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| The Thief, by Slappy McHappy, GuildMaster of mSt; Edited by
Crashster |
Hi. My name is Slappy McHappy, a former
thief of the Great Lakes server. I'm also known as Rabid Chicken of the Atlantic Shard.
Being a thief is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting and exciting classes in
Ultima Online. You can always better yourself, and the game, being ever
changing, makes it that much harder. Being successful as a rogue is extremely
hard, and can take ages.
Disclaimer:
The thief profession is almost entirely useless in Trammel, and in Trammel
it can be utilized only for stealing semi-rare items from containers in
towns and NPC shops. If you are permagrey in Trammel and you die, your
corpse will become grey, and it will be freely lootable by any passing
player. With the addition of Publish 16, the skill has also become fairly
useless in Feluccian dugeons, but there are often many marks waiting outside!
Starting the Character:
Character Creation:
Strength is by far the most important stat that any character has, seeing
as it determines your hit points (This may change with the derived statistic
equation currently in development), so I suggest always setting your Strength
to 60. After all, it's not very fun to have stolen an amazing item just
to be downed by some passing player, due to too little hit points. In
terms of skills, the best way to go is starting with 50 stealing and putting
the rest into your own choices. If you want to be a pure rogue, 50 lockpicking
is a nice choice, or if you're a fighter, 50 healing. 50 magery is also
nice, so you can get around by recalling. However, these skills can be
bought up to around 30, and easily gained from there. Hiding is also a
very complementary skill for any thief.
Stat See-Sawing:
The well known stat "see-saw" is a tactic people use to bring up their
statistics, and in my eyes, it is a wonderful way to do it. This only
works for people who are skill capped which is a real skill of 700.0.
Then choose two skills that raise the stats you are trying to gain. In
most cases, a thief wants STR and DEX, so I choose Arms Lore and Musicianship
usually. First, bring one skill to 10.0 or close to it, then set it down
and raise the other. When the other reaches 10.0, set that down and raise
the first skill. Go back and forth doing this, and eventually you can
max out your stats, quite easily. For INT, Item Identification and Evaluating
Intelligence work very well. Unfortunately, Publish 16 nerfed this technique a
bit. It can still be used, but you can only gain 6 stat points per day. I guess
many of us will be waiting for stat locks to work stats.
Starting Town:
All of the starting towns you have choices for are fairly good, although
I would advise against choosing Jhelom or Magincia, because they tend
to be uninhabited for the most part. Britain is a wonderful place to get
your start, because you are almost always guaranteed to run into other
thieves that you can learn from. These thieves tend to be fairly well
developed, and have a wealth of advice to offer, if they are willing to
help.
A Thief's Skills:
8x8:
8x8 is not a skill utilized by the thief class, but merely a very useful
way to gain skills. Typically, it is done on a boat, although it is occasionally
effective on land. What you do is go "slow forward", practicing the skill
as you go, until you gain in it. Then you stop, and go "forward one" eight
times. If you did it correctly, you can use the skill again here, and
gain. Keep going forward eight times, and you will keep gaining. However,
the gains run out after a while, and you will be forced to find a new
string of gains. If when you go forward the first eight times, you do
not gain, try going forward one or back one and see if you can get a gain
by doing that. If you can't, don't worry, but just go find another gain.
Hiding:
This skill is a must for all rogues. If you doubt the usefulness of this
skill, you could take nearly any scenario. You just stole a katana of
vanquishing from a Trammelite that strayed into Felucca, and a mage catches
up to you and starts pummeling you with magic spells. You begin to lag,
and your only hope is to hide. However, you decided to not to take any
and poof, there goes your katana of vanquishing, with the swift boom of
an explosion spell. What a way to ruin your day, eh? There is no real
easy way to gain hiding. Just use it a lot whenever possible. Gain is
fairly quick up to the low 90's, and at that point it goes very slow,
but keep at it! I've found a good way to gain the skill is to use 8x8.
