Do skree ever gain wrestling skill?

[Aurelius]

Had two of these as pets so far, and both have had the same 'issue' - they happily gain in every skill except wrestling, which stays at the level they had when tamed and never increases.

I'm wondering if I'm just unlucky and have had two bugged pets, or if there's something going on to stop them gaining.

 

[Wenchkin]

Hmm, are they fighting something which is at about the same wrestling skill level? They won't gain if there's a significant skill difference between them and their targets.

If that is your problem, look at the stickied pet training guide here for a list of what to use for training

Wenchy

 

[Aurelius]

Hmm, are they fighting something which is at about the same wrestling skill level? They won't gain if there's a significant skill difference between them and their targets.

Tried them against several things of very nearly the same wrestling skill, both slightly above and slightly below their skill - but no effect, they stubbornly refuse to gain skill in wrestling. Everything else, no problem, but that one skill they just stick at their starting level

 

[Wenchkin]

hmm, can't say I've tried training a skree so it's maybe worth trying to call a GM and see if they can look at your pet. Skill matching has always worked for me, so I don't know what's wrong with your skree. The only other things I can think to try are discording the skree and as a last resort see if it gains again after a death. Or just try feeding it regularly and hunt for ages and see if it eventually comes ok. Feeding might be worth trying if you haven't fed it in a while, but that shouldn't be necessary just to get the skree to gain.

Wenchy

 

[Aurelius]

They have died, been fed, fought again, died, been fed ... and gain everything but wrestling. Didn't get an answer the first time I tried page a GM, which was why I tamed the second skree, in case it was just a one-off bugged pet. Two, it begins to look a bit more like a problem with the skree in general though, I'll tame a third one and see if that has any better results....

 

[Tina Small]

After seeing your post, I went and tamed a skree. It's post-tame wrestling skill was 26.1. I had it kill a few of the greater mongbats, korpre and skree in the area. Then I took it to Healer's Grove in Ilshenar to kill hinds and great harts. Did those until its wrestling was at about 35. Then went to the Homare Jima moongate and killed gaman. Got wrestling up to 56.0 in about 10 minutes and imagine it would probably go higher killing gaman if I had the time to stay with it a bit longer.

Edited to add:

Had a little more time to mess with training the skree. Got it to almost 70 by hunting ogres (regular ones, not the ogre lords), titans, cyclops, and harpies. (A good place to find these last three all together is Cyclops Valley in T2A. You'll also run into reapers, lizardmen, and wyverns.) Unfortunately, it hasn't gained much in tactics from killing any of this stuff.

 

[Aurelius]

Thanks Tina - I can't figure out where I'm going wrong, but obviously I am....

Let's see if I get any better results from the third try!

 

[Harlequin]

Only things I can think of,

- combat skills need to be within 25 points of the mob they are fighting to gain.

- no combat skill gains when training inside a house (in case that's what you are doing).

- you might also want to try discording your own pets when training them. Lower skills = easier gains.

 

[Tina Small]

Aurelius, I'm not sure what could be going wrong in your case. I just tried to keep the poor little skree attacking the whole time and not let its mana regen at all so that it couldn't use any spells to pacify its prey. I was also looking for opponents that had a fair number of hit points but were fairly close to the same level in wrestling skill.

When the one I tamed bonds, I'll try to pick up with its training again and see how it goes. I'm a bit concerned about the lack of Tactics gains, but I'm sure there's got to be something that will work for that, again if the skree doesn't put it to sleep first. I need to do a bit of research on what gives good tactics gains.

It's kind of painful to watch a skree chipping away at stuff for such small amounts of damage when it can't cast many spells because it's almost out of mana, but maybe that's the trick for training one of them? I'm not sure. That was the first one I'd ever done anything with and I just tamed the first one I found. Next one I tame, I think I might be a little pickier. High Mana/Intelligence might be the top priority. What do you think? Do they seem like they're worth 4 control slots?

 

[Aurelius]

Sadly, I reckon they are absolutely a 'novelty value' pet, at four slots. They can do a reasonable mana dump to start off a fight, but apparently can't handle things that survive that. I can't even think of good one-slot pet to pair with them and cover the deficiencies skree have.... even were they to drop to a 3 slot pet, I still have trouble working out how they would do well in combat compared to other choices out there. The only thing I have not tested is they might, possibly, magically heal other pets or their owner? I've seen no sign of that so far though.

I'm inclined to say 'great pet for RP and fun value', but I can't see them appearing as hunting companions any time soon. I want to train one up simply because I reckon they are remarkably cute, compared to most 'practical' pets, and I have a RP character that they would be a perfect companion for.

Harlequin, good sugestions - I've not had any luck with 'matched skill' opponents, and trained both outside and inside my house, but my tamer is pure mage/tamer so I'll have to see if I can get a friend to tag along with a bard and test the disco idea out a bit.

 

[Llewen]

Sounds to me like you have a bugged character. Submit a bug report.

For training up to 50 wrestling needs to be within 25 apparently, but after 50 it only needs to be within 40 points to gain. For tactics you need to be within 20 for skill over 50, and less for skill below 50 but I don't know the exact number. I find training combat skills in Old Haven is just about perfect up to 50 at which point I switch to a shadow elemental.

 

[Warrior of Time]

You didn't give him enough of a challenge to gain in Wrestling. I had no trouble at all gaining wrestling. Actually it is GM. Let it fight 2 titans, and 2 cyclops at the same time. Throw the kid a couple bandages and let it have a little fun.

Later on you can feed him a couple bakes at a time. Never tried mine on 3 yet. You want him to gain like the other pets you have. Once a target falls asleep. He loses interest till it wakes back up. He needs 3 or 4 depending on the magery. Higher the magery the longer sleep lasts. Also don't worry about the mana. They use physical damage. To gain in magic resist take him to Cove cemetery, keep it outside and let a lich, wrath or two play with it. NW corner is best. Keeps it trapped so it will not run around to the gate and start killing the stuff. Once most of the skills are up.

Take it to Brit cemetery and let him kill everything in it. Gets boring once the stuff is all dead. Really slow waiting for things to come back. Keep it away from targets that are not close. They put them to sleep thinking it's dead and will scamper off to the next. That is also the trouble at Cove. They wake up and a lich could start attacking YOU. I suggest you stay back a couple tiles behind it hidden. Let hp go down a bit and another bandage. No real trouble at Brit. Once 125 dex he will move faster. I think the only reason he is a 4 follower is so I can't pair it up with a bake. Sure it takes a little time to kill the Titans/cyclops combo. What do you expect though when killing all 4 at the same time with as little damage as it does.
I only wish it did more damage. A para lich lord regen is too high. He may only have 300 hp, but he don't give them up without a good fight. Just the same if it scampers off after a reg lich count it as dead. It just takes him time.

Why let it die. Let it kill. Just let it do it on it's own terms. Let it fight 2 and 3 at a time.

I like them because they are cute too.

 

[Warrior of Time]

I let a stealth tamer go in after mine.

Resist
65/53/38/58/35

HP............................274
Stamina....................125
Mana........................255
Strength....................310
Dexterity...................125
Inteligence.................255

So far the skills are

Wrestling....................100
Tactics........................97.6
Resisting Spells............90.0
Anatomy.....................100
Magery.......................98.8
Eval...........................100
Meditation...................100