There are several different templates that can be used as a LumberWarrior. Here they are in no particular order:

Lumber/Parry
GM Swords
GM Tactics
GM Anatomy
GM Lumber
GM Heal
GM Parry
GM Resist or 70 Resist/30 Magery

Lumber/Archer
GM Swords
GM Tactics
GM Anatomy
GM Lumber
GM Heal
GM Archery
GM Resist or 70 Resist/30 Magery

Lumber/Hider
GM Swords
GM Tactics
GM Anatomy
GM Lumber
GM Heal
GM Hiding
GM Resist or 70 Resist/30 Magery

And plenty others.

NOTE: Do whatever makes you feel comfortable. If you want to have all the melee skills and GM Cooking, feel free. I wont make you do what I like, but you aren't going to get many kills with fish steaks. Take it from me, I have a GM Fisherman.

I would recommend starting this character with 45 strength, 10 intelligence, and 10 dexterity. I would put 50 in Magic Resist, 49 in Healing, and 1 in Lumberjacking. Once again, put 1 in Lumberjacking to get that nice newbie hatchet that wont break on you. Unless you whack baddies with it. Used to be good to start your character in Skara Brae, run out of town and fight rangers, well not anymore. Rangers no longer like to play with new characters, and they WILL kill you. Start in Jhelom instead. Try to get a friend or two to make some new characters for you with newbie hatchets. You will need as many as you can get. And for best gains, well just screw the wall...

Screw the Wall

That's right I said screw the "Wall". For all the younger readers out there, the "Wall" used to be the place to be for GM'ing melee skills. And I know this has been touched on before in the past. But I want to make a clear shot on it right now. I was making a new fencer for factions. One morning, in my power hour, I gained 4.8 Fencing to GM. In fact I had started 3 days prior in The Jhelom Dueling Pit with a skill of about 31 fighting weaponless warriors. Once you get into the 80's just grab a warrior with a broadsword, and Have At Thee. Be careful, that Broad hurts, but its worth it as you can see. I HIGHLY recommend that you have 100/100 DEX and STR before you work your melee's. Usually I spend my first Power Hour in the pit, then afterwards, I head off to max my stats. Then by the next power hour, I am ready to roll.

Power Hour
Now for your first power hour. Head to the Dueling Pit in Jhelom. Once here you will see a load of warriors standing around waiting to be beat on. Now since your healing and melee skills are low pick out one with just a shield. Now for the very hard part, go into war mode and take it to him. But, make sure you are not standing here. Notice it says you are under the protection of the Guards. This means certain Guard Whack OoOoOoOOOoO Time for you. Stay away from the actual wall of the pit and you will be ok. Make sure you are healing yourself. That's what all that cloth is for. Bring it all. And just cut band-aids as you fight. If you get low on health step away and heal up. But remember, your prey will come after you. Also ONLY use all the newbie weapons you got. If you follow that simple rule, your sparring buddy will never die, and you will never have to heal him. I don-t know how many morons I see in the Pit killing warriors left and right. They carry no loot for the most part. Absolutely no Gold. Every now and then you may get a crappy weapon or piece of Armor. So let them live.

Once your melee skills get into the high 70's/low 80's, it will be time to choose a different warrior. This time, pick this guy. But remember, that sword packs a punch, so you may be a little more watchful over your health. These guys will take you all the way to GM at a pretty good pace.

So there you have it. GM Warrior in 4-5 days without going to the wall and dealing with the damn twinks.

Use your power hour wisely and knock out all your skill gains. After power hour is up, take some time and run around shearing sheep. Take them balls of cotton and make your way to the tailor, and make some bolts of cloth. Use the cotton on the spinning wheel to get spools of thread, then use thread on the loom, to make your bolts. One ball of cotton will produce 3 spools I believe, then 5 spools are needed to make one bolt. One bolt of cloth will yield you 50 Band-aids which will be crucial. Constantly use your healing skill. It will gain nicely all the way up into the 70's. I have gone into the fields west of Delucia and easily made 26 bolts of cloth in one hour, that's 1300 band-aids, which will last you a long time. These band-aids will be crucial to you GM'ing your skills quickly and efficiently.

Armor is always a plus. Whenever you kill something, skin it, and cut them hides into strips of leather. Save up your leather then hang out buy the bank listening for that famous snipping sound. Ahh yes scissors, that means a tailor is nearby. Offer to trade him whatever hides he needs to make you a nice set of Leather Armor. If he can make up some GM Studded, that's even better. :) Offer him some extra leather as payment. And I am sure that he will be more than happy to make a suit or two for you.

