My First Dexxer

[grimnir]

Working on my first dexxer and had a question about my build. I think I’ve settled on something like this:

100 mace tactics heal armslore
80 tracking resist anatomy
60 alchemy

Alternative skills: camping parry

The only thing I feel is set in stone is GM macing and tactics and the rest could be moved around or switched out for other skills. Fairly unsure about taking arms lore to GM as well, would 80 be sufficient? Also unsure at what level I should have anatomy and resist, especially when trying to incorporate alchemy into the build. Speaking of alchemy is it worth taking at 60 or is there another skill I’m missing that would fill in better? Or would 7x be the best way to go with mace/tac/armslore/heal/Anat/resist and probably tracking (alchemy or parry or camping or some other skill I’m failing to see).

Open to any and all suggestions to improve this build, even if it’s only a side grade or personal preference. I would like to hear your ideas on why and what skills I should take to what levels and why.

Thanks in advance for any advice it’s very much appreciated.

 

[AreYouKidden]

The beauty of this server is you'll get a number of varying opinions, and none of them are wrong. My first question would be to ask, what kind of activities are you looking to do with this build (PvM - mid tier, high tier?, PvP?), which leads to what do you want to get out of it..

Dexxers in PvM are one of the lower tier (prior to getting them into high level aspect), but are also one of the easiest to make..

1. 80 Arms Lore is what most people go to - as it doesn't provide a ton of benefit over 80
2. 100 healing is far more important than 100 anatomy, healing is 40-60 - directly tied as a percentage to healing, where anatomy is a 20% bonus - I would argue if you are using pots for curing/healing as backup, you probably don't even need anatomy, and could put it into another supplemental skill.
3. 60 Alchemy is definitely worth it, you get extended time on str/dex pots, 6 min, versus 2 min, is decent, and cheap to raise, going over 60 Alchemy gets expensive and I'd argue cost to value...

Using a dexxer, just be prepared to set your sites around the mid tier game, and aim for speed / quantity over the higher end mobs, and it can be quite fulfilling to run..

The higher efficiency dexxer builds generally are bard dexxers, one of the top builds, or i'm a big fan of the dexxer/summoner, ti's a lot of fun to play, with fairly minimal investment (leveling magery).

If your talking PvP - it's a whole different discussion

I did do a fairly expansive write up for a New Player Tank Dexxer, cheap investment that may be interesting to you - I played it for a while, it was fun, and you could tank the higher end mobs, using potions, it was slow to kill, so ultimately better geared toward fighting mid tier...

 

[Kilgu]

I'd recommend switching healing and anatomy. The bonus damage from GM anatomy is better than the extra hp you'll heal vs 80 healing.

• Arms lore unlocks its utility at 80, so the extra 20 points to GM only increase the chance to perform a weapon's special attack (bleed, hinder, etc)
• Tracking increases the range to detect reds at GM (and gives 100% chance instead of 80%) and also gives an extra 5% to the damage bonus (20% @80). I personally take this to GM on most of my characters
• Resist is a touchy subject. If versus magic mobs and you have alchemy the greater resist potions are amazing. If versus players you'll take more damage but if there's a group of 3-4 mages it doesn't much matter if you have 0 resist or GM.
• Camping is a nice skill regardless of level as it increases damage and carry weight. @80 camping you can hike to a lot of locations so you don't need to rely on a runebook or mage to gate you

 

[grimnir]

This character is mostly just for when my aspect is down on my summoner or got a change of pace during farming. Yes he will be farming mid-tier mobs, hoping I’ll be able to make up for quality with quantity.

Why would I take more damage from players when having magic resist btw? Not sure I understand why that is.

Thank you both for the quick responses, very helpful and much appreciated

 

[Kilgu]

Sorry that reads messy. I meant you'd take more damage at 80 resist vs GM resist. But that's in a 1v1 situation. When you have multiple mages 3 flamestrikes will still kill you even at GM resist so its a tough skill to recommend an appropriate level for. Also the greater resist potions only work for PVM and only for 1 minute.

 

[AreYouKidden]

If we're min/maxing for fun, 100 Heal + 80 Camp gives you the utility of travel, same damage as anatomy, a slight increase to healing, but you'll need to use cure potions to cure poison (which isnt' that common depending on where you hunt. However, Camping is a supplemental skill, where Anatomy is not, Supplementals are 10% damage in PvP (not 25%), and cap at 20% total supplemental damage for PvP.. So ultimately Anatomy may be better if you intend to fight others.. Tracking/Forensics are also supplemental.

Also keep in mind Forensics gives you additional leathers (profit!), when skinning, on top of the extra damage.

 

[ZtruK]

I personally wouldn't create a dexer without parry. The absolute cheapest dexer that will let you PvE and be able to PvP is:

Mace
Tact
Heal
Anat
Resist
Parry
Arms Lore

Everything but Mace and Tact can be dropped to 80 to allow for more skills. You can also drop anat I suppose if you don't care about having a rez and will have cure pots. Need another hamstring enabler for PvP though.

 

[grimnir]

Hehe I was scratching my head about the resist for sure

And ty again, you’ve both given me a lot to mull over while I’m at work.

I’ve revised my build to this:

GM Mace Tac Heal Tracking
80 Anatomy Resist Arms Lore
60 Alchemy

And tracking is definitely a percent chance to happen? I had thought it only affected the range at which it could be used, but if it also includes a skill check to activate then it would really defeat my purposes to take it anywhere below 100 as it is used 99% of the time to avoid PKs for me

I mean this should be ez pz to build and accomplish my goals. If nothing else it has given me something to aim for so I can go ahead and get myself started working towards that.

