Herding

[Leeda]

Can someone tell me about the herding skill. I don't see much information on it.

Thanks

 

[Storm]

Thats oone of the skills i have never done but I found some info for you here
http://www.uoguide.com/Herding

 

[Leeda]

Oh Thank You Very Much.

 

[sablestorm]

Herding was once considered a relatively useless skill, but by the grace of the creativity of UO players, we found uses for it. Basically, you can herd any creature you can tame. By double clicking your crook, then targeting a creature, you can have it move to a location you target. If you target yourself, however, it will follow you around. It cannot follow you through moongates, dungeon entrances, etc. and server boundaries sometimes cause problems with large herds.

Any creature that you herd will go unherded if it attacks something. Thus if you are herding unicorns and it sees an evil creature, it will go unherded to attack that creature. What's more, aggressive evil creatures like dragons will go unherded to attack you. If you want to herd these sorts of creatures, I recommend being good in stealth.

The best way to use herding is with the Oaks champ spawn. You can work the Oaks spawn up to ki rin or unicorns and herd them all, then lead them to fight some evil creatures. In Ilshenar, you could lead them to the reaper forest, the harpy nest, or the ratman fort pretty easily. Whatever they kill will be freely lootable and they do a pretty good job of killing. I've been meaning to work the oaks spawn up in Lost Lands fel and lead them to the City of the Dead spawn, but I haven't done it yet.

What else? If a peacemaker areas peaces by your herd, it will go unherded. Also be careful about leading the ki rin and unicorns around. If you bump into a player with negative karma, it could mean trouble for them (and possibly you with the luring rules). I think initially, herding was mean to be an aid for tamers. Rather than wandering after bulls, you just make them follow you and tame away.

 

[SavageSP]

I use herding to move unwanted (tamable) monsters out of an area I want to farm in, or move a monster(tamable) I want to farm into a safer area to kill it.

It's also useful to herd an animal you wish to tame out of an area with a lot of nastys, so you can tame in peace.

 

[Stanton Of Pac]

Can someone tell me about the herding skill. I don't see much information on it.

Thanks

You hold a shepard's crook in your right hand.

You double click on the crook.

You target an animal.

You target where you want the animal to move.

If your skill check succeeds, the animal moves there.

That's it.

You get a str and a (weak) int check when you succeed so it's one of the "junk skills" used to raise those attributes. Way back - way, way, WAY back in the days of the "Global Skill Check System" it was the easiest way to raise your str for awhile there. The GSCS reduced the chance of success by a bit for every time the skill had been checked since server start and one day someone noticed that Herding was the only skill not torched by all the macroers.

There used to be a game where players would see how many useless skills they could GM on one character. GM Herder, GM Camper, GM Detective, etc...you get the idea. Some players were very proud of achieving a 7x GM Worthless Snot. They still have the character on their accounts, too.

 

[Leeda]

Thank You I can see how it could be useful.

 

[Fink]

Thank You I can see how it could be useful.

Someone with an open mind..

 

[Petra Fyde]

You can have lots of fun with a stealth shepherd, especially re-arranging left over champ spawn in t2a. I've watched many a red get a surprise from meeting a kirin in Delucia, or a dragon at fire dungeon back door. Not much profit though, so those who play for profit rather than fun wouldn't want to train it.

 

[Olahorand]

With Stealth your tamer can go and lore the animals first and be picky. Select the best (Greater Dragon, Rune Beetle, Cu Sidhe, Reptalon ...) available in the spawn and herd it to a more convenient place for taming.
*Salute*
Olahorand

 

[SchezwanBeefy]

You can have lots of fun with a stealth shepherd, especially re-arranging left over champ spawn in t2a. I've watched many a red get a surprise from meeting a kirin in Delucia, or a dragon at fire dungeon back door. Not much profit though, so those who play for profit rather than fun wouldn't want to train it.

