Equipment

I briefly covered equipment in life of a warrior and life of a mage! But that's not doing all the attributes justice… so I'm going to give a run down here of what weapon/armor/jewel properties there are and what they can do for you! In as simple terms as I can explain!

For more detail always visit UO Stratics just keep in mind it's for OSI so it will never be 100% applicable to Oblivion:

Here are the main ones! (Keep in mind the resists are part of your armor maximum of 70 for each (see here for a little more info on the resist! resists can appear on items as well) Also note when I give ranges it is for regular drops; some artifacts/custom items may be different but the maximums still apply!

More info on resists and resisting spells

Damage Increase - ranges 1 - 50 on weapons; and 1-25 on weapons with a maximum of 100 total. This is one of the best attributes to have… doing an extra 100% dmg is a lot! The Demon Blade is a good way to see that

Defence Chance Increase - range 1 - 15 max of 45; increases you chance to dodge an attack. It adds onto your existing chance which is determined by your weapon skill versus your attackers weapon skill! Having a high DCI will get you hit a lot less often!

Dexterity Bonus - being fast is good ranges 1-8 max on items.. (more on some of the desired artifacts) if you can get dex to 160 or 180 you'll be a fast swignin' healing machine on Oblivion!

Enhance Potions - makes potions stronger… 5-25 except for nightsight and poison… if you have an alchemist get 25% and get one of the dwarvern jewel enhance kits to get it even higher and start making unbelievable potions!

Faster Cast Recovery - capped at 6; you want this at 6 if you are a mage 1-3 on drops!

Faster Casting - capped at 2 or 4 depending on your magery. if you are below 70 it's 4 above it's 2… you want to cast fast… it makes a difference! a must for a mage!

Hit Chance Increase - increases your chance to hit something! 1-15 range 45 is max! hitting more often means doing more dmg more often! Hit chance is based on your weapon skill versus theirs!

Hit Point Regeneration - 1-2 per item; no max every 1 regen gets you 0.1 hitpoint per second!

Hit Point Increase - increases your hitpoints 1-5 per item

Hit Lower Attack - 2-50 per item; give the person you hit a hit chance decrease - 25% up to 5-10 seconds meaning you'll get it less often! Especially if you have DCI on top of it! Keep in mind that although the maximum for DCI, HCI is 45 if a player has above 45 the total amount is considered with HLA or HLD.. i.e. if you have 70 HCI and someone hits you with HLA you'll still be at the maximum of 45% HCI.. this works for HLD as well

Hit Lower Defence - 2-50 per item; gives the person you hit a defence chance decrease -25% up to 5-10 seconds… HLD with HCI means you'll be hitting them a lot!

Hit (anythign) leech - you have a chance to leech life, stamina or mana off the thing you are attacking! they all range 2-50… they can all be quite useful! Here are how they work. The % on the weapon is the chance of the leech working i.e. 50 is 50%… for life it's 3% to 18% of dmg done returned back to you as HP… for mana its 4% to 24%… for stam its 1 for 1

Hit (various types of dmg) - the dmg is either area or single… it ranges 2-50 per weapon! area means it hits everything around you; the other is just the thing you are attacking! Hit area are great for fighting lots of monsters i.e. champs! the other is great for everything! Hit Lightning is often considered the best hit type you can get! Basically it's a percent chance of your weapon casting a spell on the creature… i.e. 50% lightning means your weapon will do the equivalent of casting lighting on the thing you are attacking half of the time!

Intelligence Bonus - 1 - 8; more intelligence means more mana! also more spell dmg in some cases! no max here!

Lower Mana Cost - 1-8 range; max of 40% it reduces the mana required to cast spells or use skills… having LMC of 40% means that you'll use 40% less mana meaning you can use skills/spells way more often!

Lower Reagent Cost - 1-20 range; max of 100%… never needing regs is a good thing! especially for training! when hunting though don't sacrifice other properties for LRC… you can always buy regs from the gold you'll make fighting harder monsters using equipment like LMC, mana regen or spell dmg increase instead! works on chiv, necro and magery though!

Mage armor - makes an item fully meddable; if you are a mage and not fully meddable you are likely not wearing the best armor possible for your build

Mana Increase - 1 to 8 no max! more mana is never a bad thing!

Mana Regeneration - 1 - 2 on items (though with dwarvern jewel enhancing you can get jewelry up to 4! it's subject to diminishing returns… so more is better but less better for each point you add! that being said you want to be regenerating mana fast one way or another for most builds!

Skill Bonus - adds to a skill ;P

Spell Channeling - makes it so you can cast magery spells with that weapon/shield equipped (chiv, necro don't need spell channelling)

Spell Damage Increase - 1-12 per item max of 15% for PvP (no max for monsters!) Inscription is not included in this 15%…

Stamina Increase - 1- 8 increases stamina

Stamina Regeneration 1-3 per drop max of 24… 1 = 0.1 stam per second regen

Strength Bonus - more strength = more dmg and hitpoints! 1-8 per item no max here!

Swing Speed Increase - 5-30 max of 60! you can't go faster than a speed of 60! if you can get up to 60 you'll be one fast weapon swinger! SSI is a very good property for weapons!

Slayers! - see slayer Info

Now that I've covered all the attributes I'll do a quick top ten list (others may agree/disagree) but this'll get you started:

As a mage look for in this order:

1. FCR up to 6
2. FC up to 2 (or 4 if you are a chiv mage with 69.9)
3. LMC
4. Mana Regen
5. Spell Dmg increase
6. Intelligence Increase
7. DCI
8. Strength Increase
9. Dex Increase
10. LRC

As a warrior look in this order

1. Dmg increase
2. SSI
3. Hit [something dmg] i.e. poison area, lighting, fireball
4. Hit Mana Leech
5. Hit Stam Leech
6. Hit Life Leech
7. DCI
8. HCI
9. HLD
10. HLA

Some people will argue that the mana regen and LMC are just as useful for a warrior so you can use skills more… it's up to you but with the right build LMC could be as high as # 3!

You aren't going to find items that have everything you want right away so be smart about it and think about your build and what you attack!

For example: a weapon with 30% SSI, 15 DCI and 20% HLD might be better for your build than a weapon with 10% Dmg increase and 5 % SSI

Also keep in mind that if you are a mage/archer you don't need to worry about getting 70 resists as much as a warrior does! Also keep in mind that having resists of 60 and great properties will get you further in battle than armor with 70 resists and no properties especially if it's not meddable! I see a lot of people wear armor that has great resists but no properties… sacrificing a few resists points here and there for LMC or DCI might make a huge difference to how much dmg you do or how long you can stay alive!