Before the usual suspects show up and the usual responses occur, allow me to offer this perspective: why do you think your character knows more about magic than the magical, ancient, and ruthless dragon?
Hey, 'meh' all you want. While I generally opt for balanced gameplay in most situations in this instance I have to go with what we know about dragons from in-lore and out-of-universe fantasy stories. There is no way Smaug or Ancalagon the Black or even Draco from Dragonheart is going to be all that fussed with a swirl of energy. They'd probably just blow the energy away via one deep breath.
Also, one would think the legendary mage would know enough about dragons to not pick a solo fight with them. That's for brave idiots like the Paladins.
What summons are you using?
A tamer's pet is a physical thing, right? Like it's an independent creature that wasn't just conjured via the ether. It has experience and training to draw upon when facing a foe. It's "real."
A mage's summonable is a hollow creation of ether that's not really living. It was born from nothing and in a few moments returns back to the void.
The two are completely different entities. It's like comparing a puppet of a frog to an actual frog. The moment the hand leaves the puppet, Kermit goes flat. The real frog continues on.
You're looking for parity for mage classes with the other classes. I agree that in a lot of ways mages are under-utilized and under-powered these days. But making their summonables a carbon copy of what tamers can do isn't a very elegant way to make them a more viable class, nor would it entirely fit within the canon.
Mages need their own thing that the other classes can't do. Better area of effect damage spells, better damage over time spells, better heal over time spells.
Anyone who digs Trove treasure maps has been dealing with this for several years now. Greater Dragons and Frost Dragons chain dispel constantly. My treasure hunter carries a surge shield and urali trance tonics to help with mana consumption, but sometimes you just have to find a quiet corner and meditate for a while.
Every template has advantages and disadvantages. It is your role, as a player, to find ways to mitigate the disadvantages and play the character to best effect.
If there were no disadvantages, there would be no challenge and the game would be too boring to play. Find a way to meet the challenges! Please?
The obvious answer is 'don't fight greater dragons'. I have just spent an hour in Destard on Origin, I have 6 drops and have not killed a single greater dragon. I don't fight in the middle of the dragon area, I run around the ledge above it, sniping at smaller stuff near the edge, up past the snake pit to the large 'back' area or towards the slope to level 2.
I am playing a chiv archer, using crafted, imbued bows.
Didn’t you already make a thread about this?
Anyway, use slayer books and play with some friends. Different templates have different strengths and weaknesses. I don’t like when summons are dispelled easily by some creatures but that’s just one of the things that makes those particular creatures a challenge. Casters can do things warriors can’t and the other way around.
The short answer to your question is that the energy vortex is not effective for dealing with most dragons including the greater dragon. They all dispell it with ease. Second, you don’t have enough mana to kill para dragons outright even if it is held down by your ev.
This tech works to solo greater dragons, frost dragons and the ancient wyrm start from a distance of about 12. Invis first if they have a lock on you. Run into a distance of 10, energy bolt, don’t wait, run back to a distance of 12 or so, invis. Repeat until the dragon is dead. With frost dragons use flamestrike. With my dragon slayer in hand it takes about 10 to 13 hits to kill one.
With just magery you can’t solo a para dragon unless you have lots of room to run and all day to try and kill it. I help others to kill these. Death ray works great when they are being held.
In Destard I solo the regular dragons and help players with the others.
Most things you fight can be held by your EV while you kill them but not dragons. Believe that is intentional and agree with that decision.
The way I see it the mage is no different than the archer when it comes to Greater Dragons:
Either get anat/eval, wrestling or a mage weapon so you can stand still while you cast without being hit every time, or kite the dragon around with high SDI and a slayer spellbook till it’s dead.
The idea that you want your solo mage to stand still and cast while completely safe in every fight is the problem here, not that some of the highest end mobs in UO can dispel your summons.
No Eval? Then he is just a summons user.
Get eval is you call yourself a mage.
My tech. above assumes the mage has eval intel.
