Weapons and Craft Skills

[Wuffy]

Brachus and I were just talking about this, and the suggestion slipped off my fingers - and seemed to make good sense to me, and even to him.

It seems everyone is using axes because lumberjacking skill gives a bonus to axe damage. So, with this in mind, why not make it to where, in example, fishing skill could increase spear damage? (Fishing with spears would make sense.)

We could even go so far as to say Blacksmithing skill could increase mace damage!
(Swinging that hammer so many times, you're going to know how to use that hammer.)

This would help balance out weapons so there is not one ultimate damage dealer out there for melee (axes) and it'd present a variety for the players to choose from.

Any thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

[Korbis]

And you could say that fencing weapons could use your Tailoring skill, the idea of fencing weapons is piercing, and a needled pierces very nicely *sucks on a stuck thumb*

Not really, but in reality, I like the concept, I think it would help to balance out weapon selection more.

Korbis

[Saxos]

I like the ideas for balancing weapons. All I have seen is only druid staffs and double axes what peaople are carrying.
But look at me i have lumberjacking for harvesting and also swordfighting. I still use my glorious sword to fight with.
Its not always the damage that counts.
It would be exiting to have smiths defending themselves with maces and deal alot of damage, but still fencing weapons are fast, macing weapons take away stamina, so this wont balance things I think.

[Forest Rithik]

Anyways I am fairly sure I remember a similar suggestion a while ago.

But some points I feel I have to raise:

* Most players use Maces/ Mace class items :-P

* Not all Axe users have Lumber jacking

* Those who do use Axes aren't mainly using them for the damage boost from Lumber jacking but for the fact they have reasonable speed, high end damage and the Whirl wind special (Double Axe and Large Battle Axe being the two most used Axes among the playerbase. (Though long termers might have one or two extras like Zyronic claws/ Executioner Axes for special situations like when Mortal and Bleeds are needed...etc).

* The most common Mace class items used are the Black Staff (Druid Staff/Black Staff again as Whirlwind) and War Hammer (Also as Whirl wind).

* A Mace class item (Druid Staff) is the most damaging melee weapon in terms of pure damage, not any of the axes (even if the Axemen have Lumber jacking to back it up). My Cleric (Melee Druid) as a base Damage range of 55 - 93 (With the usual Warrior Base Damage skills (Anat 120/Tact (only 90) and 150 str/ 100 DI)  if I took my Vet Reward Skill cap increase I could finish off Tactics and have 59 - 99 or there abouts as base damage before spell skill buffing like Consecrate, EoO and any other modifiers(like Discord..etc).

Currently Whirl Wind is the most sort after special because of how it works with Bushido and the fact that taking on large numbers of groups with the level of gear and power we have present on this shard (along with the Bushido Whirl Wind Bonus) makes dispatching crowds more mana efficient and capable with the right type of weapon (thus why all end gamers who melee look to have moderate to high amounts of Hit Leech Mana on their weapon of choice so they can minimize cool down periods and maximize endurance ).

When I choose a weapon I look at four things in the following order: 1) Does it have the required number of hand spaces taken (if I use a shield it as to be one handed, if I have bushido it must be a two hander). 2) Is it fast enough to remain at attack speed cap or close to it once knocked down to 70% Stamina once Socketed with two Mythic Tourmalines ? 3) Does it have any specials that can get me out of a bad situation (Whirl wind, Parablow, Armour Ignore) ? and 4) Is its damage sufficient enough for the tasks needed from it ?.

My Warrior (Forest) is a Spear Guy, while it is true he can't hit as hard in melee as say my Druid Warrior nor can he hit as hard or at as many things as say a LBA Axeman, he will still be swinging at near speed cap at around 60% Stamina (Unlike most other warriors) meaning I don't have to pop Divine fury that often (Divine fury as a -25 DCI penalty making you easier to be hit..etc). It also is two handed so I get the benefit of my Bushido Parry and it is also decent with specials (Armour Ignore and Parablow) all this allows me to do what is intended of my Warrior and of most other uber warriors and that is to tank stuff till the opponents die :-).

If you are a nut and spec to the extreme then basically you will see the following classes as:

Mace: Slow and Heavy hitting, generally circumstantial and fairly useless specials on most items  (Need more SSI/Stam then norm)

Fencing: Fast but generally weaker hitting items, some good specials but typically full of PvP specials (Best for endurance play)

Swords: Largest class and typically most interesting looking class, best specials, as both strong weapons and weak weapons excellent partnered specials (Not as useful for Endurance or heavy hitting but only by a hairs breath, best specials though and Most useful, easiest to build around and find).

