Excelsior

Hey guys and gals.

I've been here about a week now, it's a fun shard. I've got a couple questions though. I've read the wiki, and browsed the forums quite a bit.

1. What is the deal with nobles and mules? I see them selling for some pretty crazy prices. I understand the nobles have pack instinct and are pretty tough, but what's the deal with mule prices? I'm trying to decide some pets to hunt with. I've just been using my nightmare until now.

2. How does a bio pet compare to a pack of nobles etc regarding killing speed. Obviously the bio pet has more hp...

3. What kind of weapon is best to make into a levelable weapon. I'd want something spellchanneling, but is there any other ability that I should make sure the base weapon has - ie can't upgrade with the levelable weapon. (If there is a screenshot of the levelable weapon menu or something I'd love it!)

edit: 4. Is there a way to change your name? I noticed there is an "Ace" here already and I don't want to lead to confusion.

1.
Nobles and Mules are both 1-slot pets with different merits.
Noble Steeds - Pack Instinct, insane run speed, energy breath (scales with current HP like dragon breath).
Mules - Poison Immune, non-Pack Instinct, have backpacks, have Magery.
Defensively, they are the same when maxed, aside from the fact that mules cannot be poisoned (mostly irrelevant with the fact that Cleric heals ignore poison status and 99% of poisons deal negligible damage, but still, a definite bonus).
Offensively, I cannot say because I only run with Noble Steeds. Just to give you a general idea, a balron in Discordance will take around 3-10 seconds to die with 5 Noble Steeds wailing on it. The variance is due to the fact that enemy stats can vary and nobles have to decide to use energy breath, just like mules have to decide to cast a certain spell. On the other hand Nobles can always use their energy breath regardless of mana, it's an innate ability. On a long fight, mules will run out of mana.
Mules have a significant benefit on any fight where you are not purely focusing on one target though - pack instinct creatures only get their damage bonus if they are hitting the same target. So on encounters where your pets will be split up for much of the time (eg. champion spawns) mules will be dealing their regular damage as always, but nobles will be dealing half their normal damage.

As for the price difference, this is due to a flaw in the pet leveling/breeding system.
Pack Instinct pets have a low str/dex/int cap due to the pack instinct stacking damage bonus, non-Pack Instinct pets have much higher caps for those stats.
Caster pets have a requirement for int and mana, melee pets do not.
> Nobles are pack instinct melee pets
> Mules are non pack instinct caster pets
You can see, therefore, that mules are a lot harder to breed up to maximum stats. It takes much more time, effort, and luck. This is why they cost so much more, and are also so much harder to find fully maxed out.

2.
Slower, biopets are tank-type pets (and they do that job admirably). They take 3 slots as well. If you're going for sheer DPS/kill speed there are much better alternatives.

3.
The most commonly used weapon here is the yumi, a type of bow, since there is no skill cap and nearly everyone runs with a tamer hybrid. A bow allows you to deal damage from 10 tiles range, weaving shots in between your healing spell casts. There is no risk that the boss will run at you and begin attacking you and you have a buffer between you and the enemy that you can withdraw or cycle your pets around as required.
Spell channeling can be added for 100 ED (3 million gold) with a deed. This also has no -1 FC malus.
You do NOT want spell channeling as a default stat on your weapon (unless it's an artifact) since a no-FC-malus SC will actually cost you 2 attribute slots out of your precious 6.
Additionally the most important spells (cleric heals and paladin damagebuffs) will not require SC. Therefore you can largely ignore the absence of spell channeling on your weapon.
Try this very recent post of mine, it may be a little dull to read but it gives the general idea of what to look for in a base weapon: http://www.uoex.net/forum/viewtopic.php ... 456#p11456

You cannot add Spell Channeling via the leveled weapon system. Slayer properties are also out of bounds.
What you can add in the order they are in the list:
Melee Attributes -
Defense Chance Increase (3SP)
Hit Chance Increase (3SP)
Damage Increase (4SP)
Swing Speed Increase (4SP)
Reflect Physical Damage (3SP)
Magic Attributes -
Spell Damage (2SP)
Faster Cast Recovery (5SP)
Faster Casting (50SP)
Lower Mana Cost (5SP)
Lower Reagent Cost (5SP)
Enhance Potions (2SP)
Mage Weapon (1SP - used to REMOVE the -XX mage weapon penalty, not add it)
Character Stats -
Regen Hits (2SP)
Regen Stamina (1SP)
Regen Mana (6SP)
Bonus Strength (4SP)
Bonus Dex (4SP)
Bonus Int (4SP)
Bonus Hits (3SP)
Bonus Stamina (3SP)
Bonus Mana (3SP)
Lower Stat Requirement (2SP)
Resistances -
Resist Physical Bonus (5SP)
Resist Fire Bonus (5SP)
Resist Cold Bonus (5SP)
Resist Poison Bonus (5SP)
Resist Energy Bonus (5SP)
Weapon Hits -
Hit Life Leech (3SP)
Hit Stamina Leech (3SP)
Hit Mana Leech (3SP)
Hit Lower Attack (3SP)
Hit Lower Defense (3SP)
Hit Magic Arrow (4SP)
Hit Harm (4SP)
Hit Fireball (4SP)
Hit Lightning (4SP)
Hit Dispel (4SP)
Hit Cold Area (4SP)
Hit Fire Area (4SP)
Hit Poison Area (4SP)
Hit Energy Area (4SP)
Hit Physical Area (4SP)
Misc. Attributes -
Luck (3SP)
Nightsight (10SP)
Self Repair (12SP)
Use Best Weapon Skill (50SP)
Durability Bonus (1SP)

4.
Codex -> Player Services -> Miscellaneous. It costs 50,000 tokens.

As far as which pets to use its really up to you. Here is a list of the pets I used in order.
I started with Grizzly Bears while I was training my skill, then I got a pair of nitemares (also started breeding them since).
I moved on to Unicorns for the poison immunity and seems like better casting skills, I got Nobles 1 at a time until I had 4.
I got a decent (but not maxed) mule before I got the nitemares, but I mainly used it as a rideable/backup tank.

I am currently using ointments to max the DEX on my level 30 gen 1 male and female mules to stat a breeding process that leads to several maxxed mules.

When your trying to tell which animal would deal more damage, the first thing I look at is the DEX on the beast. You want as much as possible because this increases the swing speed of the melee attacks.

A side note: When applying a levelable weapon deed to a crafted weapon you will notice you only get 3 points per weapon level.(I found this out the hard way) You only want to use a wep lv deed on a crafted weapon if its already an AWSOME weapon without it.
Lootable weapons/Artifact weapons will give you 5 points to allocate per weapon level. Giving an end result of an extra 200 weapon points you get to spend. Consider your weapons and choose wisely where to put your weapon level deed.

Welcome to the shard, have fun and let me know if you need anything. [pm Edmund Dauntes

Thanks guys. I've bought 3 nobles so far and saving for my other two. Even just the three plus my nightmare were destroying ancient wyrms.

Another question though.

5. What's the deal with bee-keeping? Do you get anything out of the process that is worthwhile or is it just for fun.

Aced wrote:5. What's the deal with bee-keeping? Do you get anything out of the process that is worthwhile or is it just for fun.

From the hives you get honey and wax. The simplest way to profit is to sell the honey and refined wax back to the beekeeper NPC for 400+ gp an item. With 24 mature hives, I make around a mil a week doing this. It takes greater potions and a bit of fussing, but otherwise it's easy money. Look on the wiki and here for more info.