Let me start by introducing myself. I started playing Ultima Online in 1999 with The Second Age and continued playing for a couple years after, but quit long before Age of Shadows was released. Today for some reason unknown to me, I got the extreme urge to start playing Ultima Online again. I read up on the new expansions, but I have some questions.

Would it be best for me to buy the 20 dollar 8th Age Edition (can you use it with an old account?), and then buy Mondain's Legacy later once I decide if I am going to keep playing or not? I guess the real question is will that 20 dollars be wasted if I just buy Mondain's Legacy a few weeks later?

The idea of playing a Samurai interests me, so I have some specific questions about them. The main thing I look at when building a template is PvP, so how are they in PvP? I know when I played, Mages dominated everything and if you weren't a Mage you sucked. But with these new expansions, it seems like melee characters are now a viable option. But maybe not. Are they? If Samurai suck, but melee is now good in PvP, what would you suggest?

Here is the Samurai template I was thinking of:

Swordsmanship 100
Tactics 100
Anatomy 100
Bushido 110
Parry 110
Healing 100
Resist 100

With either 100 STR, 100 DEX, 50 INT or something like 115 STR 110 DEX 25 INT depending on how much mana Bushido uses. What do you guys think of this template?

And my final questions regarding Samurai are: Do they use plate armor? Is there a special kind of armor specific to Samurai? Are there any new two handed swords or anything specifically for Samurai? And what race would you say is better for them, Elf or Human?

Thank you very much in advance for helping me out.

Great! Welcome back.

I suppose it depends on what you really want to do, when it comes to deciding what template. Looks good to me for a start.

I don't pretend to know about warrior stuff, but something tells me from the ones I do know that you will need armour and a weapon that is going to keep your stamina up if you do not have focus. I could be wrong. I don't think they need plate armour only. My sister hunts hiryus and onis alot and brings back lots of nice leather samurai and ninja gear with her high luck, as well as the plate stuff. We either enhance to sell or dump for new players in Haven.

Resist...Great! Keep that. That you have to have, cause, if I see you in Fel, Red or Blue, just to be safe, I will bean you quick without it! Paralyze, Poison, Energy Bolt, Run. Hehe....all in fun. K?

Hmmm, you may want to read some more about 110 skills in some warrior forums. I think there is alot of discussion about that there, and whether it is worth it, depends again on whatcha want to do. I will tell you though, that some of the players I know are morons when it comes to Intel. They have only like 20, but boost the rest with jewels. That way they can raise dexterity and strength as high as they can, and boost that more with jewels as well. I do think though, that from what I hear, 120 in Magic Resist, Swords, and Parry you would have to have to really PvP seriously on a regular basis. Again, I could be wrong. Just my limited experience and what I hear talking to people.

Oh well. Anyways, its good to see you come back. Have fun!

The 20 bucks for the 8th Age is actually a good deal, since you get the tokens, which are much more expensive to buy individually, and if you dont plan on xsharding, sell that token to get you started. 8th Age and ML arent tied together, so getting one means not getting the other, I would go for 8th first as it has the tokens and what not.

Samurais use the same type of armor that any other class wears. There is no special benefits to plate or non plate.

Elfs are the way to go in my opinion, they have 20 free mana, and you dont have to worry about night sight. They have lower weight capabilities than humans, but at 110 str you can carry 425 stones. My swordsman and archer both have 110 str and with the normal possesions you carry, aka bandages, pots, extra weaps, whatever, you can still carry about 15k gold. Other than that, I dont see why not to be an elf.

Welcome back to UO. There are alot of changes going on right now, so be sure to read up on everything..

Kiache
I am going to warn you that UO is a lot different than it was in 99(or even around LBRs release).
Don't be afraid if you get into UO and you can't even figure out how to kill mongbats LOL

Anyways, as for your questions:
ML Account thing. I don't have a clue honestly. 8th age is the newest release and is up to date, but as you know you don't get ML access with it.
As for just buying ML....I ain't got a clue, I would ASSUME that if you bought ML you would be upgrade all the way to Samurai Empire.
Ok just checked:

Q: Does Ultima Online™: Mondain’s Legacy include all the UO expansion packs?
A: Yes, upgrading an existing account to Ultima Online: Mondain’s Legacy, or creating a new account with an Ultima Online: Mondain’s Legacy account creation code, will give you the ability to play content from all eight UO expansion packs.
Those include: Ultima Online™: The Second Age, Ultima Online Renaissance™, Ultima Online™: Third Dawn™, Ultima Online™: Lord Blackthorn’s Revenge, Ultima Online™: Age of Shadows™, Ultima Online™: Samurai Empire and Ultima Online™: Mondain’s Legacy.

As for the samurai questions.
I don't have a Samurai, so I can't answer any of them

As for the Armor questions ask us again after P40. Something seems to be happening with armor in P40, still not quite sure what it is.

Welcome back!

The template you've done is good. Looks like you've done your homework

the 8th age thing is perfect to come back with. Although you will not be completely up to date since you need an ML upgrade to do certain things, but with the 8th age upgrade you should be good for awhile, atleast to get characters worked up again etc.

Hoping to see you back ingame and please let me know if I can help you with something.

~Cobra

So if I order 8th age first and then later upgrade to ML, I can do a quest to turn into an Elf, correct? Also, would the advanced character token be wasted on the Samurai template? I remember certain skills (such as taming) were MUCH harder to raise than others, so maybe I should use the advanced token on a Mage or Tamer? And finally, I doubt I'll use the server transfer token, so how much gold would that get me?

Welcome back. I only wish to add this to the comments already made. As I see it, if you have your dex at 100, your stamina should be ok most of the time. My warriors have dex of 100 and they rarely ever run into stamina problems. I don't do a lot of heavy duty fights, but when I do battle, is it usually solo and I never see the stamina drain much.

ML will bring you all the way up, includes Samurai.. but Eighth Age is not going to bring you to ML... got to have both in order to be all the way up. Sadly.... You would think having to pay that much for Eighth Age, you would be current with everything...

Hmm, I was also reading on the Samurai forums at Stratics and it seems like after the next patch a good thing to do would be switch Tactics with Arms Lore. What do you guys think about that?

I heard that rumor... I was hoping it wasn't so... since my Swordswoman is 110 in Tactics.... and 5 in Lore... Sucky .... and stupid if you really want my opinion, but then my opinion and a dollar will buy you coffee in a small cheap restaurant.