Lockpicking 95-GM

[fox_phyre]

If you are going to have magery on the stealther, there is no reason not to have 100 INT unless you plan on wearing armor (for some reason.) At 100 Stealth while wearing low to no armor you NEVER fail a Stealth attempt. Since your build looks like it has 100 Hiding and 100 Stealth you might as well keep the INT and STR at 100, with your DEX at 25.

[SighelmofWyrmgard]

Ahbuddy,

What fox_phyre said: he beat me to it.

I was also poised to remark that you cite stat-influences as the reasoning for your atypical stat-choices, and then follow with a 7xGM template ... I will remind you that any/all GM skills enjoy exactly 0% stat-effect, as I had told you before, btw,

Morgan is correct: the actual formula in question runs thus,

([ValueOfInfluencingStat * PercentageOfStatInfluence] * [100 - BaseSkill] %) + BaseSkill = ActualAbility.

I've Golded the important bit: whatever the base stat influence is, that is multiplied by [100-BaseSkill], before it is added to BaseSkill to determine total Ability; 100-100 is 0, and 0*StatInfluence = 0, so there is NO stat influence at all when BaseSkill reaches GM; Likewise, there is only 10% stat-influence at 90 Skill, 5% at 95 Skill, etc.

So, 'dumping' Dex to 25, in order to max both Str and Int is probably the best solution.

Regarding skills, you've got Cartography, which is useful only for surface treasure maps, but one can not loot surface chests while hidden (while hidden, one can only loot one's own corpse, or a dungeon chest, without being revealed); also, you've got no Resisting Spells at all, which could prove inconvenient; without 60 Detect Hidden, you will burn-through a lot more lockpicks ...

You describe dualboxing an alt mage character to cast Gate Travel: if the lockpicker intends to cast high-level directed-damage spells, he would need high Magery and high Meditation and high Evaluate Intelligence; if the lockpicker does not intend to cast high-level directed-damage spells, high Magery and high Meditation are unnecessary.

Your presented template would "work" but, IMO, not optimally: hopefully, I've pointed-out above where you might find some more 'wiggle-room' in regards to refining skill-selection-and-distribution.

SS

[Ahbuddy]

Will moving an item around in surface treasure map chest, but not removing it from the chest, to get mobs to spawn, unhide you?
Lockpicker does not intend to cast high-level directed-damage spells, 52 magery should be enough to cast tier 6 100% and use scrolls for tier 7/8.
Recall, gate, and maby cure, heal, and rez is all that is expected of picker.
Bard and ( mage or tamer ) should be doing the killing.
Seems like splitting magery and meditation to add 100 in resisting spells skill is the way to go.
I am relieved that 100/25/100 stats will work best for this build, keeping DEX down, thanks for confirmation.

[fox_phyre]

Moving an item around in a treasure chest will unhide you every time. 52 magery will barely let you attempt a successful level 6 spell. You need 90.1 magery to successfully cast a level 6 spell all the time. There is no level of magery that successfully casts level 7 spells 100% of the time.

[SighelmofWyrmgard]

Here are your Magery benchmarks:

... 35ish Real "guarantees" scroll-Circle4, with good success on casting-Circle3 & scroll-Circle5; 72 Real "guarantees" casting-Circle4 & scroll-Circle6, and gets you into Wind; 91-point-something "guarantees" casting-Circle6 & scroll-Circle8. I do appreciate that "50 Magery" might be only the current, and temporary, value ...

I'll add, for PvM-directed-damage-casting you want GM Magery and at least 75-80 Evaluate Intelligence.

Also, for PvM play, IMO and based on experience, 65 Resist is enough, and 75 is ample: your main goal is not to stand around and try to absorb all of the mobs' mana, just take the sting out of what stray mana you do catch.

Sure, Hiding & Stealth are very useful for dungeon Lockpicking, but,

since you cannot disarm a trap on a surface chest while remaining hidden (without Remove Trap), Hiding and Stealth are a lot less-useful for Treasure Map quests: since you really do not need those skills in the dungeon, though, either, you can happily 'dump' at least Stealth.

Handle the dungeon mobs in exactly the same way you would handle the surface mobs ...

You may not want high Hiding, either: if the character is developing highish Magery anyway, Invisibility will often work better; Invisibility works every time, excepting only spell-fizzle (and don't forget all the Invisibility-charge jewelry you are going to get from the Lvl4 dungeon chests); there are a lot of things that can prevent you from Hiding, even at GM; the only drawback of Invisibility is duration (but it has a long-enough duration, in my opinion).