But yes if you wish to narrow the intended weaknesses of the unused elements in the swords class and the weakness of the Fencing class that is fine by me as is agreeing towards a mechanic that can make Rithik and many other Melee druids hit for even more :-D

[Silverglade]

As always, Rithik knows what he is talking about. I am one of the jacking axers on the shard, and I have to say, it's not that big of a difference. I took the axe because of whirlwind, period. I stayed with the axe, and found other specials making it a quite handy weapon. Currently, I carry 3 different axes with me at all times, for various situations. Some call for the Zyronic Claw, mainly bosses, since it has high 50%DI and ML, with the benefit of bleed and mortal strike. Other situations, such as mobs, call for whirlwind. I have 2 axes that whirlwind, one has double strike, good for a finisher, and the other has bleed, good to hit a bigger guy with while whirlwinding. I did take jacking originally because of the damage bonus, but the problem is, that is core UO, something that would be very hard to script around for other skills. Hopefully these replies will help some. I think it is a good idea, but it would be extremly hard to get into place at the current time.

[Wuffy]

Now when I said they gave bonuses to said weapons - I didn't mean the entire class of weapons, just a specific type like lumberjacking does to axes only.. certainly if you know how to smith and swing a hammer - a one handed weapon - it won't teach you how to use a druid staff better. A staff and a hammer are two completely different types of weapons, even if they are in the same category.

It would help draw more attention to the lesser used weapons in these categories, but to be quite honest I've not seen much difference between either weapon set that you're all pointing out..

Each have a close to 50 speed weapon right down to the slowest (even archery has a rapid fire crossbow), each have their own hard hitting weapon - and it's guranteed you'll find the same specials that you so value on certain weapon types.

And I don't know about you all, but could you possibly explain how maces take more stamina to use? Does it take more stamina when you get hit?

[Forest Rithik]

What about the two handed maces that are like hammers but with only a slight difference? if you know how to use a (War Hammer) sledge hammer you should know how to correctly swing a mace, maul, war axe (mace weapon), scepter, hammer pick, war mace..etc. If you know how to handle a scepter and mace you would know how to correctly use a club and wand. If you can handle a maul or sledge you should find using a Black staff quite easy (Black staff have at least one end that as a heavy weight or chunk of substance/ metal at it, some have both ends like this). The only mace weapons that feasibly couldn't benefit would be nunchaku since how they work is greatly different to the other ones and tessen.

Besides you can't just limit these bonuses to one part of each class of weapon, since you would still be limiting viability of other weapons which is something this idea was trying to work to stop no?

Ok you don't understand? fine:

Its not always about pure damage, pure speed..its about how all or most of the weapons features work at endgame for your needs what point is a fast weapon like the Repeater on an Archer if he barely suffers the amount of Stamina loss a melee warrior does and can use say a Yumi or a Crossbow and maintain speed cap but get out of it higher damage? and thus better ouput. Before I went back to my Warrior I had a Archer and he hit for as much as my Druid (Druid doesn't have Discord, if he did he would hit for more then that archer :-P) barely even needed to worry about the DCI penalty of DI since Archers should archer dance to avoid most melee.

Your right there are some fast weapons in each but it doesn't change the fact that on average Fencing is the fastest melee family thus better for tanking/ endurance, Maces are the slowest best for outright damage (for its size also as a lot of two handers) and that Swords are the most varying and have the best crowd control specials. Archery is not included since although similar, remains seperate in mechanics from the melee classes.

Yes there are Whirl Wind, Parablow, armour ignore..etc on other weapons. But what if said weapons actually make you weaker or harder to use then another one? will you deliberately make your character less useful? no you wont, your main weapon will always be the one that best fitted the different criteria that you wanted from your weapon.

