Little story, big surprise !

[jeza]

This is a story for those who wonder : are the old school pet still useful ?


Last week I found a very nice Bake , I was planing to go hunt with my old rune and my new bake but of course just when my bake bonded I found a very good rune, so I tamed it and gave my old one. meaning that I have to wait another week before being able to play as I planed.

So instead I was working the champ spawn in the twisted weald with my uber GD (4.4 on the pet calc, not fully trained yet but at least GM everywhere 110 wrest at the moment 116.1 magery). I was looking for some SOT and maybe one or two arties thanks to the paragons.

I had been playing for hours and nothing, impossible to improve the spawn (first level with dryads and centaurs) and my GD was just soooo slow to kill the paragons. I was bored out of my mind and thinking that it would have been so much better with my rune/bake and a good training for the bake ....

And that's when boredom made me decide to try pairing my WW with my bake instead of the rune.
It's a very good WW but not trained 85 ish in every skill but anatomy (30) and the bake is freshly bonded, 45 wrest, 20 anat 75ish in the other skills.

So I wasn't expecting doing better than my GD, I just wanted to see what would happen.... BIG surprise : they were killing the para centaurs in half the time the GD did

Of course I had to vet from time to time when the GD never needed help. But it wasn't that much and they were doing so well that I though ... and what about the swoop ?

Well they killed it as fast as any freshly tamed GD ever did and with less vet !

So maybe next time you go to ice you should go look for a nice WW to tame instead of using those as training dummy for your GD or Cu

I have to admit though that I got mine because I like having one of each "big" pet, but I never planed using it for the big hunts.

Now I'm looking on the Stratics Hunter's Guide to see witch mobs are weak against physical, cold or energy damage.
The damage they do isn't that important because between them the bake and WW have 70 phy 86 fire 88 cold 53 poison and 60 energy resist, it's just a matter of choosing the appropriate one to tank

Jeza/Ehlana

 

[[JD]]

Cool story, I know WW have been getting the snub from Tamers lately as everyone upgrades to GD.

And when it comes to 3 slot pet, again WW get the snub because Rune Beetle's damage output is just so insane.

But the cool thing about WW is it does a bit of damage, also its easier to keep alive. And perhaps its attacks and resists are just right for certain things where a Rune Beetle might die.

I might just go tame one myself

 

[Demoquin84]

I like the Wyrm. My 4.1 just bonded with me so i am waiting for a 2 slotter to bring along with him for company. What's better to pair with? Bake or Mare?


I think i just like the coloring of the Wyrm better than any of the other dragons. Wish there was a black one or any other solid one like in D&D.

 

[jeza]

Well I've just begun to hunt with my WW so I'm no expert, and I'll try both just to be sure, but I would think that the bake is the best choice.

The mare doesn't do as much damage as a bake, specially if you manage to find a bake with 145 dex or close, and it's resist are way weaker.

And sure the WW is a better tank than the rune, not a "real" tank like a GD or even a Cu but better than the rune anyway.But it kills way slower too, doesn't have the special attack, the poisoning, the above GM eval int and the high dex.
So It really needs to go with a strong pet, it can't make it up for the weakness of the mare as the rune can.

To be honest the only reason why I prefer a mare above a bake to pair with a beetle is because I hate walking
And being able to ride can save both our lives.

 

[Taylor]

Despite the issue convenience jeza mentioned, I prefer a bake over a mare. They are similar in many ways, but a bake has tons more mana, which means more spells.

However, like jeza pointed out, you'll be on foot.

 

[Demoquin84]

And knowing is have the battle

 

[Jimmy Pop]

So using a pet who attacks the lowest resist of the target does a better job? OMG who would have thunk it?!?

Centaurs Resist Max
55/45/35/55/45 <- COLD is the lowest

Dragons Attacks
100% Physical

White Wyrm
50% Physcial 50% COLD

I'd think a Cu would do even better....

Cu Sidhe
50% Cold 50% Energy

Always consider targets resist and pets attacks when hunting
It pays to know targets attacks and pets resists as well

 

[Taylor]

Cu is beautiful in the Abyss, especially at the fire champs. Cold/energy damage ftw, and if things get too heated, you just hop on and ride away.

My secret to collecting imbuing ingredients: necro/tamer. Essence of Order is selling on Atlantic for around 600k/10. Cu with cold damage + wither damage = order mini-champ pwnage. Spend an hour alone there, make a couple million gold. Simple as that.

 

[LionUWF]

my favorite pairing by far when im not using the usualy GD or CU is a fire steed and Ww fully trained, there two just seem to compliment each other even though they are opposites.

 

[Llewen]

Greater dragons and dread war horses are the flavour of the month for pvm and pvp respectively. It seems that all of UO has forgotten how deadly various pet combinations can be. A well chosen combination of pets will kill faster than a greater dragon in the vast majority of contexts in UO. The only context they won't kill faster in is one in which you simply can't keep them alive, but a greater dragon can be kept alive.