halygon
Grandmaster
This is a guide from the old wiki site. It contains some old school materials but can be very useful for new thieves.
Hi. My name is Slappy McHappy, a former thief of the Great Lakes server. I was 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. Being TRULY successful as a rogue is extremely hard, and can take ages.
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 steal an amazing item just to be downed, by some passing player, due to too few 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.
A Thief's Skills:
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.
On Forever, stealth is quite the useful skill, as you are automatically put into stealth mode upon hiding, allowing to to begin moving invisibly right after you hide. Furthermore, the skill automatically checks itself, once you've hit 10 steps (at GM) and will automatically re-stealth, making the skill ALOT of fun!
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:
Empty bottles are 1 stone each and can be easily stacked to give the required weight amount.
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.
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?
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 or Mandrake Root first. These stop them from casting many key spells, including E-Bolt, Explosion, Greater Heal, and/or Recall. 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:
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.
Hi. My name is Slappy McHappy, a former thief of the Great Lakes server. I was 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. Being TRULY successful as a rogue is extremely hard, and can take ages.
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 steal an amazing item just to be downed, by some passing player, due to too few 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.
A Thief's Skills:
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.
On Forever, stealth is quite the useful skill, as you are automatically put into stealth mode upon hiding, allowing to to begin moving invisibly right after you hide. Furthermore, the skill automatically checks itself, once you've hit 10 steps (at GM) and will automatically re-stealth, making the skill ALOT of fun!
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
Empty bottles are 1 stone each and can be easily stacked to give the required weight amount.
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.
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?
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 or Mandrake Root first. These stop them from casting many key spells, including E-Bolt, Explosion, Greater Heal, and/or Recall. 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:
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.
