Baldguy

The primary means of income when starting the game. All things monster related, including advanced tactics.

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Baldguy

With the advent of trammel, we saw a new viable practice come to life. Farming. This is also called camping.
The process by which a player stakes a "claim" on a certain spawn point and repeatedly slays the same monster. Over and Over, ad naseum. However, they had to take a breather to bank the gold and loot. So others eventually got a turn.

With Scenario 6 (When Ants Attack), we were gifted the Bag of Sending, which took farming to a whole new level.

Then with AOS came the NEED to farm.

So how DOES one farm?
By finding a spawn area that has a limited area, few lower level monsters, and is easily accesible. Then calculating your maximum kill rate for your template.
The current player favorites are Swoops and Miasma. They have a limited spawn area, can be killed quickly by either warrior, tamer or mage, and have massive loot / gold. But NEITHER can be farmed to the maximum spawn rate, which is 19 per 7 minutes.

Felluca is also a viable option, as spawn rates are faster there.

Having a bag of sending and a good supply of Powder of Translocation is a practical neccesity.

How do I know what is best to kill?

Two ways currently exist. Read through UO.stratics.com monsters and find the highest GP drop you can handle. Once you find the monster you are targetting, Stratics provides the additional benefit of a list of spawn locations. By clicking on it, you are taken to the UO Atlas, with a map of where the spawn is.

Or read this post ( tables have changed a little since this, but there is no way to update, still fairly accurate)

How do I know I am at max kill rate?

Now, with all this info, pick the type creature with the highest loot that you can solo quickly. Then find it's spawn point in ilshenar. Since Paragon loot bumps up one, and you can most likely handle the paragon version, that creature will net you the best items over time, with higher luck suit on.
I went with the blood ele, since there are several spawn points (since my bard tamer hints thread in skill section), and they fall danged fast.

I had a formula for kill speed (kind of), and spawn speed that I used to judge my efficiency when hunting., and how good of a spot it was. To understand it, there are a couple of items that should also be understood.

MAX KILL RATE= ((# corpses on ground) / (7)) - (delay between spawn in minutes)

1) all corpses decay at the same rate ( 7 minutes)

2) monsters will spawn from "slow" up to a maximum rate, usually over a 5 hour period. The longer you spend at a spawn area, the faster they spawn. In all areas EXCEPT Mondain's legacy and felluca, the max spawn is 15 per 7 minutes.

3) A single monster won't spawn till one dies

4) At max kill rate, a new monster wont spawn till a corpse disappears.

5) MOST players cannot kill more than one monster at a time.

Therefore, the more corpses you have on the ground, the more efficiently you are killing them.
If you get to a point where there are five or fewer corpses on the ground and the first one decays, that is a slow spawn spot, OR you are killing too slow.

You should look for areas that let you have a corpse rate of 8 on the ground at a time (per single creature spawn) or more. Those are the sweetest spawns.

This is a more efficient method of gauging spawn areas than the other standard of "gold per hour", as there are too many variables in that.

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Baldguy

Really good advice from Ezekiel on good template plans for excelling at PvM

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Baldguy

Most Warriors have one HUGE liability. They cannot hide or cast invis. Due to the new monster spawn strategy used in UO ( one high level MOB clustered by tons of lower level spawn), the need for the Warrior to invis is necesarry for survival AND finesse at hunting. Later, we will have a discussion on how to tailor spawn areas (finesse). For now, let's focus on survival.

So why use an invis potion?
Ever run from a monster, dragging 37563424 behind you?

Ever get yelled at for dragging said spawn on top other players?

Ever WANT to hide, but CAN't?

This potion is for YOU!

Other neat bonuses of the invisibility potion:
You can cast a spell, drink invis, and go hiding/stealth with the spell target rdy

If you get dismounted, you can hide and cast your ethereal mount if you have one

Most chars dont have means to discover you, remember that.

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Baldguy

Luring of monsters is a decade old tactic used by PvM'ers to tailor a spawn area for maximum benefit. There are multiple means to accomplish this, depending on what you want to do and what your template is.

First, the two types of spawn tailoring. Luring out, or luring in.

Luring out, you are taking nuiscance spawn away from the main target. Once lured off safely, these monsters will stay gone for two hours (if freshly spawned). This is a great tactic to avoid constantly killing nuisance spawn. Since you can never defeat a monster spawner (it will spawn again), this is the perfect solution.
(insert pic of bone daemon room here)

Luring in, you are getting creatures to come to YOU. You have a safe spot, and want to kill there. So you gotta get ONLY the desired target to follow you.

Regardless of intent, there are only a small number of ways to accocmplish the goal. Anyone, warrior, tamer, bard, mage, hybrid, can do these given the right equipment, skills (both template and player) and virtues.

ABSOLUTE NECCESITY
You shoulda oughta/must/shall/will/gotta have "show names of approaching" on!! This can be turned on in your options panel
.

You can also use the one in UOA.


And you can set a macro for it as well.

