Is it really just tame, release, tame, release, repeat, repeat?

[Grash]

I'm new to the game and trying to find myself, so to speak.

Interested in a tamer, but taming goats seems a little counter productive. Do you really wander the land like Kane and tame and release every chicken or deer you come across. I know you have to work up on animals as your skill (slowly) goes up, but how do you make money, kill stuff or even just interact with the game? Please tell me it is not just about grinding up to the highest levels and only then going out into the world to make your mark.

 

[Pazuzu]

I'm new to the game and trying to find myself, so to speak.

Interested in a tamer, but taming goats seems a little counter productive. Do you really wander the land like Kane and tame and release every chicken or deer you come across. I know you have to work up on animals as your skill (slowly) goes up, but how do you make money, kill stuff or even just interact with the game? Please tell me it is not just about grinding up to the highest levels and only then going out into the world to make your mark.

You CAN do that, sure - just OCD-style focus on running from 0-100 Taming before you "do anything fun". A lot of tamers do. I have, on a couple of my tamers.

You could also get a pet, and see what you can kill with it. Sure, you'll probably die a few times, learning what you and your pet(s) can do, but you'll probably have more fun than just grinding taming skill.

It's up to you! UO is more of a "sandbox" than most other games. You really can choose your own path.

 

[Largan]

It all depends on what you want to do with your character. In the beginning there is alot of grinding with tame, release, tame, realease.

But it pays off once you get closer to the higher levels!

For me the tamer char has been played in two periods. The first one was a real grind and not too many powerful pets to play with. I got a pack of wolves that I tried out though. Was fun but no big preys were targeted.

The second one started a few weeks back. I am currently 91 real skill and 117 with jewellry. I absolutely love my tamer and can’t wait till I reach GM and finally (whenever that happens) Legendary Tamer.

It is now I feel the character has become more fun to play with. I tame Cu Sidhe’s. Gotten addicted to it to be honest. Skill gains come when they come. The fun part for me is loring a tamed pet and see what I got. Got a good greater dragon waiting to be bonded (5 more days!) and four 4+ Pet Power Cu’s in the stables. The real fun part now is training pets and trying them out on different monsters.

It is now I am starting to feel that all the grinding in the beginning is starting to pay off. Or rather, it is now I feel good about all the time I spent grinding the skill up.

I still have a long way to go but the road doesn’t seem so boring any more.

I haven’t really started hunting yet but realized the hard way that there is more to hunting with pets than all kill. Which makes it all the more fun.

Okay, not sure I answered your question, guess there is a bit of a rant warning on this post but I just couldn’t help myself.

Guess the condensed message of my post is that gaining skill is needed to reach the higher level pets but the real answer to the question if a starting-tamer is all about just grinding skill or not is in your head, the attitude you have towards it.

The harder it is the gain skill the sweeter the title Grandmaster Tamer, Elder Tamer and Legendary Tamer will feel once you reach it.

 

[[JD]]

I came back after a 10 year break and taming has been slow to raise for me...

My suggestion if you don't want to hate the game you love, do NOT grind it out. One of the things which is cool about magery or weapon training is that you can raise it while "having fun" - I felt there was no longer a need to power it up. Unfortunately with Taming, its still more of a power it up type thing. You can still break up the monotony though. Carve hides off your kills and tailor. Or practice Magery/spellweaving in between tames.

Also start Fellucia taming. Fellucia taming gains are mad fast. I gained 3.5 yesterday when I have been bugged and stuck for the last month. Go naked or insured items only so if murderers get you, they get nothing.

Lastly take a break every now and then and go hunt.

With items, you only need a minimum skill to get Bake Kitsune. Suggest you get them and start learning how pets, vet, aggro, etc all works.

I hit 73.x real skill last night and with items got myself a Cu Sidhe last night.

 

[Pazuzu]

Also start Fellucia taming. Fellucia taming gains are mad fast.

Felucca.

Is this true; are there faster gain rates in Fel?

 

[Yen Sid]

Felucca.

Is this true; are there faster gain rates in Fel?

Myth. Just like saying pets are better when they are from fel. Only thing that is better in fel is resource gathering, i.e. wood, ore, etc.

And to the OP, you can buy up to 40 taming from a stablemaster or vet. There is also the advanced character token which gets you to 85(?). I really had a hard time working on taming, but now that I got it up enough I am having a blast w/ it. Its by far my favorite character now. I am 120 with items so I have Greater Dragons- a 4.2 just bonded 2 nights ago, really happy about training that one up, an bunch of Cu Sidhes- I have a 4.5 I am training as well as a beautfiul pure white one. I suggest you join a guild that has some tamers that can show you the ropes. Its much more fun w/ a few people going out and finding those hard to obtain pets lol. Just have a good time w/ it and don't do it for hours on end if it bores you.

 

[Pazuzu]

Myth. Just like saying pets are better when they are from fel. Only thing that is better in fel is resource gathering, i.e. wood, ore, etc.

I thought so.

