Tard the Paladin
Grandmaster
Perhaps I can share some insight for new players and maybe give a couple of tips for experienced players as well.
First, a little bit about myself. I am Tard the Paladin. For quite some time I have played on a parry dex'er and focused on champs and high level dungeons. During my PVM days my character was in True Brit. This is relevant because it allowed other factioners to attack me at any time which added substantially more risk than just dealing with reds. These days I find PvP more exciting and play in one of the premier red guilds, EQMS. Therefore, it is my hope that my experience in both worlds can help others gain some knowledge.
Character Builds:
The seven skill build offers several paths to go for when farming as a blue. Provo archer is powerful farming build for new players starting out. This allows you to farm higher end mobs without putting in the time and resources that a tamer requires. Tamers have the best end game content and most PVM ability. There are drawbacks and risks to playing a tamer. Taming takes a lot of dedication. Seek out other posts for more info on that. Pure dex'rs come in different flavors and offer the opportunity to increase your PVM abilities with the talisman quests.
Obtaining Resources (Farming Loot):
The goal of farming is to obtain as much gold and high end items as you can in the least amount of time without dying. Finding the best approach to this is one of the trickiest aspects of farming. Your strategy should focus on finding an area with mobs that you can handle that provide sufficient reward. Learning how to handle mobs is an art form. You need to know how to kite monsters without drawing more aggro as well as learning how to escape mobs when you are in trouble.
For example, I often visit Khaldun on my provo mage because I can make around 16k in about 8 minutes. Simply running to the main boss from the entrance of the dungeon can be deadly if you aren't familiar with the area. Using hiding and knowledge of the dungeon, I can make it to the big room while surviving the wisps and without dragging aggro. Once I am in the big room, I can effectively drag the boss and all four cultists and provoke them. Starting out, I died quite a bit learning how to perfect the Khaldun art form. Now it is second nature and I perform it like a deadly dance. It took some effort but learning how to control mobs allowed me to vastly increase my farming potential.
Beyond learning how to deal with mobs you must learn how to manage your interactions with other players when you are farming. Obviously, reds will hinder your farming. Having to flee from reds or dying only decreases your loot intake. There are a lot of farming spots that don't see much red activity but still have decent mobs. There are several outdoor spawns that have decent mobs but the respawn rate is slower so you may want to plan on recalling to several of them rather than waiting on the respawn. The source of a lot of blue frustration is picking a high traffic area to farm. Fortunately, this is a relatively easy problem to avoid. If you are new to the shard and new to mark some good runes for farming then take some vendor gates from West Britain Bank. A lot of these vendor locations have Rune Libraries or there will be rune libraries nearby. There is also a Companion System for new players and you could ask a Companion to point you in the right direction.
High traffic farming locations are also the high risk/ high reward locations. IE Despise 2 Titans - titans are one of the best mobs for obtaining a taming scroll and they only spawn in a few locations. This makes Despise a hunting ground for blues looking for huge loot and reds looking for action. I can tell you from experience that most of us reds carry runebooks that look a lot alike. The first spots any group of reds will seek are reliably Despise Titans, Shame 5, Deceit 5, Fire Temple, and Destard 1. Although these areas are the most trafficked by reds, it is advisable to keep an eye out for groups of reds that are going to run through the entire dungeon level. Reds that are running through a whole dungeon make it somewhat easier for you to plan your escape. Here is a pro-tip. Let's revisit the Khaldun example. When I used to farm Khaldun a lot I would naturally be annoyed when players would run up attack me when I was in the middle of farming. You cannot ghost areas but you can leave another character hidden. I would just leave a character hidden at the dungeon entrance and if I saw anyone enter I would have enough time to plan my escape. Consider this approach or if you limited to a single screen then simply look for areas that give you enough visibility to see other players coming.
Terrain:
"We may distinguish six kinds of terrain, to wit: (1) Accessible ground (2) entangling ground; 3) temporizing ground(4) narrow passes; (5) precipitous heights; (6) positions at a great distance from the enemy."
