Herding - Zero to GM in 75 Minutes (Or Less!)

[Old Man of UO]

Okay... herding from zero to GM in 75 minutes:

This was using the KR client, no macroing and no key-mashing (KR won't let you press and hold a macro key). The trick that took me nearly 20 minutes to figure out is you don't actually have to tell your target where to walk to. You can easily cut 20 minutes or more off my time, and do it under an hour. These are actual times using the game timer built into the KR-BBE user interface, so they are real.

Here is what I did:
0 - 28.1 skill : bought from Rancher outside Brit farms
28.1 - 30.0 : Sheep in New Haven - got bored and left - 5 mins
30.0 - 45.0 : Cows outside Delucia - got bored and left - 14 mins
45.0 - 70.0 : Great Harts east of Delucia - got bored and left - 10 mins
70.0 - 75.0 : White Wolves on Dagger Isle - not gaining fast enough - 3 mins
75.0 - 82.5 : Bulls outside Delucia - not gaining fast enough - 9 mins
82.5 - 90.0 : Drakes south of Ilsh. Compassion gate - 12 mins
90.0 - 93.0 : Dragons west of Ilsh. Valor - not gaining fast enough - 7 mins
93.0 - 100.0: Greater Dragons west of Ilsh. Valor gate - 15 mins

Also found out you can't herd paragon greater dragons - dang
You get the message, "That wasn't even challenging" if the target is too easy.

NOW, need a few minutes to rest my fingers and look for a challenge... stealth mage/thief and now GM Shepherd!

 

[Storm]

comgrats on the fast gm let me know if its fun I may play with herding on my stealther

 

[Lynk]

It might actually be fun to put herding on a stealth PK. Will be difficult to fit it into the template though.

 

[Old Man of UO]

It might actually be fun to put herding on a stealth PK. Will be difficult to fit it into the template though.

Extremely busy at home and work at the moment, but what I am thinking is herding creatures for the kill or to distract while stealing. If I just use them for killing, I don't need to adjust my template much, but if I want to get more into the PvP part or snoop/stealing then it is going to be very tight. But it was so easy to GM and kinda fun dragging a Greater Dragon around. I typically have 218 ms pings, so fast pace PvP is out of the question.

Current skills:
120 Stealing
115 Magery
100 Meditation
100 Hiding
100 Herding
96.1 Stealth (never fail)
73.9 Focus

and room for 15 more skill points. I could drop focus and take Eval Int. My suit has, good resists, 30 SDI, 40 LMC, 9 MR and 30 DCI. Not sure what adjustments are needed.

 

[VorteXPete]

I dropped my herding from 100 to 90 and find little difference while herding greater dragons, so i wouldn't bother going above 90...

 

[Old Man of UO]

I dropped my herding from 100 to 90 and find little difference while herding greater dragons, so i wouldn't bother going above 90...

You are quite right; I noticed the same thing. You do fail more often, but so what? Since there is no skill delay, you just try again, and if you are hidden they won't aggro on you.

 

[Heimi]

Did you use any of KR's features to do it so quickly, or would it be just as fast in 2D?

 

[Maximilliean]

I'm not trying to be a smart *** but whats the point of having herding?

 

[Old Man of UO]

Did you use any of KR's features to do it so quickly, or would it be just as fast in 2D?

It should actually be faster in 2D than with KR. I had to keep pressing and releasing my macro key, with 2D you can just hold it down... KR won't repeat a macro without releasing the key or setting it to repeat 10 times - doh! I could have done that too!

I'm not trying to be a smart *** but whats the point of having herding?

Two points for herding (at least in my case):
1. Boredom. A new skill to learn to use on a seldom used character.
2. PvP with a horrible ping. Stealth-herd creatures into the middle of a spawn or dungeon entrance, or wherever I see reds! Perfectly legal in Felucca.

And if I want to swap it out, easy enough with soul stones.

 

[Bo Hica]

Herding can be very useful at spawns like Lord Oaks. You have a two or more shepherds take as many blue pets from the spawn area as the group thinks they need. Now these shepherds will act as spawn protecters and will take their herd to spawn choke points. Anyone with neg. karma will be auto targeted by the whole herd nearly at once. This also acts as a cork to jam those choke points. If your shepherds have detect hidden then no one should make it past those points without coming under fire. This makes it so smaller guilds can take Oaks every now and then and they don't have to worry so much about being zerged. Most guilds don't have good karma stealthers so this is a great way to defend.