Taming has ALWAYS been super-streaky with gains. On my second to last tamer, I went a few days at 99.5, with no gains, then gained the last 0.5 in 5 consecutive tames. It's always been majorly weird.

And there's no shortcuts: if you see someone with 100+ taming, they EARNED it! There's no other way to get there. (Well, except by buying an account of course.)

 

[Frey Wavestrider]

One other thing you can do is go to ice island and tame polar bears then turn them in for zoo pts. As you move up the scale of tameables you can tame the ones that can be turned in for the points. The points can be used to get rewards such as armour. Once you can ring up to the levels of bakes you can get a couple and start hunting, and enjoying that part of the game.

 

[Salya Sin]

I haven’t really started hunting yet but realized the hard way that there is more to hunting with pets than all kill. Which makes it all the more fun.

Thank you for that statement!

My tamer is my favorite charrie... and it is well worth the work you must put into it. I spent HOURS upon HOURS grinding brown bears and polar bears and then white wolves in Ice. Hours taming Unicorns, Cu's... Stratics has an amazing taming chart http://uo.stratics.com/content/skills/anim.php.

That was the best way I came up with to gain. Use the chart... set it to 0 pretames and go with whatever is between 40 and 60% tame chance or you are wasting your time. Also... use jewelry. I did so that I could skip taming alligators when that was the only thing in my 40-60 range. Adjust your mods as you go so that you are able to tame what sounds fun. If you get bored with a certain mob... change jewelry and move to another. With that calculator... you can adjust your skill levels to see what you need to tame what.

Hope that helps. Don't quit... it really is worth it!

 

[DevilsOwn]

what I did was tame one of whatever beast I was on and tell it to guard, tame another and then release the second..... attack the second and keep the first one healed (and yourself ) and you get taming and vet gains with no trouble

 

[Wenchkin]

I'm new to the game and trying to find myself, so to speak.

Interested in a tamer, but taming goats seems a little counter productive. Do you really wander the land like Kane and tame and release every chicken or deer you come across. I know you have to work up on animals as your skill (slowly) goes up, but how do you make money, kill stuff or even just interact with the game? Please tell me it is not just about grinding up to the highest levels and only then going out into the world to make your mark.

You can do different things while your taming to make it less boring and grindy. Don't tame for hours on end, do a few shorter runs during the day for example. I often have radio or TV on in the background so I'm not really noticing the time pass as I train something. I am terrible for having different things on the go at the same time though, v v low boredom threshold here lol.

The other thing I do when I'm training is hit the spawns while I have breakfast. I'm half asleep and too thick to do anything more complicated, so that does me fine. My tamers tend to log out at a taming spot while they're training, so I can easily log them in and grab a few gains while I'm on a break from RL work too.

Once you get around the 85 skill level, you can put skill jewels on and tame things like cu sidhe and trade any good coloured pets (or seek the illusive blaze pup). As you do that, you'll get great lead taming practice and taming gains at the same time. You can also do the zoo turnins and gain points and rewards as you tame.

I won't lie and say taming is a bed of roses to work up, but the end result is a fun character so IMO it's worth the time and effort. And if you don't want to work it up, advanced char tokens will take you to 85. Enough skill to handle bake kitsune Other pets can be controlled if you add skill items to that template. So you don't *have* to work hard at it, if you really don't want to. I'm not keen on the "instant tamer" thing, but it's there and it's a legal way to get there quickly. You can still work the skill up from there, then throw the items when you don't need them.

Wenchy

 

[Metalstorm]

I've only been taming since early March of this year but I've learned enough to know that Wenchkin has hit the proverbial nail on the head.

I can't train for the sake of gaining for more than 1-2 hours a day with out the joy of the game getting sucked out of it.

So I mix it up. I gain train for maybe an hour than I go play. I take which ever strongest bonded pet I have and I go exploring. I've been learning good control and healing tactics from this which prepares me well for the next step up in critter taming.

Then before I log off I will spend maybe an hour (often less) grinding again.

At my current level (109.2) I seem to gain just the same playing as I do grinding and it is so much more enjoyable playing

 

[Scarab]

see, I think this problem partly stems from the addition of all the "high-end" content in the game. there was never any rebalancing of the lower end content. when I first started taming way back when, I travelled the countryside with wolves and would fight your standard overland fel spawn (back before tram existed). back then, fighting off reapers and low end ele's was something of an accomplishment. now people just want to jump straight ahead to balrons, spawning and peerlesses. everything else is worthless

used to be that you could take a leisurely pace about training skills, actually playing the game along the way. maybe you still can do that now, I dunno. maybe I'm being a grumpy old-timer but it just felt like much less of a grind back then

 

[[JD]]

Call it a myth if it makes you feel better, but tell that to my taming gains and those of my 2 tamer friends who have ALL seen a dramatic difference since switching to Fel.

Better pets from Fel is just dumb. Lore easily tells you otherwise.

 

[LordDrago]

I was fortunate enough to be given a 110 taming scroll.

