UO Second Age

Hey guys,

Just wanted to get a grasp of what most of you like to do with the Archery skill. Here is a template or two of what I came up with, let me know what you think.

Archer/Mage

Str 100
Dex 25
Int 100

GM Tactics
GM Resist
GM Magery
GM Archery
GM Meditation
GM Eval
GM Wrestling


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Warrior/Archer

Str 90
Dex 45
Int 90

GM Tactics
GM Archery
GM Mace
GM Resist
GM Magery
GM Anatomy


Let Me know what you all think and i'd invite you all to try and tinker with what i put up here. Thanks!

Sir Slapshot wrote: Warrior/Archer

Str 90
Dex 45
Int 90

GM Tactics
GM Archery
GM Mace
GM Resist
GM Hiding
GM Healing
GM Anatomy

Why have 90 int on a character with no magery? You're going to shoot very slowly and have 90 mana that you can't use for anything. That build wants 25 int and 100 str/dex unless I'm missing a trick here?

Jill Stihl wrote:

Sir Slapshot wrote: Warrior/Archer

Str 90
Dex 45
Int 90

GM Tactics
GM Archery
GM Mace
GM Resist
GM Hiding
GM Healing
GM Anatomy

Why have 90 int on a character with no magery? You're going to shoot very slowly and have 90 mana that you can't use for anything. That build wants 25 int and 100 str/dex unless I'm missing a trick here?

I'm sorry I didn't read it through, replace hiding with Magery. *fixed

Jill, do you think 100% Archer/warrior is going to work? even with 100 str/dex?

for example if a tank mage tries to PK me, would a straight warrior/archer even have a chance?

I'll leave that to someone more qualified, my only PvP experiences here involve quickly dying or running away

Sir Slapshot wrote:Jill, do you think 100% Archer/warrior is going to work? even with 100 str/dex?

for example if a tank mage tries to PK me, would a straight warrior/archer even have a chance?

Most situations a macer/archer would be slaughtered by a tank mage. Its a good group fighting template though.

Drunk Monk wrote:

Sir Slapshot wrote:Jill, do you think 100% Archer/warrior is going to work? even with 100 str/dex?

for example if a tank mage tries to PK me, would a straight warrior/archer even have a chance?

Most situations a macer/archer would be slaughtered by a tank mage. Its a good group fighting template though.

I could see, especially with poisoners and mace users, how a group of fighters would be able to kill a tank mage or two. But I was thinking more along the lines of being a solo.

An archer-warrior won't work offensively in a pvp situation. I suppose, like any dexer, if you use your spells and potions well, mixed in with healing bandages, you'll be very difficult to kill. But you really won't be doing much damage to your enemy.

Archer-mage might be a step up, and your original template is probably the best way to go... but still... whenever you cast a spell, you have to disarm and then re-equip the bow, and there is a very long delay between when you re-equip and when you shoot. Also, to shoot and hit someone, you have to stop to shoot, and stay stopped until the arrow hits, or it will miss automatically and consume one of your arrows. Generally, in pvp situations, you don't want to be forced to stop

That said, an archer mage is a very fun character to play in some of the events like Capture the Flag... and it can be a great part of a group pvp guild. But solo, you're at a big disadvantage against most other character builds.

Archery on this shard was gimped so badly that it is now a useless skill. Any template that uses it is going to suffer.

Save 100 skill points and go with a tank mage if you want to PvP, or a dexer with resist, because anything else is just an experiment that's going to cost you time, gold and alot of frustration.

^ It's funny that you say that because every time someone loses to Octavianna (Archer pvp template) in the tournies people cry "archery is over powered!!!". Granted the tournies are safe 1v1 situations but I think she's great.

To the OP, don't really know her (a pvper named Octavianna) template completely, but this heavy xbow wielder wears full plate, which absorbs a bulk of the halberds damage, precasts greater heal, has healing, resist, and one bolt from her xbow easily takes 50% of opponents life. Not sure how this would work in real field pvp w/ more variables (such as being ganked, or opponent running away) but watching her win the tournaments followed by all the tank mages whining about how "she has no skill, archery is sooo overpowered" makes me chuckle!

I imagine archery does work pretty good inside a box with no mounts

lily_lily_stay wrote:^ It's funny that you say that because every time someone loses to Octavianna (Archer pvp template) in the tournies people cry "archery is over powered!!!". Granted the tournies are safe 1v1 situations but I think she's great.

To the OP, don't really know her (a pvper named Octavianna) template completely, but this heavy xbow wielder wears full plate, which absorbs a bulk of the halberds damage, precasts greater heal, has healing, resist, and one bolt from her xbow easily takes 50% of opponents life. Not sure how this would work in real field pvp w/ more variables (such as being ganked, or opponent running away) but watching her win the tournaments followed by all the tank mages whining about how "she has no skill, archery is sooo overpowered" makes me chuckle!

Most people have not figured out how to beat her in the ring. The good pvp'ers quickly dispatch her. Most people dont keep her poisoned to negate the heal skill. Outside of the ring the build is pretty much useless.

Drunk Monk wrote:I imagine archery does work pretty good inside a box with no mounts

basically

Brules wrote:Most people have not figured out how to beat her in the ring. The good pvp'ers quickly dispatch her. Most people dont keep her poisoned to negate the heal skill. Outside of the ring the build is pretty much useless.

This is quite far from the truth, but you're not a dueller yourself so you probably don't see it.

The biggest problems in trying to kill Octa...
-Obviously, you are trapped inside a box where you can not avoid taking damage.
-Octa will instantly cast feeblemind on you. That gives you 80-90 mana to play with instantly.
-Plays is in full plate, negating much hally damage.
-Every poison attempt takes 9 mana. On average, 1/3 poisons will be successful against GM resist, meaning it takes on average 27 mana to poison her, and only 6 mana to cure.
-Her bow does on average, about 50hp of unavoidable damage every 6-7 seconds (taking misses into account). This will outdamage your mana regeneration. You can't really meditate either, because you will either take damage or she will force you to punch.
-Precasts greater heal.

If you haven't killed Octa in the first 2 minutes or so (ie; you haven't rolled some mass damage in a short space of time where she didn't have a chance to precast GH), you're dead. Everyone has died to Octa, Sandro has lost multiple times against her so I'm not sure where you're coming from with the "good pvpers quickly dispatch her". Fighting her is just a huge dice roll.

Actually, the biggest reason the archer is successful in the tournaments is because for some unknown reason, the UO designers put a lower and upper swing speed cap. So you can never swing faster than 1.25 seconds, but you can also never swing slower than once every 5 seconds. I personally don't remember this, but it's been confirmed by the demo I guess.

With 25 dex, the speed of a heavy xbow plugged into the swing timer formula yields 1 swing every 12 seconds. But in comes the cap, and it's now once every 5 seconds.

Realistically, it's 50 damage every 10 seconds. 57 damage every 10 seconds if using a supremely accurate magic bow. This is manageable to heal with greater healing potions and the Greater Heal spell, especially if you actively meditate. Purple potions can cause a little havoc though.

My take? I'd just throw up Wall of Stone (9 mana for 10 seconds). Archers need more than 1 second of being stopped, and you being in sight, to hit you with an arrow. For some reason, people only do this when they're low on mana, but it's pretty effective. Just do this in perpetuity until sudden death, then blast away with spells.