So you need gold? Well if the 1000 newbie gold isn't enough for you, head to Delucia, if you aren't already there. And make your way NW of town. Soon you will come up on a place full of undead guys. This is the undead fort. And the baddies there will not like you. But you are in luck, a lot of players go here for skill gains. Run around searching slain creature bodies. Notice I said run around, your weak and things there do not like YOU. Grab whatever you can. Usually it will be a lot of junk. But all of them scrolls, regs, and old weps nobody wants, you NEED. Take everything you can back to town and sell it to vendors. I have made 5k in a couple of hours doing this. Or chop wood, that's right Mr. Lumberjack, chop up some trees. Turn all them logs into boards, and stash them in the bank. When you get about 1k of them saved up. Advertise your business of selling boards at the bank. 1k boards should get you 10k in gold on most shards. Some shards have people buying boards for up to 20 gold each. But just go with 10, 10k will be great for you starting out. And more than enough for what we will do in the next step.

NOTE: This information may not be useful to some readers of this site, due to their mAd PoWeRgAmInG sKiLlZ. If this applies to you, I will have information for you when I get into PvP Tactics more.

LJ:102 Grandmastering Those Skills

Ahh, yes. So now your keen sense of fighting is rising to levels you have even yet to dream of. Women in taverns speak of you, and every Bull, Great Hart, Llama, and Pig throughout the country side trembles when you stride by. Yes you are a GrandMaster Warrior. A fearsome man, loathed by the newbie's that beg for yards of leather at your feet. But wait....it gets even better.

So you ready for the big time? Are you ready to reached the magnificent title of GrandMasta Warrior/LumberHo? Then read on. To put it simple, GM'ing any melee type is probably the easiest thing to GM in this game. Nuff said on that. But ask an old timer sometime. Back in the day, there was no such thing as a week old GM DexMonkey. Of course, come to think of it, back in the day their weren't any DexMonkies. :) That's another tale for another time my little kiddies. So if you haven't GM'd Swords and Tactics yet, head back to 101 before reading on any further. To the rest of the folks, read on. The melees are easy, now comes the fun part.

Anatomy: Hit anything and everything as many times as you can. The weaker the weapon you use the better, this way your victim will last a little longer. Just don't stop swinging. Any orc fort is good for this. I have GM'd Anatomy 3 different times with this method. Head off to the Trinny Swamps and do your thing. When you find that special creature that gives a .1 every time, don't kill it until you see GM. There is no "bug" or "trick" to this method. It's based on luck and being in the right place at the right time. Rumor has it that being on steps helps. Then again I have heard of folks GM'ing this skill all over the place like this.

Healing: Heal yourself, then when your done, jump off a cliff and heal yourself again. Think I'm joking? Just be thankful this skill isn't difficulty based like it was back in the day. Hell, go to places where people are practicing their melee skills and heal them. Just keep healing, its slow, but it will get there. When you can cure well, cure everyone. Best way to GM? Hop on a boat once you hit 80 and do the 8x8 while ressing a friend over and over. When he goes to click the "Yes Res Me" button, smack his hand. He doesn't need to do anything except to sit there and look pretty.

Hiding: Set up a macro key i.e.. SPACEBAR to run the hiding skill. The just keep hitting it all the time while you play the game. Also when you talk it will continually use the skill, cause, duh, your hitting your spacebar. And, once again, keep moving. Once again, best way to GM? Hop on a boat, and 8x8 while hiding away.

Lumberjacking: Ahh, the light at the end of the tunnel. Well not exactly. At higher levels, i.e.. 90, LJ is a royal pain in the ass to raise. The good thing is, while you GM'd Anatomy, it should be right up there in the Master area. Which is good. So how do you GM it? Well this is how you do it. Grab your hatchet ('s)), go find a nice spawn. And then you guessed it, do what you do best Grandmasta Warrior, hit everything that moves as fast and as many times as you can. And after your done skinning Smokey the Bear, hit something else. Once your in the 90's do it in and out of power hour. I have gained .2 in power hour at this level, then turned around later that day in non-power hour and gained .3. Just hit shit, A LOT. Good trick I used was too trap a NPC warrior in my house, cause LJing isn't actually a *true* melee skill, you can gain skill their as well. Just hack away, and make sure you have plenty of band-aids and hatchets. And take note of this too, grab one that doesn't have a weapon. It will be easier on you. BUT remember anatomy will not gain at high levels in your house. So only use this for LJing. Some people have said to attack the Brown Bears SE of Moonglow Cemetery. Folks it don't matter, just be hitting something. Jhelom pits is good for this. Fellow Guildmates with spare time are always nice.

Parry: Well you can use Bone Knights or Earth Elementals like you did while gaining Swords and Tactics. You can also have a good mage friend cast Bladespirits for you and Parry will gain REAL quick. Just remember, they hit hard, and their poison is extremely deadly. So be ready for them. And equip a lot of shields. I recommend that your mage friend cast all cures and GH's as well. Makes it easier on you.