I then quit the grind of taming and jeweled up to taming of 109. I then go out and do whatever I want, and when i feel like it, i go tame a couple of unicorns for gains, and turn them into the moonglow zoo. As my taming hits 110, I drop either the ring or the bracelet down 1 point, so I am back to 109 taming and can keep gaining.

My lore is now 120, and my vet is over 110 working to 120 just through gameplay.

 

[Orgional Farimir]

Myth. Just like saying pets are better when they are from fel. Only thing that is better in fel is resource gathering, i.e. wood, ore, etc.
QUOTE]

I don't think it is a myth... I just came back to the game after a 6 year break. The first char I made was a mage and I was able to GM his magery in just a few days while hanging out at Nj Fel. (and that was doing it with out a LRC suit because I didn't know about it)

A few weeks later I started my tamer and I just sat at the haven bank working magery and my gains came half as fast. Unless they made a change in the 2 week period or the LRC armor slows down gains the only reason for the difference is Tram or Fel.

With my tamer i have been working him for about 6 days now and I have been able to get him from 50 to 78 in those days all from Fel taming.

 

[R Traveler]

There are some pets you can donate to moonglow zoo.

 

[kaio]

Well it can be alot more than.
Tame, release, Tame Release repeat.

There is a few combos you could try..
Fx.
Tame, kill, Tame kill repeat.
Or
Tame, kill, skinn, Tame, kill, skinn repeat.
Or
....
hehe sorry but you are right, Taming is boring to train..but hey just take a few gains now and then, and in no time you will be gm

 

[Kellgory]

If your looking for the fast tamer method then get an advanced char token which you can use to get 85 taming and lore. Then you can equip the Birds of Brit talisman for the extra 5 taming and lore, and if your lucky you might have jewerly to bump your skills up to 110. That should allow you to bond with any pet and while your waiting for them to bond, go ahead and work your skills up. I probably would want to go out and try taming a GD with only 110 skill, but if you know someone with 120 then maybe they would be willing to tame one for you.

Jhelom farms is a good place to train taming by taming, release, kill, and if you have a butcher's war cleaver you can easily collect leather.

 

[Sarsmi]

Myth. Just like saying pets are better when they are from fel. Only thing that is better in fel is resource gathering, i.e. wood, ore, etc.
QUOTE]

I don't think it is a myth... I just came back to the game after a 6 year break. The first char I made was a mage and I was able to GM his magery in just a few days while hanging out at Nj Fel. (and that was doing it with out a LRC suit because I didn't know about it)

A few weeks later I started my tamer and I just sat at the haven bank working magery and my gains came half as fast. Unless they made a change in the 2 week period or the LRC armor slows down gains the only reason for the difference is Tram or Fel.

With my tamer i have been working him for about 6 days now and I have been able to get him from 50 to 78 in those days all from Fel taming.

I read something I think draconi posted about how each 8x8 area has a certain amount of skill points it will give out and when it's drained out it's drained out. They refill slowly over time. So if this is true and I'm not mis remembering I imagine the worst place to train taming is in tram in delucia or ice island, the best places would be out of the way spots in fel or ilsh, somewhere people don't normally try to tame. Someone a while back said they got amazing gains off of the kirin in the kirin passage, I'm betting that no one on their shard ever went out there to train taming so it had lots of points to give...?

May be just another myth though! Kind of an interesting mystery.

 

[Orgional Farimir]

Myth. Just like saying pets are better when they are from fel. Only thing that is better in fel is resource gathering, i.e. wood, ore, etc.
QUOTE]

I don't think it is a myth... I just came back to the game after a 6 year break. The first char I made was a mage and I was able to GM his magery in just a few days while hanging out at Nj Fel. (and that was doing it with out a LRC suit because I didn't know about it)

A few weeks later I started my tamer and I just sat at the haven bank working magery and my gains came half as fast. Unless they made a change in the 2 week period or the LRC armor slows down gains the only reason for the difference is Tram or Fel.

With my tamer i have been working him for about 6 days now and I have been able to get him from 50 to 78 in those days all from Fel taming.

I read something I think draconi posted about how each 8x8 area has a certain amount of skill points it will give out and when it's drained out it's drained out. They refill slowly over time. So if this is true and I'm not mis remembering I imagine the worst place to train taming is in tram in delucia or ice island, the best places would be out of the way spots in fel or ilsh, somewhere people don't normally try to tame. Someone a while back said they got amazing gains off of the kirin in the kirin passage, I'm betting that no one on their shard ever went out there to train taming so it had lots of points to give...?

May be just another myth though! Kind of an interesting mystery.

Back in the day 8X8 is how we trained the hard skills like magery, healing, and so forth. We would jump on a boat and go slow forward until we got a gain and then stop on the spot and work the skill until we wouldn't gain anymore. Then we move forward 8 spots wash rinse and repeat.

If that still works I don't know, but that is how we use to do it.

 

[Wulf2k]

That hasn't worked for quite some time.