's likely cheaper to do this than to keep buying new sets.

3) Shame level 1 has only earth elementals and scorpions. If you're concerned about PKs, you can cast Magic Reflect and walk into this dungeon and you never have to worry about a monster removing your reflect. So if you see a PK coming, you'll know their first spell will be reflected and won't disrupt your cast of Recall, if you choose to escape that way. Additionally, the curvy nature of the level makes it likely you will see a PK running through another tunnel, well before they're able to loop around and get within sight of you.

Shame level 2 is more dangerous (air and earth elementals) and the air elementals will remove your reflect and make you vulnerable to PK surprise attack. But, they carry a lot more gold than earth elementals, so you may find it worthwhile.

Wrong has trolls and ogres and ettins, which if you're satisfied with orc loot, you'll be satisfied with their loot. I can't imagine PKs ever look for victims in Wrong, but I could be wrong.

To me though, you really can't beat Deceit. Silver weapons doing double damage makes you pretty efficient. And, the area on level 4 of Deceit with the fire elementals is a good spot to farm liches. There's lots of tunnels and doorways, so unless a PK happens to recall/gate into the precise room you're in, they'll have no chance of getting to you before you can recall.

Lastly, there is a spawn of liches near Yew that you can try. If you are attacked there, you can simply run a few screens north to get into town. If you have trapped pouches to break Paralysis, and a Greater Heal potion or two, it's very very difficult to be killed by a PK before you're in the safety of the town (assuming you're on a horse).

4) plate mail really isn't worth it, in my opinion. It's most useful against things that hit VERY hard, and as a warrior you're not likely standing next to these monsters taking hits. You're far more efficient to fight the things you can stand next to safely and whack away at wearing chain/ring armor with no dex loss.

5) you must find a rideable llama from a tamer. Llamas can run a little longer, but not much. You're best off just buying horses from the stable. Search the forums for the "all follow me" bug. If you set a macro and use it when you get the "your mount is getting fatigued" message, you'll never really run into issues.

[Trols]

Good response...

I learned alot!

[Mikel123]

Another plus for silver weapons and liches, by the way... more damage equals less hits needed to kill the things. And less hits equals less damage to your weapon.

Weapons do 125% of their normal damage at full repair ("it looks unused"), and 75% right before they are about to fall apart. I think they typically lose about 5 percentage points per Arms Lore level below "unused", since there's 10 arms lore levels. Make sure you keep your weapons pretty well-repaired. They lose 1 HP of durability each time they're repaired, but they typically have around 50 HPs total, so you can repair it a couple dozen times before you really even notice it wearing out faster and faster. And you're quite likely to die or get PKed before that point anyways.

[Pirul]

Mikel's responses are dead on. I'd just add:

2) Jump on IRC and ask for repairs. You'll get at least 3 offers to do it for free in no time.

3) Fire Dungeon. First level has some NPC mages, and a "cemetery" with a couple of liches, which with some skill, and a silver wep, you can easily take care of. Second level is where it's at. Efreet spawns in a closed room, just you and the mob, if reds roll in, you see them with plenty of oportunity to recall before they can get there, open the door and attack. Spawn is fast, or at least decent enough for you to make some 15-20k an hour. Plus, if you hang around for more than 30 mins, you're likely to get a piece of Deamon Bone armor. A full set will sell for 30-35k, so not too shabby for a little bonus. Be warned, Efreets are a tough cookie for a dexxer, it is entirely doable, but you'll need to be on your toes, and carry tons (and I mean TONS (20+) of cure pots, they love to poison).

I wouldn't recomend venturing further down in Fire since the only real spawns left are a room with orcs and ettins (which is tough vs. the returns), and an NPC mage tower. The NPC mage tower has very good yields, however dealing with the initial spawn, with the new targetting through walls thing, on a solo dexxer can get a bit dicey. Doable, but you need some experience...and GM resist!!

Down side, if you can call it that, is that Fire Dungeon is part of the lost lands. If you're inside you can only recall to Delucia or Papua (or any other t2a area, of course), you gotta run outside for you to be able to recall to Brittania.

[nightshark]

I wouldn't recomend venturing further down in Fire since the only real spawns left are a room with orcs and ettins (which is tough vs. the returns), and an NPC mage tower. The NPC mage tower has very good yields, however dealing with the initial spawn, with the new targetting through walls thing, on a solo

Codswallop... I left my friend who had never played uo before in that mage tower on a character with gm wep skill/70 healing/50 resist, he raked in the gold

All I taught him was "push this button when you're poisoned (cure pot), and always have a bandage applying"

[Pirul]

For the respawn (once you've killed all of the initial spawn, which I'd imagine you did since you "left your friend there") I agree, but getting the initial spawn can get dicey, specially if you get a FS happy Evil Mage Lord at the final room (where there are 5 or 6).

[Mikel123]

I tried that room with my provoker. Granted, no healing or magic resist, but plenty of magery and meditation for healing... and it was utter chaos for about 15 minutes before I decided to leave.

It's an absolute deathtrap. I don't see how you could possibly kill the initial spawn in the second, dead-end section of the tower. When I was there, there was a solid 15 or so of them, and I spent the entire time desperately running to heal in between my every-10-second provocations. I don't think I looted more than half the bodies before I left.

[dren]

NPCs shouldn't charge you more than you originally paid for the armor.
If they are than the armor you're buying is priced too low.
GM Smiths, price your armor appropriately. Don't flood the market with super cheap armor and then not be around to do repairs on your products. If you sell armor you should be somewhere at least an hour a day a few times a week for your customers to get repairs.

[RoadKill]

I find lich lords, liches, and demons to be the best thing to farm on my warrior. Definitely want to have a decent AR when you go toe to toe with demons, but other than that they are pretty simple and can drop decent items