Imbuing

From UOGuide

"Runic Hammers are a high-stakes roll of the dice... Imbuing is loaded dice" - Tancred

Imbuing is a magical crafting Skill added with the release of Ultima Online: Stygian Abyss. It allows players to adjust or add specific equipment item properties. Imbuing is a stand-alone skill. You do not need to be able to craft the item you are imbuing. Those who imbue items are known as Artificers.

Imbuing requires specific resources, some of which are first harvested (or "unraveled") from existing magic items. It also requires gems; the greater the intensity selected, the more gems you will need. The unraveling attempt includes a chance to destroy the item and failing to garner any resources from it. Similar to Blacksmithy requiring a forge, you must stand next to a Soul Forge to imbue or unravel items.

Imbuing Power Scrolls can be obtained by completing the quests Secrets of the Soulforge, Knowledge of the Soulforge and Mastering the Soulforge. The Gargoyle Race has the racial ability Master Artisan which increases their unraveling yields and imbuing success chance.

For an imbuing calculator, see Knuckleheads' Imbuing Calculator

Training

Method 1

• 0 - 40 - Purchase from one of the Gargoyle Artificers standing around the public Soulforge in Ter Mur
• 40 - 50 - Craft plain Leather Caps and imbue with Reflect Physical Damage (citrine and magical residue) , starting at 8% and raising to 11%
• 50 - 70- Craft Butcher Knives or Daggers and imbue with Hit Dispel
• 70 - 120- Craft Exceptional Heavy Platemail Jingasas and imbue with Reflect Physical Damage

Method 2

The most cost/gem efficient means of gaining this skill is to imbue multiple effects at lower levels. Each item you imbue can be imbued 10 times before you are less able to gain from it. Therefore, for 40-50 range skill you might imbue a leather cap with 4% cold resist (1 magical residue/1 sapphire) and then 1% Reflect Physical Damage (1 magical residue/1 citrine). Then you "Reimbue Last" on the Reflect Physical Damage 9 times before moving on to the next item. You can adjust this ratio of initial imbue to repeated imbue as you gain in skill, keeping the success rate (displayed in bottom right hand of the imbuing gump) around 50% for best gains. So after 20-40 gains, you will need to change your method to 5% cold resist and 1% Reflect Physical Damage in order to keep your success rate down.

Also, it should be easier to train this on a human, due to the imbuing success bonus that gargoyles get, which means that you must imbue higher intensity properties to maintain the 50% success rate. After training to 120, then use a soulstone to transfer the skill to a gargoyle character (or use a race change token).

UOAssist Macro

Here are the steps to create a one key macroing for training.

1. Start recording a macro.
2. Activate imbuing skill.
3. Press "imbue item" button.
4. Target the item you want to imbue.
5. Select property you wish to imbue.
6. Select the intensity to imbue (if necessary).
7. Press "yes" to imbue the item.
8. Whether or not the imbuing was successful, press "Unravel item".
9. Target the exact same item that you had just attempted to imbue.
10. Stop recording the macro.
11. Select the 2 target lines in your macro, right click and select "target item type".

• Warning: UOAssist will not differentiate between items you intend to imbue from ones you do not. Do not have any items you intend to keep in your backpack or they could mistakenly be unraveled.
• Note: The imbuing menu must be closed when you activate the macro.
• Note 2: It is not recommended you use this macro when imbuing magic items as they will be unraveled regardless of whether you succeed or fail you imbuing attempt.

UOA Macro Option 2. This Macro will allow you to adjust intensity easily.

1. Start recording a macro.
2. Activate imbuing skill.
3. Press "imbue last property" button.
4. Whether or not the imbuing was successful, press "Unravel item".
5. Target the exact same item that you had just attempted to imbue.
6. Stop recording the macro.
7. Select the 2 target lines in your macro, right click and select "target item type".
8. Now, any time you need to adjust intensity, merely use "Imbue Item" with the new desired intensity and the macro will do the work.

Note- If you have trouble getting the Target Item Type to stick, hit the "count recoures" button then try again.

Unraveling

Magic items are unraveled to collect the 3 main imbuing ingredients. The ingredient collected depends on the quality of the magic item unraveled.