Well that's it for skills. Any add-ons or new tricks that people may know about email them to me. I will look them over and get them posted. Next up, :::::DRUM ROLL::::: LumberWarrior Tactics in LJ103:Tactics. Yes that's right folks 999 things you can do in PvP as a LumberWarrior and probably live to tell about it, so read on.

LJ:103 LumberWarrior PvP Tactics

Ver*sa*tile adj. 1. Capable of doing many things competently. 2. Having varied uses or serving many functions. 3. Inconstant or variable; changeable. -ver'sa*tile*ly adv. -ver'sa*til'i*ty, ver'sa*tile*ness n.

That was the answer I just gave you. "Well Gator what was the question?" The question you were going to ask me was why I like playing the LumberWarrior in PvP. And it all boils down to that one word. In my honest opinion there is no other template out there that offers as much as the LumberWarrior does. "But Gator, what about fighting a shield fighter?" What about it? There is a way, several actually, and I am going to break it all down....shotgun style. Yes folks, LJ103: LumberWarrior Tactics and YOU has finally arrived.

This is how this is going to work. I am going to break it down into sections as follows:

Part I: Equipment
Part II: Weapons & Armor
Part III: Specific Opponent Tactics

Part IV: Review
If you are using UOAssist, which I hope you are, make sure you have all your macros set up for what you will need to do. Speed is what you are looking for. The quicker you are, the longer you may live. Develop macros to disarm/rearm your weps/shields, drink potions (GC, GH, TR, GA, GS), and of course heal. Before I begin let me add that these are my own opinions and techniques. Some of you may find them useful, others will not. I have no problems with that, and I encourage it. As always I accept constructive criticism.

I. Equipment

Band aids:
(10) Band aids
(25) Cloth
I personally have a macro set up in UOAssist that will heal me, then cut another band-aid. Reason being that running around with 50 cut band-aids doesn't allow for a whole lot of loot collecting. Why 10 pre-cut even though you cut your own as you hit the key? Never know when your buddy might need a heal or cure.

Potions:
(5) Greater Heal, Greater Cure, Total Refresh.
(3) Greater Agility and Greater Strength.
Do not want to make it too many, but want to have enough in case your moment in battle last longer than you like it to. Heals and Cures are self-explanatory. Use the GA/GS then throw on a band-aid before you enter combat. Do this quickly, no time to waste. Also follow up with a TR to get that Stamina to max. I also have a macro set up for this in UOAssist. I set it up for drink GS, use Band-Aid, drink GA, drink TR. A Macer will eat up your stamina, so the more you have the better. Use them TR's if you get low stamina or if you need to get out of a tight spot in a hurry. Good idea to have potions pre-stored in a pouch somewhere. That way in case you run out, you have a handy reserve, which you don't have to worry about organizing. Good idea to have band-aids/cloth in there as well.

Misc:
(1) Runebook
(5) Trapped Pouches
Rune Books are officially newbified. Of course this means automatic transportation. Make sure it’s stocked to the max with recall scrolls before you go hunting. And try to have it filled with strategic rune locations and safe spots as well. Trapped Pouches are obvious. When that mage casts Paralyze, you got to get at him in a hurry. Use a pouch and commence to beatin'. The sitting duck tactic never works, unless you are using Archery.

II. Weapons & Armor

Armor: I wear a full suit of GM Studded Leather myself. I sacrifice AR for speed. Unfortunately, this is not an AR essay, so I will not get into all the specifics. But if you really want to learn about how AR truly works then go here and read what Paladin and KH have to say. Also Paladin updated some good info on AR recently. And you can find some more Armor Combinations here. When it comes down to it, wear what you feel is good for you and your abilities.

Shields:
(3) Kite Shields
The best shield you can use for PvP is a GM Kite shield. That's right. Macer's love breaking shields and with this many you will have a couple of backups to bring Mr. Macer down.

Weapons:
(2)Double Axe's
(2)Halberd's
(2)Poisoned Katana's
Here is where people start screaming. But just listen up and you will see what I mean later on when I break down into tactics more. I use two because you just might run into Mr. Battlefield Thief whom likes adding to his weapon/reg collection.

