Mission: Tame a rune beetle - Report:

[marlev]

Personal statistics:

• 100 Taming/Lore/Magery - 100 LRC/3 MR/~50 Resists
• Previous experience in taming aggressive beasts: none
• Chances to tame (stratics): 12,4%
• Chances to tame (personal opinion): 1%

Mission statistics:

• Place: Beetlescape
• Time elapsed: ~90 minutes
• Coffes drinked: one
• Cigarettes smoked: five
• Deaths: stoped counting after 15th
• Beasts tamed: one

Beast statistics:

• Your Pet’s Power Rating: 3.5 (3.6 with skills included)
  
• 100% of the maximum Strength (459 / 460)
• 98% of the maximum Dexterity (167 / 170)
• 96% of the maximum Intelligence (434 / 450)
  
• 99% of the maximum Hit Points (356 / 360)
  
• 88% of the maximum Physical resist (57 / 65)
• 80% of the maximum Fire resist (40 / 50)
• 98% of the maximum Cold resist (49 / 50)
• 92% of the maximum Poison resist (87 / 95)
• 88% of the maximum Energy resist (53 / 60)
  
• 99% of the maximum Poisoning skill (125,5 / 126)
• 92% of the maximum Eval Int skill (103,9 / 112.5)

Questions:

• Keeper? I believe so beacouse of his nearly max stats, hit points and poisoning skill but maybe his resist makes him poor?
  
• Does higher Animal Taming increases my chances to actualy start taming? Or its just a chance to tame after taming starts? (if that makes sense)
  Worst part in taming this creature was to actualy start taming process, seems like I was constantly making him angry.
  
• Anyone care to make a lead taming video tutorial? Seriously Seems like I fail badly at this
• ...more to come, stay tuned! (lol)

 

[Farsight]

Keeper: Yes, until you find something better. I wouldn't tank with it, but offensively it isn't bad at all. So pair it with a good bake kitsune (which are easy to tame at that level) and train her up!
Eventually, you will want a better one. But for now it's good.
Higher taming = higher chance of starting? No. The chance of starting never changes, just the chance of finishing.
Lead taming tutorial - Good idea. I won't do it, but it's still a good idea.
More to come - We're here to help!

 

[Llewen]

That's actually a very nice beetle. Beetles are the hardest pet to find good quality ones of in my opinion, even harder than greater dragons. And learning how to operate in Beetlescape is a challenge. I know I died many many times before I became comfortable there. And it took a long time before I learnt how to operate safely.

 

[omgmir]

I agree with Farsight, pair that beetle up with a nice Bake and you'll be shocked the things you can accomlish.

Stable them both and take the bake out first when heading somewhere to hunt, as from what i've read the first pet out of the stable is the one that will be marked as the 'tank'.

 

[marlev]

Cheers guys!

I already have 2 bonded, semi-trained bake kitsunes (3,8 rated) and 1 siting in stable waiting to be bonded (4,1 rated). Amazing pets I must say, had 3 paragons (titan and 2 cyclopes) on me once and they just owned them. I just cant wait to start hunting with beetle/bake combo.

Stable them both and take the bake out first when heading somewhere to hunt, as from what i've read the first pet out of the stable is the one that will be marked as the 'tank'.

Indeed, noticed this. Well... at least when Im attacking first beacouse fresh respawns tends to pick closest target.


Question:

• Sometimes my pets (ok I lied, ALWAYS) tends to attack diffrent target when Im fighting with more then 1 mob (obviously ) and I cant force them to focus on one. It usualy happens when freshly spawned mob is attacking "not-a-tank" pet. Usualy its not a big problem but when I have like 4 mobs on me (for example titan paragon, titan, 2 cyclopes) then I really want my pets to kill them 1 by 1 asap.
  I tried All Stop, All Follow macro followed by All Kill but after 2-3 hits they are switching back. Any ideas?

 

[Llewen]

I agree with Farsight, pair that beetle up with a nice Bake and you'll be shocked the things you can accomlish.

I already have 2 bonded, semi-trained bake kitsunes (3,8 rated) and 1 siting in stable waiting to be bonded (4,1 rated). Amazing pets I must say, had 3 paragons (titan and 2 cyclopes) on me once and they just owned them. I just cant wait to start hunting with beetle/bake combo.

