poo's disco primer

[Voodoo Bad Mojo]

*look around*

*kicks the tires*

wow, third time is the charm i guess.
STICKIED!!!!!!!

 

[Motom]

For those without access to a tamer I went from about 78-103 on wandering healers (red or blue). It's convenient since they are pretty much everywhere, and I would just drag a few to my house, then go inside and disco them through the south or east walls (using a villa and couldn't seem to disco through the north wall for some reason). Sure I could have sped up gains a bit by not sticking to the same creatures for the whole 25 points, but it's really easy to set up and I'm lazy.

 

[Guest]

could u switch to cu sidhes at 80 instead of 85?

 

[Poo]

if a person wanted to switch earlier, just ring up a little bit to get into the optimal range.

heck.
you could totally bypass the gamans and the bettles if you wanted too.
get to 65 disco on polar bears, then put on +15 in ring and watch for +30 total, that takes you to 95, now your in the Cu sidhe range.
just work them up 15 points, take off one of the ring or watch, work up 15 points, take off the other, then work up normal like with no ring or watch on.

saying that, of course you gain slower at higher rates.
but for the person who finds taming cu's easy and has time to kill, that is allways an option.

cheers.
Poo

 

[Poo]

as many of you know, or dont know, i like barding skills.
and i also like to wonder about from shard to shard.

so it shouldnt come as much of a suprise to know that i make bards on most all the shards when i get bored.

such was true here a couple weeks ago when i started to make a new bard on Pac.

thought id pop in and share my gains for discord with you all.

Day 1
Took my 115 peace off my tamer as he has all the pets he needs now and is ready to go hunt.
SKILL 0-29.2 Purchased from NPC GUILDMASTER Bard.
SKILL 29.2-59.4 10 polar bears for 5 hours

Day 2
59.4-65.5 10 polar bears for 4 hours
65.5-82.6 10 Gaman for 8 hours

Day 3
82.6-93.0 10 cu sidhe for 8 hours

Day 4
93.0-100.0 10 cu sidhe for 9 hours

<font color="blue"> Day 4 (con't) 100.0 - 104.6 13 hours

Day 5
104.6 - 111.3 21 Hours

Day 6
111.3 - 117.8 21 Hours

Day 7
117.8 - 120.0 7 Hours</font>

Some Notes.
i did Gamans for a long time cause i wanted to see what the top out for them was. so a normal person could probablly stop a lot sooner then i did cause i was experimenting.
averaged 300 disco attempts per hour.
so 34 hours x 300 = 10,200 discord attempts.
all NPC instraments
GM music and locked.

<font color="blue"> End Totals
Total Time to 120 Discord was 96 Hours
96 hours x 300 (disco's per hour) = 28,800 discord attempts
all NPC instraments
GM music and locked.
</font>

so a few interesting thing about training.
34 hours isnt too bad to GM a skill, specially a bardic skill.
and really, a person coule easilly shave off at least 4-5 hours by switching up a bit more, like say adding beetle (pack beetles) or F.Ozzies in there.
so lets say 30 hours to GM disco.
for a power gamer that is 2 days work.
music to GM, couple hours.
i find that provo and disco usually gain the same.
so if a bard had a week to kill and nothing else to do you can essentially hit GM music, work disco and provo up in tandom and be done all 3 in 5 days.
then at the end of that you crank up you music and ring up and your disco and provo.
boom, operational.

but im a sucker for training.
so ill be going all the way to 120 disco.
dont know if ill track the gains for that cause im sure it will be about a week of solid training (just for 100-120)

just thought id share.

Poo

 

[Poo]

ok.
so i power trained discord and was all done.
i had tracked the skill gains all the way to 120 with times and everything and then i got to thinking.... i wonder...... i wonder if it is faster to train low level by ringing up.

well, seeing as i had 10 cu sidhe's allready sitting right in front of me i figured, what the heck.

so here is the numbers in comparing straight trining to ringing up and trining.

