Frustrated..

I'm on the Love quest I believe it is, where I'm sent from Spite to Malice to talk to Samael. This isn't about how he responds or anything. It's more about the fact that I must really suck at this game. I've got over 90 in Archery and many skills in that tree, of course. I have some life magic for heals as well. I seem to get my rear kicked constantly. Is archery just a junk skill right now? I'm always getting attacked by 2+ or 3+ skeletons when I go past him, but I always get smacked down. Sometimes, I even have a phoenix summoned, but I still can't do well in there at all. Do I need to completely re-do my character and get a melee skill? Any tips out there? I can't even fight through the pass to GET to spite without dying. I'm kiting, healing, shooting, slowing, aimed-shot-ing, etc etc. I just don't understand. I have a +3 bow too. And frankly, I'm starting to think this game just isn't for me. I played UO way back in the day as well, even before the Trammel split. Any help is appreciated. I spent a lot of money on a tax free deed and such, and really WANT to like the game, but it just feels so stupidly hard to do anything except kill green overland spawns. Thanks.

 

archery's actually probably the best branch in the game right now. that's a tough pass. you can take a lunar rift to brookside, though.

however, malice is awfully hard. possibly too hard. they said they'd look at it. maybe start one of the other questlines in the meantime? you ARE intended to go back and forth betwen them as one gets too hard.

 

I play archer/healer type character and I can tell you right now that it is no way weak. It sounds like you need to get some defenses up and going. Heavy armor might be the way to go. I use Shield of Ice in the Water tree and Fortify Defense in the Tactics tree. I also use dodge from the Light Armor tree but that can substituted for Glancing Blows from the Heavy tree. I also use HoTs with Healing Grace being my favorite from the Life tree. Soothing Rain from the Water tree and Elysiuan Illumination are also great. Put some time in getting your defenses up and you will be just fine.


Also make sure you eat some food and get your town blessings. Two of each if you can.

 

You can eat more than one food at a time? I have a 2hour +3 dex (also regens) food that I make and use.

Town blessings? Do you mean talk to the big face that asks me about my virtue progress? I'm not sure what you mean by two on that.

I should have dodge and I know I have E. Illumination. I'll poke around on the others you mentioned as well. I've got a lot of points in the light armor tree and would prefer to stick to that.

 

You can eat two different tiered foods. I eat a wolf surprise and a wolf & lamb chops.

There are these devotionals that many towns have. They have a pool of water and a beam of light shooting up. If you jump into one then you will get a very long buff. The type of buff depends on which one you jump into. You can have two buffs active at any time. I use Honor (focus regeneration buff) and Compassion (dodge buff).

 

Basically what @Barugon said. I eat Wolf Surprise and the Obsidian Wolf food and I use the blessing Love and Honor. This gives me +15 Dex and a good deal of regen. Also, make sure you use your three basic stat buffs like Air Embrace which is in the Air tree and buffs Dex.

 

You can eat two foods from the same tier?

 

I eat Obsidian Wolf Chops and Wolf Surprise. I am not sure if they the same tier but they do seem to stack.

 

Yes, those two are from the same tier. Sweet! You just gave me a boost. Thanks.

 

Honestly its probly your deck and skill setup, and not so much the skills you have themselvs . Id be super curious to know what ure deck looks like

 

This may sound like a dumb question, but what is your "adventure level"? Mine is 52 and I have many of the same problems as you... But since I got a pet Grizzly bear AND raised my level, playing has gotten a lot easier... Many of the animals run from me and I'm not ganked anymore, unless I run in head first... I too have archery, but only in the 80s, I also have polearms in the 90s...

Reading this thread has been interesting, never thought to stack foods, so never tried it... The pass you refer to, is that "Nightshade" pass? It's got 3 skulls? It used to be hard for me too, but now I hunt there...

 

If you're not casting spells, like a lot of spells, I would ditch light armor. It is VASTLY inferior to heavy armor in terms of protection and general quality of life while playing. You can have two different food buffs up at any given time and player towns have various devotional buffs present. Verat Chaos is right next to Brittany and has all of them for example. You just need to hop into the sparkling water to get a 10 hour buff. Best buffs to use are Spirituality which has an ankh picture for adventure level and ... damn it looks like a goblet on the picture for focus regeneration.