Now if you are never going to fel or don't have stealthing then it is really on for rp. But more and more people are starting to build shepherds, so maybe then want to try and make a temp that is more then just a min/max type.

My favorite shepherd temp so far is
100 Herding
100 Hiding
100 stealth
100 magery
120 music
120 provo
80 ninja

This is great at just about any spawn and it is very low cost to get those scrolls and the needed suit is an easier build.

 

[Lynk]

On my shard people farm Demons for Silver regularly, so often times I will go in on my stealth ninja/bush dexer to kill them. Occasionally they will manage to run out of the temple and get away.

If I could herd all of the greater drags, and dragons that they lured out to farm in peace to the entrance, that would be entertaining.

 

[Old Man of UO]

And there are a few macro miners in Felucca that I would like to annoy without going red on this character. Just herd a few spawn around their mining spots and should make it a bit tougher on them.

 

[InspectorGadget]

Current skills:
120 Stealing
115 Magery
100 Meditation
100 Hiding
100 Herding
96.1 Stealth (never fail)
73.9 Focus

PvP thief...No need for 120 steal, majority of items will be 3-5stones 110 is more than enough. No snoop??

Also, med and focus??? magery??? Wheres your archer defence???

Mite i suggest, dropping focus, med and magery. Picking up snooping(gm) and wrestle(120).

110 stealing
120wrestle
100snoop
100hiding
100herding
100stealth

Now, that gives a skill total of 630, so...if you use the shadow dancer legs (+20 stealing and stealth) that will take you to 590skill points used. You can then add in 120 resist spells.

 

[Old Man of UO]

PvP thief...No need for 120 steal, majority of items will be 3-5stones 110 is more than enough. No snoop??

Also, med and focus??? magery??? Wheres your archer defence???

Mite i suggest, dropping focus, med and magery. Picking up snooping(gm) and wrestle(120).

110 stealing
120wrestle
100snoop
100hiding
100herding
100stealth

Now, that gives a skill total of 630, so...if you use the shadow dancer legs (+20 stealing and stealth) that will take you to 590skill points used. You can then add in 120 resist spells.

I still want 120 stealing for dungeon stealables... I make some nice gold on my vendor from those. But I might stone the 120 and start over to bring it back up to 100 which only takes a few days. The template looks good, but I won't do PvP full time... with my ping I am usually dead before I realize it, try casting and get the message "you can't do that while dead."

For now, I want to just try targeting reds with they herding while hidden.

 

[InspectorGadget]

I still want 120 stealing for dungeon stealables... I make some nice gold on my vendor from those. But I might stone the 120 and start over to bring it back up to 100 which only takes a few days. The template looks good, but I won't do PvP full time... with my ping I am usually dead before I realize it, try casting and get the message "you can't do that while dead."

For now, I want to just try targeting reds with they herding while hidden.

The reason i say 110, is that you can use the ferret talisman for stealing from monsters. +it gives you skill points to put in a defensive skill to survive the ping. Which btw, i feel i avereage around the 200mark myself. I havent put herding on my thief yet but that template i suggested is pretty much what i use but with gm alchemy instead of herding

 

[Sarsmi]

I'm not trying to be a smart *** but whats the point of having herding?

It's great for training taming - I did this (again) yesterday, went to an off shard I don't normally play and herded a bunch of snow leopards (tamer there is in 70's), when I'd get a good sized group around me I'd grab lifebars and tame them in order, and release one when I'd get 3 or 4 of them, and sic the tamed ones on the newly released one. You don't have to follow what you are taming this way, and you can drag stuff away from spawning orcs or frost trolls or whatever.

Not having to follow stuff means I can play bejeweled or whatever on the right side of the screen while every 10 seconds hit my macro to tame the last thing or tame a new thing and kill the old thing. Works really well for precipitating boredom.

 

[Fink]

Also found out you can't herd paragon greater dragons - dang

You can't herd paragons of any type, more's the pity.

The trick that took me nearly 20 minutes to figure out is you don't actually have to tell your target where to walk to.

You can also simply mash a "last object / last target" macro (in 2D, as KR disallows mashing). One target is all you need since they removed the anti-macro code a while back. I got all the way to 98.0 requiring fresh targets before that, lots of touring involved, then got the last 2.0 in about 3 minutes from one dragon after the code change went in.

I've written an essay on the subtleties of the skill's use, which I'd share if there was enough interest. It seems more of a fad, though.. most people train up only to drop onto a soulstone fragment after getting quickly bored with it.

