What for my First Tame?

[The Old Man]

Hi All,
I've been playing since before Trammel but never had a Tamer, started more than a few but always given up early...skill gain tooooo slow and other things distracting me.

Ages back I used a Mythic token (just wanted Imbuing quickly) and added tame & vet to use up slots, but never did anything with them.

Looking around for something new to do I rememberd I had these skills stoned at 90 and realised that with items I could have a Tamer with no slow skill gain

So I now have a (Garg) Tamer on Europa with 120 Tame/Lore/Vet/Music/Peace & 100 Mage/Eval who has never even tamed a Mongbat! My toon knows all there is to know, but I know nothing

The plan is to buy and stable a temporary starter GD something between 3.0 & 4.0, once it's bonded I'll learn how to hunt it and use it until I've tamed my own keeper 4.something.

I'll work my way through the list of 'common' pets (Nightmare, Rune, Bake, Dread mare) gradually learning to tame them and build a quality collection and also try any that sound interesting, maybe a pack of something.

But what to tame first and where to learn hunting it?
Does'nt need to be something that I will keep for too long but need to learn the basics of peace/lead taming and how to hunt with a pet.
Probably best if I stay well away from magic casting pets & spawns

Any ideas for my first tame & where to hunt with it?

Thanks
The Old Man

 

[DJAd]

This might be helpful:

 

[The Old Man]

Thank you for that DJAd...Trouble is she makes it look so very easy!
So tempting to make my very first tame attempt a GD

 

[Mac]

The video is from UOCraft.com, and is great as a primer. There are a number of vids there you may want to watch. There are also a few different calcs there that are quite useful. DJAd gave you a great place to start your learning curve. Too bad you're not on ATL, I have a couple of mid range 3's I'm going to give away.

As to what to start with, since you have peace, taming becomes much easier. Go tame a few polar bears using peace so you get used to where your hot keys are. Then go find a lesser hiryu as an aggressive tame (there maybe an aggressive tame that wont hurt you as much, but haven't looked it up). Get use to peacing, stepping up to the critter, spamming your tame macro until a tame starts while staying out in front of your tame once it starts towards you. Learn when to step away to heal yourself. Most of it wont take you long to get the hang of it. You'll be taming GDs in no time. I started peace taming only a few weeks ago, and have had no real problems with peace taming GDs. I still occasionally die, but its very seldom now. The hardest part is now finding a GD worth training and keeping!

When you get ready to tame your first GD, I would suggest going to Fire Temple....I think that's what its called. Usually one GD, one Drag, and a couple drakes spawn. You can run along the outside of the temple to see whats there, and can lore them from that spot as well. They can still attack you with magic, so be on your toes. There are also demons running around, but usually within the confines of the temple itself. You can run into the temple, area peace everything, get the GD to target you, and lead him out of the temple (from a safe distance) into the surrounding area. Do all of this while riding an ethy of your choice. Once you get him outside, put the mount away and get started.

Good luck, let us know how it goes.

DM

 

[Mac]

OH yeah, as an FYI, my first peace tame was a GD, dies twice getting it done, but it was worth it!!

 

[The Old Man]

Thanks Mac, That was really helpful advice and thank you for the offer of the GD on ATL, even though I can't take it up I appreciate it

Have had a look at UOCraft.com and as you say, it looks a really useful site. Always amazes me how much time some people are willing to invest (setting up a site like that) to help others.

Will let you know what happens

The Old Man

 

[Merus]

Even better than peace/lead taming is using honor on yourself. Find the pet you want, honor yourself and start taming. At 120 skill you can usually get it tamed before the honor wears off and there is no running around like a chicken.

Honor is pretty easy to raise. My recommendation for a starting tamer would be to see if an elf on your shard would tame you a Cu with good cold resist and take it down to the Ice Fiends. Honor them and sick the doggy on em, and you'll be level 2 honor in no time.

 

[Wenchkin]

I think I'd start taming almost anything easier than a greater dragon if I'm honest Going for the big guys first just means you miss out on the fun smaller and easier pets. I know a lot of tamers don't want that stuff, in which case go for it. But I worked right up from a pack of bears, then frenzies, through to the bigger pets. By the time I tamed a dragon I had experience of lead taming and keeping smaller pets alive so I could handle myself easily with a big pet and a crazy spawn.

