PvM Tamer template

[kantoska]

Couple questions about what most people consider to be the "best" pvm tamer template. Ive tried a tamer/peacer with tame/lore/vet/magery/music/peace/med, but found while it was good for taming things, it wasnt as great for killing them. Right now I'm trying a necro tamer with tame/lore/vet/magery/necro/ss/med and found that while its good at killing all the low level spawn at champs, the necro/ss are useless on bigger bosses, like champs/peerless/doom. I was wondering if there is anything more effective for both high and low end. A disco tamer or archer tamer is what I was thinking, but I'm looking for any and all help.

 

[uoBuoY]

I haven't tried every combination but I'm very effective as a Tamer/Disco/Peacer. Disco to lower the target's resists and skills by up to 28% and Peace to control the mobs.

 

[Taylor]

For champs, peacer/tamer or necro/tamer is fun. For general, all-around fighting, as well as peerless, you can't beat a weaver/tamer. For pure damage output, consider archer/chiv/tamer. Finally, for peerless keys, try a disco/provo/tamer or a stealth/mage/tamer. Here are some I've either used or considered:

Fallon Valor (Weaver/Tamer)
120 Taming
120 Animal Lore
120 Veterinary
115 Spellweaving
115 Mage (including +15 from Tome of Lost Knowledge)
100 Meditation
50 Evaluating Intelligence

Esmee de Burdyn (twist on the mage/weaver/tamer)
110 Taming
115 Lore
110 Vet
110 Med
110 Eval
105 Spellweaving
100 Mage (including +15 from Tome of Lost Knowledge)

Obviously, Esmee’s template includes skill jewels.

Talon Wildfyre (Peacer/Tamer)
120 Musicianship
120 Peacemaking
120 Taming
120 Vet
120 Lore
100 Mage
20 Med (hehe, I know...will prolly go into mage, but haven't scrolled it yet)

Yi Wu Shi (archer/tamer)
120 Archery
120 Tactics
110 Taming
115 Lore
110 Vet
80 Chiv
60 Meditation

REALLY helps to have 4/6 on this guy.

Sha'etemmu (necro/tamer)
120 med
120 ss
110 tame
115 lore
110 vet
115 mage
110 necro

Again, skill jewels involved.

Some other fun ideas I've heard of, but haven't used:

120 music
115 provo
115 disco
115 peace
115 lore
110 taming
110 vet
40 chiv (heals, cures and travels)

120 taming
120 lore
120 vet
100 mage
100 med
50 eval
100 cartography/lockpicking (switch them out on a soulstone)

Also have friends who place disco/peace/tamers, disco/provo/tamers, and stealth/mage/tamers.

 

[Farsight]

There are far too many effective tamer templates to say that one is better than the rest.

My personal favorite is 120 mage/med/EI/taming/lore/vet.
Most of the rest of my guild (all tamers) go with 120 mage/med/weaving/taming/lore/vet as their main. Having weaving doesn't suit my play style, since I don't conserve mana and my suit doesn't have enough MR/LMC to be effective with the mana hogging weaving spells.
Another good one is 120 mage/discord/music/taming/lore/vet. This one can be tweaked to add in a significant amount of meditation (i.e. 110 magery/taming/100 lore/vet adds 60 points for meditation) if mana is an issue, and doesn't significantly affect your abilities.

If you want to focus on certain tasks, then certain templates shine more. For example, the discord tamer or archer tamer shines if you want to solo the monsterous Grizzle. The spellweaver tamer shines against Travesty. The necromancer tamer shines best in champion spawns. The provoke tamer shines best in the Doom Gauntlet.

And the stealth tamer is really good if you play SP.

 

[Seismic]

120 music
115 provo
115 disco
115 peace
115 lore
110 taming
110 vet
40 chiv (heals, cures and travels)


Is this template viable with only 40 chiv for heals? Obviously you can stand next to the pet and vet it but my primary place atm is Doom - with the DF, I'll get plastered...

Just curious if anyone has actually run this temp before? If not, I may try it and report my results in the coming month or so .

 

[Taylor]

Like I say, I haven't tried that one...but it does sound like fun, assuming it works. If you end up trying it, let us know how it plays!

