Returning to game after over 15 years. Looking for info.

I just recently recovered my account and started playing again on Napa Valley. The game has changed so much I am lost. There are skills, creatures and items that I’ve never seen. There are so many lands now that didn’t exist then. I used to use UO Stratics to figure everything out but it doesn’t seem to be a thing anymore. The wiki pages on here have helped a lot with figuring a few things out but there’s a lot I can’t find. I’ve read a lot on here about soloing different things that back in the day were handled only by groups. I ventured into a dungeon yesterday and got destroyed rather quickly by weak creatures. This brings up the fact that my setups are outdated, my gear is probably garbage and there’s so much that I don’t know. It’s a bit overwhelming. Is there good info anywhere on character builds? I’ve seen stuff in this forum but I don’t honestly understand half the stuff people talk about. A samp wasn’t even a thing back in the day and I still don’t fully understand some of the newer skills. I guess I’m just looking for any and all the advice I can get. Thank you in advance.

Stratics' forums and UOGuide.com are still helpful, depending on what you're looking for. I'll also put an enthusiastic vote in for uo-cah.com for great taming guides, returning player vendor search guide, new publish information, and more. The best advice I've found comes from asking people in-game over general chat or joining some of the bigger UO Discords. 

This one is fairly populated: https://discord.gg/X8eZdG
uo-cah discord: https://discord.gg/svGTPcf

While sampires are popular, they're not the only template you can play and have fun. On a very personal level I feel sampires are an abomination that should never have been possible, necro and chiv on the same character shouldn't work.  I don't have one. 

As a starting point, what characters have you got? What are their stats? What kind of things do you enjoy doing?

I’ve got a mage/tamer, a bard/t-hunter, a swords warrior and an archer. I let someone play my account years ago and they tweaked them a bit. Most of the chars main skills are 90-110. I’m not on the game at this moment so I can’t list exact setups but this is close. Tamer is my favorite.

Tamer: taming, lore, vet, mage, meditation, inscription?
bard: music, Provo, peace, discord, cart, lock pick, mage
swords: swords, tactics, heal, anat, resist, lumberjack, parry
archer: arch, tactics, healing, anat, and I’m not sure what else

Please help me tweak these

Gone_Fishin said:

I’ve got a mage/tamer, a bard/t-hunter, a swords warrior and an archer. I let someone play my account years ago and they tweaked them a bit. Most of the chars main skills are 90-110. I’m not on the game at this moment so I can’t list exact setups but this is close. Tamer is my favorite.

Tamer: taming, lore, vet, mage, meditation, inscription?
bard: music, Provo, peace, discord, cart, lock pick, mage
swords: swords, tactics, heal, anat, resist, lumberjack, parry
archer: arch, tactics, healing, anat, and I’m not sure what else

Please help me tweak these

I have 4 tamers but only actually play one because it's super effective and fun. You've got the skills already so you just need a couple soulstones. 

My template is as follows: 110 magery, 120 taming, 120 lore, gm vet, 120 music 120 discord and the rest in med. The suit can be cheap since the pet and your discord does the work. 

If you trust me on this one i promise you'll love your character. 

You cant Discord many tough things.

Easiest sit back and keep your pet alive build.
Mage Tamer:
120 Weaving
120 Taming 
120 Lore
110 to 120 Vet
110 to 120 Magery
110 to 120 Eval
Meditation as needed.

Easy to find a Mage suit at  Roof, Scalis, Corgul. 
Do two of those with a group and you will have a decent suit,

Most things drop mage armor.

You and your built pet can go almost anywhere.

There are many tamer variations.

Pawain said:

You cant Discord many tough things.

Easiest sit back and keep your pet alive build.
Mage Tamer:
120 Weaving
120 Taming 
120 Lore
110 to 120 Vet
110 to 120 Magery
110 to 120 Eval
Meditation as needed.

Easy to find a Mage suit at  Roof, Scalis, Corgul. 
Do two of those with a group and you will have a decent suit,

Most things drop mage armor.

You and your built pet can go almost anywhere.

There are many tamer variations.

Ok a few things.... first off I’m not familiar with spellweavng and it’s usefulness. How do you use it on this chat? Second, I will need to try to find a group on Napa because I’m not familiar with any of those things you listed to kill. And then, what pets are the best? Back in the day your only choices were drag, WW and mare. Now I don’t know what half the pets I see are. I actually still have a mare and a dragon that are 20 years old. Apparently with newer ones you can’t take them both due to slot requirements.

Your 'prepatch' WW and mare are rare and powerful if built correctly. Or, if you choose, could be sold for an incredible amount of gold. Don't do -anything- with them until you know the new taming system in and out. Especially do NOT use them to fight with if they're not 'bonded' to you.

Jepeth said:

Your 'prepatch' WW and mare are rare and powerful if built correctly. Or, if you choose, could be sold for an incredible amount of gold. Don't do -anything- with them until you know the new taming system in and out. Especially do NOT use them to fight with if they're not 'bonded' to you.

They’re bonded. Question is, is fighting with my mare and dragon at the same time better or worse than training one of them to occupy higher slots? Also, in my stable I have a bird looking thing that occupies 4 slots, no idea what it is or how useful it is?

Pawain said:

You cant Discord many tough things.


There are many tamer variations.

I can discord everything i could ever want to solo. The spell damage inc pieces for the mage/weave tamer can be rather expensive. 