Actually, a friend of mine and I today took the ki-rin and unicorns into the ratman camp and looted away. Within 30 minutes we made 80k and looted 7k in arrows. It can be pretty profitable depending on where you go.

 

[Fink]

Actually, a friend of mine and I today took the ki-rin and unicorns into the ratman camp and looted away. Within 30 minutes we made 80k and looted 7k in arrows. It can be pretty profitable depending on where you go.

There are lots of nice places like that, yeah. Well worth exploring.

 

[Silverbird]

Somewhere on this forums were very creative uses of herding. Especially in combination with barding skills. Nice areas for bards with herding are
- twisted weald. Just lead some cu's into the nastier areas
- champ spawns. Especially where a natural spawn of greater dragons is. Like the valor spawn or destard/felucca

 

[Fink]

- champ spawns. Especially where a natural spawn of greater dragons is. Like the valor spawn or destard/felucca

Dragons make good security guards for when people raid your spawn, herd 6-10 of them to the entrance and wait for raiders to pop through..

 

[Old Man of UO]

Hmm... two questions:

1) I seem to remember a developer saying that herding even in Trammel isn't considered luring... is this true?

2) On Siege, do crooks break from using the herding skill?

This does sound like a lot of fun, and a great use for a soul stone.

 

[sablestorm]

Hmm... two questions:

1) I seem to remember a developer saying that herding even in Trammel isn't considered luring... is this true?

2) On Siege, do crooks break from using the herding skill?

This does sound like a lot of fun, and a great use for a soul stone.

I would imagine #1 depends on how it is used. For instance, if you're walking around with a herd of ki rin and a negative karma walks up to you and gets attacked, that probably wouldn't be considered luring. If, however, you have a stealth herder and herd dragons while following players in Destard....

Incidentally, in Felucca, this is a fun past time with a ninja shadowjump stealth herder. =)

 

[Old Man of UO]

...
Incidentally, in Felucca, this is a fun past time with a ninja shadowjump stealth herder. =)

Can you explain this a bit more?

Lately I've taken to soul stoning old skills and making new characters with skills I've never tried before. One I am planning to try is ninjitsu, the other is herding. It's all about the fun, right?

 

[uoBuoY]

When I was training Herding, I would gather >50 Polar Bears and release them all inside someone's house! Really wish we could gate our Herds. That would lead to all kinds of fun!

 

[SavageSP]

Hmm... two questions:

1) I seem to remember a developer saying that herding even in Trammel isn't considered luring... is this true?

2) On Siege, do crooks break from using the herding skill?

This does sound like a lot of fun, and a great use for a soul stone.

Yes, they do break.

 

[Fink]

1) I seem to remember a developer saying that herding even in Trammel isn't considered luring... is this true?

Luring basically means purposely dragging something dangerous onto someone else for the purpose of interfering with them somehow. eg: dumping a greater dragon in someone's lap, parking spawn over their corpse to prevent them retrieving their stuff, killing their pets and so on. Typically it is done via flagging on the creature, leading it somewhere else and invising yourself. The stealth shepherd is much more efficient than this, at least when it comes to herdable creatures.

A more succinct definition of luring would be deliberately or repeatedly manipulating spawn to the express detriment of others, occasioning the loss of life or items.

In Felucca rulesets, these are perfectly legal tactics as the victim has some recourse, eg: killing the lurer. You can even box people in with a herd because of the push-through rules. In Trammel it's all illegal (aside from the boxing because it doesn't work). Sometimes you will get inexperienced people who, in their panic, run by you with hostiles in tow. For some reason (they die, hide, or invis... or the monster/s have aura or target-switching AI), the spawn will retarget you and you're left to deal with it. This isn't luring, but it is annoying.

