| In
cases where you are being attacked by a diverse group of monsters, choosing
the right opponent to kill first can be the difference between life and
death. There are some general guidelines, but there are plenty of exceptional
cases. But this may help you adopt the right mindset in evaluating these
types of situations.
There
are several factors in determining whom to attack first.
Poison
ability and level
Attack
and ground speed
Damage
per hit inflicted
Magical
or missile attacks
Hit
points of the monster
Presence
or absence of healer or other party member
These
are roughly arranged in their order of importance. Let's use some examples:
-
Example
1: T2A north of Papua
A
Wyvern, a Scorpion, a Stone Harpy and an Imp.
Defender
type- Single melee style warrior
Order-
Scorpion, Wyvern, Stone Harpy, Imp
Reasoning-
The Scorpion and Wyvern can poison without being flagged. The Scorpion
should die first because it has very low hp, can poison, and is best to
get out of the way quickly. Wyvern and Stone Harpy are close in order,
because while the Stone cannot poison, it can deliver damage quickly. The
Wyvern is very fast and has less hp than the Stone, and can deliver level
4 deadly poison. The Imp is virtually harmless as long as it is not attacked
or flagged. In reality, I would try to separate the Stone and Wyvern using
their difference in speed, especially if I were alone. The Scorp and Imp
are too slow to keep up.
-
Example
2: Northeast peninsula near Minoc
An
Air Elemental, an Orc Lord, an Orc Mage and a Troll
Defender
type- Melee warrior
Order-
Orc Lord, Air Elemental, Troll, Orc Mage
Reasoning-
The Orc Lord is very fast and can deal out damage quickly. The Air is the
same, but if flagged you will get magery attacks in addition to quick damage.
The Orc Mage does the least physical damage, but has magic potential greater
than the Air (this is often overlooked), and is best fought alone. If the
warrior is in a group, then the Orc Mage and Air can be taken out simultaneously,
leaving the Troll last.
-
Example
3: Northeast peninsula near Minoc
An
Air Elemental, an Orc Lord, an Orc Mage and a Troll
Defender
type- Mage/Archer
Order-
Air Elemental, Orc Mage, Orc Lord, Troll
Reasoning-
With ranged characters, speed becomes much more of an issue. The Air is
by far the fastest. It would be best to string out the enemies and handle
them in order of speed. The reason why the Orc Mage is taken before the
Lord is because physical damage can be avoided with the luxury of range.
Just keep your eye on your stamina after taking two magical creatures down.
There
is a class of creature that falls into the “vermin” type. Vermin are so
easy to deal with, and do so little damage there are cases where vermin
are actually desired to encounter.
-
Example
4- “The Amoeba”
Brigands,
Mongbats, a Headless, an Orc Mage and a Snake
Defender
type- Any warrior type
Order-
Snake, Brigands, Orc Mage, Headless, Mongbats
This is
a case where you could use the Mongbats and Headless to actually buffer
you against stronger opponents. Because Brigands often carry bows and maces,
they should die after the initial nuisance, the Snake. Snakes are very
hard to see, they should be targeted and killed immediately. Then, you
could use the Headless to shield you from the Mage until the Brigands are
dealt with. Regardless of armor, vermin contribute little damage or bandage
slippage. In Fellucca, we would try to keep Mongbats at our back in case
we needed a quick way out of a crowd.
-
Contingencies-
There are some creatures, that absolutely take precedence over any kind
of order. These creatures are called “juggernaut” class, because their
combined speed, physical damage, hit points, and magic/poison ability are
too much for even cross-healing to effectively counter. The best measure
against these monsters is no contact at all, attack only with missile or
magic.
Examples-
Poison Ele's, Ophidian and Terathan Knight Errants and Avengers, Krakens,
Ogre Lords, Blood Ele's.
Unfortunately
for a single pure melee warrior, juggernaut class monsters are impossible
to destroy with any efficiency.
