Hi all,


I have been playing UO off and on for probably 15 years and one thing I've always wanted to play was a pure mage. Now, on a shard like this with no skill cap, I'm not sure it makes much sense to go FULL mage.


I am however, interested in playing a pure ranged class, utilizing a bow and spell casting if possible. After thinking about this a bit and searching the forums, I ran into a few questions I couldn't answer:


1. Am I gimping myself for not sticking with melee for PvE? Being able to use spin attack with mana/health/stamina leach + magic on hit is so powerful. I don't want to waste a ton of time only to find out it's not viable. Keep in mind I'm not doing anything super super tough right now.


2. I assume I need to stack spell damage increase, cap the casting mods, but what other +skills are useful? Will I lean mostly on magery + eval int? Or should I be branching out to use Necro or other spells?


3. Are there any specific items I need to hunt down before I even go down this road?


Any other tips would be appreciated.

It's been about a week and no response. I assume this means I'm crazy for trying a mage in PvM?

I am planning on potentially getting an Evo Dragon, and working on getting a strong bow to use, which brought me to another question: Can you shoot a bow while casting a spell? Or does spell casting trigger a delay in shooting a bow? I don't have a spell channeling bow to test it on unfortunately.

I am no expert so I can not really help with Mage for PvM but.... I do have some +Mage items and mana regen with spell damage and I do well casting on monsters, although I do bash them with my axe most and finish or do extra damage with some casting.


As for casting and shooting, you will stop shooting to cast and then continue after if I remember rightly. Spell Channel simply allows you to keep the bow equip when you cast instead of disarming you.

maging is definitely viable in pvm. there is no SDI cap for pvm. find as much gear with +magery, + eval, +spirit speak (if you plan on using necro)  and SDI and you will maximize your damage output.

magery goes great with tamers. but keep in mind that this is a no skill cap server so you really want to utilize all the skills you can. also keep in mind that magery wont work on every mob in the game. some mobs instantly steals all your mana so you will want to use a weapon, on the other side of that some mobs bite real hard if you get to close so you will want to use range attacks, ie. magery or range weapons. but for the most part magery a great skill to focus on.

cyclones can be thrown while casting. however you must put "use best weapon skill" on it or use a skill ball on throwing skill because at this time you cannot train the skill by normal means unless you are a gargoyle. dont be a gargoyle though. no gear available for them.

Thanks for the replys. I will take a look at cyclones. I've never used one before, I have seen them around.

magery in pvm is good for .. heals cures blessing.... id say that's it casting p fields....after that id advise having a bit of dex and using a wep that hits good mana leech and life leech is good to have when combined with wraith form and curse wep is good in champs... id advise going to easy champs doing a few stages try to agro as many mobs as u can and kill them without dying.. and ull kind of pick up on it as u go..
my most important tip would be have a lot of ways to heal if possible have all heals available from mini heal to chiv to actual bandaids Spirit speak is great cus cost no man when dead corpse are around


I hope this helps a bit

It does help. I managed to find a reasonably priced 2h axe with mana/life leach and + hit harm, so I made that 1-handed to go with my mirror shield. Seems to work pretty well. I have played in the past and I think I forgot just how strong whirlwind is. I'm not sure magery can ever really touch it for champing.

What I've been doing is running vampiric embrace + curse weapon + consecrate + divine fury and whirlwinding everything. Seems to work pretty well. Still have many gear holes, but it's working OK. Thanks for the tips.