Does luck really work??

[Electra]

Ive been wearing over 4000 luck for over a month now to help me collect dna and have not seen any real improvement in my ability to sample?? I just burned thru 30000 organics for some relatively ez dna and failed 100% of the time...frustrating! Another 3 million down the drain in under 5 mins...that was really bad luck...I guess...I dont know what to think??

I also have not seen improvement in my loot like its supposed to? Isnt it supposed to upgrade the level of loot with more luck?
More paragon chests? More minor artys? More artys? Peerless quest drops better or more often?

I have also been to gauntlet and still get the same ratio of artys as before. I usually get 1 arty for every 3 runs thru and a few tokuno items. I was expecting a huge increase with 4000 luck??

I have read the info on stratics, it it the same here?

Is there any way to post the formula to how luck is calculated on this shard and what sytems it relates to?

Again, I paid 120 million gold to get 4000 luck and has taken alot of time and patience to get this ability only to find its not really worth it at this point??

Also since u put a cap on luck at 5600 (400 per item), is that enough luck to have a decent chance at getting hard dna, or is it like winning the lottery type of odds...I just want to know if its reasonable to even keep trying?

:)Thanks

[BlaZe]

I'm pretty sure when they say it affects the level of loot, they are referring to the regular items that drop on monsters and how many (and how high) the magic affixes are that come on it. Its been my experience that it has no effect on Gauntlet or Tokuno arties, the level of powerscrolls you get from Champion Spawns or how often you get paragon chests. I can't really comment on DNA collecting since I refuse to do that dirty work.


Of course, with that dreaded Chaos Theory, it could be affecting everything but we just don't know it.

[Kaervas]

Currently I've only seen visible change in the number/strength of properties on a given item (though it only bumps up 1 "tier") when luck kicks in. This is in line with what UOguide says that Luck does.

A character's total Luck is used when loot is spawned on creature corpses. It gives a chance of there being a greater amount of loot, a chance of a greater number of properties on said loot, and a chance that those properties will be of greater intensity. It should be noted, however, that this is only a chance of more and greater loot, and that Luck has no direct affect on what specific items will spawn and what specific properties will spawn on those items.

http://www.uoguide.com/Luck
If you read this article, notable parts are:
http://www.uoguide.com/Luck#Affect_on_the_Gauntlet

(Editor: This section is not really accurate anymore. The Gauntlet now uses the Treasures of Tokuno points system, so the following info is probably only a shadow of the truth, if that. This will be changed in the future when further information becomes available.)

That Tokuno point system just assigns a base chance for a creature to give you an artifact, usually based on its difficulty (eg. the Dark Father has more likelihood of granting an artifact than an Impaler) and the more kills you go without getting an artifact, the higher your odds get of getting one on the next kill, resetting whenever you get one. As far as I am aware, Luck does not play a part in this.

http://www.uoguide.com/Luck#The_Math

Luck is evaluated in the context of a logarithmic equation, which is frequently referred to colloquially as "diminishing returns." It is true that your Luck chance will increase the more Luck you have, but it is not a linear increase. The more Luck you have, the more you need to add to it to experience increases in your Luck chance.

* Example: To have a 10% Luck chance, you need approximately 63.1 Luck. One would assume that to have a 20% Luck chance, you would need 63.1 x 2 = 126.2 Luck, but this is not the case. To have a 20% Luck chance you would actually need approximately 219.7 Luck.

So your crazily high luck is also not giving you linear returns, so it's likely working, but simply not affecting your chances as much as you think it should be doing.

I wish I could give you a better comparison of the effects of luck, but my luck gear is non-deed and as such I only have around 1500 luck myself, it won't get much higher without the luck deeds which I am not prioritizing currently, since the ED I accrue has other places to go first
(Plus I have zero experience with bio-engineering so far so I can't give the slightest whisper of an idea how luck is supposed to affect that)

On a semi-related note, I would give an arm and a leg if luck affected the hideously random pet breeding stuff like:

• Number of ability points per pet level (high luck should raise the minimum rolls you get for these points by a noticeable amount)
  Number of breeds a pet has (there should be a certain amount of luck where you NEVER get 0 breeds on a new baby or fresh tame)
  Chance of outright breeding failure (save a little bit of time on an already slow process - unless you want to blow more money on mating delay deeds than the actual pets are worth...)
  Chance of getting a male and female baby pair instead of 2 female or 2 male (not so important, but would be nice to save a chunk of tokens here and there)

[Electra]

Thank you very much for your informative response, that was very nice of you to look up all of that info. I already read most of the info available, I just wanted a confirmation that it actually worked on this shard and if it really made a difference for collecting the high end monster dna that im seeking. The part about the diminishing returns was the real base to my question. Is there a reasonable chance to obtain super dna from monsters even with max luck, or am I just wasting time because the chance is near impossible?