-
Example
5- T2A near Ophidian Mound
An
Ophidian Avenger, an Ophidian Apprentice Mage, 3 Ophidian Warriors and
an Imp
Defender
type- 2 warriors and a mage
Order-
Ophidian Avenger, Ophidian Apprentice Mage, Ophidian Warriors and Imp
Reasoning-
The (juggernaut class) Avenger's overpowering hits and poison capability
make it a truly deadly adversary. In reality, this is a situation where
missile and magic attacks from a dispersed formation concentrating on the
Avenger is preferred before folding back into a tank formation, as cross-healing
and magic healing will usually not be enough from this size of a group.
After the Mage has been eliminated, the Warriors and the Imp can be handled
simultaneously.
-
Example
6- Orc Caves southeast of Yew
An
Orc Chopper, an Orc Lord, an Orc Scout and an Orc
Defender
type- Melee warrior and mage
Order-
Orc Chopper, Orc Scout, Orc Lord, Orc
Reasoning-
While both the Chopper and the Lord can deal out damage quickly, the Chopper
has fewer hp and can deal out heavier damage; it should be eliminated first.
The Scout, only a nuisance to the warrior, can be very disruptive to the
mage and should be taken out with a well-timed combo (explosion and fireball
seems to be fairly effective) after the warrior has done enough (between
¼ and ½) damage.
-
Example
7- Orc Caves southeast of Yew
An
Orc Chopper, an Orc Lord, an Orc Scout and an Orc
Defender
type- Single melee style warrior with @50 magery (or detect hidden)
Order-
Orc Chopper, Orc Lord, Orc, Orc Scout
Reasoning-
Again, both the Chopper and the Lord can deal out damage quickly and should
be eliminated quickly. The Scout's ability to hide and heal requires a
way to overcome that for him to be defeated. Once on a one-on-one, a successful
reveal scroll (or detect hidden check) should be able to find a hidden
Scout, which will prevent him from disappearing again.
-
Example
8- Orc Caves southeast of Yew
An
Orc Chopper, an Orc Lord, an Orc Scout and an Orc
Defender
type- Single mage
Order-
Orc Scout, Orc Chopper, Orc, Orc Lord
Reasoning-
The Scout is by far the most dangerous of this group (due to his disruptive
ranged attacks) and should be either taken out or removed from the area
of combat as quickly as possible. The rest can be dealt with simultaneously,
but I would concentrate on the Chopper first. The regular Orc's low hp
allows it to be dealt with rather quickly, leaving the Lord. If the Scout
is still alive (elsewhere in the cave), you should be able to deal with
him by either revealing or by precasting explode and doing a combo in between
the Scout's attacks.
-
Example
9- Near Lich Graveyard, south of Yew
Two
Liches, an Ettin, a Giant Spider and a Harpy
Defender
type- Archer, mage or warrior
Order-
Giant Spider, Harpy, Liches, Ettin
Reasoning-
The Spider should be eliminated quickly (few hp) more because of its potential
annoyance (poison) than to any real threat. The Harpy's quick attack speed
and movement make it a potentially real threat when combined with the other
creatures' hitting attacks. The Liches obviously are quite dangerous on
their own, so care should be taken to concentrate on only one at a time
(two Liches casting poison and flamestrike at the same time is not healthy).
-
Example
10- T2A Ice Isles
A
Giant Ice Serpent, Frost Trolls, Ice Snakes and a Snow Elemental
Defender
type- Single warrior
Order-
Snow Elemental, Frost Trolls, Giant Ice Serpent, Ice Snakes
Reasoning-
The Snow Ele is by far the most dangerous of this group, inflicting the
most damage as well as being very fast. The Frost Trolls also inflict heavy
hits, but are not as deadly. In reality, I would use archery on the Ele
before meleeing the Giant Ice Serpent, ignoring the Trolls and the Snakes
unless I am here on a combat sweep.