My personal favourite is the beetle/mare combo. You have a mount, and from what I have seen the mare actually has a higher dps than the bake, and the beetle makes a better tank, so it's win/win. I used to run with the beetle/bake combo, but I no longer do.

Stable them both and take the bake out first when heading somewhere to hunt, as from what i've read the first pet out of the stable is the one that will be marked as the 'tank'.

He is right, the first pet you take out of the stable will be the one that takes the damage when you use the "all kill" command.

Question:

• Sometimes my pets (ok I lied, ALWAYS) tends to attack diffrent target when Im fighting with more then 1 mob (obviously ) and I cant force them to focus on one. It usualy happens when freshly spawned mob is attacking "not-a-tank" pet. Usualy its not a big problem but when I have like 4 mobs on me (for example titan paragon, titan, 2 cyclopes) then I really want my pets to kill them 1 by 1 asap.
  I tried All Stop, All Follow macro followed by All Kill but after 2-3 hits they are switching back. Any ideas?

I just use the all kill command and I don't have this problem, although I seem to recall that bakes behave differently in combat and are more likely to get pulled off by other spawn. In fact I am certain this is the case, I've lost a bake in pvp before because I couldn't get it to follow me into a house when it was being attacked, in spite of the fact that my follow macro is "all stop; all follow me", which should theoretically break it's aggression and have it follow you even if it is being attacked. Another reason to use a mare...

 

[omgmir]

. You have a mount, and from what I have seen the mare actually has a higher dps than the bake

Actually bake's are quite a bit stronger, but you are right mares have the advantage of being a mount as well. Not only for getting around faster but if in trouble you can mount up quick to prevent it dying.

 

[Llewen]

. You have a mount, and from what I have seen the mare actually has a higher dps than the bake

Actually bake's are quite a bit stronger, but you are right mares have the advantage of being a mount as well. Not only for getting around faster but if in trouble you can mount up quick to prevent it dying.

Well, I'm not going to get into an argument here, but I've hunted extensively with both, and from what I've seen, in general, a mare will kill faster than a bake. And just to confirm this I took a look at the Stratics pages from the Hunter's Guide. Nightmares do significantly more damage per hit.

Even with the bake's special attack Nightmares kill faster in my experience. And there is also something going on defensively, I don't know whether bakes don't have any parry skill, while nightmares do, but I find that bakes aren't any easier to keep alive than nightmares, in spite of the fact that their resists are significantly better.

I think bakes might well be the most overrated pet in the game. And before you suggest that it is because I have a sucky bake, I have a very good bake (4.4 or 4.5 on the pet calculator), and it is fully trained. My bake actually rates higher than my mare.

 

[omgmir]

I'm not sure which one is incorrect but uoguide.com has a nightmare's base attack damage listed as 16-22 while stratics says 52-70. Both have bake's shown as 32-45. One of these sources is wrong.

At first I was thinking it was only showing the physical % of the damage on the hunter's guide but part of bake's damage is energy and the same number shows on both sites.

/shrug idk but from my experience i've seen better damage from bakes.

 

[Llewen]

I'm not sure which one is incorrect but uoguide.com has a nightmare's base attack damage listed as 16-22 while stratics says 52-70. Both have bake's shown as 32-45. One of these sources is wrong.

At first I was thinking it was only showing the physical % of the damage on the hunter's guide but part of bake's damage is energy and the same number shows on both sites.

/shrug idk but from my experience i've seen better damage from bakes.

I believe the 16-22 number is the unmodified number you see on the pet lore gump, while the 52-70 and 32-45 are the damage numbers modified by str. The nightmare has much higher str than the bake.

Go kill something with a lot of hit points, like the sphinx, and time how long it takes both a bake and a nightmare to kill it solo. If you actually use a stop watch I am just about certain you will see on average that the nightmare kills faster than the bake, and I think it kills significantly faster.

 

[Petra Fyde]

*sigh*
ours I'm afraid. EA changed the way it was shown and no one updated the guide, Now they've changed fame and karma too. I've not yet worked out how the new, shown, figures relate to the ones we have so that I can correct them. If anyone else comes across damage figures that differ wildly from what we have I'd appreciate a quick pm.

