[The Wisp Hunters Society]

On the Fine Art of Wisp Hunting

Written by a Member of the Wisp Hunters Society

There are several ways to kill a wisp in my knowledge, however, none are truly easy. They may sound easy at first but when you get right down to it, the situation usually turns out hairy. But there are some that may attempt to do this and fewer who have succeeded in this endeavor. These few are the elite, honored with the title of Great Wisp Hunter. There are four ways, that I know of, to legitimately kill a wisp and gain this status. They are aptly categorized as:

[1] The Bard [2] The Animal Tamer [3] The Assassin [4] A Group of Crazy PPL With a Wandering Healer Nearby

First off I wouldn't dare try to kill a wisp until I can kill a lich, especially because one-on-one, a wisp can rip a lich to shreds in about 5 seconds flat. I know because I've pitted one against the other; The wisp one hands-down. And if you are foolish enough to believe the "all-powerful" Energy Vortex or the handy blade spirit would do one in, think again. Not even before the new Dispel patch could they match the wisp. Yes, a wisp actually beat the EV, and the poor little blade spirit, I am sorry to say, didn't fare that well. So, as a warning to all the less-inexperienced who say "I know how to kick some wisp-ass; Why don't I just go EV the sucker…," don't throw your lives away. There will be plenty of wisps to kill in your UO lifetime. Besides, they only have a few scrolls. I think one had an EVscroll once but not in a long time. Usually you can loot a diamond and 25 Magic Arrow scrolls from the sapphire-like wisp corpse. Occasionally they possess what has been described as mythical weapons enchanted with spells called Force and Accuracy.

Before you attempt to kill a wisp, you ought to keep in mind that these resilient creatures have 300+ mana, 200+ STR and 95+ DEX. As well, they have the ability to cast lvl 8, and they do cast earthquake occasionally. But mostly you will see them Flamestrike, E-Bolt then Flamestrike over and over and over…until they are out of mana.

Now, down to business. As a Bard you will need a few hundred animals, Monsters, Npc's or other things that will serve as cannon fodder. Actually, all you need is 3 grizzly bears [to drain the wisp’s mana], but anything will do. Next, you will need to be an Adept Archer or Mage; If you have that, you are ready to begin.

First provoke the grizzly bears on the wisp, one after the other. DO NOT provoke them all at once, as you will have a problem with mass attack spells killing all the grizzlies before the wisp runs out of mana. But if you do it patiently one at a time, you will come out victorious. Once, you have gotten the 3rd grizzly bear to attack it, you will begin to notice the lack of Flamestrikes being cast by the wisp; This is a good thing. Now that it is out of it's seemingly endless mana, you should equip your bow and start attacking the wisp or start casting the "all powerful" Energy Bolt. Casting Fireball will work only if you have a lot of magery and luck. If you run into the problem of it not being totally out of mana, you may elect to cast Magic Reflection, or you may save it for the Greater Heal spell.

After, a long a battle, a few tries [as they hit as hard as a Troll and twice as fast as one, you may die even though you follow this premier to a tee], and success, you have been initiated as one of the elite Wisp Hunters. Should you fail, you may want to give up your dreams in this career.

Now for my favorite; The Animal Tamer. First off, NO YOU CANNOT TAME A WISP! However, you can use roughly the same tactics as you did in with the bard, but instead of provoking you simply command the animals to attack. They probably won't listen to you so you will need about 30 pieces of raw meat and a very high amount of taming to coerce them to attack.

There has been many a debate about which animal you should use. The ever-popular Scorpion and the Grizzly Bear are good choices. Some GM Animal Tamers have even gone so far as bringing in a Dragon for the occasion, although that seems, to me, to be somewhat of a waste. I prefer the roundabout way of using 2 grizzly bears and 1 scorpion. There is an order to this, however, and you have the grizzly bears attack till they are both dead. Mind you, one at a time. Then sick the scorpion on the manaless wisp. The scorpion WILL poison it, which, in the end, will kill it if you cannot.

Instead of using the scorpion if you don't want take the time to get one, you can always go for the less powerful way by taking out the wisp after it is drained of all its mana, as with the bard. Just find about 4 or 5 animals. It doesn't really matter which ones; Get them to follow you and have them attack the wisp one at a time. This is the main tactic in wisp hunting. After all the animals are all dead, go in for the kill. Last but not least, you can have a dragon, drake, or even 2 hellhounds attack the wisp. The hell hounds may have a problem but then again, you can always just get 3 hell hounds and have em all attack it at the same time. Since the hellhounds cast fireball, they will hurt the wisp to a fairly good degree. In this case, you do not need to worry about draining the wisp of all its mana for it will bite the dust long before that. The dragon or drake will just rip the wisp to shreds as a wisp rips the lich to shreds. So there no need to worry about that either.

Now, upon successful kill, you are one of the Great Wisp Hunters, but with one catch; If you didn't tame the creature, you cannot take the credit for killing the wisp.

Next, for the truly brave or stupid only. You can elect to become a GM Assassin and Adept at Spell Resistance. That is the only real way you can defeat the wisp with out draining its mana. Now that you have chosen the insane way of doing things, find yourself a very fast weapon [e.g. a Katana, War Fork, or War Mace]. Put the deadliest poison you can on the weapon of choice, and cast spell reflection on yourself, then seek out the wisp. Keep in mind to carry at least 6 or 7 Greater Heal potions on you. When you encounter the wisp, equip your deadly-poisoned weapon and attack it flat out. When the spells start coming, start drinking your Gheals when your hp drops 20+ points until the wisp is poisoned. Then it should take about 15 seconds for it to die from that. And, assuming that you survive that long, then you will get to loot the spoils of your hunt. Now you are one of the Great Wisp Hunters, with one catch; You must have poisoned the killing weapon with that character to claim the kill.

The last and final way to hunt the wisp is a very, very risky way of hunting wisp. You will need a band of 6 to 7 brave souls who will become souls if they aren't careful. Have the group surround the wisp. Get the mage with the best magic resistance to cast Magic Reflect on himself and attack the wisp. When the wisp casts the first spell everyone should start to attack, some with bows, some with magic, and a few close range weapons. The mage that attacked the Wisp will have to constantly cast Magic Reflection, and probably use a few GHeals during the skirmish. In fact, drink a GHeal every time you get hit [though remember there’s a 10 second delay between quaffing of potions]. Now it wont take long. About 3 E-bolts 2 arrows from each archer a couple of hits with a close range weapon and the Magic Reflections that rebounded the its spells, and that little wisp will be no more. This is the only way for a big group to become know as the Great Wisp Hunters. If your whole group didn't survive the attack, you cannot consider the hunt a success. Therefore none of the group is a member of The Wisp Hunters Society.

If you somehow are able to kill a wisp all four ways, you are one of the Grand Master Wisp Hunters. Although accomplishing that will take a long time. If I can ever kill a wisp with the Assassin technique, then I will be able to join the ranks of the Grand Master Wisp Hunters.

edited and illustrated by Majestic; author Anonymous

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