-
Example
11- T2A Ice Isles
A
Giant Ice Serpent, Frost Trolls, Ice Snakes and a Snow Elemental
Defender
type- Single mage or archer
Order-
Snow Elemental, Giant Ice Serpent, Frost Trolls, Ice Snakes
Reasoning-
Again, the Snow Ele is the most dangerous due to overall speed and damage
inflicted. The Serpent has fewer hp than the Trolls and is the (most probably)
reason that the mage is here in the first place. Neither the Trolls nor
the Snakes should concern the mage, except as a matter of avoidance.
-
Example
12- T2A Ice Isles
A
Giant Ice Serpent, Frost Trolls, Ice Snakes and a Snow Elemental
Defender
type- Single archer bard
Order-
Snow Elemental, Frost Trolls, Giant Ice Serpent, Ice Snakes
Reasoning-
Here's another case where, after provoking the Ele onto one Troll and a
second Troll onto the Ele, I would simply concentrate on the Serpent. The
other creatures should be thought of as distractions.
-
Example
13- Shame level 3
A
Poison Elemental, 4 Earth Elementals, 3 Water Elementals and 3 Fire Elementals
Defender
type- Warrior and mage
Order-
Poison Elemental, Fire and Water Elementals, Earth Elementals
Reasoning-
After elimination of the major threat, the (juggernaut) Poison, I would
continue to use hit and run tactics on the magic casting Ele's (one at
a time, preferably, starting with the Fires) to reduce the number hitting
the warrior at the same time before setting into a stand and fight stance
with the remaining 2-3 Waters and the Earths. I believe this to be quite
a potentially deadly scenario due to the sheer number of enemies, the constant
possibility of new spawn flagging the mage, and the omnipresent possibility
of a Kraken.
-
Example
14- Fire Island temple
A
Dragon, a Daemon, a band of Brigands, a Giant Serpent, a Drake and an Alligator
Defender
type- Single mage
Order-
Giant Serpent, Brigands, Alligator, Drake, Daemon, Dragon
(or
Giant Serpent, Brigands, Alligator, Dragon, Daemon, Drake)
Reasoning-
The Serpent's natural poison ability and relatively lower hp make it the
prime candidate for early removal. The Brigands (most notably the Brigand
archers) should be eliminated next, the archers due to their danger to
mages and the others because of low hp. The Alligator is most definitely
only a nuisance, but should be eliminated before tackling the tougher opponents.
Because the Drake does not cast magic and has a firebreath
attack and fewer hp than the Dragon or Daemon, it is the next target. You
should be able to eliminate the Daemon in about 3-4 good spell combos,
which is far less than what it takes to down the Dragon. In reality, I
would try to string out the Drake, Daemon and Dragon after removing the
nuisances, using paralyze to separate them. In this case, I would try to
start on the Dragon (the most fun to kill) and work backwards to the Drake.
Because of the location, it is rare that you would be able to finish all
three tougher creatures before one of the them flagged somebody else before
you had the chance to finish it (another reason to do the Dragon first).
Barring high lag, UO crashing or a connection interrupt, this is not nearly
as dangerous a scenario as it may sound. A particularly brave (or foolish)
mage could try to fight the 3 toughies at the same time. The possibility
of a poison, firebreath, explode, flamestrike, lightning, second firebreath,
energy
bolt combo (less than 2 seconds total) should be considered, however.
-
Example
15- Terathan Fortress pit
A
Terathan Matriarch, 3 Terathan Warriors, Terathan Drones and a Terathan
Avenger
Defender
type- 2 warriors and a mage
Order-
Terathan Avenger, Terathan Matriarch, Terathan Warriors and Drones
Reasoning-
After elimination of the (juggernaut) Avenger using dispersed formation
(missile and magic attacks), the Matriarch can be safely handled from a
tank formation, even with other creatures hitting both warriors. The Warriors
and Drones can be taken out simultaneously. |