 

[omgmir]

*sigh*
ours I'm afraid. EA changed the way it was shown and no one updated the guide, Now they've changed fame and karma too. I've not yet worked out how the new, shown, figures relate to the ones we have so that I can correct them. If anyone else comes across damage figures that differ wildly from what we have I'd appreciate a quick pm.

So the uoguide information on nightmare damage is correct?

 

[marlev]

Im just a newb here but I believe that its impossible to compare nightmare and bake simply beacouse their attacks are somewhat random, also mobs seems to have random stats/skills which makes impossible to make any kind of statistics.

Nightmare obviously can be mounted which is a plus but... can you run mounted at full speed and not loose your second pet somewhere? If not and if you have to stop/slow down and wait for your pet then being on foot isnt that big issue (however it makes harder to run away from mobs).

 

[Llewen]

*sigh*
ours I'm afraid. EA changed the way it was shown and no one updated the guide, Now they've changed fame and karma too. I've not yet worked out how the new, shown, figures relate to the ones we have so that I can correct them. If anyone else comes across damage figures that differ wildly from what we have I'd appreciate a quick pm.

So the uoguide information on nightmare damage is correct?

Both are correct. The difference is that the lower number for the UO Guide information shows the base damage that is shown on the pet lore gump, while the info on Stratics shows the range of damage modified by str. What I don't know is if they are showing the full range of possible damage with the full range of str, or whether they are using average str for the modifier.

What is confusing the issue is the UO Guide isn't being consistent and is using both. It is using the modified damage numbers for the bake kitsune, and the unmodified numbers for the nightmare. So it appears that the bake does more damage, which is not true.

Personally I prefer the way Stratics does it currently in the Hunter's Guide because it give you an idea of what the real damage is without having to do the math. Now what would be really sweet is if they showed it as a dps range which would include swing speed calculations which would include the effects of the range of dexterity. But that would probably be asking too much. I might figure it out myself some day...

 

[Petra Fyde]

sorry, but I've edited the entry to use the lore gump information. I don't know where the older figures came from and therefore can't repeat them for newer entries. Also the UO Bestiary uses the lore gump figures now.

 

[Llewen]

Well back to the original point, the nightmare not only has a higher base damage range, but it also has a much higher str, so it will do more damage, and I think it does more damage even when you include special attacks and magery. The bake's special attack is pretty weak, mana pool doesn't seem to have that much of an effect on the damage output of magery in pets, and the higher int doesn't seem to effect spell damage much, if at all, in pets either. But str does make a very significant difference in damage output, so does dex, but the difference between the bake's and nightmare's dex (at least on good ones) isn't enough to make up the difference in damage output when you include the str bonus to damage.

Not only that but the nightmare's damage spread is more favourable generally in pvm, unless you are up against mobs with very high fire resist, and in pvp the nightmare's damage spread will make the nightmare more effective in combination with necromancy. I'll say it again, I think the bake kitsune may well be the most overrated pet in the game.

 

[gortman]

And learning how to operate in Beetlescape is a challenge. I know I died many many times before I became comfortable there. And it took a long time before I learnt how to operate safely.

Llewen, do you have any tips/lessons learned on how to operate safely at Beetlescape? I've been there on my stealth tamer just to scout things out and the place is fairly thick with Runes and those Evil Mages and Evil Mage Lords.

Is there anything beyond using the invis technique while lead taming and looking for a (relatively) quiet spot?

Thanks!

 

[Llewen]

Llewen, do you have any tips/lessons learned on how to operate safely at Beetlescape?!

I hate to give away all my secrets...

For me the key to learning how to operate safely in Beetlescape is controlling the centre area. My rune is marked for that area and what I do is go in and clear out that area first. Once you've cleared that area not much will spawn there and it will give you a safe place to run.

You also have to have respectable combat skills. You need to be able to cure and heal yourself quickly and wearing a suit with good resists is also important. Even the mages there can do a lot of damage to you if you don't have good resists.



