Guide for noobs

[GaryMoore]

Hi, i have just recognize there is a completely missing guide about skills vs ability vs what you can do. Is there a complete guide ? For instance what can I do if I increase archery? Which skills are linked? Which archery level I do need to achieve to use special weapons? Which weapons? So you understood me. Thanks

 

[leer0ybrown]

Hi, i have just recognize there is a completely missing guide about skills vs ability vs what you can do. Is there a complete guide ? For instance what can I do if I increase archery? Which skills are linked? Which archery level I do need to achieve to use special weapons? Which weapons? So you understood me. Thanks

There's a super guide in the guides subsection explaining how to raise various skills. There's a post elsewhere explaining what each skill does. I'll look it up later if it hasn't been linked already as I'm at work. As for as using different archery weapons, you can use any bow, xbow, or hvy xbow regardless of skill level. I believe the only determining factor is strength.

 

[PalleB]

It's a bit difficult to find guides like that since UOF is a custom pre-aos shard and rules are not like anywhere else. But it's normally a good idea to google and read up on sites like uoguide.com and stratics and then ask people here what the differences from what you've read and UOF are.

 

[edw3rdwood]

This is the 'guide to everything' that tells you the best/fastest way to raise each skill:
http://uoforum.com/threads/super-guide-to-most-everything.8684/

This is the old wiki that is (for now) no longer hosted on the site:
http://web.archive.org/web/20140625062320/http://uoforum.com/wiki/special/pages

Assuming you are an archer/dexxer, I'll give you a rundown: your weapon skill (archery, swords, fencing, macing) determines your accuracy or chance to hit. Tactics skill determines your damage with that weapon.

Here are some examples of linked skills/hidden bonuses:

100 lumberjacking = +35% damage when using axe weapons (axes are swordsmanship weapons)
100 anatomy = +20% damage
80 healing + 80 anatomy = lets you revive players with bandages
80 animal lore + 80 veterinary = lets you revive pets with bandages
80 wrestling + 80 arms lore = disarm special move (set hotkey in razor)
80 wrestling + 80 anatomy = stun punch special move (set hotkey in razor)
100 inscription + 100 magery = has "hidden effect" of boosting effectiveness of Reactive Armor, Protection, and Magic Reflect spells dramatically

 

[leer0ybrown]

This is the 'guide to everything' that tells you the best/fastest way to raise each skill:
http://uoforum.com/threads/super-guide-to-most-everything.8684/

This is the old wiki that is (for now) no longer hosted on the site:
http://web.archive.org/web/20140625062320/http://uoforum.com/wiki/special/pages

Assuming you are an archer/dexxer, I'll give you a rundown: your weapon skill (archery, swords, fencing, macing) determines your accuracy or chance to hit. Tactics skill determines your damage with that weapon.

Here are some examples of linked skills/hidden bonuses:

100 lumberjacking = +35% damage when using axe weapons (axes are swordsmanship weapons)
100 anatomy = +20% damage
80 healing + 80 anatomy = lets you revive players with bandages
80 animal lore + 80 veterinary = lets you revive pets with bandages
80 wrestling + 80 arms lore = disarm special move (set hotkey in razor)
80 wrestling + 80 anatomy = stun punch special move (set hotkey in razor)
(any) inscription = has "hidden effect" of boosting effectiveness of Reactive Armor, Protection, and Magic Reflect spells dramatically

True hero of the people.

 

[Snickle]

There are a ton of guides to this specific server in the "guide" section of the forums.
Anything after that, just do what I do. Ask in forums "general discussion". I came here from a post ML server and had to relearn all this stuff and general discussion helped a lot.

Most people returning to UO are looking to put too much into one character. They think they're guna find the template that nobody has discovered before. Won't happen... People who have played this game the past ten years can just tell you what works with what and why losing a certain skill (peacemaking) would be wise. I recommend listening to the veterans instead of venturing on your own and waste being a noob for longer then necessary. The best way to do this is get into a guild with some cool people. In the mean time, I'll help.

Pretty much, all skills are either passive or active. In your skills menu, if the skill has a blue dot next to it, it is an active skill that requires you to activate to use it. If no blue dot, then it's passive and apart of a calculated "check" when the skill comes into play.

Music determines whether you successfully play your instrument. Every time a bard skill is used, it will play the instrument. If you pass the "check", then you successfully play the instrument. Then there is a second "check" to see if you succeed in using the bard skill. At GM music you will never fail the instrument check. With provocation and peacemaking, it depends on what you're fighting. Every monster has a "barding difficulty" in their core script and it calculates your bard skill vs their barding difficulty to determine if you succeed. If you fail your musicianship check, you won't even get to the bard skill check. I recommend having GM music if you're a bard.

Provocation will force two monsters to fight one another. Being on only a 12 second cool down, it's probably the most useful pvm skill out there. Peacemaking will freeze a monster for a certain amount of time. I don't use this skill as provocation can do twice the amount of work. Freezing one monster or forcing two to fight each other. I choose Provo. Discordance is the least popular bard skill. It will lower the monsters barding/taming difficulty making them easier to Provo/peace/tame.

Weapons work with similar calculations. Mace fighting, swords, fencing, wrestling and archery skill all determine your chance to hit your opponent. Again, it's a calculation determined by your weapon skill vs their weapon skill. Most mages have wrestling because it enables a dexxer (weapon user) to miss more often when trying to hit you. This includes taking damage from monsters too. A mage without wrestling will get hit way more often then a mage with wrestling. The higher the wrestling, the better the chance that your enemy will miss. 100 fencing vs 100 wrestling is the most common calculation. Idk its specifics though.