Defensive buffs you want basically on at all times are Defensive stance, Fortify Defense, and glancing blow from heavy armor. There are numerous defensive passives in heavy armor and there are a couple in the earth magic tree you definitely want to pick up as well. You're limited to having a single "shield" spell at any given time and I quite like Shield of Ice in the water tree as it gives me fire resistance and some damage avoidance.

Honestly though your main problem is likely light armor. Swapping to a full set of chain will probably make worlds of difference in just that alone.

 

You have one simple problem, you are taking on more than you can handle.

As an Archer;

1. Str / Health
2. Dex
3. Int / Focus
4. High Ground - you need to try and stay higher in elevation than target and do NOT let ranged (archer get higher than you
5. Try and get behind target
6. Auto Attack / Free (Charged)

Auto Attack good for hitting a group of targets as it will keep firing and hit whatever is in front of you
Charged can do significantly more damage but need to stay focus on a specific target to take the out first to take advantage​

7. Do not waste arrow with multisport - sorry but useless.
8. Buffs - Health 1st / Dex 2nd / Int 3rd with regens avail I use combat health and combat focus)
9. In the fight try and stick to two max and yellow at worst. Take out the ranged attacker first, run dance, evade, dodge, and do not let Mele attackers hit you from behind and definitly do not let an Archer get behind you.
10. If you get jumped be Smart - run back the way Oyo came not helter skelter. Know you surroundings and make sure you to not agro stuff just because you where trying to escape.
11. Sield of Air - last ditch, fore it up and run away.
​

At level 75 I was and still do play around in Deep Ravenswood, and can handle EVERY area on e own with either a Summons or pet out to help.

​

 

I wouldn't say "Vastly" inferior by any means. I have no issues tanking bosses or soloing content in light armor as long as I keep my buffs up.

 

Same here. Running a leather + archery/shield&blade setup at level 50+ and have a Large Red Spider/Patriarch Bear/Obsidian Wolf in my pet arsenal. Things are so much easier with my animal companions.

Here's a tip for people going into the taming tree for the first time. Don't bother raising your initial taming skill beyond 20 (the level necessary to get the 2nd tier taming skills) unless you really want to specialize in the taming tree. Taming collars are expensive and you lose one every time you fail in a taming attempt. Practice taming simple low level mobs like chickens, sheep, dogs, cows, pigs etc. Summoning these animals will quickly get you to a level where you're ready for your first combat pet.

My favorite pet vendor in Serpent's Watch has a good range of summoning whistles with bound pets for nearly every level range. There are other vendors like him scattered throughout Novia with competitive prices, so keep an eye out for them.

Spells that raise strength, dex , int and even light can be cast on your pet. Protective spells like Celestial Blessing also work. The Life healing & resurrection spells also do the job of keeping your pet healthy (&alive). I skipped the Taming healing/resurrect because I didn't want to clutter my card deck but do get the pet resurrect if you want this spell early.

 

Going to assume you're talking about bone armor. At this poor guy's point in the game, light armor that he's likely got access to (leather) is pretty awful compared to chain or plate.

 

I do have a bone armor set but I wear a mostly Augmented Leather set with high Dex > Avoidance > Dodge. Each piece cost 10k or less. I would recommend heavy armor for new players like I did in my first reply to the OP but I would never say that leather is "Vastly" inferior.

 

Sound advice, I can add: I started with Brown Bears and had to fight them down to near death before I had any chance to tame them, in no time at all, I was at 20 taming... Also, if you put your pet on "aggressive" they will lead the attack, once they're dead, leave the scene and you have an open taming necklace, so you don't need to buy/make another... Pet heal/rez were easy to raise...

 

Its not enough just to do damage you also need to ba able to withstand a few hits ...as an archer speed is esential so sprint should be your best friend ...dealing damage out of reach of your attackers is the way to go...remebr you also have disabling shot wich will slow them down....also dont be shy with using dodge skill .

 

I may take your advice on Pet heal/rez. I'm one of those tamers who names his pets (yup, even my chicken - HenBane) and am fanatic about keeping them alive.

As an archer, rather than risk my pet getting ganged up on, I use the passive mode then command them to briefly attack a specific mob at long distance. After which the pet runs back to me with the mob hot on the pet's heels. Once the mob is in range and isolated from the rest, I rain the target with arrows and switch the pet to defensive mode.

If things don't go right and several mobs come in then it's shield & blade time