<font color="green"> Straight Trianing
10 polar bears
29.2-59.4 5 hours
59.4-65.5 4 hours
10 Gamans
65.5-71.6 2 hours
73.6-82.6 6 hours
10 cu sidhes
82.6-93.0 8 hours
93.0-100.0 9 hours
Total Time 34 Hours </font>

<font color="blue"> Ring Trianing
10 Polar bears
32.1-58.0
RING UP +26
10 cu sidhes
58.0(84.0) - 70.7(96.7) 2.5 hours
70.7(96.7) -81.4(107.4) 5 hours
RING OFF
81.4-98.2 14.5 hours
98.2-100.0 2.5 hours
Total Time 27.5 Hours</font>

so isnt that interesting.
i cut 6.5 hours off by ringing up and doing cu's earlier.
very interesting!

 

[Poo]

allright.
so a bit more info for you all.

this time its PROVO training.

0 - 33.0 NPC Bard Guildmaster
33.0 - 58.0 10x Polar Bears 3.5 Hours
<font color="red"> RINGED UP + 28 PROVO </font>
58.0 - 88.6 10x Cu Sidhe 12 Hours
88.6 - 92.0 10x Cu Sidhe 3.5 Hours
92.0 - 100 10x Cu Sidhe 12 Hours
<font color="blue"> the following is from GM to 120
100-120 10x Cu Sidhe 60.5 Hours </font>

<font color="green"> Total Time 0-GM: 31 Hours
Total Time 0-120: 91.5 Hours </font>

 

[Poo]

just putting this here so i can point too it from time to time

Ye Old Barding Difficulty List

 

[Poo]

all righty.
so just finished off the 2nd attempt at 120 disco in 2 weeks.

so that makes 120 disco x 2 and 120 provo x 1 all within the last 2 weeks.

the 2nd disco run, if you look up a few posts, i ringed up so i could jump straight to cu sidhes from polar bears.
that cut a couple hours off the run.
but the GM to 120 was pretty much exactlly the same as the first run.

here are the totals for the 2nd run.

Ring Trianing
10 Polar bears
32.1-58.0
RING UP +26
10 cu sidhes
58.0(84.0) - 70.7(96.7) 2.5 hours
70.7(96.7) -81.4(107.4) 5 hours
RING OFF
81.4-98.2 14.5 hours
98.2-100.0 2.5 hours
100.0-104.3 10.5 hours
104.3-109.7 21 hours
109.7-113.9 17 hours
113.9-119.7 16 hours
119.7-120.0 1 hour

0-GM 27.5 hours
GM-120 65.5 hours

TOTAL HOURS GM-120 = 93

of course everything was the same as before.
NPC music instraments
tame and release cu's
infact the where the same cu's from the first run.

in a month or 2 i was gonna make my last disco tamer and pure bard on napa.
i think when i make those 2 i will try one more variation.
and that is to ring up early like i did on the 2nd run but keep the ring/watch on and leave them on.

why?
cause the disco gains seem to be faster at higher end.
so im wondering if i hit the 120 cap earlier if that will gain faster in the long run.

time will tell.
ill post my results when i get around to doing them.

have fun, hope this last batch of tests proves usefull to someone.

Poo

 

[Poo]

time has come.

those who know me know why.

i am by no means leaving the game or anything like that, im just leaving this and a couple other forums.

so please, no more PMs or ICQs about barding stuff.
i get at least 2 or 3 a day.

i would suggest sending any bard questions to the mods for this forum.

have fun, and look me for in your favorite pub, ill be the fella in the corner with the lute and the girl of questionable virtue buried under a pile of pewter mugs and shot glasses, singing some cute ditty or impossible tale.

cheers.

