Bard Tamer vs. Necro Tamer

[Scarab]

I've had a mage tamer since ... well, I can't remember how long. I know I GM'd Taming long before powerscrolls. anyhow. I took a long hiatus from UO. came back about a year ago. last couple months I've really started to get sucked back in. so after doing some reading, I've decided that I want to revise my build. I happen to have Hide/Stealth on him now (from my thief), but that was a temporary switch to help find a good GD

sans jewels (and before I grabbed stealth), my build is something to the effect of:

110 Taming
110 Lore
100 Vet
100 Magery
100 Eval
100 Med
100 Resist

I've never dabbled in bard skills, but provoke and discord look very appealing. by the same token, I've read much about the effectiveness of the necro tamer. so, what are the pros and cons? help me decide. I am primarily interested in high end PvM ... solo'ing peerlesses and Doom (if possible). don't care so much about PvP, but being viable would be an added bonus. thanks in advance!

 

[Wenchkin]

Make both

The most obvious disadvantage with a bard is the training time and if you go disco/voke tamer it's hard to do without skill items. I found it easier to throw together my necro tamer. But then, I wouldn't drop my bard for anything.

The only real downside I found with my necro tamer is the negative karma induced pixie ganks etc. I have positive karma tamers so I just leave my necro at home it's an issue, but that may affect where you can go with your tamer. You can of course work up the karma beforehand, but it's worth thinking about if that's your only tamer.

Both templates are great fun when you figure them out, I could never choose one over the other myself. But another thing I'm thinking about was the skills you have already. I don't like killing templates entirely so I'd suggest necro tamer simply because I think it would be the easiest adaption from your current template. And quickest. Then if you didn't like it, you could look at making a bard. And there's always test centre!

I'm hoping the more experienced peerless hunters can give you some pointers too, I'm pretty clueless in that respect

Wenchy

 

[Farsight]

Both have advantages and disadvantages.

From a peerless/Doom standpoint, the necro tamer will never run out of mana thanks to forms and proper use of spells. The disco/provoke tamer kills high end things much more quickly.

From a spawning/mid level standpoint, the necro tamer can handle low end spawns much more quickly than the bard tamer.

So I suppose if I had to choose, I'd go necro-tamer.

Myself, I like my mage-tamer.

 

[RichDC]

See the issue ive always had with necro tamers is that there awesome in given situations(champs) but to solo peerless i dont know how you could fit that in and maintain eval, med and vet (for certain peerless...grizz and doom i would say) vet is essential. youll never be able to heal the damge they take from magery alone (even with 2/6casting and unlimited damage) the sheer damage output they do for the solo runs is phenominal!

I just cant see a necro tamer actually being effective at solo doom or solo peerless, champs however there is no faster template tbh.

Id have to agree with wench, make both one for champs one for peerless...you will need vet as i said so stick with your current temp(you could drop resist for spellweaving another nice healing aid and finisher.), then for you champ necrotamer maybe drop vet and med/resist in wraith form you should leech enough mana to not need med.

 

[Scarab]

so am I correct then that the true strength of Necro lies in Wraith form + wither? if that is true, then how does Necro help in a drawn out fight with a peerless? sure, there's the surrounding spawn to begin with and many peerless call in reinforcements, but that's nothing that you couldn't take care of with area peace and some provoking, right?

also, Wenchy: even if I gut this template, the skills won't go to waste. I'm thinking of making a Nox Mage for PvP, so I'm gonna move over anything on the this template that I'm not gonna use

 

[Turdnugget]

For long drawn out peerless fights, a good suit with MR and lich form takes care of that. As long as you've got a good GD/cu sidhe that can tank then there's no need to worry.

If you go the cu route, you can always cast a shadow wisp as well to help restore mana.

It also depends on which necro/tamer template you go with. Some go with med, some with EI... just depends on how you like to play and what you are comfortable with.

