Since the server is down, I figured I could finally try and get some guidance for some of the experienced players. I played OSI fairly regularly from about the release of UO:Ren until Sam Empire (and really lost interest at that point because the expansions had created a game that was so different). I understand a lot of the new item abilities such as FC, FCR, SSI, etc. but don't fully grasp what combos I need to look for in my weapons and gear.
I created my account here back at the end of August and played for about 2 weeks before I had to go out of town for 2 months. I recently returned right before Halloween (the Onslaught event was a awesome by the way). I managed to find myself 2 18x18 plots that are fairly close to each other north of Vesper, however had to take a loan from another player to be able to afford them, lol. I have started bee keeping and can see how that will really help with some of the cash. I have GM'd (or 110) the bulk of the basic crafting and fighting skills (aside from Necro, Bushido, Ninjitsu, etc. because I am totally unfamiliar with those skills). I did a handful of the newb MoA champs and have joined in a few of the Tokuno and crossroads MoA champs as well. I am now at the point where I'm really trying to understand how some of the advanced gear, weapon leveling, re-layers, bios, imps, levelable pets, etc. work. These are awesome and totally original concepts compared to what I am used to, however I'm sort of lost. I am slowly working up my stats, have typical newb gear (a set of Plate of Honor and a petrified yumi that was part of the new player package I received), and about 100k in gold between my two main chars (one for fighting and one for crafting). I read on the wiki that my goals should be: 220 dex, imps, and Gem of Completion stuff, however I'm pretty sure I'm going to get pummeled when trying to get any of the imps or GoC stuff. I have 3 cheap mules that have been killed a handful of times that I'm using to fight with. To give you a picture of my combat abilities, I am somewhat close to being able to take down a single Balron with my animals and SS/vet healing, though if the Balron manages to aggro on me it doesn't take long for everything to die, lol. The big thing I've noticed here is that a lot of the monsters don't drop anywhere near the amount of gold they would on the OSI servers (IE, Elder Gazers, Daemons, Titans and Cyclopean Warriors drop somewhere between 250-500 gold when I remember them dropping significantly more on the OSI ones). Therefore, all of my usual "old hunting grounds" on the OSI shards are virtually useless here. I have found the Sphynx a couple of times after several checks and made off with a great haul from that, but I'm pretty lost on what my next steps should be. I'm not looking to make several million overnight or anything like that, but it almost seems as if I'm at a level right now where I really can't fight anything that's worthwhile and my only source of solid income is beekeeping. Anyone have any suggestions for what my path should be for getting some better gear or increasing my survivability in general? They would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance.
What next?
Re: What next?
Disregard - Found a handful of threads several pages back that seem to answer most of my questions. Looks like not much has changed since they were posted either.