You have to be very careful in Trammel, as people seem to resent the presence of shepherds (possibly because they believe they "own" the spawn? I don't know. I've been told I have "no good reason for being here" as often as not, which in an rpg I find simply hilarious). If you want to gain some brownie points you might consider helping other people, like removing a dragon that's camping their corpse, bringing in fresh kills/tames for them, etc

I had six dragons in tow once, and was parking them somewhere quiet for the purposes of hunting with a friend who chomps through them quite easily. A guy runs straight in, casts holy light, and as a unit the dragons all turn on him and he is killed. I and the dragons were standing still at the time, but he still accused me of luring, and spammed it all over his alliance channel.. I had no end of grief over that from total strangers. Looking back I think he was simply embarrassed to have died on his uber-pvm guy and he felt the need to blame someone else.

So yeah, pick your moments & work around others if you're in Trammel. I always do a 90-degree turn if I'm herding hostiles & I blue name pops up on the periphery of my vision, best just to avoid other people.

 

[Bo Hica]

Herding is one of the most fun skills in the game if used right. Like already said I used mine alot in the Oaks Spawn in Fel LL. I find out that there is no limit to the herd size that you can have. The largest herd I was able to gather was around 45 (only because I got lazy and wanted to see if one of the 3 reds I was playing around with aka hunting liked dying to monsters while they tried to get to me in the middle).

The fastest way to gm herding is: 0-30 herd cats and dogs, 30-45 herd horses, 45-60 herd bulls and cows, 60-80 herd Gammas and 80-gm Cu's

Now you only need one of each animal to train this way. First thing you need to do is get a crook (or a few if on Siege). Second thing you need to do is make a use last object, target last macro. Third, find target and pen it in an area it cannot get out of. Forth, hold macro until you get bored with it that day. Fifth, repeat 1-4.

I might be a little off on the herding numbers as I have not gm'ed it (again) in over 2 years.

 

[Fink]

Third, find target and pen it in an area it cannot get out of.

We're no longer allowed to pen animals for the purposes of skill gain. There are some naturally spawning penned animals, though. Surely that wouldn't be disallowed.

 

[Wenchkin]

Herding is one of the most fun skills in the game if used right. Like already said I used mine alot in the Oaks Spawn in Fel LL. I find out that there is no limit to the herd size that you can have. The largest herd I was able to gather was around 45 (only because I got lazy and wanted to see if one of the 3 reds I was playing around with aka hunting liked dying to monsters while they tried to get to me in the middle).

The fastest way to gm herding is: 0-30 herd cats and dogs, 30-45 herd horses, 45-60 herd bulls and cows, 60-80 herd Gammas and 80-gm Cu's

Now you only need one of each animal to train this way. First thing you need to do is get a crook (or a few if on Siege). Second thing you need to do is make a use last object, target last macro. Third, find target and pen it in an area it cannot get out of. Forth, hold macro until you get bored with it that day. Fifth, repeat 1-4.

I might be a little off on the herding numbers as I have not gm'ed it (again) in over 2 years.

As Fink rightly points out, penning critters isn't such a great idea for training. But you can hit a "target self" macro when asked where you want the beast to go, and that'll get it to follow you and keep it by your side while you train. Then go back to last object - last target. If the beast should wander again, hit your target self key when a cursor is up and it'll follow you again. I used to just target myself every now and then and it was really easy.

Wenchy

 

[SchezwanBeefy]

Can you explain this a bit more?

Lately I've taken to soul stoning old skills and making new characters with skills I've never tried before. One I am planning to try is ninjitsu, the other is herding. It's all about the fun, right?

Be careful when you do this- trapping animals in houses is against UO's rules and they will suspend players or ban them for this. Seems to be happening a lot recently. I don't agree with it, but I've heard of 3 cases in the last week.

 

[Old Man of UO]

Be careful when you do this- trapping animals in houses is against UO's rules and they will suspend players or ban them for this. Seems to be happening a lot recently. I don't agree with it, but I've heard of 3 cases in the last week.

I've never needed to trap animals in my house, and don't intend to. THAT has been illegal since long before custom houses were even available, certainly not anything that is new or should catch players by surprise.

