First, please understand I have been in this game a couple days. I have at least GMd more chars than most would wish to.
Honestly....it was always FAR easier to GM or leg a fighter skill in this game than it was to GM tame.
Now....I have a secondary acct I am using for my kids. Both want to be tamers. At 85 to 90 on both of them taming and lore....I can't even control a lesser hiryu. So at master or near level...the most a new person can send at you is a bunch of bears.
Still want to WHINE about tamers?
I don't think you are looking too hard. There are plenty of pets available for lower-mid level players, yeah, maybe these pets cant wtf pwn a darkfather like a greater dragon, but a player with 90-100 skill shouldn't be expecting to do so anyway.
Examples:
Pack instinct (+25% damage per pet in pack) pets:
Bull: Believe it or not... a pack of bulls can do pretty well. There was a guy on siege who hunted pks with a pack of bulls, and yeah, killed some of the more hapless ones, made many others run.
Grizzly/polar bears: Take very little taming/lore to control 100%, and after a day of training 4 or 5 in tandem can easily kill mid level monsters like demons with a bit of vetting.
Scorpions/spiders: Can only have 2 in the pack, but they can inflict greater poison, which helps.
Dire wolves: Very similar to bears, have better overall resists, and do more damage.
Hell hounds/cats: Like dire wolves but better yet. I have personally mowed down dragons with ease with my trained hellhound pack.
Frenzied Ostards: Next step up from hell hounds. Even stronger. Require less taming.
Non pack pets:
Gaman: Yes they don't do much damage, but they have great resists for low taming, one slot pets. At very least they can tank pretty well.
Drakes: Good resists, very high strength, good hps, fireballs... Very capable pets. Two can do well with many stronger monsters. Requires only 84.3 taming.
Kirin/unicorn Takes around 100 taming to control well, but you can ride them, and they kick pretty decent butt, especially in pairs.
Bake Kitsune: And better yet, requiring less taming than dire wolves, bake's have some of the best resists of ANY pet, and can really dish out the damage. These guys are pretty much good to go anywhere in the game, (peerless included) once trained up. They may not match damage output of higher pets, but they can live, and do good damage in their own right. FAR and away best power/durability per skill point required pet in the game.
Rune beetle: Everyone seems to forget these guys only require 93 taming. One of the better damage output pets, and almost invulnerable to poison, and can be paired up with any of the above pets.
Nightmare Ridable, 2 slots, quite strong.
Dragon/white wyrm They aint what they used to be, but can be controlled pretty well with gm taming lore, and can hold their ground pretty well. Also pairable with any of the above 2 slot pets.
So there you have it. A lonnnnng list of pets from 50 skill to 100 all of which can handle quite a lot, some of which are appropriate (if not optimal) for any monster in the game.
I would also like to add, that taming, while tedious to train is not HARD (unless you worked in back in 98, that was sheer hell). It's just boring. There are many more stressful, and difficult skills to train. Taming is easy. Especially if you get the advanced character. All you have to do is get some savage kin paint, head to the savage village, to the ridgeback pen, and tame till 110. The savages will kill the instantly after you tame them, and they instantly respawn. They will take you to 120 if you can take the time involved.
And along with that, the commonplace nature of skill+ jewels, training is easier (since you can quickly boost yourself up to "sweet spot" taming levels such as bulls and ridgebacks, then take them off when you can tame them normally) and even unnecessary, since tamers don't NEED any special jewels to be capable, like mages and warriors do, they can function perfectly well with 90 skill and 2 insured +15 taming jewels.