 

[Leto]

120 music
115 provo
115 disco
115 peace
115 lore
110 taming
110 vet
40 chiv (heals, cures and travels)

I see some issues for this template:

1) First of all that's 840 skillpoints! It's not impossible, I have characters with 800 skillpoints myself, but 840 is really pushing it. Good luck finding the equipment to do that.
1) 'Only' 115 in provo, disco and peace. You need to be at 120 for a lot of the end-game creatures.
2) At only 40 chivalry your spells won't be very reliable. You will probably fizzle like 30-40% of the time. You need 65 in chivalry for reliable heals, cures and recalls.

If it's a bard/tamer you want I would go this way:
120 Music
120 Disco
120 Provo
110 Taming
110 Lore
100 Vetting
100 Magery

That's still 780 skillpoints but a lot more realistic and I'd say at least equally effective. You don't need peacemaking when you can invis.

 

[Vierna_GL]

I have an archer/tamer, skills are:

110 Lore
120 Taming
100 Vet
100 Anatomy
100 Tactics
120 Archery
70 Chilvary

I have 12 MR on my suit, 88 mana. Do I really need Anatomy or would those points be better used elsewhere? I have a mage tamer already, and I gate from scrolls using items to give me enough magery to do so.

Any thoughts?

 

[Deathy56]

110 Tame
110 Lore
100.1 Tact
80.1 Heal
115 Archer
100.1 Anatomy
60 Chiv
90 Vet

This template has skill Jewelry with it for sure (a very nice 14 tact/13 chiv ring and a taming/lore bracelet). I do major damage with it. I always get the skull at spawns and do the gauntlet with easy (minus Dark Father of course). I know most people don't do heal, but it keeps me alive and I use my mana for constipate weapon and divine fury rather than close wounds.

I've tried a lot of templates and found this to be the best for PvM.

Hope it helps.

P.S. For PvP I have a stealth tamer.

 

[Vertigo]

If it's a bard/tamer you want I would go this way:
120 Music
120 Disco
120 Provo
110 Taming
110 Lore
100 Vetting
100 Magery

That's still 780 skillpoints but a lot more realistic and I'd say at least equally effective. You don't need peacemaking when you can invis.

I have this very template only I have 95 magery for 100% invis.
I can solo doom on this temp.

 

[Seismic]

I have this very template only I have 95 magery for 100% invis.
I can solo doom on this temp.

How *long* does it take you to solo the DF with your template, Vertigo?

 

[Vertigo]

How *long* does it take you to solo the DF with your template, Vertigo?

I would rather to not solo DF, but if I do, take over an hour.

I've only done this a couple of times as it's not worth the time.

 

[Seismic]

I would rather to not solo DF, but if I do, take over an hour.

I've only done this a couple of times as it's not worth the time.

So do you get a good artie drop rate running only the rooms where odds are 1 in 1000 instead of 1 in 100 with the DF?

If so, what's the point of provo if not fighting the DF?

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

One I'm currently using is:

120 Swords
110 Tact
110 Tame
110 Lore
100 Vet
100 Necro
70 Chiv

With 70/61/73/99/79, 66 di, 38 lmc, 8 mr, 44 hci, 24 dci, 4/6 in Vamp Form. I can solo all of doom with it, Barracoon & Neira. Can tank Rikktor but without being able to hit reliably can't stop the EQ, so its still a group needed one.

(Don't know how long it took to kill the DF, an hour maybe or less. I usually get the drops in the rooms.)

 

[NickyDishes]

I run this temp:
110 Magery (90 real)
120 speallweaving
120 med (110 real)
100 Vet
110 Lore
110 Taming
75 Chiv, remove curse alone is worth it. But i find myself using most the spells except enemy of one(sometimes i swap or eval and gm it with items)

I solo Dark Father, and all the peerless in 20-30 minutes(except paroxymus cause its impossible with pets) I've done all champs and have soloed rikky, coon, and neira on him. I dont think there's a debate this temp is by far the best to run with solo or in groups with....catch is for all that u need a level 6 arcane focus for it to be effective. And i see that's the problem with a lot of people that wanna run this temp

 

[Seismic]

I run this temp:
110 Magery (90 real)
120 speallweaving
120 med (110 real)
100 Vet
110 Lore
110 Taming
75 Chiv, remove curse alone is worth it. But i find myself using most the spells except enemy of one(sometimes i swap or eval and gm it with items)

I solo Dark Father, and all the peerless in 20-30 minutes(except paroxymus cause its impossible with pets) I've done all champs and have soloed rikky, coon, and neira on him. I dont think there's a debate this temp is by far the best to run with solo or in groups with....catch is for all that u need a level 6 arcane focus for it to be effective. And i see that's the problem with a lot of people that wanna run this temp

Yea, you need to be in a large guild, I suppose, where you can get that focus everytime you login, huh?