 

[mrarsonal]

Thanks Poo for posting this info. I appreciate everything you've done here

 

[Poo]

a question had come up about disco training and i went and tested it on a new bard cause i just had to know.

thought id stop in and pass it along.

question was this, "while using the Poo Disco Training a person can train on polar bears up to 65 then ring up to 85-95 and go straight to tamed and released cu's. Should you then keep those ring/watch on and let the disco max out at 120 and STILL keep them on letting the skill gain while you are ringed to max"

kind of a long winded question, but it has been icqed to me over and over and over and over again.

so much so that i started to think about it and wonder myself if once you hit cap by ringing up if you would still gain fast.

the answer is NO.

not doubt, not "its a bit slower"
NO NO NO.
it is DEAD SLOW.
it is so slow that infact i think i was training in reverse.

if you are going to ring up to train in cu's early.
take off the rings to keep you skill in the 90's or low 100's.
once you are there naturally, take the ring and watch off and just go natural.

im not going to bore anyone with times and stat's and such.

just trust me when i say, to do it all the way to 120 natural ringed up would take you the better part of a month. (if trends in time continued as they where)
where as you can 120 by taking off the ring and watch in like 6 days (24 hour days).

hope that helps the people who kept asking.

now, stop icqing me, stop stalking me, stop going through my garbage!

TTFN

 

[Curly Jefferson]

I will try an follow this but instead of training on polar bears from 30-50. I started training meer warriors at like 40 and have moved steadily up. i have trained off and on with them and now im at 55. so i would put meer warriors next to polar bears. If no one knows where Meer warriors are located there in ilshenhar Sacrifice. will update as i go farther

120-90 hiryu's
90-70 nightmares
70-60 Scorpion, hell hounds
60-50 Frenzied Ostard, Giant Ice Serpent
50-30 Polar Bear (meer warriors)

 

[Kyrie_Elaison]

Quick question,

Do the slayer/virtue instruments have any affect on training discord?

I read through all the posts but didn't see any mention of it. I could have missed it if it was discussed.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Poo]

dont use them.

it messes up the gains calculation and makes just a mess out of everything.
just go to town and buy your stuff from the tinker.

and no GM made ones either.

just suck it up and spend the gold.
(for you scottish people out there)

 

[Mazulat]

As a long time fan of the 'Poo Method'... thought I'd toss in my two cents. After a horrible soul stone incident (always double check that they are lock down) I am having to rebuild 120 dico. oh so much fun .....

Well using unicorns starting at about 55, I was able to get really decent gains without stoning off my 120 music. Gonna have to do some tweeking as skill goes up in the high range, but 55 to 75 was a matter of hours with 9 uni's. Did it in my house on ice island tram. Tried frenzied ozzys but the gains just died out too fast due to my music.

Any thoughts for where to go after uni's?

 

[gandolfofaol]

we are the elite my friend.
let us take a second to bathe in our own pride.
*pride molement*

ok, thats enough of that, lets continue.

so, went to baja and started up a few toon's there.
made my regular disco/tamer.
then made a pure bard.
then made a 2nd pure bard on my other account (cause its easy and i like it!)

did a little change up in the old training animals to make it (wait for it) even EASIER!!!!!!

what!?!?!?!??!

that cant be right, poo said EASIER!?!?!??!!

yes my children, come suckle on my zipples of knoledge and i shall enlighten you all as to what i have done.

hehehe.

so it was a easy change.
the problem was, well it was with them beetles.
they are kinda a pain to tame cause they aggress on ya, and then once ya release them, they agress on ya again, which makes dropping more off hard, ya gotta invis, then run around a bit, release the new one before the others attack it, ect ect ect.

pain.

so i tryed this out, and was pleasanlly suprised that it worked good.
so lets call this the 2007 non agressive list.

0-33 NPC purchase
33-65 polar bears
65-85 GAMAN's
85-110 (120) cu sidhe
110-120 this is optional, as cu's will take ya there easy enough, but some people think they work faster, but they dont, but ill add it anyways cause im bored and feel like typing something - hiryus. well i guess hiryus are really not good for this list, as they ARE AGRESSIVE, so stick with cu's.

so i did that as it stands 3 times.
worked good.
i couldnt remember the exact numbers that i switched at, but that looks about right.

i did those for both disco and provo.
enjoy.