For me the most useful part of spell weaving is using "Word of Death". It does a lot, 500+, of damage when your opponent is down in hit points.  Useful for things that spam heal themselves when they are about to die.

How often do you all really use Vet? I have it on one acct, but most my tamers run without. Magery  and weaving keep pets alive just fine and I have 100+ more points to play with. JS

Gone_Fishin said:

Jepeth said:

Your 'prepatch' WW and mare are rare and powerful if built correctly. Or, if you choose, could be sold for an incredible amount of gold. Don't do -anything- with them until you know the new taming system in and out. Especially do NOT use them to fight with if they're not 'bonded' to you.

They’re bonded. Question is, is fighting with my mare and dragon at the same time better or worse than training one of them to occupy higher slots? Also, in my stable I have a bird looking thing that occupies 4 slots, no idea what it is or how useful it is?

Almost always better to have a single five slot pet. Give the beginning animal taming guide: https://www.uo-cah.com/training/beginning-animal-taming a close read to understand how to begin advanced training pets. Cah also offers a pet planner: https://www.uo-cah.com/pet-planner that lets you build your pet template up to see how to best plan out points and abilities.

jelinidas said:

How often do you all really use Vet? I have it on one acct, but most my tamers run without. Magery  and weaving keep pets alive just fine and I have 100+ more points to play with. JS

Very often. I apply vet then g-heal while the timer is going. I find it really helpful against mobs with poisoning. 

I’d almost rather sell my prepatch pets because I have no money and only garbage gear on all my chars. I’m learning that gear is so much more important than it used to be if I want to stay alive. 

Depending on what you're doing, you can stay alive with gm made armor, don't be mislead that your entire suit has to be made up of Legendary items, it doesn't.

It doesnt need to be legendary, but it sure helps a ton not to die in 3 or 4 hits from bosses. if one is going to fight middle tiered stuff, then they can go with the classic kilt and no shirt.

So for my mage/tamer what should I look for in gear? 

Mage eval tamer? You need as much Spell Damage inc as possible. Slayer spellbooks. It can get really expensive which is why i suggested the discord tamer. My template can play in a very cheap imbued suit with a 500gp instrument. 

You can check out what's on auction safes to get an idea what is worthwhile and what to trash.

On gear, how important is luck? Of the other special abilities which are most important?

If you are going with mage your suite should have 100 or more in lower resource cost.  That way you do not need to carry around resources. Then 40 in lower mana cost. Get some mana regen on it as well. Your physical resist should be 80 or more before you put it on that way after you have cast the "protection" spell the resulting physical resist post nerf will be at 70 instead of 60.

A ring and bracelet set that gives 6 faster cast recovery and 4 faster casting total along with 18 spell damage increase each.

jelinidas said:

How often do you all really use Vet? I have it on one acct, but most my tamers run without. Magery  and weaving keep pets alive just fine and I have 100+ more points to play with. JS

When 97 came out, I used it often.  Training low slot pets needs vet often.
With fully built pets I use it less often.

We like to do the lich spawn for some reason. The upper levels can need it.

My archer tamer does not have vet. But you have plenty of room on a mage weaver tamer. My meditation is only 30 and I can run consume and do some spells.

Max mage suits are easy to find on the things I mentioned.  You just need a couple of pieces with good resist .

Pawain said:

jelinidas said:

How often do you all really use Vet? I have it on one acct, but most my tamers run without. Magery  and weaving keep pets alive just fine and I have 100+ more points to play with. JS

When 97 came out, I used it often.  Training low slot pets needs vet often.
With fully built pets I use it less often.

We like to do the lich spawn for some reason. The upper levels can need it.

My archer tamer does not have vet. But you have plenty of room on a mage weaver tamer. My meditation is only 30 and I can run consume and do some spells.

Max mage suits are easy to find on the things I mentioned.  You just need a couple of pieces with good resist .

The things you mentioned will require a group correct? I think for now I’m stuck with what I can solo due to the lack of activity on Napa. 

Ya.  Some shards have groups.  I prefer playing in groups.

Some of the returners have started fresh on Atlantic.  So far, they seem to enjoy it there.

Two players can do the roof.  One that has done it often can carry a new player through.

there is plenty of activity on napa, go to luna bank, thats napas hang out spot

shout in general chat, and there should be people to help.

we just all have our cliques, discord and the like, so we tend  to be quiet.

look me up on napa(home shard for me)

and welcome back to the game

Your 'bird' pet is probably a hiryu.

TimSt said:

If you are going with mage your suite should have 100 or more in lower resource cost.  That way you do not need to carry around resources. Then 40 in lower mana cost. Get some mana regen on it as well. Your physical resist should be 80 or more before you put it on that way after you have cast the "protection" spell the resulting physical resist post nerf will be at 70 instead of 60.

A ring and bracelet set that gives 6 faster cast recovery and 4 faster casting total along with 18 spell damage increase each.

I like the sound of that suit but that may take me a while. I’ll keep my eyes open for pieces though. The person that played my account for a bit after I quit seemed to like everything with luck. Most of the suits I have give over 500 luck. Any use for this?

Petra_Fyde said:

Your 'bird' pet is probably a hiryu.

You are correct. I’ve been using it a bit lately because I’m nervous about messing around with my pre patch critters.

correction, I believe it’s a lesser Hiryu based on hp