 

[mutau]

I'm looking at the template, and i'm wondering, how can you fit necro in? i've been thinking of doing that as well, but i don't know how high to take necro and ss and what skills to drop to accomodate the necro set.

 

[Scarab]

I'm looking at the template, and i'm wondering, how can you fit necro in? i've been thinking of doing that as well, but i don't know how high to take necro and ss and what skills to drop to accomodate the necro set.

well, I think that I would drop Resisting and Meditation. Resisting is really only useful in PvP and Wraith form makes up for lack of Med. but that's just my uneducated opinion

 

[Spiffdaddy]

i know this very old post but cant find any info what im looking for..... is a necro bard set up... any ideas ?? figure get 2 skelly dragons then switch over the masstery to bard after i tell it to guard me... would this even work???? if not what about a bard spellweaver with the charm spell whatever it called allure i think u could charm something then buff it with the songs???

 

[Khaelor]

i know this very old post but cant find any info what im looking for..... is a necro bard set up... any ideas ?? figure get 2 skelly dragons then switch over the masstery to bard after i tell it to guard me... would this even work???? if not what about a bard spellweaver with the charm spell whatever it called allure i think u could charm something then buff it with the songs???

You can only have one mastery active at a time, if you were to try this, you would lose the skeletal dragons. When switching masteries you lose the buffs associated with it

 

[Spiffdaddy]

You can only have one mastery active at a time, if you were to try this, you would lose the skeletal dragons. When switching masteries you lose the buffs associated with it

ok thank you

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

Bard/Tamer wouldn't bring a whole lot to Peerless fights (Despair is really underpowered on peerless), and while it's great at Doom, it's great on a pure Bard. On a Tamer you would be setting yourself up to die a lot as you would get teleported in.

Necro/Tamer could be fun and interesting and you don't necessarily have to go full Necro so would be able to bolster the drawbacks with more defense. For example I'd go something like:

110 Tame
110 Lore
120 Mage
100 Med
60 Necro
100 SS
120 Resist

You would use Wraith Form/Corpse Skin combined with a Fire Beetle with Rune Corruption/AI/Slashing. Alternatively you could replace Resist with Tactics, this would allow you to use Mage Weapons of melee or ranged types, and with the damage you would be able to both drain mana and use Curse Weapon to keep yourself alive (I've done this on a few characters such as my Bard before, using a Heavy Crossbow for the high base damage - but you could easily Imbue/Reforge up some slayer Mage Weapons in 100% fire.

 

[SouthPaw]

My main character was a bard tamer, changed to necromage tamer and I love it!

IMO peacemaking is fairly worthless; I'm sure some people will disagree with that statement, but for me it really was a waste of skill points. Provoke and discord are both nice, but I felt like discord failed too often, the timer was too long, and some bosses are completely immune to it. I also hated that you have to have the music skill, which does nothing for offence/defense, just wasted points for skill check. Also you'll often take the time to provoke stuff only to have other players kill them off.

Necro compliments magery very well, is especially good at champ spawns, and overall just has great damage. Animate dead and the mastery skill Command Undead compliments taming well. Necro and spirit speak were also a lot easier to raise than provoke or discord.

 

[Noir]

The best tammer:

Human - Cast Wraith with scroll or jewells and enjoy.

---------------------------------------------------------
Animal Lore | 120 | 120 | 120 | 0
Spellweaving | 120 | 120 | 120 | 0
Animal Taming | 110 | 110 | 110 | 0
Magery | 100 | 100 | 100 | 0
Spirit Speak | 100 | 89.2 | 100 | 0
Veterinary | 100 | 100 | 100 | 0
Evaluating Intelligence | 100 | 80. | 100 | 0

 

[Flagg]

Aah, thread about Necro tamers getting necrod! How fitting is that??

I'd like to learn a bit more about numbers involved. If I'm going necro mostly for corpse skin, evil omen and wraith form mana...how much does a template with say, 80 Necro/80 spirit speak differ from a proper 120/120 necro? In terms of the strength of the debuff, mana leech and so on.