 

[guum]

I can't bring myself to train taming more than once, so my one poor tamer has, with the help of a dozen or so soulstones, tried several options -- necro, weaving, discord/peace, and currently working on archer/tamer. I can't speak to the archer/tamer yet, since archery's still only around 90 and support skills are even lower, I haven't had a chance to try it out on something hard like a peerless (I'm working on it for Travesty), but of the others, I'd have to say that my favorite is the disco/peace tamer. Necro is pretty great for dealing with masses of lower-level mobs, as in a champ spawn, but I don't find myself doing champs much lately since the prices for both trans scrolls and replicas have dropped hugely and my luck at actually getting replicas is awful (I've gotten a grand total of *one* replica out of probably 100 champs felled). My disco/tamer looks like this:

105 Taming (+Birds of Brit)
105 Lore (+Birds of Brit)
90 Vet
100 Magery
120 Music (currently at about 112 - jewelry is filling the gap)
120 Discord (currently at about 112 - jewelry too)
100 Peace

The damage output here is not great for masses of mobs...but thanks to discord, my greater tears through single, powerful mobs with ease, and thanks to peace, I don't die much. I've solo'd Grizzle & Travesty on this template, although I can't do either consistently (probably more suit/skill issues than template ones). Honestly, I find it very hard to play any tamer template without peace...I know a lot of people do just fine without it, but my poor little guy is just too fragile to survive more than a couple of hits, and I like to play without protection on, so I find peace to be a lifesaver. And discord is just insanely helpful for any PVM situation, especially if you have a nice, trained greater smacking stuff around.

 

[kantoska]

Ok, read all the advice here and I think I have an idea for a template, tell me if this would work.

110 Taming (with jewels, i'm lazy)
110 Lore
100 Vet
120 Magery
80 Med
90 Tactics
110 SW

I found a VERY nice bow with the following mods:
SC no Pen, Mage wep -21, 30 ssi 45 HLD, 42 HML

My question is would tactics affect damage with a mage weapon? This way I could put out HUGE damage with archery and SW combo. Thanks.

 

[NickyDishes]

why have tactics at all you cant perform specials with mage weapons. and the damage output wouldnt be worth it since u already have pets doing all the work for u....and finding a bow like the one u posted would be a one in a million shot.

 

[Farsight]

Ok, read all the advice here and I think I have an idea for a template, tell me if this would work.

110 Taming (with jewels, i'm lazy)
110 Lore
100 Vet
120 Magery
80 Med
90 Tactics
110 SW

I found a VERY nice bow with the following mods:
SC no Pen, Mage wep -21, 30 ssi 45 HLD, 42 HML

My question is would tactics affect damage with a mage weapon? This way I could put out HUGE damage with archery and SW combo. Thanks.

With no tactics and that bow, you'll be putting out a MASSIVE 6 points of damage per second to an unarmored opponent. If you up your tactics to 90, that total increases to 9 points of damage per second, but you do 10 more damage per shot (shoot once every 4 seconds at low dex).

So the only way it would really work would be either to massively increase your dexterity or if you think that 3 extra points of damage at the cost of no mana is worth an extra 90 skill points.

Chivalry would likely be a better investment in this case than tactics. EoO would still change the 6 per second to a 9 per second, but you could use divine fury to speed you up and consecrate weapon to maximize your damage (and the extra bonus of being able to remove curses on your pets).

You would still want a lot of dex with that bow, since the bow speed isn't enough to keep HLD active all the time by itself.

 

[Turdnugget]

I wouldn't go with a mage weapon like that for added damage... maybe to keep HLA/HLD on your target. And if that's what you want, i'd look for a magical shortbow, fastest base swing speed of bows (So you dont have to be up close)

With around 60 dex/stamina and 30 SSI on a magical short you're going to be swinging around 2 seconds per shot...