• Magical Residue - No skill needed
• Enchanted Essence - More than 45 skill needed, acquired from decent magic items
• Relic Fragment - 95.1 skill needed, acquired from artifacts and items with almost max intensities

To unravel items you must be standing next to a soul forge. You can pack all the items you want to unravel in a single container and use the Unravel Container option from the Imbuing menu to simultaneously unravel all the items it contains.

How To Use

• The Imbuing skill allows player characters to imbue items with magical properties. The amount of skill determines how much magical power an artificer can imbue in an item.
• The Imbuing skill allows player characters to magically unravel items into Magical Ingredients. Artificers use these ingredients when imbuing items with magical power. Magically unraveling items always destroys the item in the process.
  • Magical Residue
  • Enchanted Essence
  • Relic Fragments
• Magical items cannot be magically unraveled if they cannot be recycled or if they are made out of special material.
• Other ingredients such as gemstones, special loot drops, and other rare resources will also be required during the imbuing process.
• When magically unraveling an item, the artificer uses a soul forge and then selects which item he wishes to unravel.
  • One of two results will occur:
    • The unraveling process fails. No ingredient is acquired.
    • The unraveling process succeeds. The artificer receives one or more ingredients, and the magically unraveled item is destroyed.
• Unraveling a magic item requires minimal skill. However, higher skill improves the quality of the ingredients obtained.
• Artificers imbue and magically unravel items at a special forge called a soul forge. The soul forge in the Gargoyle City(Ter Mur) gives a slight success bonus, and the Queen's soul forge (which located in the Queen's Palace in the Royal City, Ter Mur) gives the highest success bonus. Note that 10,000 Loyalty Rating towards the Gargoyle Queen is required to use this soulforge).
• Gargoyles receive an inherent success bonus when imbuing and unraveling magic items.
• Gargoyles receive an enhance bonus for 100+ Imbuing skill (i.e., similar to the 100+ Blacksmithing skill enhance bonus).
• Failing to imbue an item with an item property does not destroy the item.
• Once an item has been successfully imbued, it can no longer be affected by Powder of Fortification. However, imbued items can be repaired.
• Imbuing augments the power of certain Mysticism spells.

Mechanics

Imbuing has certain limits, an important one is the 500% maximum property intensity limit. This limitation along with the 'weighting' mechanism restricts the power of imbued jewelry to generally be less than a perfect max intensity 5 properties item found as loot.

Example of property weight calculation:

• A ring with HCI 13, LMC 7, DI 20, FR 11
• Has a total imbuing weight: 361

How is it computed?

• HCI 13/15 * 130 = 112.666
• LMC 7/8 * 110 = 96.25
• DI 20/25 * 100 = 80
• FR 11/15 * 100 = 73.333

Add them all up and you get: 362.249

(The numbers are from each property's imbuing weight * 100. For example, HCI has a property weight of 1.3, LMC has a weight of 1.1, etc.)

So you can guess that each number above has been rounded down to the nearest whole value before adding: 112+96+80+73 = 361

If the properties had all been at maximum strength (15, 8, 25, 15) the total weight used by just 4 properties would be well over 4, 4.4 in this case.

History

Ah yes, magical items. They are the cornerstones of power in a mythical world. They are plundered from the legions of vanquished monsters and adversaries, rewarded from fallen enemies, and even created by ambitious artificers aspiring to create legendary relics of power.

Magical items bestow abilities to their owners that complement their existing capabilities. They are often the most coveted and valuable rewards an adventurer can acquire during his sojourning in dungeons and other dangerous places.

For artificers, constructing magical items is an extension of themselves, akin to an artist aspiring to paint her magnum opus. With the appropriate ingredients and a soul forge, artificers can imbue items with whatever properties they desire.

Imbuing items with transcendent power is a time-consuming and costly undertaking. Like any great experiment, the result is often failure.

Sages speak of a race that has mastered the legendary skill of Imbuing. Perhaps through this race, the adventurers and artisans of Britannia will journey through the fabled Stygian Abyss, discover the ancient homeland of the Gargoyles, and unravel the secrets of this forgotten craft."

Patrick "Leurocian" Malott

Lead Game Designer, Ultima Online

Mythic Entertainment, an EA Studio

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