-Sun Tzu
Healing and hiding are skills that can be great for evading reds and mobs. If you are in an open area (accessible ground), have your map up and keep healing while you are running. Use hiding to your advantage. You can often outwit a group of reds by strategically hiding while on a chase. Gain ground during a chase by using refresh pots to plow over animals and then hide once you have the reds off your screen. Once hidden they will run by you and you can run in the opposite direction before they realize you hid.
If a red is coming up behind you in a dungeon, run through the mobs in front and then hide behind the monsters. The reds will be in entangling ground. They will be dealing with mobs buying you time to recall. Narrow passes demand careful consideration from reds and blues alike - Despise and Shame. You will have to use refresh pots to escape and you can be easily cut off in these areas.
Mitigating Your Losses:
Once you have given consideration to your hunting locations you need to give some thought on risk management of financial losses. Playing a dexer I know that re-equiping after a death can be costly. A good super slayer is 10-15k and invul armor is not something you part with as easily as 50 of each reg. You need to give serious consideration to the amount of respect an area demands as well as what you actually need to accomplish your goals. Frequently and ask yourself, "Do I continue farming here or should I drop off my loot and return?" If you snag a nice skill scroll, rare item, statue, or high end weapon then you may want to just go ahead and bank it. You might want to go farm Despise titans wearing exceptional armor and a power weapon instead of invul and a super slayer.
I do not play a tamer and don't pretend to have a lot of advice for them. I will say this. Meta pets are a powerful source of income and they can stand up to even the most powerful mobs. But that doesn't mean you should put them in dangerous situations especially if you are playing solo. I see so many tamers putting their level 7's in highly contentious areas. There are also a lot of complaints from tamers about the high costs of retraining a meta pet after death. To me this makes sense because of the vast amount of wealth a meta pet can earn and how quickly they can do so. However, most dexers have a better grasp of reality when it comes to risk mitigation. Dexers can also lose 100k worth of resources upon death. A full invul slayer suit of armor and a super slayer vanquishing weapon would be akin to using a meta pet. However, dexers who would wear this high end gear would be much more selective about their farming locations. From what I see out in the field, tamers need to heed more caution where they take their metas. Tamers, like dexers, can choose less valuable tools in their arsenal for high risk areas.
End Game Content:
Things like champ spawns can be a frustrating experience if you are trying to accomplish it as a solo player or in a group that is trying to bite off more than they can chew. The end game content provides champ artifacts, power scrolls, and relics. These can be some of the most valuable items in game and they take a lot of work for relatively small chance of getting something truly valuable. Thieves will seek out the players that have done a lot of damage during the champ. Reds will rush in at the end and take the champ on occasion. These are frustrating experiences that afflict the unprepared.
Blues need to evaluate risks involved when taking on the big challenges like a champ spawn. During my time in LORE, we had a well coordinated and experienced group of players that knew how to effectively evaluate and judge our chances of success for a champ spawn. It took coordination and team work over voice chat. We would often ask each other many of the same questions before popping a champ. How many people do we have? Given our numbers how quickly can we complete this champ? What red guilds have we seen on tonight? How many people did they have on? Have we seen anyone from a red guild come on a blue to scout? Who are our PvP'ers and can we have them ready to recall in? Do we recognize any thieves roaming around, what were their names? Which specific location do we want to kill the champ at? How will we defend this location? What is our exit strategy, who can reverse gate and which tile will it appear?
End game content in UO, like other MMORPGs, are meant to be a challenge. The end game content is meant to provide a rewarding and challenging experience for experienced players so that the game doesn't become dull. In PVE MMO's like Everquest and WoW, raids often take a large number of experienced players in specific classes to accomplish the mission. In UO, a champ can be done with a fewer number of players and doesn't necessarily require a lot of coordination. However, the pvp aspect of UO can require champs to demand a high level of respect. Naturally, it is not be undertaken without proper preparation and ability. Far too many times I have seen inexperienced groups with too few numbers try to take on a champ spawn. The champ will get overtaken by reds or it will overwhelm the blues and lead to disaster. If this is a frustrating experience that has happened to you then I suggest you take a moment and evaluate your situation. Would it have been a better use of time to farm elsewhere? Could you benefit from seeking out an established guild that coordinates over voice chat and has experience in tackling champ spawns? If you are in a guild but don't have the numbers, is there another guild you could coordinate with? Are you effectively using tools such as IRC, forums, and voice chat to accomplish end game content?