My Spear guy carries 5 weapons in total, yes 5. Two Runic Kryss (One as sentimental Value, the other used to be noxed when I had a poisoner so I could occasionally poison things even though Forest as no poisoning abilities), his Runic spear which is his main and most powerful/ useful weapon, a Lizards claw if I need to bleed or Disarm something  quickly and Darkened Sky Kama for when there are lots of weak trash mobs that I need to kill quickly say during an event. The last time I used my DS was during a Halloween event, the last time I used my Kryss were ages ago during post leveling periods farming custom drops and the Lizard claw is used as an opening weapon against a lot of stuff in Fel to make them hit for less (like those Bandit Mages). Although three of my weapons have Armour Ignore I don't use two of them much if at all these days for the sole reason they remove from my Defences if I use them and they don't have the item properties I require for a main on them. But even if I had a Kryss with identical or more intensive properties than my spear I would not switch and use it as my main since there is no way to overcome the loss in parry switching from two hander to one hander nor is there any decent solution for the loss of Parablow.

Stamina (the attribute raised by Dex) controls your swing speed, if you have full stamina you will swing the fastest that you can manage with said weapon (the more Stam and SSI you have the faster still until you hit speed cap), if you have 50% of your overall stamina you will be a lot slower in swinging any weapon compared to swinging them at full stamina. Meaning if you use a slow weapon you will need to go higher with SSI and also Dex/Stam increases in order to maintain a reliable enough swing rate when you are getting beaten on when compared to people using fencing or most swords this means that you are potentially loosing out on socket, property spots that could be used to say increase HP, DCI, HCI...etc . Stamina/ Dex and SSI are the most important stats initially to people who use Maces and also Archers due to a large amount of both those classes being comprised of slow weapons, once the swing speed is sorted its DCI/HCI/HP/DI that becomes the focus.

[Wuffy]

I had just asked why maces required supposedly more stamina, not your story about your different weapons or characters. While I like reading and examining the examples you give they do nothing to vouch for the shard as a whole, and some do not have your array of runic weaponry.

I'm not pushing to make things 'the best' to use, I'm putting up suggestions to help make the shard better, and that's what they exactly are - suggestions.

While it's true that two handed maces have a slight difference over a smithy hammer - it doesn't nudge the fact that it's the one/two hand difference, when you forge - one arm will be used to hold the item that is going to be beaten upon by said hammer, if you want to get realistic about it.

Though if it's not right, as you say, to limit said bonuses to a type of weapon in the said categories - then why not just remove the said bonus damage from lumberjacking when using an axe to make it more fair to all melee-types? Or how about lets increase the damage to ALL swordsmanship weapons? Because if you know how to swing an axe.. you should also know how to swing a broadsword, and if you know how to swing a broadsword and an axe you certainly know how to use a scythe.. and so on and so forth.

Then, where you say there  is not a big difference upon damage.. there's actually a several point difference that can truly turn the outcome of a battle, especially if you are a up and coming player.

And while you say that mace weapons require more stamina to use - I am beginning to highly doubt that this is a valid fact to worry about.. there are ways to recover your stamina - anyone's stamina to full with just a simple cast - or you can take the painful time to drink a potion.. and just like everyone else, once your skills are high and your gear is socketed (if you get that far)... you have the ability to evade damage completely - thus cutting on your stamina loss as well.

I don't think you'll need anything but extra SSI on your axe - if it is even needed at all due to already potentially having said bonus.

Which is why runic is all the rave isn't it? Big bonuses.. just have to hit the jackpot and get lucky..

Though what did I say at the start? Not everyone has access to runic weaponry.

[Forest Rithik]

Many players don't have the finances that some of my friends have ingame or the experience that I or some other players have either, does that mean I should never bring up what actually occurs ingame or I feel is relavent to a discussion because the original poster or the person the OP theorycrafts potential ideas with doesn't know some of the basic mechanics of the game or what high end players do and why ?. If the experiance of endgame players does nothing to vouch for the shard or what is possible on said shard or game then what makes you think some newbies or casual players experiences count for anything either ?

I never said you were pushing to make things, I know full well what suggestions are as well.

Although there is a size/ weight difference the same basic method is used in swinging/ using a one handed hammer and a two handed one if you were strong enough you could feasibly use two smaller (two handed) sledges one handed in the real word and if said strongman practice smithing he would be able to smith with his two handed smithing hammers provided they had a one face and a peen like most hammers do.

I never said its not right, I said it wasn't right for you to bring up an suggestion to make other weapon classes more viable but then after a counter argument say there would be a limit on which items in each class got the incentive since that would still be restricting feasible viability of some weapons maybe even make some of the currently least used weapons even less used.