 

[Dragonchilde]

You can't herd paragons of any type, more's the pity.



You can also simply mash a "last object / last target" macro (in 2D, as KR disallows mashing). One target is all you need since they removed the anti-macro code a while back. I got all the way to 98.0 requiring fresh targets before that, lots of touring involved, then got the last 2.0 in about 3 minutes from one dragon after the code change went in.

I've written an essay on the subtleties of the skill's use, which I'd share if there was enough interest. It seems more of a fad, though.. most people train up only to drop onto a soulstone fragment after getting quickly bored with it.

you should share it! Stratics needs up-to-date essays. I want to add this to my stealther ninja. It's already a riot to play this character... I want to have FUN. She can't handle large mobs... she needs to pick out her targets.

 

[Dragonchilde]

You know, I'm not having the kind of luck you guys did. I'm following the exact same path... but it's been four hours, and I'm still not quite to 85 yet.

Maybe I'm not doing it right?

 

[Old Man of UO]

You know, I'm not having the kind of luck you guys did. I'm following the exact same path... but it's been four hours, and I'm still not quite to 85 yet.

Maybe I'm not doing it right?

Hmm... which client are you using? UO Assist? What is your macro and technique for herding? What animals are you trying to herd? It is a difficulty based skill. And are you SURE you have skill points left and your herding skill turned up? I've don't that one more times than I care to count.

You get your skill gain on a successful herding attempt, not when you direct the animal to a spot. So I didn't even bother with the direction, just kept trying to herd... it is much faster that way.

 

[Dragonchilde]

At the moment, I'm at 86.2, herding drakes - I definitely have the room for it, I stoned my focus beforehand. Current real total skill is 631.4. No UOA. Only targeting one; basically standing here herding it, since someone here mentioned you don't have to switch targets.

I'm in 2D, using a last object/wait for target/last target macro. I target the drake, target again. Sometimes, I set a hammer on the macro, since I feel like poo today and am lounging around on the laptop. I'm not directing them anywhere, although if they start wandering off screen, I'll have them follow me so they'll come back.

 

[Old Man of UO]

At the moment, I'm at 86.2, herding drakes - I definitely have the room for it, I stoned my focus beforehand. Current real total skill is 631.4. No UOA. Only targeting one; basically standing here herding it, since someone here mentioned you don't have to switch targets.

I'm in 2D, using a last object/wait for target/last target macro. I target the drake, target again. Sometimes, I set a hammer on the macro, since I feel like poo today and am lounging around on the laptop. I'm not directing them anywhere, although if they start wandering off screen, I'll have them follow me so they'll come back.

I can't imagine what the difference is, since I did the same thing you are doing except with KR and not being able to hold the key down. Your macro should be working just fine. I stoned spellweaving to make room, and I stealthed to each target. I wish I had better advice for you... hope you feel better.

 

[Dragonchilde]

poo, I think I'm just the unluckiest fool.

One other thing I can think of, what was your total skill when you did it? I've heard you gain better with fewer skills, I can stone off something else, since I'm just standign around herding.

 

[Old Man of UO]

poo, I think I'm just the unluckiest fool.

One other thing I can think of, what was your total skill when you did it? I've heard you gain better with fewer skills, I can stone off something else, since I'm just standign around herding.

I was at 720 total skill points and stoned 115 spellweave, putting me at 605 to start. Every other skill was locked except focus was turned down (which should have no affect since I was under the skill cap). So, I don't think that is it.

 

[Dragonchilde]

Ah well. I GMed it in about 8 hours, regardless, so that's still not bad for time spent. Now, to wreak havoc in fel destard...

 

[startle]

As of this date, 02/21/10 you won't be doing it in 75 minutes.... But you can do it in an afternoon and evening....

 

[Lady_Mina]

It's the legal way of pulling trains of mobs over people...

Although i'm not sure if it's legal to pull 'aggresive' mobs towards people.

 

[Wenchkin]

If a player uses herding to lure onto another player, it's still going to be considered luring in Tram I haven't tested that theory personally, but I really really wouldn't recommend it.

Wenchy

 

[Lady_Mina]

If a player uses herding to lure onto another player, it's still going to be considered luring in Tram I haven't tested that theory personally, but I really really wouldn't recommend it.

Wenchy

as far as i know it's banable to pull trains of aggresive mobs over people.

unless they changed it...

But now with gm's reacting so slow , some people have been bending the rules.