Ultima Online Poisoning - the poison table, the Tactics substitution, and a mastery with no numbers

Four jobs

1. It applies poison to items. uo.com publishes the command form: “Use skill, poisoning – target potion – target item to be poisoned (food, shuriken, fukiya or weapon).” The weapon restriction is narrow: “If a weapon, it must be one which has infectious strike as a special move.” The poison comes from Alchemy — “bought from NPC alchemist shops or made by a beginner alchemist (minimum skill 0)” — so the supply side costs no skill points.

2. It replaces Tactics on poison special moves. uo.com: “the skill stands in place of tactics and acts as a percentage chance for the level of the poison dealt by Infectious Strike to be bumped up an additional level.” The two moves are Infectious Strike and Serpent Arrow. For Archery it works “without the need to apply poison to either bow or ammunition”.

3. It sets the strength of spell poison. uo.com: it “defines the strength of the mage spells ‘poison’ and ‘poison field’. Poison spell must be cast within 3 tiles of the victim to attain full potency.” And for Necromancy: above 60 Poisoning there is a 3% to 9% chance, scaling with the skill, to poison a target with Poison Strike.

4. It makes you harder to poison. uo.com: “Poisoning skill also grants a natural poison resistance at 20% of the player’s poisoning skill” — 20 points at Grandmaster, free, on a character who never applies a drop.

For Ninjitsu there is a fifth use built on the first: it “can be used to taint their shuriken and fukiya darts”. Then there is the oldest use of all — poisoning food and drink, which is where Cooking comes in.

Every published poison

uo.com presents these as separate entries. Collected, with the gaps left as gaps:

Poison	Level	Min. skill to apply	Damage	Duration
Lesser Poison	1	0	“minimal damage every 2 seconds”	20–23 seconds
Poison	2	15	damage “every 3 seconds”	40–45 seconds
Greater Poison	3	55	“significant damage every 4 seconds”	45–60 seconds
Deadly Poison	4	90	“High damage every 5 seconds”	70–75 seconds
Lethal Poison	5	[!] not published	“Very High damage every 5 seconds”	70–85 seconds
Darkglow Poison	3 nominal	[!] not published	14–20 damage every 4 seconds	[!] not published
Parasitic Poison	4	[!] not published	25–33 damage every 5 seconds	[!] not published

Note the shape of it. The four standard poisons get a minimum skill and a duration band but damage in words only; the two crafted poisons get the reverse — real damage numbers, no duration, no minimum skill. Nothing fills either gap, and [!] no cure difficulty or cure chance is published for any level.

Darkglow and Parasitic pull you in opposite directions

Both are crafted by alchemists, and uo.com spells out where you should be standing for each.

Darkglow Poison, made from Luminescent Fungi, “does extra damage by distance in excess of 1 tile. Since shuriken work best at a distance of 3–9 tiles this is an ideal poison for use with that item… A victim would be wise to close with the poisoner rather than run away! The poisoner would be wise to move away from the victim rather than close with him.” It can be bumped to level 4 by a poisoner with sufficient skill using Infectious Strike on a blade.

Parasitic Poison, made from parasitic plants, “leaches health for the poisoner, provided he stays within one tile of the victim, receiving health back with every tick until the poison is cured. Since fukiya darts work best at 1–4 tiles, this is an ideal poison to use with them, or with a blade.” It bumps to level 5 the same way. Its ingredient also rewards Detecting Hidden: parasitic plants “can sometimes be found in hidden boxes in Exodus dungeon”.

They want opposite fights: Darkglow punishes a target for running, Parasitic heals you for staying glued to them.

Standing in for Tactics is what makes the template fit

On a poison build Poisoning is not an extra skill bolted onto a warrior — it is doing a combat skill’s job. Infectious Strike and Serpent Arrow check Poisoning where they would otherwise check Tactics, so those 100 points buy the poison application and the special-move probability on one line. Against a 720 cap that is the difference between a template that fits and one that is 100 points short.

The weapon still has to cooperate: the restriction is on the item, which ties the skill to particular Fencing, Swordsmanship, Mace Fighting and Throwing weapons rather than to a weapon skill. The general gating is 70 [!] weapon skill for primary special moves, 90 [!] for secondary.

[!] The percentage chance of the level bump is not published at any skill value. uo.com says Poisoning “acts as a percentage chance” and never prints the percentage. [!] Nor is the chance of successfully applying poison to an item — only the minimum skill per poison level, which is a floor, not a success rate.

Charges exist; the number does not

[!] uo.com does not publish how many charges a poison application puts on a weapon, or how many hits it lasts, so no number is given here. That charges exist is confirmed, because the mastery is written in terms of them: Potency gives “a chance to not consume poison charges”. How many there are, uo.com does not say.

The mastery - three abilities, not one number

Poisoning is one of only two skills outside combat and magic with a Skill Mastery, the other being Animal Taming. uo.com publishes all three abilities and no figures at all.

