My "skill less" tamer is far more challenging to pvp with than any of my other templates. I'm more successful with my tamer, but that's only because I've spent thousands of more hours pvp'ing with my tamer than I have with all my other characters combined.
You prove my point. Easier/overpowering = more success.
And you appear to have a reading comprehension problem. I'm more successful with my tamer because I've spent more on my tamer's suit than I have on all my other characters' combined, in terms of time, gold and resources. I'm more successful with my tamer in pvp because I am a skilled and highly experienced pvp tamer and I've spent more time pvp'ing with my tamer than all of my other characters combined.
I am not more successful with my tamer because my tamer is easier to play. One indication of how challenging a template is to play is the number of macros and keybinds you regularly use while playing it. I use more than twenty keybinds and desktop icons all the time (I can use desktop icons effectively in pvp because I use my G13 thumb joystick to move). If you include all the ones that I use less often, the number is easily double that.
Lets see here Skill point wise we have 720 Character + 700 pet = 1420 - 240 for Lore/taming = 1180
HP wise you've got the character's 120(on average) + 600-900 HP for the pet that's about 720-1020 (depending on if it's a dread mare or GD)
I'd say you need a hefty drawback to the template... or should I keep putting other stats out there.
And once again, your analysis just displays your ignorance. It takes no skill to play a pvp tamer badly, and die all the time, and if you want to start including the hit points and skills of pets, summons and hirelings in the equation, every single template has access to pets, summons and hirelings, some of which are fairly powerful. The tamer's options are obviously the most powerful, but that is a choice that every player makes when they build a template, you gain in some areas, and you sacrifice in others.
I've said all this before, but it bears repeating because the tamer haters keep repeating the same nonsense. The real indication of whether a template is over powered or not is how many you see in pvp. There is no question there are a lot of hybrid tamers in pvp, that is tamers without the full tamer skill set, but there really aren't any more of them than there are of any other pvp template. I still see lots of archers, and mages. I probably see fewer "pure" dexxers than I do other templates, but some of the most successful pvp'rs I know play dexxers.
I see very few, extremely few, "pure" tamers. By "pure" tamers, I mean tamers with the full tamer skills set. And I see even fewer "pure" tamers that are actually successful. Most of the successful tamers that I see are hybrid tamers, and very few, if any of them, regularly use greater dragons. Greater dragons are used successfully in pvp in very specific contexts (such as spawns where their primary purpose really isn't pvp), and there are always ways of dealing with them, just as there are with the strengths and weaknesses of any template.
And for the record, I play a "pure" tamer. I am the only one I know of that regularly pvp's on my shard, and I very rarely use either a greater dragon, or a dread mare, even though I have both available to me, and the ones I have available to me are among the best on the shard in terms of their stats, and they are fully trained.
Now again I have to add the usual caveat. Everything I have said applies to regular production shards. It doesn't apply to either Siege or Mugen. From what I understand there are still some problems with tamers in pvp there, and they are still dominant. On those shards I'll repeat what I have said many times, a bonded pet should count as your "Siege blessed" item. Putting aside all sentimentality, a pet is a piece of equipment just like any other piece of equipment, and it should be treated in the rules set as such. Pets do have certain unique features, but that is true of any piece of equipment, or class of equipment.
I could provide a long list of the benefits and drawbacks of pets, and compare them to the benefits and drawbacks of other pieces of equipment, but this post is already long enough, and it has all been said before. The simple truth is if a skilled pvp'r gets beaten by a tamer, it is generally because that tamer is a skilled tamer, an unskilled tamer will generally die very quickly to a skilled pvp'r playing any pvp template, and that is the way it should be. And this is true in both one on one situations, and in group pvp.
Most often though what I see on Stratics is tamer haters that don't want to ever lose to a tamer, in any situation. If you pin them down they will tell you that they will kill a tamer one on one far more often than a tamer will kill them, but they don't ever want to lose to a tamer. And what is even funnier is the number of times I have seen tamer haters complain about losing to tamers when they are outnumbered. I find it highly amusing when tamer haters start complaining about how over powered tamers are when they died to a tamer when they were outnumbered three to one or more. And again, when you pin them down, they will tell you they win more often than they lose against tamers one on one.
Tamers are a part of pvp in UO, just like all kinds of summons, pets and hirelings are. Get over it. And it takes just as much skill to play a tamer in pvp, as it does any template. And in my opinion it often takes more, because not only are you playing as a mage, or a dexxer, or an archer, but you also have a fairly stupid pet to control and keep alive on top of that. I don't play a tamer in pvp because it is "uber" or "op". I play a tamer in pvp because I find it challenging and interesting, and there is always something new to learn. Almost every battle is different, and in almost every battle I learn something. I may win more often than I lose now, but that is because I know what I am doing, and trust me, when I was less experienced and less skilled, I died all the time, in all kinds of unique and embarrassing ways. But I had fun then, even when I died, just as I have fun now.