Almost six months ago now I came back to UO after being away for a couple of years, and one of the main reasons I came back was that I missed taming. There's just nothing like taming in UO in any other game I've ever played.
Well my first few months were spent upgrading my equipment, remembering how to play the game, and doing an awful lot of crafting. I was having fun, but I see now, something was missing. Then I made a fateful decision, I decided to join factions with my tamer.
Now I have quite a lot of experience pvp'ing with my tamer, but the guard zone around Yew gate had become a real crutch and this was a whole new ball game. Couple that with the fact that I was not well liked by my enemies, and the first few days were pretty rough. I realized within a very short time, as in maybe minutes, that I needed to make some significant changes if I was going to become truly competitive.
So I did. I made a very significant change to my suit, and to my template as a result, and one of the things I did was drop my Birds of Britannia talisman. I won't bore you with all the details but what this meant was that I needed to retrain five points in taming, and five points in animal lore.
So there I was, taming rune beetles and dragons, and donating them to the zoo, and lead taming cu sidhe with all the little battles with changelings that happen in the Wealde. And having nothing short of a blast. I remembered that, yes, I do know how to play a tamer. And I learnt some new tricks that I didn't know before. I even was able to give a very nice rune beetle to a pretty lady, a rune beetle that I lead tamed, and that was exciting, let me tell you.
That decision to join factions lead to the most fun I've had since I came back to the game, and for at least a year or two of UO game play before that. Quite simply, it was the best decision I've made in UO in a very long time. I now remember what it was that made me fall in love with taming in UO in the first place.
The conclusion? Well, I'm going to leave factions with my tamer. It was a great experience, but I can't stand stat loss. I can handle it with my dexxer because I can still go out and play with him, even if I am in stat loss. With my tamer, I can't do anything at all while he is in stat loss, and it flat out sucks, but joining factions with him was still the best decision I've made in UO in a very long time.
Well my first few months were spent upgrading my equipment, remembering how to play the game, and doing an awful lot of crafting. I was having fun, but I see now, something was missing. Then I made a fateful decision, I decided to join factions with my tamer.
Now I have quite a lot of experience pvp'ing with my tamer, but the guard zone around Yew gate had become a real crutch and this was a whole new ball game. Couple that with the fact that I was not well liked by my enemies, and the first few days were pretty rough. I realized within a very short time, as in maybe minutes, that I needed to make some significant changes if I was going to become truly competitive.
So I did. I made a very significant change to my suit, and to my template as a result, and one of the things I did was drop my Birds of Britannia talisman. I won't bore you with all the details but what this meant was that I needed to retrain five points in taming, and five points in animal lore.
So there I was, taming rune beetles and dragons, and donating them to the zoo, and lead taming cu sidhe with all the little battles with changelings that happen in the Wealde. And having nothing short of a blast. I remembered that, yes, I do know how to play a tamer. And I learnt some new tricks that I didn't know before. I even was able to give a very nice rune beetle to a pretty lady, a rune beetle that I lead tamed, and that was exciting, let me tell you.
That decision to join factions lead to the most fun I've had since I came back to the game, and for at least a year or two of UO game play before that. Quite simply, it was the best decision I've made in UO in a very long time. I now remember what it was that made me fall in love with taming in UO in the first place.
The conclusion? Well, I'm going to leave factions with my tamer. It was a great experience, but I can't stand stat loss. I can handle it with my dexxer because I can still go out and play with him, even if I am in stat loss. With my tamer, I can't do anything at all while he is in stat loss, and it flat out sucks, but joining factions with him was still the best decision I've made in UO in a very long time.