It used to interrupt the spawns on all servers, now it is just the same sub-server I believe. I remember seeing a house with about 30 liches trapped behind a box casting on a player trying to gain resist skill. That was way back when resist was one of the hardest skills to train, and you could lure monsters into gates. Curious, I went to the dungeons looking for liches, and none were to be found at that time. That has changed a bit, but trapping and penning animals is still illegal.

 

[Bo Hica]

I did not say take on inside of a house. Now did I?

I meant in the area where they spawn, find an area to herd them into and then macro last item last target. this will cause it to target itself which causes it to stop.

I trained this with a gm watching in the Weald for the last part 80-gm and talked to him the whole time. I had been paged on 3 times by a guild because the thought I hacked the game because I had 4 cu's following me around.

 

[Old Man of UO]

I did not say take on inside of a house. Now did I?

I meant in the area where they spawn, find an area to herd them into and then macro last item last target. this will cause it to target itself which causes it to stop.

I trained this with a gm watching in the Weald for the last part 80-gm and talked to him the whole time. I had been paged on 3 times by a guild because the thought I hacked the game because I had 4 cu's following me around.

Heh... I see what you mean. But it would take you longer to tame and release the 4 cu sidhe than get the skill gain from them in the Twisted Weald. I'm trying to figure out how to have a bit of fun with herding and explore my old haunts in Felucca, maybe a Champ spawn or two. I'm thinking an army of greater dragons...

 

[miss uo]

I saw this on the taming forum concerning herding gains.

http://vboards.stratics.com/showthread.php?t=141871

 

[Sarsmi]

Just an FYI, you can buy crooks off of Provisioner NPCs.

 

[Old Man of UO]

I saw this on the taming forum concerning herding gains.

http://vboards.stratics.com/showthread.php?t=141871

Yes, you can get to GM herding in about an hour. If you want though and are tight on skill points, 90 herding is almost as good, and can get that in about 50 minutes. HEH

 

[Fink]

Yes, you can get to GM herding in about an hour. If you want though and are tight on skill points, 90 herding is almost as good, and can get that in about 50 minutes. HEH

In practice I found quite a bit of difference in fail rates between 90 and 100 in the top end stuff.. usually fails when it matters most, just like all things UO.

However, you can herd Cu Sidhes and the like at around 60 Herding if you're really in a bind over template. Gets them out of the sandy area in the Weald and down to the pixie spawn. That's one of the more popular requests I get from people needing a shepherd.

 

[Old Man of UO]

In practice I found quite a bit of difference in fail rates between 90 and 100 in the top end stuff.. usually fails when it matters most, just like all things UO. ...

That's true, there is quite a difference in success rate between 90 and 100 skill on top mobs. However, there is no timer or other delay between using the skill. Set a macro key to use the skill on last target (or current target for KR) and hold down the key until it succeeds. Within 1 or 2 seconds you will succeed and be able to herd. So in practice, there really is almost no difference.

I really see this as a flaw and this skill should have a small delay between uses, but hey, use it while it works!

 

[sablestorm]

So I finally herded a ki rin/unicorn army from the Oaks Spawn and led it to the Humility Champ Spawn. It was quite a an interesting adventure, particularly leading them out of Justice Valley where they battled fiercely against the denizens of that dark stretch of forest. All the hard work was worth it, however, for the clash between my army and the armies of the cold blood was epic. It looked very much like a movie where the lines met and went toe to toe with each other. My first efforts fared much better, though the dragons proved to be too powerful for my mystic allies. The second battle, I had the army spread out too much, fighting on too many fronts. They work better when they are kept in a phalanx and the enemy is brought to them. Alas, I forgot to take screen shots, but I hope to do this again with more herders and more guildmates supporting our efforts.

 

[Old Man of UO]

.... Alas, I forgot to take screen shots, but I hope to do this again with more herders and more guildmates supporting our efforts.

Go do it again, AND THIS TIME REMEMBER THE PICS!! heh... who said herding wasn't fun?