Healing is the skill used when applying bandages to yourself. Anatomy compliments this skill very well. You need a minimum of 80 healing and anatomy to resurrect someone with bandages. The stat dexterity will increase the speed of your bandages. Higher dex = faster aids. Anatomy (at GM) will add 30% to the amount of hp healed. Anatomy also works well with the weapon skills, adding 30% damage to your hits (at GM anatomy - but I never have more then 80-). Tactics adds a percentage as well, depending on your tactics skill. GM tactics will add 75% more damage from your weapon hits(I think)

The higher your hiding and stealth skills, the more success you'll have at both. The higher your snooping is, the better chance there is that the surrounding players won't notice you snooping. Stealing is calculated by your stealing skill vs the weight of the item you're trying to steal. When attempting to steal an item, you will either fail and go grey (and get guard whacked if in town), succeed and go grey or succeed and remain blue. The latter being the most conducive to the thief. (It's been a while since I played a thief so any veteran thieves feel free to correct me.) Poisoning is used to poison weapons or food. The higher your poison skill, the deadlier poison you will apply. Tracking is used to track other players (even if they're stealth/hidden), monsters and npcs. This skill will work at 0 but it's much more successful at GM. Detect hidden can reveal hidden players.

Resisting spells is a little more tricky. If you're from post Aos UO, resist spells is like your elemental resists, while physical resist would be your AR. BaSically, every character should have this skill, my pvmers normally have only 70-80 resist spells (to fit an 8th skill in) while my pvpers ALL have GM resists.

Parry is definitely not popular. Since your weaponry skill determines whether a monster or enemy will hit or miss you, parry is then added as a "check" after that calculation. If they succeed in hitting you, parry has a chance to completely ignore all dmg from that hit. The only reason to have parry is if your a straight up tank who is looking to only fight non magic using monsters (ogre lords, Cyclops, Uhm... ettins?). Anyway, anything lucrative you'd want to be hunting will be casting spells. I'd rather provoke the two shadow wyrms onto each other and beat on them with my dragon slaying quarter staff then try to tank one at a time, wishing my parry could be of help. Provo > parry by a lot. (It's a fun template and if you're curious how it's built just pm me).

Magery will determine if you succeed in casting a spell. I believe it's 40 skill points above the circle of the spell to guarantee never fizzling. Example: recall is a fourth circle spell. So to never fizzle, 80 magery is required (although my dexxer/provokers have 60 and only fail like 1 in 10).

Eval Intel is the skill used to determine how much damage your offensive spells do. 0 eval Intel and you'll be doing 10 damage with your flamestrikes. It's good to note that magery skill determines how much hp is recovered from heal and greater heal. That's why a lot of tamers will have magery but no eval. And my dexxers use gheal a bunch in emergencies. I highly recommend that every character you build should carry at least 50 of every magery regeant. You never know when it will be of use and when you get better, you can utilize it all very effectively.

Meditation, when used actively, will increase the rate of your mana regeneration.

Cartography is used to decode treasure maps. Lockpicking is to pick locks. The higher your skill, the more difficult chests you can pick.

Animal taming, animal lore and veterinary are used to tame, control and heal pets. The higher your taming and lore, the more beastly pets you can tame/control. Veterinary is to pets as healing is to people.

There are many useless skills in this game. Back when UO first came out, they had plans for all skills. And while some still have their use, they're not worth having the skill points spent in them. These skills include spirit speak, remove trap, herding, forensic evaluating, begging, camping, taste id and cooking.

Other skills are for crafting or gathering resources for crafting. These skills include blacksmithing, tailoring, tinkering, carpentry, bowcraft/fletching, alchemy (to make potions. Also at GM alchemy it will add 10% more damage from explosion potions), arms lore, fishing, mining, lumberjacking (also adds 30% more damage when using an axe to hit an opponent) and inscription (also increases effectiveness of defensive spells like reactive armor, protection and magic reflection).

Lastly, there are skills in your menu that are not in use. This era of UO is an early one. Since the game came out 15 years ago, many new skills have come into play. But the core UO fan base loves this era and we'd rather have no trammel then all the new skills. These skills include focus, chivalry, necromancy, spellweaving, throwing, mysticism, imbuing, bushido and ninjitsu. It's not possible to use any of these skills in this era of the game.

I think I've covered every skill in the game. If I missed any you're curious about, or you have any follow up questions, shoot me a pm or post your question in general discussion. It's a great community here and you'll get an answer quickly. Plus, as you can tell from my post, people like showing off their UO knowledge.

 

[edw3rdwood]

While we're at it how about a breakdown of the three major types of characters and what basic skills you should have:

-Mage-
Magery- determines chance to cast a spell without failing
Meditation- determines mana recovery rate
Eval Int- determines damage with attack spells/effectiveness of buffs
Wrestling- gives a chance to block melee attacks when bare-handed

-Fighter/Dexxer-
Weapon Skill- determines accuracy with weapon (swords, fencing, macing, or archery)
Tactics- determines damage with weapon
Healing- lets you heal using bandages
Anatomy- boosts bandage-heal amount & combat damage

-Animal Tamer-
Animal Taming- determines your chance to tame certain animals
Animal Lore- determines your pet's willingness to obey your orders
Veterinary- allows you to heal pets with bandages

Those are the most popular archetypes people use. Another popular skill pair is Music/Provo, as provocation really is one of the most useful skills in the game and completely changes your playstyle (allows you to make monsters attack each other instead of you -- not essential, but useful for certain builds). Also a lot of tamers take the magery skills too so they can cast from the background while their animals fight (and also heal/buff their pets with spells).

On top of those, all characters should have Resist Spells (at least 80-100 points). Hiding is also popular cause this is a PvP shard and you never know when you'll have to hide. There are other templates, and furthermore infinite combinations of templates -- for example some "heal mages" or tamers drop eval int because they only want to use magic for healing, get it? -- but these are the major three.