Swords are the most varied weapon class as the weapons in them contain slashing, cutting, stabbing and cleaving (Even one blunt force trauma one). In Fencing there are Stabbing and some slashing but not many slashing and as for Mace class, they are all blunt orientated and used for concussion/ blunt force trauma. You've dug your self a pit with that snide attempt to pervert what I brought up, you simply fail to understand that there is little difference in how each of the mace weapons get used compared to the sheer variety of uses the swords class weapons seem to accommodate in UO. If you want my honest opinion which you don't but you will get it anyway, I think each weapon class should be broken down into smaller families to make people more specialized and less "I am capable of using every weapon regardless how different because its in my weapon skill family". Meaning there would be a one handed swords family, a two handed swords family, One handed Knives/ daggers, two handed thrusting weapons..etc but that is just my opinion.

It was Silver who said there wasn't that big a difference in damage for lumberjacks, not me. Yes those few extra points in damage may be useful in certain circumstances for a player yet to reach the tops but I could also point out that that player might have survived if he had better defences or more reliable healing as well, so that point is basically mute.

Yes you can simply cast Divine Fury to replenish stamina to get back to 100%, that is not even part of the concern of what I brought up and I have mentioned that a lot. It is the swing speed itself if you have a weapon that as a base speed of 28 it is very slow meaning you will need more SSI and Stamina in order to make it swing at the swing speed cap then someone with a weapon that as a speed of 35 or 40 (average speed of most weapons) this means you have to accommodate this extra SSI/ Stam from some place. Either a more harder to find more expensive runic/ artifact item or you need to make up this difference using Mythics and sockets which means you loose out of sockets that could be used for something more useful like health or HCI/DCI. Relying on DF for the SSI boost is a bad thing to do since you are seriously hindering your survivability by keeping it up frequently.

Yes I know about how powerful socketed players are I have been one (with Warrior, Druid and Archer) for over a year and a half and have played in the same group and along side them for like two years. Until you actually get a uber powered socketed warrior of your own you will not know how much stamina loss you still take against high level mobs even with max parry rates, DCI and so on. It is clear to me and I am not trying to be offensive, that you really have no idea about correct item properties or correct augment placements.

If you wish to just have a standard axe with two Mythic Tourms in it then that is up to you, but I personally like many other high end warriors need on our main weapons 40+ SSI (The more SSI in total on the weapon the less Stam/ Dex increases are needed thus freeing up more sockets for HP..etc), 30+ Hit leech Mana, 35+ DI, useful specials and for those who a serious solo'ers then Hit Lower Attack and Hit lower Defence each at 30+. Yes your right when adding to your end game weapon 9/10 players put in two Mythic Tourmalines or a bunch of Legendary ones since it is the easiest way of increasing SSI and swing speed without taking sockets away from Mythic Rubies..etc  also if your melee or archer Mythic Tourmalines are by far the best augment for your weapon.

Yes Runic stuff is typically the best gear for endgamers since they can get the items they need without overly competing for them like they would if it was a uber artifact item. Many endgamers spend a lot of time, money, charges and atones/vs on getting their suites it was no different for me, my socketed friends or any of the other socketed players on the shard.

Not everyone as like 15+ mill in standing coin but that doesn't mean that those who do have unfair advantages or shouldn't be allowed to debate or argue a point towards someone complaining that its too hard to get money.

Most big guilds have a system that if you ask for something like a decent runic item you will have one given to you for free or sold to you on discount. It is usually these systems that if guild crafters know what your after will tend to let you know when they make such items. Its been that way for me in any of the guilds I have been in since the early days of SD/SH and OSI UO. Even after all this time I still get the occasional PM from a crafter ingame who is wanting to sell me a decent item if I have expressed interest in such things at some point in time.

Everyone as access to Runic items, all you have to do is ask around. Just because there might be none on show on the vendors doesn't mean there aren't any for sale :-P

[Wuffy]

Many players don't have the finances that some of my friends have ingame or the experience that I or some other players have either, does that mean I should never bring up what actually occurs ingame or I feel is relavent to a discussion because the original poster or the person the OP theorycrafts potential ideas with doesn't know some of the basic mechanics of the game or what high end players do and why ?. If the experiance of endgame players does nothing to vouch for the shard or what is possible on said shard or game then what makes you think some newbies or casual players experiences count for anything either ?