 

[Kilgu]

When you open the tracking gump it will tell you the %chance to succeed. Its = tracking skill. It does check every 12 seconds so even at 80 you'll see the reds coming before they're on you in most situations.

 

[grimnir]

Also would water aspect be good to pair with this build? Was reading through them and I liked it’s bonuses the best. Not sure how they play out in reality though.

 

[AreYouKidden]

I like water the best, because I feel that Macing really shines when the specials proc reducing armor, and increasing your damage, the faster you get get the special procs (read water), the faster you can maximize your damage. When i went water, the % bonus to healing was also why I was fine with reducing Anatomy for another skill in my template, you've got a lot of recovery built in at 240 points (heal/anat/alch).

 

[biorhythm]

Hehe I was scratching my head about the resist for sure

And ty again, you’ve both given me a lot to mull over while I’m at work.

I’ve revised my build to this:

GM Mace Tac Heal Tracking
80 Anatomy Resist Arms Lore
60 Alchemy

And tracking is definitely a percent chance to happen? I had thought it only affected the range at which it could be used, but if it also includes a skill check to activate then it would really defeat my purposes to take it anywhere below 100 as it is used 99% of the time to avoid PKs for me

I mean this should be ez pz to build and accomplish my goals. If nothing else it has given me something to aim for so I can go ahead and get myself started working towards that.

If the only PvP youre looking to do, is run from PKs.. I would advise dropping healing to 75, magic resist to 75 tracking to 80 and then then putting 50 into parry. 50 parry offers a good amount of defense and will keep you alive from damage spikes, which will be your #1 enemy.

 

[Kilgu]

wouldn't it make more sense to do 80 healing/70 resist so that you can rezz?

 

[biorhythm]

I havent tested the exact numbers on heal yet. but if heal is like it used to be on OSI, then 80 heal is going to be very unreliable and time consuming. might as well just run to a wandering healer or find another way to rez.

you know now that Im thinking about it. this is silly.
just drop the alchemy. its a fun idea but unless you want to dual purpose as a vendor selling regular potions, it doesnt add much value to the template.

putting 60 points in parry instead of alchemy will get you much much more mileage. with high magic resist and parry your problem wont be with spell casting mobs. and when the spawn for a high spell casting mob is up, just drink a regular magic resist potion. It wont cost you much and you wont need it up much of the time.
Final template for me would be:

GM mace
GM tactics
GM anatomy
80 heal
85 tracking
85 magic resist
80 arms lore
70 parry

and drink a regular magic resist potion before fighting a high level magic casting mob. easy character to skill up and effective.

 

[High plains drifter]

I havent tested the exact numbers on heal yet. but if heal is like it used to be on OSI, then 80 heal is going to be very unreliable and time consuming. might as well just run to a wandering healer or find another way to rez.

you know now that Im thinking about it. this is silly.
just drop the alchemy. its a fun idea but unless you want to dual purpose as a vendor selling regular potions, it doesnt add much value to the template.

putting 60 points in parry instead of alchemy will get you much much more mileage. with high magic resist and parry your problem wont be with spell casting mobs. and when the spawn for a high spell casting mob is up, just drink a regular magic resist potion. It wont cost you much and you wont need it up much of the time.
Final template for me would be:

GM mace
GM tactics
GM anatomy
80 heal
85 tracking
85 magic resist
80 arms lore
70 parry

and drink a regular magic resist potion before fighting a high level magic casting mob. easy character to skill up and effective.

I really like this template, but I'll suggest magery instead of parry. If your bandage is only at 6, spam a few mini heals to prevent you from getting burst damaged to death before your bandage hits. Otherwise, I'd just go with another damage boosting skill. Helps with pk's too.

 

[Kilgu]

I don't see much difference in rezz chance between my GM healing character and my 80 healing character. But that could just be a matter of luck. Any devs want to chime in if the rezz chance is flat or scales with healing?

 

[Loto]

I havent tested the exact numbers on heal yet. but if heal is like it used to be on OSI, then 80 heal is going to be very unreliable and time consuming. might as well just run to a wandering healer or find another way to rez.

you know now that Im thinking about it. this is silly.
just drop the alchemy. its a fun idea but unless you want to dual purpose as a vendor selling regular potions, it doesnt add much value to the template.

putting 60 points in parry instead of alchemy will get you much much more mileage. with high magic resist and parry your problem wont be with spell casting mobs. and when the spawn for a high spell casting mob is up, just drink a regular magic resist potion. It wont cost you much and you wont need it up much of the time.
Final template for me would be:

GM mace
GM tactics
GM anatomy
80 heal
85 tracking
85 magic resist
80 arms lore
70 parry

and drink a regular magic resist potion before fighting a high level magic casting mob. easy character to skill up and effective.

How do you think this translates with fencing instead of macing?

I just joined up a couple days ago and at first made a mage before remembering that magery is going to take some resources to become viable, so then I made a dexxer to farm up some resources quickly. I haven't settled on a final build but I do want fencing (I think...) and then I'm trying to figure out what else to train up.

Right now I'm looking at

Fencing
Tactics
Anat
Healing
Resist
Arms Lore
Parry

So then the question is, is this a good plan? I'm not sure how else to incorporate some of the new mechanics, and then there's the question about having 8 or 9 core skills, some of which don't go to GM.

When I played vanilla UO:R it was typical to do a 7x GM char, then later on I remember experimenting with non GM combos.

Anyway, I'll take what ever input I can get from those of you who have been around a little while.

 

[ZtruK]

Fencing
Tactics
Anat
Healing
Resist
Arms Lore
Parry

That template is great for mid range mobs and PvP as well. I'd personally go Mace instead of fencing. The macing damage is just way better. Fencing would be if you were going to use poisoned weapons.