Ability	What uo.com says it does
Potency (passive)	“While the poisoning mastery is active, the poisoner has a chance to not consume poison charges when using infected strike based on poisoning skill, anatomy skill, and mastery level.”
Tolerance	“Toggle ability that grants the poisoner a reduction to poison level when poisoned at a stamina cost based on mastery level.”
Injected Strike	“When activated the poisoner will apply a poison resistance debuff to their target for a duration based on poisoning skill, anatomy skill, and mastery level. Any poisons applied to the poisoner’s weapon will also be applied to the target. Poison may be applied to any weapon using this ability, however the poison applied to non-infecting weapons may only be applied by use of this ability, debuff will be reduced on ranged weapons. Injected Strike is cancelled by all special abilities…”

Injected Strike is the reason to read a primer. It is the only published way to put poison on a weapon lacking Infectious Strike, and its debuff attacks the exact thing that normally makes poison irrelevant in a duel. Its counterplay is published just as precisely, in the Publish 90 notes: the debuff “will be reduced on ranged weapons”, and “all special abilities (Death Strike, Counter Attack …) now cancel Injected Strike”.

All three scale on Anatomy — another 100 points a template must find. A shard-bound primer from a champion spawn, Scalis or Charybdis is read for each tier, and uo.com counts real skill only: “modified skill points from items are not counted”.

[!] Not one number is published for any of the three abilities — no Potency percentage, no Tolerance stamina cost or level reduction, no Injected Strike debuff magnitude or duration. Every one of them is described as scaling and none is quantified.

[!] No minimum skill for using a mastery is stated on uo.com’s Skill Masteries page. An unpublished figure puts the requirement above 90 [!]; uo.com does not say it. How often a mastery can be switched is not settled either: uo.com gives a 10 minute cooldown, and an unpublished figure of 15 minutes [!] differs.

In PvP

Start with the published weakness, because everything else on a poison template answers it. In PvP, almost any Greater Cure potion or Arch Cure spell undoes a successful poisoning. Against a competent opponent raw poison is a tax on their potion belt, not a kill.

• Injected Strike is the real weapon. A resistance debuff plus the transfer of your weapon’s poison attacks the cure itself, and frees you to carry a weapon chosen for its properties rather than for Infectious Strike.
• Know its counterplay, because they will — cancelled by all special abilities, reduced on ranged weapons. Opening with it into an opponent about to fire a special wastes it.
• The level bump is the other answer, turning Darkglow into level 4 and Parasitic into level 5 — a harder problem than the one they prepared for.
• It is the mage’s poison stat, setting the strength of Magery Poison and Poison Field — and the 3 tile full-potency rule means a poison mage must be close enough to be caught.
• Parasitic Poison is a heal. Within one tile it returns health every tick until cured — so curing it is both their only answer and the thing that ends your sustain.
• Defence is free, then improvable — 20% of your skill as flat poison resistance, plus the Tolerance toggle reducing the level of poison landed on you, at a stamina cost.
• It does not break hiding. Poisoning is on uo.com’s list of skills usable while hidden, so an assassin can re-coat a blade mid-approach.

In PvM

Monsters do not drink cure potions, so the PvP weakness disappears and poison that lands stays landed.

• The whole duration is damage against something that will not cure — 20–23 seconds for Lesser, 70–85 for Lethal.
• Parasitic Poison is sustain — 25–33 damage every 5 seconds while returning health every tick, as long as you hold within one tile.
• Darkglow suits a ninja at range — 14–20 every 4 seconds, matched to the 3–9 tile shuriken band.
• The 20% passive resistance is free mitigation against everything in the game that poisons you.
• Exodus feeds it — parasitic plants come from the hidden boxes there, which takes Detecting Hidden and Lockpicking.

Caps, stats and training

Primary stat Int, secondary Dex. Poisoning has no Power Scroll and caps at 100 against the 720 total cap — unusual, because it does have a mastery. A poisoner’s investment goes sideways into Anatomy and primers, not upward into scrolls. Scrolls of Transcendence apply.

Training is done by applying poison, and the published trainer is the NPC Thief Guildmaster — which is why a skill used mostly by warriors and mages sits in the thieving group at all:

Band	uo.com
Start	0–30 NPC Thief Guildmaster
Lesser Poison	30–39.9
Poison	40–64.9
Greater Poison	65–91.9
Deadly Poison	92–100

The switch to Greater Poison is not entirely settled: uo.com puts it at 65; an unpublished figure puts it at 70 [!]. uo.com’s is the official one.

The bill is steep: reaching Grandmaster takes about 80,000 Nightshade [!] worth of various poisons. That is the real barrier to the skill, and why a poisoner and an Alchemy character usually share an account.

The Guaranteed Gain System backstops it with a mandatory 0.1 when nothing has been gained inside your bracket’s window; a Scroll of Alacrity raises each check to 0.2–0.5 for 15 minutes.

What is not published

None of this is published by uo.com:

• [!] The number of charges a poison application puts on a weapon, or how many hits it lasts.
• [!] The chance to successfully apply poison to an item at a given skill.
• [!] The percentage chance of the Infectious Strike level bump.
• [!] Minimum skill to apply Lethal, Darkglow or Parasitic poison.
• [!] Duration for Darkglow and Parasitic poison.
• [!] Cure difficulty or cure chance at any poison level.
• [!] Every mastery figure — Potency’s chance, Tolerance’s stamina cost and level reduction, Injected Strike’s debuff magnitude and duration.
• [!] Any stated minimum skill to use a mastery, on uo.com.
• [!] How Poisoning numerically scales Magery poison and poison field strength.

Where these come from

uo.com Poisoning · uo.com Skill Masteries · uo.com Publish 90 · uo.com Hiding · uo.com Ninjitsu · uo.com Skills, Stats & Attributes · uo.com Scrolls of Power · uo.com Scrolls of Transcendence · uo.com Skill Gain Systems. Everything here is from uo.com or the game itself; anything uo.com does not publish is marked [!] as unpublished where it appears.