So why Rune/Mare over GD or CU?

[Sinister703]

So yeah, I read a lot of posts here and just got my first (bonded) rune/mare combo.

I know it'll be daid that diff pets are situational but WHEN would you use a rune/mare over ofr instance, a CU or GD.

I know the rune/mare give (a bit?) more DPS than a CU but they can't take nearly as much. Plus you have to watch for adds on the mare (because its not a tank). That complicates things.

Now I know this is a very popular combo, so it's got to be pretty good in not jsut one or two situations but many.

Sooooooo, what in situations are they particularly good? Iif I'm jsut roaming the countryside in Tok and run across a Ronin (which is fine even for just a rune) but then get a fandancer add, I'm in a bit of truoble with a rune/mare, no?

Thanks for reading

 

[Llewen]

I know the rune/mare give (a bit?) more DPS than a CU but they can't take nearly as much.

It's not just "a bit", it's a hell of a lot. A rune/mare combo will kill just about anything several times faster than a cu sidhe or a greater dragon, provided you've taken the time to train them, and you've chosen your pets well. You should always take your beetle out of the stable first so that it is the one that tanks.

As for situations. Of course a beetle doesn't tank as well as a greater dragon, but it should also be faster, if you have chosen well, and you will be able to mount and run away from trouble if you need to. Always carry pet balls for both of your pets.

If you are in a situation where someone else brought the greater dragon, your rune beetle will be just the ticket to make the take down happen much much faster. If you are running solo you have to be more careful, and you have to learn how to heal your pets and keep them alive.

Generally for contexts where I am unfamiliar with the surroundings, I will take my dread warhorse. If it is a really high end context that I am familiar with, but I know that keeping the rune alive will be next to impossible, I will bring my greater dragon, but for 99% of the pvm contexts out there, the rune/mare is a smarter choice than the greater dragon.

 

[uoBuoY]

I've spent a fair bit of time farming junk to unravel from Swoop. So I'm able to give you a comparison in that situation. My Tamer uses 120 Disco/Music and all my pets are at least 4.0. I only farm for an hour at a time for max luck so I definitely want the most kills/hour.

The only plus for the Cu and GD is no healing, I can concentrate on looting the last kill and not worry. The GD kills a bit faster than the Cu. If Swoop goes rock-climbing, the Cu is screwed and the GD will take forever. The most undecayed corpses on the ground would be 3-4.

Mares and Kits are fairly similar but for Swoop I prefer a Rune/Kit duo because the Kit has more than 3 times as much Manna compared to a Mare (for the inevitable rock-climbing).

With my Rune/Kit combo, much of time I don't finish looting the last corpse before the death of the current target and I am frantically looting! Sometimes I am looting 2 corpses while my pets are already playing with a new friend. At the worst, I have 3-5 seconds to await the current death. I've had as many as 9 undecayed corpses on the ground.

With GD's an Cu's the looting is much more relaxed/easy and I will still spend 10-15 seconds standing around waiting for the kill.

I would estimate that the Rune/Kit combo is 2-3 times faster than the GD or Cu depending on the situation.

When people with GDs or Cus drop by Swoop and ask for turns, I know I will be standing around an awful lot and they will probably not finish looting before they're up again.

 

[Padre Dante]

I was all set to reply with Swoops(!), but I figured I would read the replies first, in case someone else beat me to it. So, let me second uoBuoY's response and say he did an excellent job.

Swoop is the easiest thing to farm and a rune/mare (or rune/bake) is much much quicker than a GD or Cu - which means more gold and more loot. It's so fast, often I just grab the gold, feathers (for my archer), and take a quick look for parrots and/or item set pieces - ignoring the rest of the loot to get the next Swoop before he heads for the rock sitting.

Honor, discord, "all kill", loot. (rinse and repeat)

 

[Old Man of UO]

... If Swoop goes rock-climbing, the Cu is screwed and the GD will take forever. ....

You may know this already, but it seems many people don't. If you break aggro with swoops when he is on the rocks, he will eventually fly away and come into range. Just say "All Stop" and invis your dragon, or mount you cu sidhe and invis yourself, and the aggro breaks.

 

[uoBuoY]

You may know this already, but it seems many people don't. If you break aggro with swoops when he is on the rocks, he will eventually fly away and come into range. Just say "All Stop" and invis your dragon, or mount you cu sidhe and invis yourself, and the aggro breaks.

The only Swoops that rock-climb on me are the ones that spawn flying straight at the rocks! Not even a hope of pulling the gump or starting an aggro. When it happens I walk my pets around until they manna-up and then attack no matter where the Swoop is.

 

[Storm]

I use a mare bane combo as the ban poisons and has magic and about 600 hp combined with disco and swoop goes down in a very short time and my combo is not even fully trained yet !
I run a macro that sends the bane in then 1 second later the mare so the mare never takes damage this works with sphinx ogre lords and pretty much any thing i have fought so far
the key is the right combo for the right foe

 

[kitiara-atlantic]

Based on this thread, I brought my rune beetle and kitsune out of the stables to whomp on Swoop for a bit. They're minimally trained - 85-90 on the fighting skills. The rune is a 3.8 and the kit is a 3.9.

I pulled the rune out of the stables first to be the tank so that the kit wouldn't take damage.

It was interesting. I don't have discord (just peace), so it took a little bit of time to bring down Swoop (maybe a minute?). I had to vet heal the rune fairly constantly, 25 bandies or so per Swoop. Maybe this is because of their lack of training.

Definitely a fun combo - I plan to try it again, and also am considering training up discord for situations like this (though I think I will always prefer to be a peace tamer!)

Thanks for the inspiration - it was a fun night

 

[Garm The Green]

One thing i migh tadd to the first few posts:

GD can have much higher wrestle than a RB or Mare, thus against a foe like swoop with *very* high wrestle sometimes a GD doesnt actually have bad damage output because a pet at only GM wrestle can find it tough to hit the foe.

This asides Swoop also has very high phys resist, as do many fiends so here GDs also fall down on top of DPS.

When there are a number of tamers, consider how pets can benefit your party.
A (standard or lesser) hiryu will lower phys resist by 15 points, a rune beetle can do corrupt armour making a very potent combo for de-buffing the foe. Any GDs then will be able to benefit from this and you can really make the most of their tremendous Physical damage output.

The hiryu can also have high wrestle and reasonable DPS, so often i will take a hiryu to accompany and compliment my teams GD tank.

With Disco/corrupt/lowered phys resist/curse your target is going to be in big trouble.

So vs swoop, i like GDs because of their ability to hit due to high wrestle and my disco making their attacks more effective, but in most other situations, RB/Mares rock.

TBH though, as utility I like the Cu as a mount/split damage type/bleed/ability to tank reasonably well.

 

[uoBuoY]

...I don't have discord (just peace), so it took a little bit of time to bring down Swoop (maybe a minute?). I had to vet heal the rune fairly constantly, 25 bandies or so per Swoop. Maybe this is because of their lack of training.
...

With my fully trained Rune and Kit (both 4.0) and 120 Disco, I use 2-6 bandies per Swoop. 120 Disco makes a huge difference. Without it I wouldn't farm Swoop...would take toooo long!