I used this with a slight modification. Thanks for paving the way.

0-33 NPC purchase
33-60 polar bears
60-75 GAMAN's
75-85 Ki-rin (had access to a male tamer otherwise I would say Unicorn's)
85-120 cu sidhe

also a tip, if you can have the tamer train up the cu's a little as you get higher it seemed to help. A freshly tamed cu is gonna have a barding difficulty around 97-100 while if you use it to kill another cu it will quickly go up to around 101 after one or two kills.

 

[gandolfofaol]

As a long time fan of the 'Poo Method'... thought I'd toss in my two cents. After a horrible soul stone incident (always double check that they are lock down) I am having to rebuild 120 dico. oh so much fun .....

Well using unicorns starting at about 55, I was able to get really decent gains without stoning off my 120 music. Gonna have to do some tweeking as skill goes up in the high range, but 55 to 75 was a matter of hours with 9 uni's. Did it in my house on ice island tram. Tried frenzied ozzys but the gains just died out too fast due to my music.

Any thoughts for where to go after uni's?

My 2 cents would be just soul stone off the music. You will be back to gm in no time and it will be so much easier in the long run.

 

[Mazulat]

Gand..I agree, it would normally be eaiser to stone the music off. But i had just lost a stone with 120 discord on it, so messing around with more stones or frags was not real high on my list of things to do.
Plus honestly, some folks dont the money for multiple frags/stones, so a work around at high skill isnt really a bad thing. Not saying it's the best solution, but it does work.

 

[Boogieman]

Ok, so I'm a veteran gone noob, because I haven't played for a couple of years and everything seems to have changed.

1) It's mentioned that the method described here can be used for training provo as well. How is that possible - without having the critters to kill one another?

2) Is it still possible to train music to GM from 'hot spots' ?

And thanks for the guide Poo

 

[haladrigis]

good question how do you use this method with voke without having the animals kill each other?

ok i am using this method to try to gm disco..i have been running my macro for about 11hours now and went from 30 disco to only 56 i even tried to but a ring on that put my disco at 68 and tamed a bunch of gamans put them in a small room in my house and released them my music is at 100 and locked what am i missing here??

 

[Poo]

no more music 'hot spots'

your an old player.

you should be able to figure out how to get 2 animals to fight and not kill each other.

of course, its considered taboo to do it but i have seen people put a animal on 2 boats and have them provo.
ive seen people put one animal on a boat and on on the shore.
ive seen people use the stable stalls at the stables in town.
ive seen people use the farm pens in game.
ive seen people make thier own pens and stable stalls in custom houses.
ive seen people stand in places where they can stand between the animals so they cant touch each other (like the prow of a boat)
ive seen people corner a animal in their house with stone tables.

there has to be a hundred diffeent ways to do this.
use your imagination.
just be aware that it is frowned upon to have it set up in such a way that the animals cant get to each other.... infact its bannable if a GM comes around

take note that i am saying i have SEEN people do this, i do not do this myself, nor do i recomend this as it is BANNABLE!!!!!!!!

 

[Trinsie]

Found the answer thanks anyways

 

[Boomers]

ok, just GM'd disco, working my way to 120. I started in on 9 Cu's in my house at around 65 disco, 115 music. Used exceptional instruments to get closer to the sweet spot. At 87 skill, i dropped music to 100 and used up the rest of my exceptionals (had 4 or 5 left) before switching to store bought. from 87 skill to 100, gain rates were approx 2% of attempts +/- .5%. With GM music, GM disco, gain rates drop to almost 1.5% even. So, for the math inept, for every 3 store bought instruments you go through, it *should* yield 1.8 skill. Slow skill, but i hear good things so i'm sticking it out.