Well that's all I've got for now.
First, a little bit about myself. I am Tard the Paladin. For quite some time I have played on a parry dex'er and focused on champs and high level dungeons. During my PVM days my character was in True Brit. This is relevant because it allowed other factioners to attack me at any time which added substantially more risk than just dealing with reds. These days I find PvP more exciting and play in one of the premier red guilds, EQMS. Therefore, it is my hope that my experience in both worlds can help others gain some knowledge.
Character Builds:
The seven skill build offers several paths to go for when farming as a blue. Provo archer is powerful farming build for new players starting out. This allows you to farm higher end mobs without putting in the time and resources that a tamer requires. Tamers have the best end game content and most PVM ability. There are drawbacks and risks to playing a tamer. Taming takes a lot of dedication. Seek out other posts for more info on that. Pure dex'rs come in different flavors and offer the opportunity to increase your PVM abilities with the talisman quests.
Obtaining Resources (Farming Loot):
The goal of farming is to obtain as much gold and high end items as you can in the least amount of time without dying. Finding the best approach to this is one of the trickiest aspects of farming. Your strategy should focus on finding an area with mobs that you can handle that provide sufficient reward. Learning how to handle mobs is an art form. You need to know how to kite monsters without drawing more aggro as well as learning how to escape mobs when you are in trouble.
For example, I often visit Khaldun on my provo mage because I can make around 16k in about 8 minutes. Simply running to the main boss from the entrance of the dungeon can be deadly if you aren't familiar with the area. Using hiding and knowledge of the dungeon, I can make it to the big room while surviving the wisps and without dragging aggro. Once I am in the big room, I can effectively drag the boss and all four cultists and provoke them. Starting out, I died quite a bit learning how to perfect the Khaldun art form. Now it is second nature and I perform it like a deadly dance. It took some effort but learning how to control mobs allowed me to vastly increase my farming potential.
Beyond learning how to deal with mobs you must learn how to manage your interactions with other players when you are farming. Obviously, reds will hinder your farming. Having to flee from reds or dying only decreases your loot intake. There are a lot of farming spots that don't see much red activity but still have decent mobs. There are several outdoor spawns that have decent mobs but the respawn rate is slower so you may want to plan on recalling to several of them rather than waiting on the respawn. The source of a lot of blue frustration is picking a high traffic area to farm. Fortunately, this is a relatively easy problem to avoid. If you are new to the shard and new to mark some good runes for farming then take some vendor gates from West Britain Bank. A lot of these vendor locations have Rune Libraries or there will be rune libraries nearby. There is also a Companion System for new players and you could ask a Companion to point you in the right direction.
High traffic farming locations are also the high risk/ high reward locations. IE Despise 2 Titans - titans are one of the best mobs for obtaining a taming scroll and they only spawn in a few locations. This makes Despise a hunting ground for blues looking for huge loot and reds looking for action. I can tell you from experience that most of us reds carry runebooks that look a lot alike. The first spots any group of reds will seek are reliably Despise Titans, Shame 5, Deceit 5, Fire Temple, and Destard 1. Although these areas are the most trafficked by reds, it is advisable to keep an eye out for groups of reds that are going to run through the entire dungeon level. Reds that are running through a whole dungeon make it somewhat easier for you to plan your escape. Here is a pro-tip. Let's revisit the Khaldun example. When I used to farm Khaldun a lot I would naturally be annoyed when players would run up attack me when I was in the middle of farming. You cannot ghost areas but you can leave another character hidden. I would just leave a character hidden at the dungeon entrance and if I saw anyone enter I would have enough time to plan my escape. Consider this approach or if you limited to a single screen then simply look for areas that give you enough visibility to see other players coming.
Terrain:
"We may distinguish six kinds of terrain, to wit: (1) Accessible ground (2) entangling ground; 3) temporizing ground(4) narrow passes; (5) precipitous heights; (6) positions at a great distance from the enemy."
-Sun Tzu
Healing and hiding are skills that can be great for evading reds and mobs. If you are in an open area (accessible ground), have your map up and keep healing while you are running. Use hiding to your advantage. You can often outwit a group of reds by strategically hiding while on a chase. Gain ground during a chase by using refresh pots to plow over animals and then hide once you have the reds off your screen. Once hidden they will run by you and you can run in the opposite direction before they realize you hid.
