I must be doing something wrong...

[Frodo Baggins]

Any help is appreciated - been playing UO for a long time but have never had a tamer so I decided to start one. My tamer is 49.3 and I tamed hinds tonight for an hour and got a 0.2 gain. I know gains will be slow but this seems a little odd. I only have 293 total points on this character and taming is the only skill I have on increase as I know animal lore climbs all the time (lore is at 53.1)
If gains are going to be this slow all the time I might rethink my decision...

 

[kitiara-atlantic]

That does seem odd. Taming is one of the slower skills to train, but it looks like you only got your GGS gains (.1 per 25 minutes at your skill level and total skill points). I'd chalk it up to bad luck with the RNG and try again. Hinds are a good animal for your level. Were you taming different hinds? (Tame and rename, or tame and kill off, since you can only gain off of each creature once).

 

[DerekL]

According to the Taming Archive, hinds aren't necessarily your your best bet... http://www.tamingarchive.com/main/whattotame.php?skill=49.5

The Stratics taming calculator also gives you some idea as to what animals to try in addition to hinds:
http://uo.stratics.com/content/skills/anim.php

Mix it up a bit, head over the the New Haven gate area and try some timber wolves, horses and boars too... Or to the Lost Lands and try some Forest Ostards. Though 50% is 'ideal', anything between 40-60% gives you a decent chance for gains.

 

[Frodo Baggins]

So I went out again this am - turned back on animal lore and trained for 1/2 hour back and forth between trinsic gate and haven gate - boars, wolfs and hinds. I got the 0.1 GGS in taming but nothing else but animal lore went up 1.6 points
Never failed once other than one great hind (or whatever they are called) - still puzzled

 

[Aibal]

If you're not failing on the hinds, you need to try something more difficult. I try to fail about half of my tames for my best gains. If you are succeeding almost every tame attempt, the prey is too easy. I would suggest doing the quick quest to get a skill ball of knowledge. Put it in your backpack, turn it on, and then monitor as you tame critters. It will give you messages as to difficulty. I try to range anywhere from "optimal" to "challenging" on the skill ball. It really seems to keep me on track for best gains.

 

[Wenchkin]

I found all my tamers would vary a little at points when I needed to move up or stay on an easier spawn. If gains are slow, try something harder. I'd go to Jhelom farm and try the boar and see if you get gains. But strange to slow down quite so much at that skill level, it's usually quite forgiving lol.

You could also try timber wolves, but as they're about the same level as the hinds you may find they're slow going too.

Wenchy

 

[Frodo Baggins]

Thanks for all your help - I did the quest and found that my character is about 8 points off most of the skill tables - not sure why but I went straight to Great Harts at 49.3 and it was saying optimal and I was getting gains and failing about 40% of the time. Now I can look forward to the long haul to 100!
Cheers!!