Now you gotta take into account, a lot of the stuff you'll be wanting to kill generally has higher wrestle/tacs, so you'll need 120 magery to start, -mage weapon takes you down to 100ish... now you'll need to make up that lost magery so you can hit effectively.

Now take into account, in order to hit something with higher wrestle/tacs than you, you'll want HCI as well.

Trying to fit all that on a tamer could be a bit tough.

As far as best damage output/PvM... that template isn't the best.

If you want to do champ spawns, necro/tamer (necro/tamer/mage) is awesome. Could be the best depending how it's played/gear.

If you want to do Peerless. Provok/tamer, disco/tamer, peace/tamer are all very good templates. You could even add SW/Tamer to that.

Mage/tamer... all around PvMer. Not really a 'specialty' type tamer.

It'll depend on what you plan on doing with your tamer.

If you don't plan on fighting many things that have area effect spells and will target you, I always loved my tamer as an archer/bushido/tamer. Healing with vet, chiv for EoO/Consecrate, bushido for LS. Rune beetle/mare or beetle/bake combo = devastating and maaaaddd damage output.

But for fighting Lady Mel w/her wither, or Rikktor was a bit tougher...AE spells suck on that template. Unless you got someone to heal your pets.

 

[kantoska]

Thanks for all the help, I didnt realize the damage would be so low with a mage weapon, thats why I asked. Right now I'm a necro tamer, but found that the necro isn't really helpful with anything except for added mana regen (which I dont need) or for low level spawn (which I can do just as well on other charecters)

I think I'm gonna go with disco. Has anyone been able to fit disco AND spellweaving on the same template, and if so, what would it look like?

 

[guum]

Thanks for all the help, I didnt realize the damage would be so low with a mage weapon, thats why I asked. Right now I'm a necro tamer, but found that the necro isn't really helpful with anything except for added mana regen (which I dont need) or for low level spawn (which I can do just as well on other charecters)

I think I'm gonna go with disco. Has anyone been able to fit disco AND spellweaving on the same template, and if so, what would it look like?

You can fit disco & SW on a template (see mine above and swap out peace for SW), but I don't think you can realistically fit disco, SW, and meditation on a template, and without meditation, SW is going to run you OOM really fast.

 

[Fumoffu]

Sorry for bumping this thread, but I didn't want to start a new thread with all the info here already..but I have a question.

Um, what is the most practical or flexible mage tamer template for solo monster hunting besides ones with spellweaving because I've mostly been playing solo so I wouldn't have a group to help me with that arcane focus or whatever.

I was thinking of what Farsight said --- just the usual mage/med/EI/taming/vet/lore at 120 each.

Or maybe a music/provoke? I know most of you said it depends on what you want to hunt, but i mean something flexible -- doesn't have to be the most powerful for that type of monster

 

[Old Man of UO]

Sorry for bumping this thread, but I didn't want to start a new thread with all the info here already..but I have a question.

Um, what is the most practical or flexible mage tamer template for solo monster hunting besides ones with spellweaving because I've mostly been playing solo so I wouldn't have a group to help me with that arcane focus or whatever.

I was thinking of what Farsight said --- just the usual mage/med/EI/taming/vet/lore at 120 each.

Or maybe a music/provoke? I know most of you said it depends on what you want to hunt, but i mean something flexible -- doesn't have to be the most powerful for that type of monster

I would go with discord instead of provoke, because it helps a lot when going solo and without similar mobs around to provoke. Discord can make a huge difference on whether your pet wins or loses on high end creatures. Provoke is good as long and there are other creatures that can be provoked onto whatever your pet is attacking... I still prefer discord though. And you really don't need 120 lore and vet skill if you want to use those points elsewhere.

My template is roughly
120 taming
110 Animal Lore
110 Vet
110 Mage
120 Music
120 Discord
30 Spellweave

That leaves 30 points to put into vet, mage, lore skills or spellweaving, med, or whatever you need.

 

[Fumoffu]

Thanks Old Man

Why do you have only 30 spellweaving --is it for attunement and thunderstorm? Without an arcane focus, is spellweaving not effective?