Stealth:
I used to use this skill because it does help very much when sneaking
away from your prey. It also allows you to get into people's belongs easier
than it may. People have become wary of people being too close to them,
and often move away, but if you are walking up to them unseen, they won't
know you were there until after it is too late. I've found that mages
are quite dumb when it comes to thieves who can stealth. They'll be back
where they saw you hide attempting to reveal, and you're already off screen.
The skill has one major drawback�You can't stealth while on a horse. However,
the skill can be very useful in factions when getting to sigils. 80 hiding
is required to use this skill. I'd suggest buying stealth from a thief
guildmaster as soon as you get the hiding requirement, and then starting
to stealth wearing newbie clothing. As your skill goes up, tweak the armor
a bit raising or lowering it in order to get the best gain without it
being impossible for you to stealth. However, I'm not particularly fond
of this skill because of the horse portion. Ethereal horses have made
it much more useful, and if you have access to an ethereal mount, by all
means, consider taking this skill.
Snooping:
Well isn't this just obvious? This skill, formerly one of the easiest
to become Grandmaster in is now, unfortunately, a lot harder due to the
anti-macro patch. Unless you intend to just steal random items out of
people's packs, something that is fairly futile in itself, you will want
this skill. The best way to gain skill is to have a friend hold lots and
lots of pouches, and for you to just snoop the containers. It is a slow
skill, but worth it to be able to stand next to someone without the fear
of them realizing you are busy looking through their belongings.
Lockpicking:
This is a good skill for stealing rare items from NPC houses and shops.
All you need to do to gain is to buy a lockable crate and lockpicks, then
let your skill fly. When you reach about 70 skill, you should start working
on GM made boxes and continue.
Stealing:
This skill is, probably the most affected of the thief skills by Publish 16.
No longer can you buy a bunch of dye tubs and steal them off a horse to get to
Grandmaster Stealing. Now you need to buy different weight items. A general rule
is that you should be stealing 1/10 of your skill in weight. So if you have 75
stealing, you should be stealing 7 stone items off a packhorse. Once you hit 79
or 80, begin to steal 8 stone items, with the occasional 7 stone thrown in. Some
examples of these items are as follows:
3-stone items: Backpacks
4-stone items: Quarter staffs
5-stone items: Closed Helms
6-stone items: Bows
7-stone items: Crossbows
8-stone items: Heavy Crossbows
9-stone items: Hammer Picks
10-stone items: Dye Tubs
I'm not including 1 or 2 stone items because the skill can be bought up to 30.
Detect Hidden:
In order to gain Detect Hidden, all you need to do is find trapped items,
and use the skill on them. You can also gain skill by detecting hidden
people.
Remove Trap:
If you plan to steal from NPC houses/shops, then this skill might be worth
putting some work into. It's nice for disarming those nasty deadly poison
traps people tend to place on crates, and makes it much easier to live
when doing rare stealing. Just remember that in order to use Remove Trap,
you need a base skill of 50 in Lockpicking and Detect Hidden. If you have
a GM Tinker, or easy access to one, buy a lot of trapped chests, and take them
over to the local healer. You will be dying a lot, training this skill.
Arms Lore:
Although this skill would seem obsolete for a thief at first glance, it
is quite the opposite. When you pair 80 Arms Lore with 80 Wrestling, you
can perform a skill known as Disarmament, which removes a weapon from
your opponent's hands and allows you to steal it. To gain this skill,
it is best to get a large amount of items and use the skill on them. It
is one of the most tedious of the thief skills to GM. Many people like to traverse
player-run vendors using this skill. Personally, I prefer setting aside a large
number of lockdowns and secures in a house to hold items.
Playing the Thief:
Success:
When you steal from a blue, or innocent player, there are four possible outcomes.