Right now, my Treasure Hunter has 90ish Magery (going to GM), 75 Evaluate Intelligence (after dumping Detect Hidden -> going to GM), 75 Meditation (capped), 99.something Cartography (after GM Lockpicking -> going to GM), 97.7 Lockpicking (going to GM), 60.0 Detect Hidden (after GM Lockpicking, I will this dump entirely).

At least in dungeons, if I have to deal with mobs that I'm not content to EBolt, I'll just drag them off, and then come back to the chest; Lvl3-4 Treasure Maps I have to dualbox, if only to make sure I can take away all the loot in one pass.

It's a little ironic that we've more-or-less 'returned full circle' to confirm that Hiding/Stealth are not absolutely necessary.

Any Treasure Hunter is going to make for a very tight template, so don't get discouraged.

SS

[Ahbuddy]

If your wearing an invis item with several charges on it, will it auto cast invs again if your reveled, or do you need to remove it and re equipt it?
While your invised, can you hide and will it stick?

I will probably only carry scrolls and no regs on picker.
I was planing on keeping the picker hidden while the mage casts telekinesis on surface treasure chest. Then have the picker open the chest but stay hidden for 1st spawn.

After that is cleared will use picker to move items around in chest to get the most spawns possible out of each map
( will probably be rezzing lockpicker alot rofl )
Is this chart accurate for UO2A?

Success Chance (Y) For Skill Level (X)
Circle Mage Scroll... 25... 50..... 60... 70... 75... 80... 90... 100
1..... 1.1.. 0...... 62.5... 100.. 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
2..... 6.1.. 0..... 62.5.... 100.... 100 100 100 100 100 100
3..... 16.1.. 1.1... 59.75.. 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
4..... 26.1. 6.1.... 47.25... 100.... 100 100 100 100 100 100
5..... 36.1. 16.1... 22.25... 84.75.... 100 100 100 100 100 100
6..... 51.8. 26.1.. 0...... 59.75... 84.75 100 100 100 100 100
7..... 66.1. 36.1.. 0...... 34.75.. 59.75 84.75 97.25 100 100 100
8..... 80.1. 51.8.. 0...... 0. 20.5 45.5 58 70.5 95.5 100

http://wiki.uosecondage.com/Magery

[SighelmofWyrmgard]

If your wearing an invis item with several charges on it, will it auto cast invs again if your reveled, or do you need to remove it and re equipt it?
While your invised, can you hide and will it stick?

This is a question that I bet Rose could answer (lots of other folks, too, I am sure).

I will gladly tell you: I honestly have no idea; I don't have to cast Invisibility often enough at all, and its duration is on the order of two minutes, which has always been a lot longer than I've ever needed; I'm filling houses with unused Invisibility-charges.

If you revealed yourself accidentally/prematurely, well, don't do whatever you did ever again: you should be able to complete another casting of Invisibility before any nearby mobs aggro on you (unless they are really, really close);

If you were revealed by a PKer, it doesn't much matter ... this is part of the problem many players have who overestimate the ability of Hide + Stealth, thinking it provides some kind of uber-escape-mechanism ("no problem, I'll just Hide, then sneak away, muahahaha": no you won't; not unless the PKer is really, really stupid):

if the PKer does not know that you are even there in the first place, then you might just have a chance to sneak off into some nook, breaking LOS to cast Recall; if he knows you're there, however, he also knows you have to wait 10 seconds after Hiding to activate Stealth, so you can expect a purple-potion to be inbound to your last visible tile ...; in either situation, a mere 15ish Real skill in Tracking will permit any PKer to track anyone on the same screen, and a little dancing around will precisely pinpoint the exact tile you occupy.

So, the instant you see a PKer charging in, Recall, without hesitation (hesitation kills; it's true); if you are with friends who can PvP, maybe you can risk using Hide/Invisibility and/or Stealth to wait and see what develops.

I will probably only carry scrolls and no regs on picker.
I was planing on keeping the picker hidden while the mage casts telekinesis on surface treasure chest. Then have the picker open the chest but stay hidden for 1st spawn.

Unless I misunderstand you, this sounds like more Hiding + Stealth stuff. With a surface chest, I am pretty sure you need to be entirely out of the trap's range, no matter who 'blows' it (anyone who can correct me on this, please do; the information might come in handy ...), so I advise you not to blow up your lockpicker when your mage pops the trap. Otherwise, I am a little confused about "1st spawn": the 1st spawn will appear the exact instant the chest finishes rising out of the ground, long before anyone has had a chance to try to pick the lock; I'm not sure what it is that you intend.