Normally I'd say a good learning pet with power is the cu sidhe because it won't cast on you so you just do a straightforward lead tame - stay in front of the pup and hold down a macro for tame last target. But as a gargoyle I'd probably start on bake kitsune as a smaller but challenging magical pet. They are versatile little beasties and easy to tame. First, tame a gaman nearby, let the kitsune attack it and make sure you tell the gaman to stop/stay so it doesn't fight back and interrupt your taming. Vet or heal the gaman so it survives while you tame the kitsune while it's distracted. The kit won't bite you if you do that. Then you have a pet which maybe isn't a greater dragon but it has well balanced resists, it casts, and most importantly it giggles. When you have two foxes giggle when something dies it is always fun. And they're a pet that even my fully trained tamers use even when they have a greater dragon in the stables.

Wenchy

 

[scynx]

Lead taming is giving me quite a few problems; Cu Sidhes always get a chunk out of my ass. I move in close, start the tame and they get angry, by the time the taming attempt actually sticks they've taken a bite. Can you guys realiably tame them without peace? I was going for provo/disco actually, but I'm starting to think that this won't be a good idea afterall.

The dogs don't seem to care much for paralyze either and honor taming is not a reasonable approach if you want to work the spawn.

 

[Wenchkin]

Lead taming is giving me quite a few problems; Cu Sidhes always get a chunk out of my ass. I move in close, start the tame and they get angry, by the time the taming attempt actually sticks they've taken a bite. Can you guys realiably tame them without peace? I was going for provo/disco actually, but I'm starting to think that this won't be a good idea afterall.

The dogs don't seem to care much for paralyze either and honor taming is not a reasonable approach if you want to work the spawn.

You can certainly tame them without peace or honour, I never needed them when I worked spawn there Lead taming is all in the timing and good macros. I have a macro to tame last target and if you're in the EC you can set a macro like that to repeat 10 attempts with just one keystroke.

Usually I get within tame range, hit the tame macro then the pup will usually be angered, so I start walking immediately and steadily, holding down the tame last target key as I walk, spamming my attempt to begin the tame. I don't let go of the tame macro until I see the blue text as I'm starting to tame. There's a rhythm to walking out of bite range copying the speed of the pup. When you start a tame you can move a couple of tiles ahead without breaking tame, especially if you need to heal. But it really is just practice, then suddenly you'll be taming fine.

Try boosting your hps, get good resists on your armour and that will help you survive the bites.

Wenchy

 

[The Old Man]

Many thanks for the good advice from you all.
I've been playing too many Gargs recently, so decided to move the skills to a nice new Elf (The joy of SoulStones!)

Then had to make a new suit, which probably ended up a bit over the top!
Was intending to practice a bit on Polar Bears, but I'd never been to Twisted Weald so went just for a look around.
Could'nt resist trying a cu while I was there and got a 3.5 with my very first tame attempt, now in the stable to play with later.
My second attempt ended with a bite on the bum and a gray world It was at this point I realised I had'nt gotten around to insuring my shiney new suit and had not a clue what was in my back pack! Will I ever learn?
All recovered without problem, although I've a feeling that having a second char there to rez might save a lot of running around in the next few days! New skills may be easy to learn for my toons, but they take me longer as the years go by!

The Old Man

 

[Mac]

Congrats on the CU, they are great pets, and a 3.5 ain't nothing to sneeze at! Practice Practice Practice....its the secret to good taming skills and I'm not talking about skill gain....but pet gain without death robe gain.

 

[Darius Bloodbain]

Old Man, Its nice to hear you are discovering the fun of being a tamer. If you have either the gothic or rustic
theme pack, its fun to have a pet vendor in new magincia. It is a lot of fun searching for different pets and keeping it stocked. I sell the occasional Greater Dragon, down to orphaned pack animals I find roaming the towns that I discount down from the npc prices. I sell a lot of giant beetles and fire beetles, a few swamp dragons and the occasional odd pet. I play on my tamer about as much as i do any of my other characters. Youll find that u will actually develop an attachment to your favorite pets that you tame, train and hunt with. Any more questions and help please do not hesitate to ask. There is a great deal of knowledgeable people that visits the tamers forum.