I've circled the relatively safe areas on this map (the safer area does extend a bit south of the middle yellow circle - north is the upper right corner of the map). What you want to do is recall in there with something that can handle the spawn, like a cu sidhe, and kill everything in there. Don't forget to lore any beetles there before you kill them, you don't want to lose a nice one.

If there is nothing there when you recall in, stay visible and wait there for a minute or so. There are often ninjas hidden there and it is better to clear them out so that they don't surprise you when you are running for your life.

But the key is, use invis a lot. I'm not sure what I'd do with templates that didn't have magery, but with a mage the key is definitely invis. If you get in trouble run to the safe area and invis so that they don't follow you down.

Having a mount is important as well so that you are mobile. What I usually do is go in on a cu sidhe, kill all the spawn in the middle, then precast invis and run around loring all the beetles and killing the ones I don't want to keep. A cu sidhe will make short work of a beetle as long as you don't let it get ganked by a mob of them.

I will pull the beetles down to the safer area one at a time to kill them, and if I find one I want to keep I make sure to pull it's bar, then recall away, stable my puppy, and come back on a nightmare or an ethereal mount. If I find a really good one I will generally use honour to tame them, although it is possible to lead tame them as well if you know what you are doing.

The only thing to remember is, if you tame a pet with honour when it is surrounded by spawn you will have to get it out of there really quickly as the honour won't protect your pet. Nothing much worse in game than finding and taming a perfect pet, only to have it killed by the spawn before you can gate it to safety.

You can either use "all stop" "all follow me" on it and run like mad to the safety of the middle, then invis it and gate it out, or you can recall away as fast as possible then kill your client so that it insta-stables.

 

[gortman]

Llewen,

Thanks a ton for sharing some of your secrets - greatly appreciated! Nice tip on the ninjas. I was trying to tame a lesser hiryu last week and one of those guys popped out and started hammering on me. Got away without dying but boy, what a surprise.

 

[Llewen]

Thanks a ton for sharing some of your secrets - greatly appreciated! Nice tip on the ninjas. I was trying to tame a lesser hiryu last week and one of those guys popped out and started hammering on me. Got away without dying but boy, what a surprise.

Ya, I've almost had a heart attack more than once because of those buggers. And you're welcome, hopefully what I've told you will be some use.

 

[uoBuoY]

I haven't tamed a Rune in years but when I did I went to Yamadon Point. If I remember correctly 2 Runes, maybe 3-4 priests and 1 Yamadon spawned there. Lure the Yamadon far away and it becomes very easy. The Runes practically insta-spawn.

I stoned Peace and Disco onto my bard with no weapons skill. All 70s suit and lots of orange petals for accidents! I used Peace to checkout potentials and a strong Mare and Disco to quickly kill the rejects.

I think Yamadon Point is on the east side of Isamu-Jima, a little north of the middle...this is a real guess since I always used a rune to get there.

 

[jojo_la]

uoBuoy has it right...Yamadon point is much easier and safer. if you are on lake austin I can gate you there.

As uoBuoy said - lure the yamadon away and all your left with is 2 rune beetles and errrr some other beetle that doesn't aggro at all.

 

[Llewen]

Beetlescape is for real men! errrr persons! errrr toons!

 

[jojo_la]

Beetlescape is for real men! errrr persons! errrr toons!

pshhh, but if you go to Yamadon point you get to play with the big snake man!!

 

[Llewen]

pshhh, but if you go to Yamadon point you get to play with the big snake man!!

He's scary...

 

[maroite]

That's actually a very nice beetle. Beetles are the hardest pet to find good quality ones of in my opinion, even harder than greater dragons. And learning how to operate in Beetlescape is a challenge. I know I died many many times before I became comfortable there. And it took a long time before I learnt how to operate safely.

hmm... Stoned off eval int, vet, and myst from my template. Stoned on hiding, stealth, and herding.

Made beetle taming very easy.

 

[gortman]

hmm... Stoned off eval int, vet, and myst from my template. Stoned on hiding, stealth, and herding.

Made beetle taming very easy.

maroite,

Could you share the tactics you used with those changes to your template? I haven't tried to tame a rune beetle yet but will be doing that soon. Did you just herd it off to a quiet area then start taming and invising?

Thanks!