One skill no one has mentioned yet: Mining; 90+Mining gives the cartographer a 9x9-tile digging radius. You don't use this to find the chest: you use it to be 4 tiles away, and outside of the spawn, when you dig it up; if you ever lose track of the exact tile, dig until dirt appears then stop, move 4 tiles away, and start digging all over again. Mining certainly isn't essential, either, though.

After that is cleared will use picker to move items around in chest to get the most spawns possible out of each map
( will probably be rezzing lockpicker alot rofl )

Hopefully, you won't need too many Resurrections ... There will always be at least a tiny, little delay before any new mob aggros on you, so I am thinking that you might be over-thinking this: you'll be able to slap a hotkey bound to an Invisibility item, or zoooooooom on your mount away from the chest, even if that mount is only a horse; caster-mobs need to touch you (or be attacked by you), before they will start casting against you, so you can use the delay to run and build enough distance to cast Invisibility, or whatever; Teleport casts fast-enough that you could probably use it to 'jump' away from the chest, if you aren't mounted and think that your own feet aren't fleet-enough; Teleport jewelry is even faster ...

After the 1st spawn (when the chest comes out of the ground), each and every subsequent spawn-event will only produce one mob, so you won't get 'ganked': otherwise, only-one-mob can be good, or it can be very annoying; with a Lvl3-4 map and a bard handy, an 'early' Ogre Lord is your newest BFF, because you will Provoke everything else onto it and it will kill them all for you quite handily, but a 'late' Ogre Lord will eventually become a big nuisance ...

Anyone can loot the chest, after it has been opened, it needn't be the lockpicker, or the cartographer: the bard is likely the better choice in all cases, if there is one handy; just make sure you wait 10 seconds after the last use of Provocation before diving back into the chest ...

I'll ask for a favour from you, right now: only the cartographer who solves a map may destroy that map's chest (do this only after it's emptied, of course) by using an axe/hatchet on it; please be nice, and do this.

Is this chart accurate for UO2A?

....

http://wiki.uosecondage.com/Magery

It is accurate, at least mostly, but I think it's a little dumb because the success chances given are not for free-casting spells directly using Magery, but for using Magery to cast spells from scrolls: to my mode of thinking, this kind of chart would be better if it showed free-casting values, then married those to scroll-casting; otherwise, I am not convinced that all of the values are precise, but scroll-success might function a little bit differently than I understand it (my understanding is scroll = Circle-2 compared to Magery, i.e. Circle6scroll = Circle4cast but, maybe, it's a little more complicated) ...

From that same page on the Wiki, I think the better reference is the "Minimum magery requirements for casting spells" chart, which shows both absolute minimum-skill and minimum-skill-to-expect-100%-success, and also guidelines for calculating near-values of success for skill-levels in-between. Preferences vary, I suppose.

I'm sorry this became such a monster-post ...

SS

[Ahbuddy]

One skill no one has mentioned yet: Mining; 90+Mining gives the cartographer a 9x9-tile digging radius. You don't use this to find the chest: you use it to be 4 tiles away, and outside of the spawn, when you dig it up; if you ever lose track of the exact tile, dig until dirt appears then stop, move 4 tiles away, and start digging all over again. Mining certainly isn't essential, either, though.

If your spot on with your runes, no mining skill is required correct?

When I mine while hidden, I don't get revealed, is the same true with surface chests, can you stay hidden while digging them up to avoid aggro from 1st spawn?
Then stealth away.

Yes after 1st spawn is dead, then will move back in, pick it, move away 4, and then telekinesis.
Should I keep top mob from 1st spawn under bard control to kill additional single spawns?
Or just mage them down?

If you get a single ogre lord late in farming spawns, they can't dispel energy vortex correct?

[ReptilianLover]

I have a carto and a stealth picker. Currently my carto is a provo mage. I never use him to kill the mobs, I just bring my tamer in with dragons to do the work. I am lazy I guess. I pull stuff out of the chest with a restock agent and let dragons do the rest. I also have a set of tmap locations which I made myself that are spot on so I don't have mining. I sell my rune sets for 2xsmall.

[SighelmofWyrmgard]

I have a carto and a stealth picker. Currently my carto is a provo mage.