You will either be successful and noticed, unsuccessful and noticed, successful
and unnoticed, or unsuccessful and unnoticed. When you are successful and noticed,
you will be flagged gray, denoting yourself as a criminal, and you will also be
permagray to your target, meaning that until you die, he will see you as gray. If
you are successful and unnoticed, you have successfully stolen the item without
being seen, and you will appear blue to everyone. If you were unsuccessful but
noticed, you will be a criminal and gray, but not permagray. Lastly, if you are
unsuccessful and unnoticed, no change takes place.
Attitude:
It's a good practice to be somewhat polite, unless trying to get someone
angry with you. If someone is calling you names, just ignore them. Believe
me, it happens a lot. I play a somewhat egotistical kind of thief; always
confident in my skills, and thinking I'm better than everybody else. It's
quite enjoyable, and successful at that. I've made many a friend this
way, but even more enemies.
Bank/Town Rogues:
To be successful at stealing in town or at the bank, you'll obviously
need a bit of stealing. Personally, I don't feel it matters much what
your stealing skill is, as long as it's over 60 and you're in the thief
guild. But 70+ is nice. You'll also want close to GM if not GM snooping,
because people are going to walk away as soon as they see you snooping,
and probably before that, as well. A good practice is to use a horse,
and have the item you want on last target. Walk down a few paces, and
then get stealing ready, run up, hit last target, and run away. You're
now gone, and they're one item poorer. Just make sure there isn't an NPC
anywhere around, because they can and will call guards on you. And much
like Superman, they seem to have x-ray vision, and can call the guards
even if you are on the opposite side of a wall. Publish 16 has made town
stealing very profitable. Many thieves I know like to sit by the healers of
major towns, such as Britain or Minoc, and wait for people who died in
dungeons to resurrect. After doing so, the thieves steal highly coveted items,
unstealable in dungeons, such as +5 power scrolls.
Macroers:
Macroers are a great source of income. Go to hard to reach places, and
you'll usually find some dummy macroing. They won't be calling guards
if they're not there, so just have fun!
Those Pesky Stacked Items:
Many people like to pile items on top of their valuables. They think they're
safe, but they're not� not in the least. Lag can be used to your advantage
in a case such as this. If I find someone with items stacked up, I pick
one up and then quickly pick up the item under it. The first object will
temporarily disappear, and when the second item is picked up, the first
disappears completely. You have a fraction of a second to complete the
motion, so be quick. You can continue doing this till you get to the pack
you want.
Adventuring:
This is a tough type of character to play, because thieves tend to be
very vulnerable. However, it's very fun, because the world literally becomes
your oyster. Go where you want, do what you want to do. Outside town,
there are tons of dummies that won't do anything if you steal. I've seen
some of the funniest things. There are people who will just sit there
calling me names and threatening me, while I continue to clean out their
backpack. It's quite funny. But always remember not to get greedy. Only
go after items of value, and head to the bank frequently.
Boat Stealing:
Well this one works. I'm happy to say that, because boats prove to bring
in much of my income. When you see a key in someone's pack, always be
sure to check its title. If it says "a ship key," it may be in your best
interest to steal it. When you're able to recall again, cast the spell
and target the key. If the key is valid, and is linked to a ship on sea,
rather than dry docked, the spell will take you directly to the ship.
But always bring a rune back to town so you can bank the loot. When you
recall to the ship, proceed to take everything out of the hold, and take
anything of value that interests you. When the hold is unloaded completely,
get off the boat and double-click the tiller man. You will be asked if
you want to dry dock the boat. Select yes, and a model will appear in
your pack. The model is newbied, and will stay with you if you die. You
can then sell the ship to someone, and make even more money for the price
of going gray for 2 minutes.
Disarm:
The Disarm skill has quickly become one of the most widely used skills
of a thief. Using Wrestling and Arms Lore, with a minimum of 80 in each
skill, you can create a macro in UO entitled "WresDisarm." When you activate
the macro, it says that you prepare yourself to disarm your opponent,
and when you attack, you will attempt to disarm the opponent's weapon.