NEVER NEVER NEVER assume anything when it comes to popps
Mage mystic can deal with GD much easier Popps. you in stoneform to survive just a bit longer, With a dragon slayer book, ant 181 SDI, hailstorm 3 or 4 times, the GD is dead. For a paragon, well, run.. orwith mana shield & empowerment, precast RC, let lose, poison, hailstorm 2 times, heal heal Hailstorm 2 more times.. and then run cuz you'll be about to die... go back once youre healed and with mana and repeat... may take 3 incursions.. and you'll get nothing worth your effort... so best just run to the innermost edge of the cave and recall
He does not want advice on how to play his template.
He wants to be hidden and use his single summon. To kill everything while he watches.
The exact reason dispel was added to these mobs.
Popps my mage treasure hunter routinely kills greater dragons. Sometimes two or three to a chest. He leads them off so it is one on one and then uses the method I outlined above to kill them. Some chests spawn four a five dragons and a couple more during the looting process. My mage kills them all although it takes awhile. He has never lost a chest to dragons.
UO’s original developers intended that dragons have the ability to dispell EV’s just the same as mages do. It’s an element of the game. Think also original developer intended dragons be killed by several players working together. I think a lot of your posts have merit. But in this case what you are complaining about is what the original designers intended. They gave dragons considerable magical and physical powers because they wanted dragons to be a top of the line challenge.
I leave them alone in Destard because I it takes to long to kill them but my method does work there in the main area if the dragon is in an open area. I have used it during the event. If you are a mystic mage without eval intel. use Archangel’s technique. I don’t know that you get extra credit for killing them. If you do get more credit for killing greater dragons might rethink my thinking about leaving them alone. Will be interested in seeing what else is said about that.
Thanks always wondered about. May go after a few.
Oh what will tomorrows complaint be...
If this is complaint is about a normal GD, then the player needs to learn how to make use of the most powerful sw mystic mage template with up to 96 spells at his disposal.
If it's about the paragon GD.
Mage summon touches paragon GD gets dispelled in 1 second. 2 EV is 2 seconds. After that the mages can continue to spam EV or run away to attack other mobs immediately.
Warrior touches the paragon GD and dies in 3 to 4 seconds. He runs away to get rezed.
Greater dragon's were I've always felt were the start of the downfall of bards even with slayer instruments....
Greater Dragons are fine as is.
No changes are necessary.
"have you tried one of the other 63 spells in the spellbook?"
Exactly. My crafter has magery. Maybe I should go make meat pies in Destard.
😂
Without eval. intel what’s the point? All you have are area damage spells. Mine has 110 Magery, eval intel, and spellweaving. 100 meditation, spirit speak, and resist spells and 90 necro. Magery and eval intel are at 120 with a wizards curio and a crystaline ring. He has a level three magery, necro and spellweaving masteries but mostly uses death ray in Destard. He can’t do much alone against the bigger paras but can do a lot of damage working with others and can handle everything else himself or with others. If everything is working he does not get killed that much unless the dungeon is just filled with bigger paras like it is some nights.
If are not a bard, tamer or something else what is the point of not having eval intel. Without direct damage spells you really can’t expect to kill much beyond the small stuff. Not trying to be overly critical just would like to know why you don’t have eval intel in your template.
he needs 100 hiding because he thinks protection casts too slow and he wants to play hidden.
Seth have been fighting greater dragons for a couple years now they are quite good at casting and fighting, and pretty tough to damage. How would you drop one in 10 seconds? Have tried a number of different ways to kill them but bottom line they have good resists and lots of hit points. Hit and run works for me but don’t see any way I could do enough damage to drop one that quickly.
FWIW ... if you cast two EVs back-to-back, a GD usually can't dispel them and you'll have until the GD kills one to then cast Energy Bolts or Chain Lightning or whatever. Magery Mastery for Death Ray would be ideal.
My NecroMage handles GD just fine.
Popps thanks for the answer on your template’s goals. I like wither too. Like especially wraith form with death ray. That combo is very effective on anything being held in place by pets or other players. Appropriate slayer book increases the damage it does. Wraith can’t move that fast so you need to be aware of your surroundings when you use it and heal right away when damaged. It’s a great combo for bosses. Little afraid to use it in Destard because paras can switch targets but use death ray on occasion. Thanks.
I was wondering how long it would take, now I know.