 

[Old Man of UO]

Thanks Old Man

Why do you have only 30 spellweaving --is it for attunement and thunderstorm? Without an arcane focus, is spellweaving not effective?

Yes, and since I am an elf and don't have the JOAT, it helps with the Gift of Renewal even though the min skill for that is zero. You can also cast Ethy Voyage (min skill 24) in a pinch. Those two are the most valuable at low skill.

 

[Dr Poth]

I run a pure tamer mage from 2001...

 

[CroMag1980]

I played an archer tamer for years, it's still good but not as good as it used to be.

1) forget healing it's pure crap and if you need to vet and heal you or the pet will be compromised... just run vampiric embrace

2) As long as you are not the target of aggro you will rip through spawn, often with high lvl spawn getting started is the hardest part, once you're in and making your pet the target of aggro you're sorted

3) It's really easy to build your honor up compared to most tamers - stable your pet and just use your chiv archer skills vs demons stay in the same spot honoring nearest mobile with half a dozen quivers in your pack you will have 4 gems of honor at follower pretty quick. Using this honor helps you will point number 2 - starting high lvl spawn without being aggro target

4) now with the necro form skill requirements just take a few necro regs and cast Animate Dead on high lvl mob corpses - those animates will assist you by making sure you are not the direct target of aggro if you a bit slow with your "all kill"

5) you no longer have the room to swap resist/bushido for pvp/pvm due to the necro skill requirements which is why I no longer play it

Something like...

Archer 120
Tact 100
Chiv 70
Tame 115
Lore 115
vet 100
Necro 100


Old Temp (varies according to jewels)

Archer 120
Tact 100
Chiv 60
Tame 115
Lore 115
vet 90
Resist/Bushido 100
Necro 34 (a 2nd lrc suit with tally/bracers/book/2x15 jewels for 99 Necro or even +necro fishing rod)

With the above you used to have the combined damage of an ABC archer and a tamer, in fact the pets did more dmg than a solo tamers pet as your hit lower defence mods on your gear meant your pet would hit hit hit hit hit. And you did more damage over time than a solo archer as the tanking pet meant you didn't have to move or lose swing speed from getting hit/casted on etc. You can still do this ABC Archer-Tamer Vampire (ABCTV!) temp now but would need serious jewels and sacrifice your dci and lmc and some DI although with perfection that's not a huge problem.

 

[Gellor]

Personally, I think it depends upon what you are hunting.

I went from a generic peace tamer to a disco tamer. With my pet(s) and disco, things just fell over. I have never regretted going that route.

The challenge with a generic 120x6 disco tamer is at spawns. He lacks spawn control once he brings his pet. So first spawn, he can throw EVs but after that, he is out of luck.

He is also nice during harrowers

I'm currently looking at a few different hybrid tamer templates to play in spawns.

I'm giving thoughts to something along the lines of a wraith tamer with some sort of wide area of effect spell(EQ or spell weave spells) Wither is nice but has a small area. Something like 50 necro and 50 spirit to get shadow wisp and wraith form. Enough taming/lore for greater dragon, 100 vet for cure/rezes. Then fill in the rest of the 300ish points of spawn control

The reason a wraith tamer crossed my mind is I'm currently playing a necro mage at spawns and 99% of the time, I'm running around casting EQ and almost never running out of mana

 

[TheGrayGhost]

Ok, read all the advice here and I think I have an idea for a template, tell me if this would work.

110 Taming (with jewels, i'm lazy)
110 Lore
100 Vet
120 Magery
80 Med
90 Tactics
110 SW

I found a VERY nice bow with the following mods:
SC no Pen, Mage wep -21, 30 ssi 45 HLD, 42 HML

My question is would tactics affect damage with a mage weapon? This way I could put out HUGE damage with archery and SW combo. Thanks.

I was actually thinking of something similar to this, Instead of SW though I was thinking more along the lines of

110 Tame
110 Lore
100 vet
120 Magery
65 Chivalry
100 Bushido
80 Med


Leaves me with 15 Skill points and this is all without gear. Crystalline Ring I could use to off set the -Magery weapon.

EoO, + Lightning Strike should give me nice dmg with max hit chance. Would at least be fun lol. It's similar to something I'm doing with a mage.