If you fail, it will keep attempting, until you either succeed or turn
it off by hitting the macro's designated key. When someone is disarmed,
a thief can quickly steal the weapon from their opponent's backpack, making
for an easy way to get some very nice weapons. However, be warned that
Disarm uses up stamina when you make a disarm attempt. It uses approximately
15 stamina when used, making it a good idea to carry Total Refreshes when
out disarming.
Getting Away:
The true goal of any good rogue is to get away completely undetected.
It's a task that is almost virtually impossible to do frequently, but
when you do manage to get away, give yourself one heck of a pat on the
back. If you do get caught, don't fret over it, because it happens to
every thief, and we can only learn from our mistakes, right?
Teaming Up:
Sometimes it's nice to have a partner in crime, because if two people
are stealing from one person, the person can only go after one, and you're
sure to get something. Also, a nice third party program for teaming up
is ICQ, which can be downloaded at www.icq.com.
Dying:
If you died, you made a mistake. Don't get mad or frustrated. I've said
it before and I'll say it again, we can only learn from our mistakes,
so do just that.
Storing Loot:
Once you become good at stealing, you'll be rolling in the loot. So it
might be a good idea to buy a house somewhere close to your hangouts where
you can put all your lovely stuff.
Protection from Rogues:
�There isn't any�it's an absolute joke when you think about it. No tactic
will keep you safe from a determined rogue. None.
Notes on the Thief Guild:
There are usually thief guild masters in every town, but frequently they
aren't to be found. However, you can always find one in Buccaneer's Den.
The thief guild there isn't hard to find. There are some pros and cons
to being in the thief guild. You can steal off blues is the biggest pro.
The biggest con is not being able to give counts. Anybody can kill you.
Also you can buy disguise kits from the thief guild master. Simply walk
up to them and say, "(Name) disguise." They'll say "That particular item
costs 700 gold." Place the gold on them and a wig stand-looking item will
appear in your pack. When you use it, you can choose a new haircut and
it will randomly select a new name. The disguise lasts for 2 hours, making
it basically a long-term Incognito.
Tactics on Mages:
Mages are great targets if you have a mage yourself. They always are stocked
with reagents, which can be very profitable to sell. They also tend to
have interesting stuff in their pack. When disarming a mage, always go
for the Black Pearl first. That stops them from casting the two most-used
spells in the game, Explosion and Energy Bolt. The next reagent you should
steal is probably Spider Silk, because then the only effective offensive
spell they can cast is Poison, because Spider Silk is used for healing
spells and Flamestrike. However, be on the lookout for more than one bag
of reagents, because some people are smart and know to even out the hiding
places of their reagents. Also, a good time to strike is when they're
in the middle of casting something, because they can't move.
Tactics on Archers:
To render an archer harmless to you is quite easy. All you have to do
is steal their arrows/bolts or their bow/crossbow. In either case, they're
left with a useless piece of wood, or useless long pointy sticks.
Tactics on Fighters:
Due to changes made by OSI, all you need to stop a fighter threat is have
80 wrestling and arms lore. You use the disarm macro, and hit them. Disarm
their weapon, and feel free to steal it from them. Ta da! No more threat.
Just watch out for those people who rearm with UOA. They can do it fast.
Conclusion:
Being a thief is a great profession, and can put you on easy street very
quickly. I hope that this guide helps let you gain skill in the art of
thievery, and may all your victims be wealthy, so you can roll in their
wealth. For extra help with skills and tactics, the best place to go is
the UOThief
forums hosted by Stratics. The boards contain a very good FAQ
written by Crazy Joe of Atlantic.
About the Author:
As said before, my name is Slappy McHappy of the Great Lakes shard, as
well as Rabid Chicken of Atlantic. I'm also a member of the :] and LBC
guilds, respectively. I've played since February of '98, and have been
a thief for about three years. |
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