No it doesn't mean you shouldn't bring up what occurs ingame, or what you feel is relevant to the discussion - and while the experience of endgame players does count towards the shard (I never said it didn't at that), it is not endgame I am discussing, because said endgame players have the means to acquire the equipment to achieve the desired affect they wish to meet. "Newbies" on the other hand are the newer players that come to this shard, often alone and without anyone else to help them besides those that reach out - and last I checked a good valorite runic weapon cost ten thousand from a player vendor.. not to mention the fact that 90% of player vendors right now have not been restocked at all, leaving very little left to choose from.

Ten thousand for a good weapon.. that's half of what a new character starts with - and the newbie dungeon isn't so rewarding.

Remember, these "newbies" are the players that help make up the shard community, and they are just as every bit important as the veterans.. if not more so because they are ones that can potentially bring more to the shard - and spread the news.

Although there is a size/ weight difference the same basic method is used in swinging/ using a one handed hammer and a two handed one if you were strong enough you could feasibly use two smaller (two handed) sledges one handed in the real word and if said strongman practice smithing he would be able to smith with his two handed smithing hammers provided they had a one face and a peen like most hammers do.

I don't think a maul would be used to smith metal... and somehow using a two handed hammer to forge an item? I can't honestly see it happening without having said item potentially break or fall off the anvil.

I never said its not right, I said it wasn't right for you to bring up an suggestion to make other weapon classes more viable but then after a counter argument say there would be a limit on which items in each class got the incentive since that would still be restricting feasible viability of some weapons maybe even make some of the currently least used weapons even less used.

So it wasn't right for me to bring up a suggestion to make other weapon classes more viable? That was what you said, right? You even explained it out nicely here... saying that my counter argument to limiting which items in the classes got said bonus would make the less used items - such as butcher knives and .. well knives in general even less used. Though I like how you also avoided the suggestion of just removing the bonus on axes altogether because it gives a unfair advantage over others...

Swords are the most varied weapon class as the weapons in them contain slashing, cutting, stabbing and cleaving (Even one blunt force trauma one). In Fencing there are Stabbing and some slashing but not many slashing and as for Mace class, they are all blunt orientated and used for concussion/ blunt force trauma. You've dug your self a pit with that snide attempt to pervert what I brought up, you simply fail to understand that there is little difference in how each of the mace weapons get used compared to the sheer variety of uses the swords class weapons seem to accommodate in UO. If you want my honest opinion which you don't but you will get it anyway, I think each weapon class should be broken down into smaller families to make people more specialized and less "I am capable of using every weapon regardless how different because its in my weapon skill family". Meaning there would be a one handed swords family, a two handed swords family, One handed Knives/ daggers, two handed thrusting weapons..etc but that is just my opinion.

Sorry, but pervert what you brought up? I'll have to disagree... *points to the start of the post* Should read your own writing sometime. Where as this part of your post explains different physical damage types (which is useless, because physical is just physical for damage), it has nothing to do with the fact they require seperate weapon skills to use.

Then, while you are wrong about your assumption that I don't want your honest opinion, and even go far as to assume that I don't care for the majority of players here - which I'm certain a good majority will vouch otherwise - trying to pervert what I said with the unspoken... I have to say I agree with you on that opinion, but it'd take far too many changes unless you just want to change the weapons in general - say like making any length type weapon (such as spears, bladed spears, halberds, etc.) into a polearm type class, whilst putting slashing into swords, and thrusting into fencing, so on and so forth.

It was Silver who said there wasn't that big a difference in damage for lumberjacks, not me. Yes those few extra points in damage may be useful in certain circumstances for a player yet to reach the tops but I could also point out that that player might have survived if he had better defences or more reliable healing as well, so that point is basically mute.

As said, "newbies" will of course have poor defenses and healing at first - unless they take them as skills at creation. Not all two people are the same, and no matter what way you put it.. any benefit that is given to a player will certainly change the outcome of a battle. So what if Joe has better parry than Bob? If Bob gets more damage then it will ultimately benefit him anyways.

Yes you can simply cast Divine Fury to replenish stamina to get back to 100%, that is not even part of the concern of what I brought up and I have mentioned that a lot. It is the swing speed itself if you have a weapon that as a base speed of 28 it is very slow meaning you will need more SSI and Stamina in order to make it swing at the swing speed cap then someone with a weapon that as a speed of 35 or 40 (average speed of most weapons) this means you have to accommodate this extra SSI/ Stam from some place. Either a more harder to find more expensive runic/ artifact item or you need to make up this difference using Mythics and sockets which means you loose out of sockets that could be used for something more useful like health or HCI/DCI. Relying on DF for the SSI boost is a bad thing to do since you are seriously hindering your survivability by keeping it up frequently.