III. Specific Opponent Tactics

LJ vs. Mage:
You are a Mages worst nightmare. If one sticks around long enough to see you, then it maybe to late. You want to be all over him quickly. Run your stat enhancement Macro. Now you are 120/25/120, so lay the smack down on Mr. Mindblast. And don't worry, MB only effects your base stats after a recent patch change. So do not fear raising them, it will only help you. Have a GH ready to go, as soon as you see your health drop, drink away, and hit a band-aid. Re-Arm that axe, and do what you do best. CHOP! If you’re lucky, you can take him down in 2-3 hits. Depending on what he does. Do not let him out of your sight. If you get that swing in and nail the concussion blow, well needless to say there goes half his mana. This is what you want. Put him on the defensive as soon as possible, and his chances of recovering are next to nil. Don't forget about your GC's and GH's if needed. And whatever you do, do not stay poisoned. If he stays on the poison, well then give him some right back. Arm a poisoned katana. I recommend lesser-poisoned blades. DP is too expensive, and the thought here is not to kill him with poison, but instead to keep him "occupied" with poison. On average a lesser-poisoned blade will net you about 18 applications before you have to refresh it. Whereas DP will only get you 12 uses before having to reapply. Not to mention that once your blade tastes blood with DP it’s going to corrode a lot faster than it will with lesser.

LJ vs. Macer:
When you begin, go through the potion/band aid routine. Make it quick, in fact, the sooner the better. If he is using a shield read down a bit to LJ vs. ShieldFighter section. Macer's got one thing, a big damn hammer. Unfortunately this hammer loves to eat shields and armor like a ¼ pounder w/cheese. But that’s ok, you got a little supply stocked up in your pack. You want to give it to him fast. You can go no shield, and go axe vs. hammer so to speak. Just keep them heals flying, and if you get to about 50 HP, disarm, run, drink heal. Got no stamina, use that TR. When it all boils down to it, you should have the upper hand. If he doesn’t go down quietly, throw him a move and equip that Poisoned Katana. Unless he’s got Swords/Fencing, he doesn’t have poison, you do. Use it or loose it. And as always use it quickly, no time to waste or for mistakes. Wait for him to make his instead.

LJ vs. Fencer:
Against the fencer its all basically the same as against the macer. But remember one thing, he is most likely faster than you are. Your options include, ye olde trusty Katana with a smear of poison w/shield. Or you can opt for your trusty double. Trust me that phat ass Halberd that’s burning in your pack will be needed really soon. As with the macer, if this fencers is using a shield, scroll down to LJ vs. ShieldFighter's. Watch out for the paralyze special hit with a spear. If this happens, don't bother with a trapped pouch. Going to have to ride it out and keep healing.

LJ vs. Archer:
Once again speed is the key here. Notice a *speed* trend here? Amazingly enough fight them almost like a Mage. If you got a horse you will be better off. But if he does as well, it will not be a short day. Here a shield with that poisoned kat would be a good idea. When he notices that he will not be able to get that cure/heal done. He will disarm bow to drink potion. Now is your chance but you have to be fast. Either keep poking him with the Kat, or the moment he disarms, do the same, and grab that axe. Who knows your one shot maybe the last one he receives on the day. And you will have a few arrows to give all your friends.

LJ vs. ShieldFighter:
Finally we have arrived to the LumberWarrior's worst foe. Why? Simply put if you use an axe against them you better like the color gray. You will see it a lot. This is where your Katana OR Halberd will come into play. When you fight a ShieldFighter you will see them use Maces, Fencing, or Swords. Basically follow what I have already told you above against them templates with these changes. Like I said you have two choices. The first one being to equip that kite shield and poisoned katana. Then commence to wearing them out, keep your heals going. And if you need to use a potion drop your shield real quick and drink away. I recommend only disarming your shield due to the fact that you do not want to stop hitting them. Now, why a Halberd? Well to put it simply, a Double Axe at GM Anatomy, Lumber, Swords, and Tactics can do the same amount of max damage as a Halberd. The big difference is that the Double is faster, therefore more damage over time. But, the Double Axe is worthless against Shields. On the other hand, the Halberd will eat through a Shield like a hot knife through butter. If you do not have Parry I recommend using the Halberd. If you have Parry, use the poisoned katana. Stay on him, stay aggressive and most importantly, stay alive.

IV. Review
Well that is everything in condensed form. I am sure that there are something’s I missed or even left out. Feel free to comment in the forums, or email them to me. If its important, I will make sure I get it included in this essay. It takes time and a certain talent to become good at PvP. And the only way you can achieve that is through practice. I highly recommend the test center for these exact purposes. Grab a friend and go there, make your templates up and have at it. This is the only way you can learn what to do in certain situations. Once you get comfortable with everything, move on over to factions. Here you will find plenty of opponents. Some folks here are good at what they do, and then there are others that totally blow. Either way, you can get a great multitude of different templates and situations. But most importantly have fun. That is what UO is all about. Hell at times I kick ass then there are times I get my ass kicked. Either way, I always have a smile on my face, because I am having a great time. Thanks for your time.