Damage and Resistance types

With the release of Age of Shadows the combat system in Ultima Online has been changed considerably. One of the most visible changes is the introduction of various damage types and corresponding resistance types. Instead of the old damage vs. AR comparison you now have to consider 5 different types of damage and resist levels.

When you look at your expanded status bar you will notice the 5 defense levels on the right side of the status gump. From top to bottom they are Physical, Fire, Cold, Poison and Energy. When you are not wearing anything (and not under the influence of magic spells) your five base defense levels are zero percent. Put on armor, jewelry or clothes, cast resistance influencing spells or equip magical weapons to increase or decrease your defenses. The absolute maximum of any resist level for your character is 80%. Therefor, if you are hit during combat, you will always at least receive 20% of the base damage done to you.

Weapons

All weapons do physical damage, unless they have one or more modifiers that spread out the damage across the five damage types. Inspect a weapon and you will see what type of damage it does. The total of all five damage types on any weapon is always 100%.

Magical weapons can have attributes that help you defend yourself by raising one or more of the five resistance percentages as well as adding various other very interesting item modifiers. A good blacksmith can create decent weapons, and good ones when using a runic hammer, but the best ones are the ones that come with magical bonuses. Daring smiths may even try to further enhance magic weapons with a high chance of destroying it in the process.

Armor

Most armor already offers protection against various types of damage. The amount of defense against each of the five damage types depends on the type of armor, and material used to create the armor with. For instance leather armor offers good protection against Fire damage, and ring mail armor offers good protection against Poison damage. Armor created with bronze ingots offers good protection against Cold damage, and armor created with shadow ingots offers good protection against Energy damage.

Every piece of armor you wear adds a little bit to your total protection. Wear two items that offer 15% protection against Fire attacks, and your total defense against Fire attacks will be 30%. Since almost anything you put on can resist some damage, it’s best to stick something on every part of your body. Even a hat, skullcap or bandana offers considerable protection nowadays.

Exceptional armor has a 6% defense bonus compared to non-exceptional armor. The 6% is distributed at random among the base properties of the armor. If you are lucky, the 6% is added to a single resist type.

As with weapons, blacksmiths can create decent ones with colored ingots, better ones with a runic hammer, but the best armor in game is the one that already has magical item modifiers. And magic armor can be enhanced further by a smith, but the chance of destructing the armor in the process is high.

Combat

When you hit your opponent with your weapon a comples series of formulas is used to determine the total damage you will do to your opponent. See the combat section for more details on how total damage is calculated. The total damage is then divided into the five possible damage types, depending on your weapon. Each damage type is then modified by the target’s resist percentage against that damage type. All resulting damage is then added together to get the final total damage.

Example: Your weapon does 80% Physical damage and 20% Cold damage. Your opponent has 50% Physical resist and 25% Cold resist. If your weapon does 40 points of base damage this will be divided into 40 * 80% = 32 Physical damage and 40 * 20% = 8 Cold damage. The defender will then resist 32 * 50% = 16 Physical damage and 8 * 25% = 2 Cold damage. Final damage applied to your opponent will be (32 – 16) + (8 – 2) = 22 damage.

What armor to wear ?

Note that in the previous example the defender has a total resist percentage of 75%, yet the damage absorbed by the armor is nowhere near 75% of the base damage. Would the defender have 75% Physical resist and 0% Cold resist the final damage would have been (32 – 24) + (8 – 0) = 16 damage. Now that’s more like it! The base rule when it comes to selecting your armor is this: Find out the attack types of your opponent and select the one with the highest percentage. Then wear armor that reflects that damage type as much as possible. Don’t even bother looking at the other damage types, just focus on that single damage type alone!

In the previous example the attacker uses a weapon with 80% Physical damage and 20% Cold damage. A defender with 50% Physical resist will be better off than a defender with 40% Physical resist and 10% Cold resist, even though that second combination seems to match better with the attacker’s damage percentages. Just compare (32 – 16) + (8 – 0) = 24 damage to (32 – 12.8) + (8 – 0.8) = 26.4 damage to see the difference. By wearing armor that is slightly off, you could be receiving 10% more damage than needed.

The one thing that you have to be careful of, is that by focusing on one damage type for your defense you will be more vulnerable to the other types of attacks. This is ok if you mainly fight the same type of monster, but if you find a human opponent you will soon find out that he will change weapons to maximize his attacks against your most vulnerable defense.

What weapon to use ?

The type of weapon mainly depends on your strength, weapon skills and possibly lumberjacking skill if you want to receive the lumberjacking damage bonus. Some weapons require high strength before you can equip them. It depends on your playstyle if you want to use a fast weapon that does some damage with every hit, or if you want to use a slower weapon that does some more damage with every hit. For a detailed comparison of weapons, and an overview of the average amount of damage they do, see the weapons page. In the end, the damage difference between the various weapons is not as huge as it was before Age of Shadows.

Another factor that will determine what kind of weapon you want to use is the kind of special moves the weapon allows you to make. There’s quite a lot of combinations to choose from. Pick the one that suits your playstyle the most.

Next you will have to determine what kind of opponent you are going to use the weapon against. If your target is a monster, you can look up it’s resist percentages in our Hunter’s Guide and find out what type damage would hurt the most. If your target should be another player, try to closely examine the armor he wears before you make your decision. Rule of thumb: Your opponent’s lowest resist level will be the type you are going to want to do most damage against.

The easiest way to influence your weapon’s damage type is by using a weapon made from colored ingots. For instance, a non-exceptional shadow weapon will do 80% Physical and 20% Cold damage and a non-exceptional bronze weapon will do 60% Physical and 40% Fire damage. Exceptional weapons or weapons created using a runic smithing hammer can spread out the damage percentages even more. Magic weapons that you find as loot on monsters also come in a variety of damage distributions. Shop around until you find one that you like best or go hunting yourself and try to find some good loot.

What about magic?

Only the spells that do direct damage are influenced by the five resistances. Armor will reflect some of the damage of the following spells:

• Magic Arrow – Fire damage
• Harm – Cold damage
• Fireball – Fire damage
• Lightning – Energy damage
• Mind Blast – Cold damage
• Energy Bolt – Energy damage
• Explosion – Fire damage
• Flame Strike – Fire damage
• Chain Lightning – Energy damage
• Meteor Swarm – Fire damage
• Earthquake – Physical damage

Some magic spells have an effect on your resistances:

• Reactive Armor – Increase Physical Resistance, lower all four other resistances
• Protection – Lowers Physical Resistance, allows uninterruptable casting
• Magic Reflection – Lowers Physical Resistance, increase all four other resistances

Physical damage and resist

This is the base damage type that most creatures deal out. There really are too much creatures to mention here. For all the details, see the Hunter’s Guide.

Fire damage and resist

Cold damage and resist

Poison damage and resist

Energy damage and resist