Greater Dragon, Frost dragon, Shadow Wyrm?

[SouthPaw]

Greater Dragon
Frost Dragon
Shadow Wyrm

Are any of these worth getting these days? Since corpse skin was fixed last patch, is the Shadow Wyrm better?

I'm surprised I virtually never see people hunting with these pets. I'm mainly interested in these because scrolls are virtually impossible for me to get and they can have over capped skills. I saw an old thread where just about everyone was bashing the shadow wyrm despite its very high strength and base damage. What's wrong with it?

 

[Pawain]

I'm surprised I virtually never see people hunting with these pets.

Because they are big and Flappy! They were reason other pets were able to become better.

 

[SouthPaw]

Where does shadow wyrm spawn?

 

[Pawain]

Go past snakes in Destard and down a level. If not there go one more down. Be ready to invis and move stuff around.

 

[Basara]

GDs with overcapped physical still get used a bit when people need a tank.

FD are hard to get just from the scarcity of the level 7 Tram/Fel maps they come from. If you do get one, they are superior in some aspects to the GD, and mine works better against against the dragon in the Belfry than most of my other pets.

Shadow Wyrms, I don't have any experience with.

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

Shadow Wyrms have so much potential that was wasted. They can spawn with up to 1,030 STR (WAY overcap, far more STR than any other pet, 1,100+ when they Bless themselves), and have 29-35 Base Damage (also overcap, the only pet that i've seen that has overcap Base Damage), which would make them absolute melee monstrosities. However, they max at 125 Stamina (and so swing 0.25 secs slower than 150 Stam), they max at GM Wrest (and so have a harder time landing hits than 120 Wrest pets), and have 0 MR. They know both Magery and Necromancy, yet don't know any melee specials like AI, and once they blow all their Mana, they're very slow to regain it due to the 0 MR. They also have low total Resists. At least they fixed them casting Corpse Skin...

Shadow Wyrms always spawn at 5 slots now. Back when Pub 97 was first on TC, they could spawn as 4 Slots due to having 280-300 Health after tame. However, so many people complained about the low health, that the devs gave them the full 560-600 Health after tame, which made them completely incapable of spawning as 4 slot, and therefore ruining their true glass cannon potential. Even a 280 HP Shadow Wyrm would've been immensely powerful for pure damage potential if you could give it 150 Stam, 120 Wrest, 30 MR and AI. The heavens themselves would quake with terror and rain blood if a Shadow Wyrm could learn Chiv.

Some of the data here is outdated (such as the DEX and ability to inflict DP), but most of it is accurate. Shadow Wyrm - UOGuide, the Ultima Online Encyclopedia

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

Funny thing though, is that Skeletal Dragons are actually even more powerful than Shadow Wyrms (they actually go up to 200 DEX, are completely immune to Poison Status, have better overall Resists), and yet with the Necro Mastery "Command Undead" you can control 2 Skeletal Dragons at once, and they both gain Life Leech from your Necro/SS skill, allowing them to self heal through dealing melee damage.
Skeletal Dragon - UOGuide, the Ultima Online Encyclopedia

 

[Khaelor]

Funny thing though, is that Skeletal Dragons are actually even more powerful than Shadow Wyrms (they actually go up to 200 DEX, are completely immune to Poison Status, have better overall Resists), and yet with the Necro Mastery "Command Undead" you can control 2 Skeletal Dragons at once, and they both gain Life Leech from your Necro/SS skill, allowing them to self heal through dealing melee damage.
Skeletal Dragon - UOGuide, the Ultima Online Encyclopedia

I've complained to Khyro about this several times, which he then reminds me that they can be lost easily (disconnects, crashes, gating), their skills don't start out gm and new ones still have to be acquired every time you play.. I still call a little bit of bs on the ability to control two of highest base damage pets in the game and still be a full caster.

 

[SouthPaw]

I found a Frost Dragon on a vender last night. It had 120 wrestling and other skills were nicely over capped too. I was very tempted to buy it. Only thing that held me back is I can't add mana regen, 150 stam/dex, or max resists, STR was a little under 600. If only I could scroll up my pre-patch white wyrm.