This allows you to see the relative position of monsters OFF SCREEN. PLUS the names are targettable. This is an essential part of the strategies below.
GEAR / Skills / Spell / Virtue list
1) Invisibilty potions - these have limitations: Two second delay after drinking until the effect takes hold; moving or getting hit will cancel the effect. Work for a total of 30 seconds (Source:UOSTUFF)
2) Peace skill
3) Invisibilty spell
4) Honor
5) Ability to heal (potion, spell, bandage, wand, spirit speak, health regen)
6) Decent resists, at least 50 in each is preferred (you WILL be taking some damage as you lure off or to)


Game Mechanics
An understanding of just what we are doing, why it works, and how long you have is essential knowledge for the master PvM'er.

- Targetting range - Monsters can target you well off screen (about 32 tiles from where you are) I am sure many of us have experienced this. Well, you can target them TOO, using the "names of approaching" feature. All you have to do is dbl. click the name, and they are now yours. You do not need to actually cast, or have a weapon equipped. Just go into war mode, then dbl click the name.

-Respawn Time - As mentioned above, monsters lured off will respawn in about two hours at their starting location. This was a fix due to some inappropriate use of game mechanics. Of course, the time since they last spawned counts. Sometimes, it is helpful to kill everything to reset their spawn counter, then lure them off.

- Casting range / breath range - Casters can cast 15 tiles out from them. Breath attacks have a range of about 12 tiles as well. When luring, you try to dance ahead about 16 tiles, keeping them just on screen, but not close enough to cast.

(Disclaimer: All titles are purely fictional, made to suit my own sense of humor)
Method 1: REEL 'EM IN!
Like a fisherman casting a rod, you have a summon / pet attack a monster, then spam "all follow me". Most often used for Luring in type tactics. This is crude, but effective. A poor tactical choice for Lady Mel's satyrs!!!. Some modification for warrior would be to use an invisibility potion, then mount pet to keep it safe.

Method 2: Come eat me!
One sees newer players engaged in this humourus, and often suicidal, luring technique. They spin around right in front of a monster until it decides to target them, then run off. Obviously, you can also attract the attention of everything ELSE in the area as well. This is a decent approach for luring off non-casting type monsters, but not very effective against groups of casters. Not a great method for Luring to you either. Expect to take some damage as you lure them off.

Method 3: Didya Feel THAT? or POKE!
This method is effective, with some danger of being multi-targetted. You manuever into range of the Mob (making it on screen), then target it with either a bow or a spell (magic missile is most common), to make it target you. Again, there is the danger of everything ELSE on screen taking an interest in you.

Method 4: Sniper luring
This is MOST effective when used to lure in. I use this method at Dread Horn to lure in Irk. Using the "names of approaching" mechanic, I can safely invis, wait till I see IRK off screen, go into war mode and double click his name. This is a great tactic for a few reasons:
1) You are out of initial mana dump range, so escape relatively unscathed.
2) MUCH longer range than getting into archery / spell casting range.
3) You can normally avoid "double drags" where you get your target AND a "bonus" monster.
4) YOU are in control, proactive not reactive.

Method 5: Click Free is for ME!
I have recently adopted this method. It works the same as sniper luring, but no mouse clicking!
In game, set a 2 macroes:

Target - mobile (hostile will not work unless they are flagged on you). I do not use the nearest option, it has limitations. Since we want to keep well away from the target is an

Attack - Selected target.

Now you toggle through the available targets, then hit your second macro key. Click free! This is not viable in really dense spawns, but perfect for Irk.

Method 6: Honor thyself!
If you are follower or knight of honor, simply embrace honor, run down, flag on Irk, and run back up. Could not be simpler. I would NOT try to fight in the middle of the area. Irk can take a few minutes to kill for a warrior.

After the lure!
So what do you do AFTER you successfully lure? That depends on your goal, luring out or in.

Luring out, you will want to break targetting to strand the mosnters where you want them.
To do this, you want to break line of sight by:
1) use invisibility spell
2) use invisibility potion (you cannot be hit, and cannot move, so be far ahead when you use it!)
3) area peace (target peace if a single monster) to break the attack.
4) Use a recall rune to go back to your starting point
5) Teleport ahead a couple tiles

Then, to KEEP them there, you :
A) run off hoping nothing retargets you (poor strategy)

B) pre-cast invisibility, if you are re-targetted, then invis again (effective, risk of getting hit).

C) Take advantage of the two second invis delay for potions. Drink one, run off for two seconds, invis takes effect, breaking any attackers, then keep running.

D) embrace honor and whistle as you walk through them (beautiful)

E) Run through, area peace if anything targets you, and invis once you are away. (GOOD strategy).

Luring IN
If you are in a group, you most likely want to drag the victim to the group then invis. If you are a lurer AND a meat shield, then you do not need to invis. Since most lurers are mages or bards (some tamers), being the meat shield is NOT an option.
If the group is casting invis on you, make SURE they know to wait until the MOB is really close to them. Otherwise, you defeat the purpose of strategic luring.

If you are solo, then you want to get to a place of minimal interference, then tackle the beastie.

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