If a red is coming up behind you in a dungeon, run through the mobs in front and then hide behind the monsters. The reds will be in entangling ground. They will be dealing with mobs buying you time to recall. Narrow passes demand careful consideration from reds and blues alike - Despise and Shame. You will have to use refresh pots to escape and you can be easily cut off in these areas.
Mitigating Your Losses:
Once you have given consideration to your hunting locations you need to give some thought on risk management of financial losses. Playing a dexer I know that re-equiping after a death can be costly. A good super slayer is 10-15k and invul armor is not something you part with as easily as 50 of each reg. You need to give serious consideration to the amount of respect an area demands as well as what you actually need to accomplish your goals. Frequently and ask yourself, "Do I continue farming here or should I drop off my loot and return?" If you snag a nice skill scroll, rare item, statue, or high end weapon then you may want to just go ahead and bank it. You might want to go farm Despise titans wearing exceptional armor and a power weapon instead of invul and a super slayer.
I do not play a tamer and don't pretend to have a lot of advice for them. I will say this. Meta pets are a powerful source of income and they can stand up to even the most powerful mobs. But that doesn't mean you should put them in dangerous situations especially if you are playing solo. I see so many tamers putting their level 7's in highly contentious areas. There are also a lot of complaints from tamers about the high costs of retraining a meta pet after death. To me this makes sense because of the vast amount of wealth a meta pet can earn and how quickly they can do so. However, most dexers have a better grasp of reality when it comes to risk mitigation. Dexers can also lose 100k worth of resources upon death. A full invul slayer suit of armor and a super slayer vanquishing weapon would be akin to using a meta pet. However, dexers who would wear this high end gear would be much more selective about their farming locations. From what I see out in the field, tamers need to heed more caution where they take their metas. Tamers, like dexers, can choose less valuable tools in their arsenal for high risk areas.
End Game Content:
Things like champ spawns can be a frustrating experience if you are trying to accomplish it as a solo player or in a group that is trying to bite off more than they can chew. The end game content provides champ artifacts, power scrolls, and relics. These can be some of the most valuable items in game and they take a lot of work for relatively small chance of getting something truly valuable. Thieves will seek out the players that have done a lot of damage during the champ. Reds will rush in at the end and take the champ on occasion. These are frustrating experiences that afflict the unprepared.
Blues need to evaluate risks involved when taking on the big challenges like a champ spawn. During my time in LORE, we had a well coordinated and experienced group of players that knew how to effectively evaluate and judge our chances of success for a champ spawn. It took coordination and team work over voice chat. We would often ask each other many of the same questions before popping a champ. How many people do we have? Given our numbers how quickly can we complete this champ? What red guilds have we seen on tonight? How many people did they have on? Have we seen anyone from a red guild come on a blue to scout? Who are our PvP'ers and can we have them ready to recall in? Do we recognize any thieves roaming around, what were their names? Which specific location do we want to kill the champ at? How will we defend this location? What is our exit strategy, who can reverse gate and which tile will it appear?
End game content in UO, like other MMORPGs, are meant to be a challenge. The end game content is meant to provide a rewarding and challenging experience for experienced players so that the game doesn't become dull. In PVE MMO's like Everquest and WoW, raids often take a large number of experienced players in specific classes to accomplish the mission. In UO, a champ can be done with a fewer number of players and doesn't necessarily require a lot of coordination. However, the pvp aspect of UO can require champs to demand a high level of respect. Naturally, it is not be undertaken without proper preparation and ability. Far too many times I have seen inexperienced groups with too few numbers try to take on a champ spawn. The champ will get overtaken by reds or it will overwhelm the blues and lead to disaster. If this is a frustrating experience that has happened to you then I suggest you take a moment and evaluate your situation. Would it have been a better use of time to farm elsewhere? Could you benefit from seeking out an established guild that coordinates over voice chat and has experience in tackling champ spawns? If you are in a guild but don't have the numbers, is there another guild you could coordinate with? Are you effectively using tools such as IRC, forums, and voice chat to accomplish end game content?
Well that's all I've got for now.
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