Greater Dragon "ratings" problem

[sterger7]

I'm trying to figure out how to buy the 'best' dragon I can. I've been gone for 10+ years so some things I'm trying to figure out.

How can you tell if a greater dragon is trained or not trained? If you can't 'really' tell if it's partially trained, how can you tell how good it 'will' be? obviously stats wont change and Im guessing HP.

I'm reading that a greater drag with like 120+ tact/wrestling is much much much stronger than one with lower skills. But does a new tame have have those skills by default? Most dragons I'm seeing are in the 90's on tact/anat, how can you tell what they will 'train' to? Do people just buy untrained then with high stats and hope for the best?

I guess that's the confusion I have now. It seems the calculator can give a false good rating when it's actual combat effectiveness is much lower than a 4.3 might suggest if say the tact/wrestling/resists aren't as good, but the stats are great?

 

[Barry Gibb]

How can you tell if a greater dragon is trained or not trained? If you can't 'really' tell if it's partially trained, how can you tell how good it 'will' be? obviously stats wont change and Im guessing HP.

You can certainly tell if the dragon has had some training. Look at its Anatomy skill, once tamed goes to 0.0. If the dragon has between 0.0-30.0 Anatomy, it has seen next to no training (since anatomy is easy to gain). The more anatomy it has, the more combat/training it has seen, so it has gained in skill.

But does a new tame have have those skills by default? Most dragons I'm seeing are in the 90's on tact/anat, how can you tell what they will 'train' to? Do people just buy untrained then with high stats and hope for the best?

When looking at wild dragons (never previously trained), here is how to figure out its tamed values:
Hit Points & STR = wild value / 2
Mana & INT = unchanged
Stamina & DEX = don't worry about it can be retrained to 125
Resists = unchanged
Wrestling, Tactics, Resist Spells, & Magery = 0.9 x wild value
Anatomy, Meditation, & Eval INT = don't worry about it can be trained to 100.0

When looking at fresh tamed dragons (0.0-30.0 Anatomy), only the following skills need to be calculated:
Wrestling, Tactics, & Resist Spells = tamed value / 0.8
The calculation may be off by 0.1, depending if it gained in one of those skills when getting up to 30.0 Anatomy.

When tamed, a dragon will drop to 0.72 x wild value for all skills except for Magery. These skills will have new skill caps which are 0.90 x wild value or GM (which ever is higher). This is the value it can be trained up to. Magery will drop to 0.90 x wild value, which is also the dragon's new cap. It will only require retraining after death, since it loses Magery.

I guess that's the confusion I have now. It seems the calculator can give a false good rating when it's actual combat effectiveness is much lower than a 4.3 might suggest if say the tact/wrestling/resists aren't as good, but the stats are great?

Some stats and skills are not as important as others. The PPC is a good, common benchmark tool to compare pets to, but it should not supercede personal preference. Not everyone uses it because of this. One thing to also consider, your stat/skill preference may shift for other pets.

Stayin Alive,

BG

 

[sterger7]

Wow, great info exactly what I'm needing thanks. I want to start looking for a 4.4+ on pac or atlantic But didn't want to screw myself getting something
with low wrestling/tactics caps or low hp. Ummm so let me see if I understand?

If a newly tamed G-Dragon has 80 wrestling (and 0-30 anatomy) I can deduce that it will have 100 wrestling when fully trained (or
within 1 point of it), this also goes for tactics resisting and magery right?

Thanks a ton. so I just look for something with real nice HP 980+ 95+ ish tact/wrestlnig untrianed etc etc and I'm looking pretty good
if it has good resists.

Lastly, do you generally want even resists or stacking high physical is best I'm guessing?

 

[Barry Gibb]

Lastly, do you generally want even resists or stacking high physical is best I'm guessing?

Higher is always better. You can find the resist range for Greater Dragon's here: http://uo.stratics.com/database/view.php?db_content=hunters&id=2585. You will definitely want high Physical and Fire Resists, they are the wheelhouse of the dragon. A fresh tamed dragon with good resists and 95.0 Wrestling and Tactics (can train to 118.7) will be a good dragon. You can still try to find one with higher skills, while training/using that one. Wrestling can be as high as 130.5 (pre-tame of 145, fresh tamed value of 104.4). Tactics can be as high as 126.0 (pre-tame of 140, fresh tamed value of 100.8).

Stayin Alive,

BG