Help: UC strat (in General)

Hi i was thinking of starting a character with unarmed combat, was wondering if people can help me with good strats, what skills to add how much and so on. Also Equipment like if armors are better than tats.

Thanks

You will definitely need a lot (and I mean a lot) of AMF. VA always helps too. I'm not sure what tattoo you're thinking of using, but HGs and a Gi are very necessary if you don't use a ToA.

BarzooMonkey and Johnnywas are two good sources for UC strat talks as well.

single UC tank killer all the way. get a ToA, train UC like mad, add AMF/Prot or VA as you see fit.

Thanks for the big up there Chappy!

Sync, how you equip your UC char depends on how many minions and if they are going to be the only damage dealer.

For a single minion the ToA for me is essential. It takes care of strength and dex leaving you free to pump xp into hp and the UC skill. AMF is essential for taking on mages and you also need to pump that pretty high. A lot of people use exbows and axbows but to be honest you don't need them. Their use is to weaken tank teams and most tank teams at the same size as me can't touch me because of UC's evasion. So I use a normal bow and the bigger the better. That extra damage in ranged helps you tackle a wider range of opponents. Like mage teams...

Helms are essential and again the bigger the better. The boost to UC and strength is invaluable. And thanks to PR weighting you can wear the biggest Helms on the smallest character so start off with a much larger weapon than anybody else! And elven boots rather than dbs for me - the boost to skill and dex is a better bet.

I use VA with my char but it's not essential, just helps my char to last long enough to dish out some decent damage.

On a multi minion team if you're going for another tattoo, such as a ToE or RoS you can equip the Gi and an elven cloak for even more boost to UC, which is what Barzoo's char has.

The most important factor though is pumping as much xp into UC as you can. Treat it the same way as a DD spell and you can't really go wrong.

And remember - UC is a skill and a weapon. So the damage you dish out is only part of the story. The ability to dodge physical attacks and the boost to speed more than makes up for the relatively weak attacks you do.

And no matter how weak your physical damage is, when wearing a ToA with it's bonus PTh you can be hitting three or four times in a round. Which eventually adds up to something good.

Everything Johnny said! :D

The only thing I have to add is that if you go with a multi-minion team, and your tat and/or AMF are on another minion, a MgS on your UC minion is well worth the -5 hit you take to your UC level. :)

it's True! Barzoo's second MgS is the reason I'm not riding him around like a tractor mower any more...

:P

Go single Minion. Train UC (get it to about 300K then leave it for a while), VA to your max dam, as much AMF you can spare and a little str/dex to taste. :)

Use a ToA, it'll take care of your Str/dex and the pth is a wonder!

As Johnny said, HGs are a must. The only other options left are really a HoE (no UC penalty and great + Str) and EBs. EBs are better than DBs as they boost your Dex and UC skill nd DBs don't stack well with UCs Evasion.

:)

For a multi minion team, RoS and however you want to set your four minions up. ;) Take advantage of Haste/GS as you won't have a ToA, have a wall with a TSA/MgS and combine AMF with DM.

thanks alot guys

i would recommend an axbow with alot of + so that you can better attack tanks.

First off, how many minions?
My choice has always been 4.

To simplify it as much as possible, the more aggressive you play the more you rely on your NW, the more defensive you play the less you need NW. If you've got a lot of NW, well then UC isn't the best choice.. so I'd just stick to playing defense.
1 minion characters can put up a suprisingly good defense... but, it's much easier with four.

EEET is my recomendation. Gives you good opportunity to get a decent AMF going, and either EC or Haste/GS too. Plus, enchanters are brilliant for soaking up damage.

The next question is which tattoo?
The main debate seems to be between ToA and Combat GI... personally, I think the GI is more valuable from the beginning and it's value shoots through the roof the longer you stick with it. Besides, ToA can only go on the tank, even if it is better than the GI, I'd say that the option of using a tattoo on an enchanter more than makes up for it. My favourite is the RoS, AMF+AS makes you pretty safe from mages.


Enchantments?
Well, let's think about what you want here.
UC is a weak weapon. Your only chance to beat a competant opponent is to hit more often than they do. That's about the only difference.

So note that you're going to need EC or Haste. You should have at the very least 1 minion training nothing but one of these.

And as you're going to otherwise be pretty vulnerable to DD. As your attack is pretty low and high DX will do little good against DD, do whatever it is you like to do to beat DD. Wall+AMF, AMF+AS, AMF+GA+AS... whatever, just be cautious of mages.


Weapons?
You have more cash to throw around than most, after all your main weapon costs nothing, so get yourself an axbow (again, you should be favouring DX here, dropping your opponent's ST will do little to even things up) and put your cash into that.
Get your hands on a GI, I don't know how anyone does without one of those things. HGs work a treat too. Then you have the elven gear... remarkably useless. Only get any of that when you have a lot of cash to throw around or you're ok with spending all of that money for such a small edge.

The axbow UC build is a good set up if you're taking on tank teams. The axbow is extra insurance against them. But it is one of the reasons UC has always been seen as weak against mages. The axbow doesn't do enough damage in ranged. Why, if UC is a weaker weapon, would you want to couple it with another weak weapon? Get a huge bow, and make sure it has a lot of PTH if you can. Then you're more likely to hit for at least triple strikes in ranged which if your tank is strong add up to a lot of damage.

The ToA's bonus PTH adds to this. And that's when you start to see UC's damage is actually equal to similar sized FB mages. One of my fightlist hits for about 200k per round - single hits. My guy hits for about 80k a single hit but hits four times a round. 320k a round....that doesn't sound weak to me....

"what skills to add how much and so on."

I would definitely suggest UC, but i'm pretty low-lvl myself... :-p

If I may question one point MrC? (As devil's advocate rather than anything)
A Gi gives you a flat 10 points of UC,plus evasion of 1/3 UC level. As far as I can see, there is no 'getting better the more you pump it' that can't be mirrored by a ToA.
Having played UC, and intending to take one to the top one day, would you agree that single minions are better with ToA, leaving RoS or similar for multi-minions?

VC, MrC's RoS/Haste combo (which as I recall I suggested to him a while back lol!) would be my choice for a multi minion team. But on a single minion, though the Gi's bonuses are attractive, the ToA's ST/DX is far more so. Although I'm missing ten levels of UC and the evasion I've not had to spread XP into the physical stats and have a bigger UC anyway!

Yep.
Haste & GS Enchanters are the way I intend to go.