Ok so i've been away from UO for a few years now (just after powerscrolls were introduced)
I used to love being a pure mage and as their is so much changed (4 new skills at least which i have no idea about) i'm now wondering if it is still viable in PVP?
Also could anyone please reccomend a nice build that i could aim towards?
The new skills dont really interest me that much, i used to play catskills btw so hi to any of my old friends who may use this forum
Would anyone reccomend coming back to the game with PVP in mind?

Welcome to the forums Gaius.

There's a few experienced PVP vets here who can answer that, but I think it's abit early for them to be on the forums, so stay tuned

Mages still rock for pvp... but you are probably going to have to alter your template a bit... I would suggest a wrestle/parry mage for pvp because it is a pretty basic template to relearn your mage on... it is also extremely easy to build a suit for... the skills would be as follows (When you can afford the scrolls) 120 magery, 120 evaluating intelligence, 120 magic resist, 120 parry, 120 meditation, and of course 120 wrestling... this template can be altered to fit your skill point cap and if you would like help with the variations and such on this template feel free to post back or pm me :☼).

dont need parry
wrestle/scribe
or wrestle/ninja
would be much better imo

expl fs deathstrike + animal forms to escape dismount + stun/disarm

really if you stack enough dci, and keep a hand free for pots (no shield) you will do fine and can allways disarm ppl

red pots are an absolute must unless you have chiv and 3/6 or better casting for divine fury/remove curse

I don't believe they wanted to use the new skills :☼)... was just trying to figure a basic template for them to relearn on... theres always room for template variations after. I chose the parry because in the beginning it can get frustrating against dexxers before you get the timing down is all.

well honestly u may be right then
play a wrestle/parry mage
i still say better off w/ scribe tho and pots
unless you're shard still has 90% archers...i find I do okay w/o parry these days
Id reccomend some chiv tho still like 60ish and atleast 3/6 casting...
then ur cleanse by fire will be faster than cure
still use mini heal and in vas mani' tho unless 4/6 mini heal faster than close wounds.

Cutter, thanks for the advice it is better than all the *anti-gimp u dont wanna play that temp* we been getting

Thanks for the advice
I logged on yesterday and it wasn't pretty heh
I currently have 110 wrestling

Have i screwed something up though, in the past i could cast a spell while spamming another button (e.g explode, eb) but now it seems to cancel the initial spell first? Is this my fault or working as intended?

FC and FCR have been cut down to 2/6 for mages, it may have been alot higher when you played last. That could be the reason for your occurance. You need to let the Explo target cursor complete, then yes you can right away start another spell.

also they changed explosion. My favorite combo used to be cast an explosion, target...cast a second explosion but hold it...run in and stun target, THEN target held expl...and follow w/ a fs

they added a delay and you can no longer cast a second explosion right after targetting the first. However I have found that if you target first expl, then cast you're curse...or a fireball/magic arrow combo, you can cast the second expl after that, hold it, stun, then target.

Still works pretty well....but they did add that short delay between casting explosions.

Or what I do on my mage is find the archers who dont use resist, then explo, para, explo, para, explo and so on.. Stun always is nice too, throw a poison, then stun, so they waste their heal on the poison, then explo stun. There is different combos but all the same result, an archer dies.. hehe..