I'm pretty sure you are saying you have divided the 'Treasure Hunting' skills between two alts and, also, regularly drag along a triple-boxed Tamer with dragons to manage the spawn: smashing idea, and I'm glad you mentioned it; I had been thinking about making this very suggestion, as it can really ease the challenge of allocating for all of the useful skills.

Ahbuddy, if you don't remember "Owings and Malloy" from the templates in my guildpages, check them out (under 'Lark') to get a handle on the idea.

You can dig up a Treasure Map chest with absolutely 0 skill in Mining; yes.

I never bother to Hide when I dig-up a chest: I always sweep-away whatever groundspawn is already nearby before I dig-up the chest; I can't remember if digging-up a chest is supposed to reveal you.

If you have a Bard along, you don't need to kill-off the 1st spawn any time soon: get them all fighting, and then just provoke each new mob onto one of the others; when you are finished with the chest, deal with the survivors however you wish.

I'll caution you that EVs can not be Provoked onto anything, nor have anything Provoked onto them. I've never seen an Ogre Lord Dispel anything.

SS

[ReptilianLover]

I think you could do the 2 lockpickers with just the provo carto honestly. I did the stealth mage first then the carto. I did lockpicking twice because it is actually one of the 2 skills that actually require any challenge (taming being the other one). It was fun to do and it made me a boatload of cash so I did it twice. If you are really concerned about char slots what I would do is the stealth picker then change him into a carto afterwards.

Or, if you really want a bitchin template make a tamer/carto. That should easily defeat anything.

[Soma]

Provo/Music/Mage/Med/Carto/LP + Wrestle or Resist

Easily solo level 5 maps.

[ReptilianLover]

You know, I hear lots of people tell me this. I have done lvl 5 tmaps with my provo carto, but I wouldn't exactly call it easy. Once that build goes down it is nearly impossible to get back on your feet again from my experience. You get a good spawn with a couple poisons and a couple balrons and it's pretty much over. I am willing to concede that I may not be the most skilled t-hunter on this shard, but I have done probably as many lvl 5's as anyone. It is so simple with the tamer traveling companion and dragons. I would like to see how a "awesome" t-hunter does it solo without dieing. If anyone wishes to let me watch I'd love to. Until then I still say the tamer is the way to go. Hell, I would be willing to bet that my way bests the solo t-hunter by a long shot if anyone cares to do a head-to-head comparison...

[Soma]

Carry invis items, considering you'll have thousands of charges by the time you GM LP you can afford to burn a few per chest if you're not feeling confident. As soon as it pops open, equip invis, grab mob bars and get provoking, repeat until all the mobs are provoked then loot the chest. But honestly they're not needed, you can just bolt offscreen as soon as the monsters spawn and provoke them at your leisure.

There's no real difficulty to it, the T2A era has stupid mobs, so long as you don't lagg out you should be fine. The only time I die doing level 5 maps is when I'm looting and not paying attention to the Poison Elemental that just spawned with a hard on for my bard.

Getting your shit back is pretty easy too, assuming there's a wandering healer nearby... As long as you have monster bars up you can provoke them with a newbied instrument long enough to grab your reg bag and heal up.

Lastly, carry pots, have reflect up at all times and cast invis on yourself to break monster aggro and you should be fine.

[SighelmofWyrmgard]

Soma is spot-on, regarding techniques and a viable template, but there can be hitches: for example, that template would have some small difficulty finishing-off a lone, powerful, survivor from a 3-5 (Ogre Lord, Balron, PE); this proposition is a tedious one, at worst, but certainly not technically- nor laboriously-difficult.

Also of course, there are Treasure Hunters who feel no responsibility to eliminate the chest-spawn: empty the chest and go; who cares if that full-health Poison Elemental is seconds-away from being the sole-survivor of the chest-spawn, and becoming a local menace? "I've got enough loot for my trouble: file that PE under SEP"; regarding playstyles, each to his/her own, without any prejudice.

I have deliberately prevented GMing Cartography (temporarily), so that I would avoid decoding Lvl5s until I was better-prepared, in terms of skills and equipment, and "multibox support": I am merely adding, for anyone's benefit, that how the character-template is developed, in-and-of-itself, might invite planning, regardless of the actual template.

Back to Ahbuddy's original question: Soma's template doesn't have Stealth or Hiding; some people like Hiding and Stealth a lot, and with good reasons, but everyone is confirming that those skills aren't required.

SS