Stamina has nothing to do with a weapon speed if stamina can be fully recharged at will. Not only that, but for the while I've played here I've noticed that when you get hit, said stamina goes down in the same percent that health does, not in it's own number - resulting in a rather nasty low health, low stamina situation that has often gotten me killed more than once when I first started out. The only reason you might run out of stamina first is because of weight and running. You still use stamina - a very small amount, when running.

Now it's time for you to listen to me pipe up about my warrior... yes he does have full socketed gear - does he have additional stamina? Only that from the dexterity bonus. Does he swing slower when he gets hit and loses said stamina? Yes. That however can be replaced on the dot. Does he have room to add more stamina if he wishes? Yes - but I don't see why cause I don't have that problem, because I never seem to have a need for extra stamina, and right now I don't see the need for extra health either - just HCI, which is on said socketed weapon naturally to begin with - it also has a very high mana leech, and medicore extra damage - SSI? No, but I socketed it in because that is it's weakness.

What else do I need to socket on it? Not skulls - already have plenty of leech. Not any sort of gem that adds area effect damage - because it is a whirlwind axe. Not a damage increase either, because it's already there - and it does double strike. Just needs SSI... and that I'll happily put on it besides spell channeling or any other sort of gem.

Yes I know about how powerful socketed players are I have been one (with Warrior, Druid and Archer) for over a year and a half and have played in the same group and along side them for like two years. Until you actually get a uber powered socketed warrior of your own you will not know how much stamina loss you still take against high level mobs even with max parry rates, DCI and so on. It is clear to me and I am not trying to be offensive, that you really have no idea about correct item properties or correct augment placements.

I know how powerful they are too, because I already have one, and stamina loss/getting hit never seems to be a problem for me, for when it starts to be on that rare occasion evasion pops off and I get smacked for a quarter of my health, I can always divine fury to restore lost stamina - but I have yet to head to Fel - and I doubt I would ever do so alone.

If you wish to just have a standard axe with two Mythic Tourms in it then that is up to you, but I personally like many other high end warriors need on our main weapons 40+ SSI (The more SSI in total on the weapon the less Stam/ Dex increases are needed thus freeing up more sockets for HP..etc), 30+ Hit leech Mana, 35+ DI, useful specials and for those who a serious solo'ers then Hit Lower Attack and Hit lower Defence each at 30+. Yes your right when adding to your end game weapon 9/10 players put in two Mythic Tourmalines or a bunch of Legendary ones since it is the easiest way of increasing SSI and swing speed without taking sockets away from Mythic Rubies..etc  also if your melee or archer Mythic Tourmalines are by far the best augment for your weapon.

You're still going on about endgame, I'm going on about the new and the semi-new/not quite there yet players. Starting to get curious about you going on and on about mythics too... like there something common and everyone has one - gotta tell me where you're finding them.

Yes Runic stuff is typically the best gear for endgamers since they can get the items they need without overly competing for them like they would if it was a uber artifact item. Many endgamers spend a lot of time, money, charges and atones/vs on getting their suites it was no different for me, my socketed friends or any of the other socketed players on the shard.

Was no different for me either, I believe out of all the sockets I've gotten only 2 were not paid for by my own money. Though look back on the total cost for all said sockets and gems and maybe you'll see that those players stuck between new and semi-good can't even make that much on their own.

There's a grey area in the shard, you have the new players that can happily plink away in the "Newbie" dungeon - then you have the well geared players that can hunt wherever this wish (most of the time) and be able to hold their own in said hunting areas. What about those that cannot hunt in the newbie dungeon because it's too easy, but can't hunt something as (what we think is cake) simple as rune beetles, or even hunt the second level of Covetous (Lizardmen) or Despise (Ettins) alone?

I know it's there, I've been there, and it was a pain - wouldn't have probably gotten through it either if it wasn't for the wonderful friends I've made here.

Not everyone as like 15+ mill in standing coin but that doesn't mean that those who do have unfair advantages or shouldn't be allowed to debate or argue a point towards someone complaining that its too hard to get money.

Never said they weren't allowed to - unlike you, who have already said that I shouldn't have been able to post a suggestion like this on this forum. Where you say I twist your words, you've actually twisted mine with things I never said or meant, and you know it.

