UOSecondage is the era of Ultima Online where skill based PvP was at it's highest, and on top of the Player versus Player food chain was the feared 7x, or 700 max skills Mage. The 7 skills were as follows: weapon skill, tactics, wrestling, magery, magic resist, meditation, evaluating intelligence. With these 7 skills a Mage could utilize the instant hit, also known as the insta-hit with only 25 dexterity. The stats of this build will be 100 strength, 100 mana, and 25 dex, reaching the cap of 225.

The template could easily beat a less skilled Dexer template, which would usually consist of the following skills: weapon skill, tactics, anatomy, healing, parry, magic resist, magery. This template would sometimes exclude Parry and pick up meditation to be more of a Hybrid, but the basic idea of this class is to outdamage their opponent with weapons, not magic, and keep their health high with bandages and perhaps the occasional heal through Magery.

The Mage template would often choose Swordsmanship for weapon skill since a Halberd, also known as a Hally, would do around 35-45 damage instantly whereas with fencing a long spear would only do 25. Macing with a Warhammer would do around 30 at times, but it also has the power to drain stamina. Usually skilled fighters ride on mounts, or horses so stamina loss is negligible and the bigger weapon, aka the Hally gets preference over it's weaker, fast counterparts (dex doesn't factor in because the weapon is used only for insta-hits). These instant hits are on a timer and "reload" themselves after X amount of time. Whether you are throwing a punch or swinging a Halberd the timer is the same. Mages can avoid these long delays by casting spells in the meantime, keeping their opponent damaged or defensive until their next instant hit is ready to go.

At the create a character select screen choose a name, a hair style, and skin tone. Be sure to put 50 skills in Magery, and Magic Resist; take one point out to put into Swordsmanship to obtain a Sword upon creation. To create this character one must use a weapon, or melee skills early on and kill weak NPCS or afford the reagants, also known as regs which are consumed each time a spell is cast. There are 8 reagents: black pearl, night shade, mandrake root, blood moss, spider silk, ginseng, garlic, sulfurous ash. Start the character with 50 Magery and 50 Magic Resistance since these are the hardest skills to gain in. Setup a macro with the program Razor, or EZmacro which will auto do tasks for you; setup a macro to Snoop a stationery NPCS backpack for dexterity. Once 100 dex is reached or a 100 skill, Macro Evaluating Intelligence on the same NPC until 100 intelligence or a 100 skill is reached. Then Macro Arms lore skill on a weapon in your backpack; you will at least have a Newbified dagger, one you can not lose upon death.

With high strength, dexterity, and intelligence you will last longer while fighting/training your skills. If you can not get any armor from established players you can fight at the graveyard North of Britania and simply wait for your health points to climb back up. If another warrior is training you can let them tank, or take the hits of the NPCS and get skill gains for free. The hardest part is the beginning since you won't have any weapon skills, or armor. Once you see your Swordsmanship gaining along with Tactics it will become easier and easier to defeat skeletons and zombies and earn gold and or bone armor and gems.

Now you will need to train your future primary weapon and healing tool, Magery. With the money you obtain from fighting these NPCS at the Britain Graveyard you will be able to buy the 8 reagants that were listed above. You will need Magic scrolls to put into your Magery book. There are 64 total possible spells to be had; once you have a scroll in the book you do not need the scroll to cast, but only the required regs for that spell. I.E. fireball takes black pearl to cast. Purchase the scroll "Greater Heal" from an NPC Mage Vendor or a Player Character. Casting this spell will not only gain you Magery to around 60 but it will also keep you alive longer, earning you more gold per hour than simply waiting for HP to regenerate.

Swords, Tactics, and Magery should start to get respectable. Now you must cast higher level spells on yourself to gain in both Magery and Magic Resist. Either have another character heal you with bandages, or macro greater healing yourself for this next step. Cast energy bolt on yourself from 60-85 magery. This should give you high resist gains as well. Switch to Flamestrike once Energy bolt does not gain your skills as fast. Flamestrike will take you to GrandMaster, or GM, Magery and Magic Resist.

Training and starting as a Mage can be extremely difficult. Raising stats and skills before actually fighting with your Character is essential to making this less tedious. Magery and Magic Resist are very expensive, but they are the most powerful combination any Player vs Player fighter can utilize. Whether you play a 2d mmorpg or World of Warcraft, skill based characters are usually harder to make but reap the greatest rewards in the end. Happy Character creation.

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