Rising Force's Ore Elementals Essay 03/11/02
Introduction
Mining
Most people think of mining as a skill where you dig up rocks, hoping to find pretty colors. Or maybe where you pound on a mountain 300 times to pull out 6 Valorite ore. And most people's miners are purely mules. Smithing, Tinkering, maybe a bit of Carpentry. In other words...weaklings. Boring to play, and there just to get the work done. Well it is my belief that Mining is not a mule skill. And this essay will show you how. If you enjoy beating a mountain with that super-keen sturdy pickaxe, then by all means, cease reading and continue living out your boring mule's life. If you want to have fun while mining, risk death, and not to mention.....get high-level ores twice as fast.....then I wrote this essay for you.
Ore Elementals
Ore Elementals are the "secret" to gathering lots of high-level ores in a short amount of time. They are relatively easy to kill and yes, even the mighty Valorite Elemental can be brought down with a couple quick spells. For those of you that dont know, Ore Elementals ( Shadow, Bronze, Copper, Gold, Agapite, Verite, and Valorite) can be found by using a Gargoyle's Pickaxe on an ore vein one level lower than the elemental you wish to dig. For example, If you want to dig an Agapite Elemental, you would use the Gargoyle's Pickaxe on a gold vein.
To collect the pickaxes, I powergamed a fencer character, and used a Gargoyle's Foe kryss to kill Stone Gargoyle's near the Lighthouse in T2A. I found a Gargoyle's Pickaxe on approximately 1 out of every 5.
Once you've dug your elemental, you have a fairly strong monster coming inbetween you and your ores. Now it's time to learn how to deal with them. All of the elementals have different strengths and weaknesses. Some will reflect spells. Some will reflect melee damage. Luckily for you, I have done the research for you, so the amount of shock at how fast they killed you will be reduced to a minimum.
Shadow Elemental
This elemental is the weakest (unless you count dull copper, which is absolutely a waste of time to even look at twice). Think of it as an Earth Elemental on sterroids. It does about 5-10 damage with its melee attack, and hits fairly fast. Run in circles and ebolt it a bit, you'll be just fine.
Copper Elemental
This elemental is among the toughest. Why? Ask OSI, I'm just telling you the facts. It does about 5-12 damage per hit, nothing to sweat about. The big difference is that this elemental reflects magic. If you throw an ebolt at it, it will take the damage, but so will you. The way I kill these is by combo'ing. Explosion followed by a greater heal. It takes a while, but it does bring them down. (who wants copper ore anyways, right?)
Bronze Elemental
This elemental is just about as strong as the others. It has no reflect, but it does have a special attack. I call it the "freeze ray" because it looks like an icicle getting shoved up your behind, but no clue what it really is. The freeze ray attack is range-based, meaning the closer you are to the elemental, the more damage it will do. It does about 5 damage from long range, and anywhere from 15-20 up close. Ebolt this guy til he takes a dirt nap and move on with your life.
Gold Elemental
This elemental has no special attacks, no reflect, and basically nothing up his sleeve. He hits fast, and hits hard. Just keep moving and keep hitting him with spells.
Agapite Elemental
Basically the same as a Gold Elemental, except with better ore.
Verite Elemental
This elemental has a fast, strong melee attack, but is actually easier than the Gold and Copper elementals. Ebolt/Explosion will do the trick.
Some other tips
All elementals, with the exception of Valorite, have approximately 150-200 hit points. Their resistance/reflections etc make it harder or easier kill them, but they all have the same hp.
All elementals have a chance of giving you a level one t-map. woohoo. I have found quite a few Virtue weapons off the higher-level elementals. All have either been Gargoyle's Foe, or Daemon Dismissal. There is an Ore Elemental camp in Ilshenar, directly south of the Gargoyle City. The elementals that can be found spawning there are Copper, Gold, and Verite.
Valorite Elemental
That's right, these guys get their own section. I've heard lots of techniques on how to kill them. Archers, fire fields, trap them, ban them from your house, etc. My thoughts on these techniques? Hmm...if you wanna be a sissy and run from the thing, go for it. I drop them in 30 seconds, and I'll show you how. First off, lets take a look at what you're up against.
This elemental is a combination of the hardest elements of all the weaker elementals. It has approximately 250-300 hit points. It has perma-RA. That is to say, it reflects back a portion of melee damage back to its attacker. So basically, to run up and hit it with a halberd is about equal to beating your own behind. As for magic, it reflects direct damage spells back at you, and takes no damage to himself. It also has the "freeze ray" attack, and hits fast and hard. I dug a few up in Shame on Sonoma once. They literally tore the dungeon up, killing everyone who tried to screw with them, and everyone who tried to run as well.
But fear not, little miner-dood. You're about to make these baddies your bitch. The trick to killing Valorite Elementals is to use a Glacial Staff. That's right, they're not just for mare-riding, daemonbone wearing, neon-haired, glorious lord master stoic bitches at the bank. These staffs can actually serve a purpose, and now you find out what.
Just for those of you who dont know, the Glacial Staff has three spells. Each staff, however, only has 2 of the spells in it, which are random. An Ex Del is a paralize spell. In Corp Del is a spell that does half of your mana total in damage to the target, yet drains 100% of your mana. And finally, Des Corp Del. This is the spell we will be using against Valorite Elementals. I have no idea how it works, or why it works. But it works well, and will kill the Valorite in 2 or 3 spells.
This is how I do it. I set up a UOAssist macro, to arm the staff and say the words Des Corp Del and double click the staff. So I am able to have the staff in hand, charged, and ready for targetting with the touch of a key. Then target the elemental. Be aware that even the glacial staff can be reflected at you, doing around 50 damage to your character. The best strategy is to give yourself a good amount of space between yourself and the elemental, and cast greater heal on yourself immediately after you cast the staff's spell. You should only have to repeat this once or twice more and the elemental will die.
25 Valorite ore and a nice chunk of change in less than a minute. Do I have your attention yet?
My Miner
Just for your info, this is the character I use for hunting ore elementals.
Rising Force
GM Magery, GM Meditation, GM Eval, GM Wrestling, GM Inscription, GM Healing, GM Mining.
90 Str, 100 Int, 35 Dex
The magery, med, and eval make for strong offensive spells among other things. The wrestling is so the elementals miss with melee, the Inscription is to make my Reactive Armor spell stronger (always cast RA when fighting elementals) and also useful as another "mule" skill. And the Healing is just an added bonus, another way to heal etc. Not to mention that if you ever did get bored of digging elementals, (god forbid), you could drop the Mining for Resist and have a very nice pvp character
There's lots of advantages to your miner being a badass, and not just being a mule. For one, when is the last time you saw somebody hunting in the first floor of Shame? Yes there is Valorite/Verite spots in there, and I go there regularly. Also, try digging up a Valorite and follow them around while they kill everybody in the vicinity. Lots of nice looting for just a miner. Some guy just walked by and slapped your pile of ore into his packhorse? Dig up a "playmate" for him and see how well he can deal with it. Mining can be boring, or it can be a blast. If you think you've done it all and the game bores you, maybe try this for a change. If you like it, maybe I'll teach you how to kill Tentacles of the Harrower with your Carpenter
Cheers,
Khar