I have tried for some dna daily for over 5 months, and recently ive tried alot harder since I have the high luck now. It just seems the chance is so small and the price is so high its not worth the effort. I hate buying 100ed for 3 million gold each week if the increase is so negligible there is no a reason to continue -- for example id like to know the increase in probability from 4000 to 5000 luck?? If its only 1% id just say forget spending the extra 30 million!

I finally obtained the minotaur dna after trying over 200 attempts which = 20,000,000 million in vials and 2,000,000 in bio tools not to mention all the insurance to cover all the deaths in deep dark places:) And remember this is just to obtain 1 sample of mimic dna out of 4 samples needed to make a bio pet.

[Electra]

I saw this post on the forums describing caps and was a little concerned?? Do we have a different luck system than osi? We seem to have a cap of 6400 on this shard. Does the extra luck past 1360 make a difference or not?

"Luck: 1360 (you can get more, but the bonuses are miniscule, 1226 is the max youll need)"

[Kaervas]

I'm told that luck affects Tokuno here, and to a lesser extent Doom, I am in the process of testing it myself (well, not right this second).
After some thought, I would imagine there are a multitude of changes to luck otherwise the luck deeds and the calculated cap of 400/item would not be as such. I can hardly imagine it being worth all the ED if there weren't other benefits to Luck than what was discussed earlier in this thread.

I guess all we can do is wait for confirmation by someone who knows the code.

[wizzer]

It seems to me that luck does nothing for collecting DNA samples. 3months ago I didn't use a luck suit. It would take me 8-10 vials to get Prowess DNA from a Lurg which gives 3k hits. Now I have a 1600 luck suit I wear and this week went through 33 vials on a Lurg and was unsuccessful to get a sample. So now with the luck suit my chances are worse? Or is this because the sample collecting has been nerfed? If so I am curious as to why? I would think this will only make the organics go through the roof price wise.

[Tael]

The whole luck system was a nerf by OSI and I hate it.

I'd love to see it removed from runuo entirely. In practice, I ignore luck and don't even waste my time looking at looted items since I know they'll be worthless. Saves me a bit of time, anyway. As far as incorporating luck into other aspects of play besides loot, why would anyone want something as abominable as that?

Ugh.

EDIT: Oh, yeah, I should make a relevant point, shouldn't I ... I think Coli has better taste than to add luck to things that weren't affected by it on OSI. So I'd say that it probably works only for loot.

[Kaervas]

In practice, I ignore luck and don't even waste my time looking at looted items since I know they'll be worthless. Saves me a bit of time, anyway.

You might want to reconsider that after learning that 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.

The downside of course is the sheer randomness involved in getting all the stats lined up correctly, but for someone serious about creating the best possible weapon short of GM intervention, it's a necessary grind, and a healthy amount of luck (both in-game and out of it) is a requirement to do it.

[Tael]

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

[Kaervas]

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.

[fingers]

Is there a better bow to level than a Horselord?

I crafted a Yumi with 40+ lower defence 40+ lightning 30 SSI and some good hit chance and damage increase. Because it is crafted, i beleive that it is harder to level up, but it is still way better than the Horeslord, imo.

*salutes all friends* I should be back online in a few months

[Nomadix]

*hums* What's luck got to do .. got to do with it?

Luck has always given me a pain (in game that is). There is any 'official +' confirmation on this?

[Undertaker]

check the previous topics on luck... +Colibri has posted an explained how luck works (i belive)

start diggin

(p.s. its a waste of time to repost something that has already been posted)

(p.s.2. and yes, luck does work)

[wizzer]

This post started out asking if luck works for other things like collecting DNA samples. I don't believe this is mentioned in any other previous posts. At least I haven't found any.