Tael wrote:Kaervas wrote:the best leveled weapons in the game start off as peerless dropped, random statted weapons with the luck-induced quality bump-up.
There's flat out no competition at all between them and any legitimate craftable or existing artifact, they're so much more powerful that it isn't even funny.
Is there a better bow to level than a Horselord? I got one with a leveling deed, removed the slayer property, added bless and spell-channeling, and at level 43 it's shaping up.
The luck thing annoys me, that's all

Warning, very long, very dry post.
It also has a few points that will vary based on 2 factors:
- The existence of Sharpening Blades from the very very best smithing BODs, and that they can be used on bows.
- The Slayer property working like stated on the 2 links below, and therefore not requiring removing, and becoming an extremely powerful situational stat.
http://www.uoguide.com/Slayer
http://uo.stratics.com/content/arms-arm ... eapons.php
Yes, by a long shot. The Horselord has:
Reptile Slayer, 50% Damage Increase, 5 Dexterity, 1 Mana Regen, 125 Luck
This is worth:
Reptile Slayer = Unrated
<= I need confirmation whether Slayer here follows current OSI rules and does not make you take double damage from the "opposing group" - if this is the case, having Slayer on a weapon should have no downsides and it should not require removing, and is a very nice situational bonus. If Slayer works the oldschool way then it's terrible and can be safely ignored.
50 Damage Increase, 4 SP each = 200 SP
5 Dex, 4 SP each = 20 SP
1 Mana Regen, 6 SP each = 6 SP
125 Luck, 3 SP each = 375 SP -
HOWEVER, luck deeds take you to 400 luck with 4 applications, therefore I view luck on an intended "ultimate" item as a completely wasted stat. If it's truly ultimate then it will forgo luck and obtain another useful attribute which saves you SP, and you can add the luck yourself for 400ED/12 million gold.
So the whole weapon is worth 226 SP, 601 if you insist on counting the luck.
Take a look at Hanzo's for example, which has 50% Damage Increase (4SP/pt), 40% Hit Life Leech (3SP/pt), 3 Self Repair (12SP/pt), 10 Ninjitsu (unrated like luck)
Hanzo's value is 356 SP.
If you added a level deed to both of these bows, Hanzo's will need 26 SP and 1 and 1/4 Luck Deeds to equal the Horselord. Only a crazy man would spend SP on Luck so I am not counting the possibility of purely using SP (which would require 401 SP).
The Horselord will need 156 SP to equal the Hanzo's, 120 if you ignore the Self Repair.
Looking purely at combat potency the Hanzo's gives you a lot more bang for your buck.
The high starting Luck on Horselord is a non-factor, since if you're going for luck you may as well start off with a "regular" luck suit until you hit the point where you start having gear that is WORTH luck deeding (400 ED/12 million gold
per piece is no joke). Armor of Fortune, Swords of Prosperity, Stormgrips, a whole bunch of ethereal runic Spined Leather armor, etc etc.
A perfect crafted bow would have (as an example):
50% in Damage Increase, Hit Lightning, Hit Life Leech, Hit Mana Leech, Hit Lower Attack, Hit Lower Defense
Despite leveling at 3 points per level, this bow has a value of
1000 SP.
It blasts the other two out of the water, though of course, getting a Yumi with all those stats lined up so perfectly will take a *lot* of time and Petrified runic fletching tools, and a decent chunk of Fletching gear to prevent the moderate failure chance on Yumis. Thankfully the Exceptional status is not needed in this case since DI% is already a stat here.
In the circumstances that Slayer has no downside when used against the opposing group, the stat priorities can be reshuffled to add a Slayer of your choice as an attribute, and the bow must now be Exceptional to receive 35% Damage Increase. This trades 60 SP worth of Damage Increase for a Slayer Property.
If the top-tier smithing BOD reward "Sharpening Blade" exists and can be used on a bow, then it is a free upgrade as the Sharpening Blade can entirely cover for the loss of DI%. Note that using a Sharpening Blade on an exceptional weapon allows maximum DI% of 55 as opposed to 50% for nonexceptional/noncrafted.
Now here is where a luck boosted drop comes in to play.
It's possible (albeit
extremely rare) to loot a bow from a very high tier mob with
58% in Damage Increase, Hit Lightning, Hit Life Leech, Hit Mana Leech, Hit Lower Attack, Hit Lower Defense.
Six properties, at a level one step above the best runic crafted weapons, and it'll level at
5 points per level since it's a dropped weapon. This bow would have a whopping value of 58*4 + 58*4 + 58*3 + 58*3 + 58*3 + 58*3 =
1160 SP. Compared to the perfect crafted bow you get 160 more SP from the start and 200 more SP when you reach level 100.
The only initial weakness will be the low durability, but powder of fortification can fix that for trifling gold, and therefore the bow has no real weaknesses.
Even if Slayer happens to be a desirable stat I would not forgo any stat for it unless Sharpening Blades existed, in which case I would forgo Damage Increase as a starting stat, and add that entirely with Sharpening Blades up to 50%. In this case it would be a trade of 8% of Damage Increase (which is not a huge loss considering the 100% cap from Items) for a Slayer Property of my choice. Slayer is powerful on the intended creature type, but it is by no means a requirement to kill the creature type and is thus highly situational. I would not trade too much for it. Trading any of the 58% hit effects constitutes as 'too much'. 8% DI is acceptable.
Note: You have to change the weapon type for 200 ED, so that it becomes a yumi instead of whatever weapon it starts as. Yumis will not drop. This is a small price to pay for getting the absolute strongest bow within the current ruleset, excluding GM intervention. Naturally you will also add 400 Luck, Spell Channeling, and Blessed with 400 ED, 100 ED, and 1million gold respectively.
Note that a very high amount of luck is not required to obtain the above uber-weapon. It does, however,
greatly quicken the speed you can obtain it at by giving you a much higher chance to get the necessary loot bump-up. Given the immense amounts of real luck you'll already need to have all those stats fall into place, the in-game luck is a definite and desirable edge.