I hope this gives a little more insight to the gain rates on your way to 120, i'll try to update at 110 skill if i remember. =)

*update*

Currently at 106.8. Havent had a gain in over 350 attempts. I just stoned off the rest of my skills (keeping magery for invis.) dropping me to 311.8 total skill points, hoping to urge on GGS.

 

[Boomers]

ok, grand totals! I dont know how many hours i had logged, but it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 61 hours.

total attempts 22179
Starting Skill 98.9
End Skill 120.0
Total Gains 211

Like previously posted, i used Cu's for the majority of my training. Was it the most efficiant? Doubtful, but was it the easiest method? Probably. I had the 9 Cu's released in my house for the entirety of the proccess, never had to replace any of them.

Now i just need a 120 music scroll on chessy...it's like pulling teeth to find one lol.

Good luck fellow minstrals, happy horning.

 

[Marcus Blackwell]

When dicording/and provoking all these animals of this guide are those tamed and released animals only or can this be done with them being wild as well? The Reason I ask is very doubtful I'll find a tamer willing to gather all these animals up. hehe.. Also if you cant use this guide on untamed animals is there a list to follow for untamed animals?

 

[Boomers]

I dont know about the other guide, but i do know that the wallet usually weighs more than someone's morals. Offer to pay a tamer. Most are so happy to get paid for that skill that they will throw themselves at the cu until they're done. =)

 

[Trinsie]

You could ask on the Catskills forum for help. If you were on Origin I would tame them all for you for free. It wouldn't take long to grab 10 Cu for you.

 

[Fink]

I think you may have scorpions and frenzied ostards in the wrong order.

 

[Mistura]

I hit legendary disco this morning. Thanks Poo. Next up, Provocation

I followed the list closely but switched to Ki-Rin after Gammans up until about GM which seemed to work well. The main reason for this was that I couldn't get anyone to tame me CUs at that point and I had the skill to get my own Ki-Rins.

 

[Kim Li of LS]

There's no way to keep them in place that's legal.

That said, theres some nice small islands here and there...

Except the less useful, generally unloved herding skill. Tame them up, take them to a quiet spot, release, (repeat until you have the desired amount), then round them all up with herding. (target yourself as the destination so they follow you)
I have had a massive heard of polar bears this way. (about 50)

 

[Democritus]

Hi all.. I used this guide to get my provo up to 120, and now i'm giving disco a go...But I seem to hit a wall at a fairly low level already....i'm at 57.4, got 10 polar bears with a barding diff of 40+ and yet my gains are appaling...

 

[Poo]

get another 20 polar bears.

they are polar bears... you can tame 30 of them in under 5 minutes.
the more pets you have the faster your trianing will be.

hell, if you put 100 there to train you will FLY.
keep in mind that you will cap on them at like 65.
so gainin from like 58-65 will be S L O W as you are at the uper part of thier trianing range.

 

[Foolio the Bard]

POLAR BEAR DISCO PARTY TONIGHT!

 

[Old Man of UO]

POLAR BEAR DISCO PARTY TONIGHT!

Hmm... Not sure that is quite... legal.

 

[Poo]

let me know if you ever see a GM while training.

you'll be able to tell the GM was there cause you'll be having trouble logging in, hahahhaa

 

[Storm]

I have been using faeries and kirin at oaks from about 70 to 83 now and getting good gains and lots of targets and they are none aggressive hope that helps someone

 

[Lord_Draven]

Does stoning off skill points actually help with gains? IE: Droping down to 300ish?

TIA!

 

[Poo]

yes, cause you gain more at lower levels.

gaining faster also happens if you eat higher level scrolls.

so, example, you can train on polar bears for longer if you eat a 120 disco or provo scroll.

not sure exactally how much it effects the barding difficulty.

 

[Impinge]

After following Poo's method I am not at 104.0 Disco ( Music at 100, all other skils stoned off ) and have never, ever, been so bored. Right now I have a room in my house filled with 10 Cu's, a bag full of NPC made instruments and a UO Assist macro which casts Disco on all the CU's, then invis's me and does it all over again a couple more times.