Most big guilds have a system that if you ask for something like a decent runic item you will have one given to you for free or sold to you on discount. It is usually these systems that if guild crafters know what your after will tend to let you know when they make such items. Its been that way for me in any of the guilds I have been in since the early days of SD/SH and OSI UO. Even after all this time I still get the occasional PM from a crafter ingame who is wanting to sell me a decent item if I have expressed interest in such things at some point in time.

Guilds, keyword my friend - most big guilds.

Some guilds, even though smaller, are willing to help their members of course - but the only guild I've seen actively recruiting within the past 4 weeks I've been here is F*W (Yay for active recruitment!). What does this tell new players? No one is recruiting, their left to whoever can help them.. or in the rare case; which I've never seen here, and I like that - left to themselves.

While I know four weeks isn't long compared to other players, and probably isn't a good summary because I joined during the holidays, I'm simply speaking what I've experienced thus far - which is nothing but honest.

Everyone as access to Runic items, all you have to do is ask around. Just because there might be none on show on the vendors doesn't mean there aren't any for sale :-P

Not everyone has access to runic items because said new players might not know such exist on this shard, that and said new players may not even learn of player vendors till later on in their travels. Not only that, but I highly doubt a new player would be able to afford said runic items because of their sheer cost.

Now, off the subject of endgame and runic items, it is back to what I had originally posted - comments, suggestions, and thoughts about potentially adding a damage bonus to certain weapons to make it more balanced and fair for melee'rs who pick certain weapon types - or to remove the bonus axe damage from lumberjacking to rid of that unfair advantage.

[Silverglade]

Ok, please do remember to be nice, all, there is no need for comments directed at the poster. I will tell you flat out, though, trying to change that would be like trying to change the base damage of the weapons themselves. It is in the core of the UO program, and not easily manipulated. It took me 18 months before I got an axe anywhere near what I have now. As a matter of fact, I used a katana with not much of anything on it, and did just fine. What is seems to me that you are expecting newbies to be able to go fight Anubis.

Ten thousand for a good weapon.. that's half of what a new character starts with - and the newbie dungeon isn't so rewarding.

Remember, these "newbies" are the players that help make up the shard community, and they are just as every bit important as the veterans.. if not more so because they are ones that can potentially bring more to the shard - and spread the news.

As said, "newbies" will of course have poor defenses and healing at first - unless they take them as skills at creation. Not all two people are the same, and no matter what way you put it.. any benefit that is given to a player will certainly change the outcome of a battle.

There is a reason that they don't. They are new. And I can give you one legitimate reason why they don't start out with gear like that...boredom. If you can tank everything on the shard in your first week, what challenge is there? People learn and grow, and that is what keeps them interested. I have been on the shard for over two years, and not played nearly as much as I have recently, when I started learning about how to do all this.
What I was trying to say earlier is that people need to try variety. Lumberjacking adds damage because axes are(as a class) the slowest weapons in the game. The damage would be decent for a new person, and would help them, which is why I have given away, not sold, but given away at least a dozen weapons. I know of more people that do the same, so I am not trying to be high and mighty ar anything. This is a very giving shard. For the most part, everyone tries to help everyone here. I know of one player that is working his tail off trying to start an academy, and hiring players to work as professors, to teach these kinds of things. I sure would have loved something like that a year and a half ago. But if someone would have just handed me a godly weaponback then,  I probably would have #1 lost it because I didn't insure it, #2 had a ton more deaths, because I did't know how to use it, or #3  started being able to take out whatever I wanted, and gotten bored with hunting.
While it is a good idea, and it was worth mentioning, like I said, changing core UO stuff is exceedingly difficult, and I will be happy to bring it up at the next shard council meeting for you.

[Wuffy]

I never said I wanted them to start out with gear like that - I don't see where I'm not clear on this - certainly I mentioned a damage bonus to specific weapons when you have a complimentary skill with it - and that bonus would be small, like the axe bonus - but I never said anything about gearing up new players with uber items when they first start out here.

What I explained was simply put, that new players cannot afford runic weapons of the quality that Rithik keeps discussing over. Does it mean I want to lower prices for runics? No. Does it mean I want to have every newbie equipped with the best gear when they start? No... it simply states that they cannot afford the weapons that endgame players can afford.

What is the main thing I am suggesting here? Remember: Since lumberjacking gives a damage bonus to axes, why not add the same bonus to say- a hammer when you take smithing? A spear if you have fishing? Or, if it balances it better - take out the said damage bonus from lumberjacking.