1x UAC vs 1x Weapon Type

[Gizmo]

This question is more so directed to the Pures, Wizards etc...

I'm curious as to how 1x UAC compares to 1x weapon use such as THW.

I'd like to also hear from people who do go this route and what they think, or what sort of issues they run into with it as opposed to a weapon.

I understand that the DF will differ a bit, unarmed DF being a bit smaller than most weapon bases. I'm also concerned about the simple ability to hit things with 1x UAC vs 1x Weapon base.



Any thoughts or ideas on the matter? Does it work fine with the right augments? Is it better you feel than using a weapon base due to slightly less TPs?

[Maerit]

UAC for a warmage is better at the early levels than other weapon types, from my experience. You need 10 ranks in air lore to get 1s kicks, and kick spamming is faster and deadlier than even claid combat until you can get claids down to 1s RT. That's the real point when it becomes a combat preference.

Claid - Lance - UAC - Archery are all viable methods of hunting for Warmages. The trick is deciding what pro's you prefer over the cons. Claids and Lances require high AGIDEX characters with a lot of air lore to bring the RT of your attacks down to 1s. Additionally, they will be much harder to aim due to the weapon size factor and Ambush skill being too TP intensive for wizards. Archery is also very common, but you have ammo management, and I believe you need something like 67 ranks of Air Lore to minimize the RT for a longbow. This makes it a longer term warmage style.

That leaves UAC. From level 6, you can punch with 1s RT. Once you're 10 points into air lore, you can kick in 1s RT. No AGISTR requirements or anything to change this. When you have 25 ranks in Air Lore, you can also aim kicks in 1s RT, while you're able to aim punches as early as 10 ranks in air lore. At this point, you are not required to train any more air lore. Additionally, you can now e-blade 1x equipment with powerful "boosted" flares, so your wizard can have 5x air flaring gear for basically next to no cost.

UAF vs UDF is very different than AS vs DS. For starters, your damage is not generally determined by a difference between the two, instead it has more to do with stance and MM in the equation. My 53 warmage is using UAC against level 58 creatures. He has a UAF of around 298-303, and can consistently hit targets with UDF of over 400. In addition, your UAF is not detrimented by spirit loss or health loss, so you can continue to attack at full strength in those situations.

It's much easier to aim UAC attacks early on as the weapons are the lightest weapon class in the game. The final pro for UAC is that your weapons can't be disarmed, so you won't ever have to train the disarm CMAN like other warmages, and can free up those CMAN points for another skill of your choice.

Of course, UAC has cons. Once you get to a certain point in hunting (usually late 20s), you'll have to start using the tier-up mechanics. This means you'll spend 3-5 seconds of jabbing targets to tier up until your kicks start to devastate. Fortunately, that's plenty of opportunity to activate flares and other effects of your UAC. For pure offensive weapons combat, you can go straight in with killing attacks, potentially ending a target in one blow (like claids and lances, or even high enchant mauls, often do). So once you're able to swing heavier weapons and overcome the target's DS reliably, it's arguable that normal weapons will kill faster.

I used UAC this DR on my warmage. With enough outside UAF bolstering spells (211, 215, 606, 1209, 1606), I was able to achieve 240-250 almost every arena run, so that speaks to the viability of the hunting style in my experience. Many squares who master in these types of combat struggle to achieve the same level of success.

For other pures, there are merits to brawling as an empath and a cleric as you can use brawling skill with Voln abilities and it allows you to have open hands for channeling spells. However, neither Cleric or even Empath are particularly "strong" with UAC alone due to the tier-up time and the lack of hasted attacks.

[Gizmo]

What about sorcerers?

I felt the same way with the UAC option, having an open hand for casting would be nice along with no worry for disarms etc

Then of course the issue lies with Tiering Up, as only mages have haste to help with that RT

[Orthin]

I was doing that with my sorcerer. The problems for it are keeping UAF high enough -- without strength it is tough. and yes it is far more time consuming. I keep all signs up and my UAF was decent but I know was going to fall behind soon enough and no longer make it viable. Just started using 702 with wracking and was hunting in about the same time frame.

[Maerit]

I could definitely see merits to doing a Voln sorcerer with a heavy emphasis on scroll infusion. You're going to want to keep lots of outside spells up at all times, but in the end - there's very little value.

One of the cons to UAC is the lack of parry. In order for your to parry with UAC you have to cast the spell 1214 (Brace). If you have Brace active, when you do parry with UAC you will have a 25% chance to disarm the opponent also, so it's kinda cool - but that means keeping a stock of Brace spells on your person if you plan on parrying. This is another reason Warmages are the best pures for this type of combat. They come equipped with 520, and the extra padding from 520 + any padded armor (+ GoS in my wizard's case) means that you can really stand toe-to-toe with enemies and survive well. Sorcerers are comparatively "extra squishy".

Training in brawling alone will not make up for the loss of DS you'd have with a runestaff. You would have to be a brawl/shield sorcerer to regain the lost DS, and that's a lot of TPs that don't go towards spell ranks, which inevitability reduces your CS.

[hello]

I could definitely see merits to doing a Voln sorcerer with a heavy emphasis on scroll infusion. You're going to want to keep lots of outside spells up at all times, but in the end - there's very little value.

One of the cons to UAC is the lack of parry. In order for your to parry with UAC you have to cast the spell 1214 (Brace). If you have Brace active, when you do parry with UAC you will have a 25% chance to disarm the opponent also, so it's kinda cool - but that means keeping a stock of Brace spells on your person if you plan on parrying. This is another reason Warmages are the best pures for this type of combat. They come equipped with 520, and the extra padding from 520 + any padded armor (+ GoS in my wizard's case) means that you can really stand toe-to-toe with enemies and survive well. Sorcerers are comparatively "extra squishy".

Training in brawling alone will not make up for the loss of DS you'd have with a runestaff. You would have to be a brawl/shield sorcerer to regain the lost DS, and that's a lot of TPs that don't go towards spell ranks, which inevitability reduces your CS.

There were self-charging Dragonclaws sold at Duskruin, not too expensive either.