Please, for the love of god and all that's good in the world, tell me that 120 Disco is worth it!

 

[Poo]

i have 120 disco on every shard.

its worth it

 

[Kri]

Poo,

Thanks for the great guide - it's helped me out immensely. I'm up to 102.9 and I'm finding my gains to be crawling (I've been doing this somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 days at this point.) I have 12 cus I'm training on, 2 of which I trained up to a barding difficulty of about 110 to see if that would help.

Anyway, my actual question is - since cu's are fey, would a demon slaying instrument reduce the success rate and cause me to gain faster? I would try it out but I don't have one handy and none seem to be for sale on my shard. Want to hear anyone's thoughts here before I go to drastic measures to acquire one just to find it doesn't work.

 

[Poo]

i can see where your thinking is on this but i have never personally tryed it.

its been braught up many times about doing the opposite slayer type but no one has ever sat down and clocked the skill gains and then did it again without to compare the difference.

but i can tell you that just from looking at it the costs are gonna be H U G E !

youd burn up so many slayer instraments that i think that even if it did work the cost wouldnt make it a feasable option to most people.

unfortunatlly there is no fast way to high end train disco.
you just have to pencil a week on your daytimer and keep the nose to the grindstone.
that, or just GGS it to the end.

cheers!

 

[Lord Frodo]

I think any slayer that doesn't match, like say a water ele. might work.

 

[Fingers of Cats]

So I tried this out last night... worked pretty well.. went from like 35 to 39 after an hour or so. Just wish UO had macros that worked a "little smoother" for switching targets and autodiscording (I could just be ignorant).

Had me a little Polar Bear party in my log cabin in Fel. Then I found out my friend was having a Cu party and got a temporary ban for it... something about blocking spawn or whatnot...

 

[milk]

hmmm i think your disco chart needs maybe a bit update, the polar bear gain is incredibly slow after 60, it's been 1 hour and half i gained 1.3 skills points @_@. I am gonna try gaman see how it works. then report back

 

[milk]

sigh maybe i am just unlucky even switched to gaman gain is still incredibly slow. i am only 61 points this is crazy

 

[milk]

For faster skill gain, I tweaked the list a little bit.

Get a new character, and soulstone transfer so you have 50 disco to start with, that should save you a couple of hours at the beginning.

Then from 50-60 polar bears.

From 60-74 Gaman I guess 75 is fine too but it got so slow i couldn't wait

from 74-90 Lowland Boura, these are non-aggressive and easy to tame and you can get two at a time. Very quick access opposed to giant beetles.

From 90-100, highPlains boura, these are aggressive and just like giant beetles they are 3 slots, so when you gather you have to do them one at a time. Best is to get a L shaped cage in your house open one end and drop one in then repeat. When you train, stand at the corner of the L and discord all of them.

100 to above, cu sidhe. I am around 83 right now, so, soon I will convert to highplains boura. This list has been worked out great. I am no power gamer so I usually macro something that repeats a lot of times and just sit next to the computer do something else, let it be studying, playing street fighter or watching tv whatnot. I have gained 33 points since I started 3 days ago just with casual playing. I personally recommend this . Also for macro, the enhanced interface saves a lot of time when u set it up.

 

[Fingers of Cats]

Working up Disco and Peace, got them both pretty high, now if I can just find a 120 peace, music and Disco on Catskills

 

[milk]

to add on to what i posted yesterday.

Lowland Boura works really nice. It should have no problem bring one's disco to 100 (barding difficulty 87).

With Highplains Boura, techinically going to 120 is also a no problem.

Cu Sidhe is actually the only high barding difficulty animal that is not aggressive however taming it require you to be an elf. For human players like me and who do not want to bother people all the time to tame alot of them, High Plains Boura is a good alternative. The barding difficulty for High Plains boura is 97. Hope this helps.