Reactive Armor Broken or changed?

[Corbinrow]

I asked this in game, but no answers. I have 80+ in Magery, same with Eval, but I throw on Reactive and it seems to not work, at all, or drops off instantly. I can't tell which. This is with feeble mobs, too. Giant Rats and Lizardmen.

Anyone have some input here? Back in the day, Reactive Armor kept me alive.

I just thought to check my armor rating, so checking now. Wouldn't mind input, though.

Thanks.

[Unbeliever]

Corbin, Reactive Armor changed in later years. Instead of it being a form of RPD (Reflect Physical Damage) like it was in old school UO, it became a simple buff to Physical Resistance. It raises that at the cost of lowering your Elemental Resistances. Look to the far right on your Character Status bar and you'll see those numbers change when you cast the spell. You can use the Cleric spell Trial by Fire here to throw some damage back on enemies when they hit you, as well as buying or building a gear set with good Reflect Physical Damage values.

[Corbinrow]

Corbin, Reactive Armor changed in later years. Instead of it being a form of RPD (Reflect Physical Damage) like it was in old school UO, it became a simple buff to Physical Resistance. It raises that at the cost of lowering your Elemental Resistances. Look to the far right on your Character Status bar and you'll see those numbers change when you cast the spell. You can use the Cleric spell Trial by Fire here to throw some damage back on enemies when they hit you, as well as buying or building a gear set with good Reflect Physical Damage values.

Well hell. That kind of sucks. Reactive Armor, back then, imho was one of the best low-level spells that grew with your character. Since I'd be running around in good (might I add stylish) clothing, I could not only take a few free shots that didn't kill me, but send some of that damage back at the mob(s). I relied on it quite a bit. It kept me alive when dealing with higher level mobs, too, allowing me to solo them the hard way.

I did notice, finally, the numbers. Defense jumped from 8 to 15. Not really worth it. Really kind of gimped it for the casters. I don't know a whole lot about the Cleric Spells, just yet, but gotta really say... this shard really should re-fix Reactive Armor. It was nearly perfect in design.

Who killed Reactive Armor? When did that happen?

Anyway, thanks for the input, Thomas.

[Unbeliever]

I hear you man. Before I started playing here on Excelsior, I'd only played versions of UO circa 1999-2001. So much new stuff. Not all of it easy to warm up to immediately but that's to be expected when you've played a certain way for over 10 years. If you stick it out through that immediate rejection phase, it gets better.

Reactive Armor got busted with the Age of Shadows expansion when character Armor Rating was dropped and replaced with the resistances. Magic Reflection became the same thing except in reverse - it raises Elemental resists and lowers Physical. I haven't messed with either one of them here except for brief testing. I suppose there's probably a way to maximize their effectiveness and find the absolute minimum resist values you'll need on equipment to cap resists but that seems like an awful lot of work.