Taming difficulty of new Greater Dragons is Disappointing

[Guest]

When I heard that it took 3 people over an hour to tame one on Test Center I thought how wonderful, a real challenge. Then I go to Destard yesterday and it was a complete lie.

First, Super Dragons are not rare. About half the Dragons spawning in Destard turned out to be one. I thought they were going to be like paragons, 1 out of 20.

Second, the first two I went after were tamed first try. First try! We went on to tame about 2 dozen. It was a bit more work to tame than a normal Dragon, but no where near the difficulty I would expect a Super Dragon to be. I was at least hoping for pre-Publish 16 taming difficulty of normal Dragons.

 

[Llewen]

I think you'll find there are a lot that disagree with you. If you are very good and very experienced, these dragons aren't too difficult to handle, but they are definitely the hardest of all the tameables to tame, and unless you are very good at pvm, farming them is extremely difficult. I expect pre-publish 16 you didn't know even half of what you know now, nor were you anywhere near as skilled. There is no going back to those days for you I expect.

I'm also pretty sure that the point of these dragons was not to make them rare, but to make dragons in general much more of a challenge, and to introduce the first five slot pet. I think the devs succeeded in both goals very admirably.

 

[imported_Sarphus]

I believe the rarity of the super dragons changed prior to their release. I'm pretty sure the dragons used to spawn as rougly a 1:10 rate, but now they spawn staticly. In other words, any spawn point that is spawning a greater dragon will always spawn a greater dragon. I suspect they did this to keep the super dragons out of champ spawns.

As for taming difficulty; if you're good at lead taming, you can lead tame them solo. You could on TC too... If you got em on the first try, you got lucky. I am maxed out on taming skills and rarely get them on the first try. I've tamed about a dozen so far, but I kill most of the dragons I see. I tamed a few early on as I was getting a feel for what I was looking for (and getting drags for my guildmates) and now I'm being a lot more picky. I haven't seen a dragon posted on this board yet that I would have kept for myself.

Some super dragons are harder to tame than others. They have so many stats that can impact how hard they are to tame that you can't say "this one was a joke to tame" and conclude that all greater dragons are a joke to tame.

If the dragon has really high HP, its fire breath can make it challenging to tame.

If a dragon doesn't have 160 barding difficulty, you can probably peace tame it. I'm not sure why you'd want to, though. The stats determine bard difficulty, so if a dragon is < 160 bard difficulty pre-tame, it has sub-par stats/skills.

If the dragon has really high magery, it can poison you with more than first tier poison.

If the dragon has really high wrestling it will rarely miss you if you fail to stay away from the pointy side of the dragon.

Some people find these dragons very difficult to tame. Some don't. I think a lot of people would be complaining if these dragons were much tougher to tame.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

I expect pre-publish 16 you didn't know even half of what you know now, nor were you anywhere near as skilled. There is no going back to those days for you I expect.

[/ QUOTE ]
No, taming was hard because it was hard. You only have Grandmaster, no 120. It took roughly 20 attempts to tame a Dragon. Taming one was a real achievement.

With Bonding, once you have a Super Dragon it is unlikely you will ever lose it. I was hoping it would take quite an effort to get one.

 

[Guest]

maybe you should have been taming the one I got last night, took me over an hour and 3 deaths. Maybe I'm just not as good at it as you.

I peaced from the back of an ethy, dropped off the ethy when the peace succeeded. If I angered it more than twice the peace broke and I either ran fast enough or got bit, or I tried to run and he para'd me. I also didn't have an all 70s resist suit.

I've just given that one to a guy I met at the stable, he'd gone from Glorious to trustworthy trying to tame one.

 

[Guest]

Are you guys lowering their health to below 1/5? After that all you have to do is watch out for teleporting which they like to do.

 

[imported_Yalp]

We've been group taming on BAJA shard.. taking it down to almost dead (ie under 200 hp) and it can still take out the tamer in one shot, teleporting or no. One trick we have found is to repeated invising of tamer.. keeps the dragon confused.. and with high enough taming.. 1, 2, 3rd try usually does the trick. Although .. any dragons OVER 1900 HP pre-tame take up to 30 minutes to get tamed, requiring repeated beat downs.

It's a good system and for the past two days we've been doing well with group taming, making sure everyone gets one.. so much so .. the spawn is almost dead in Destard...

 

[imported_infiniti]

I want to come over to your shard JCB and see you tame these new creatures in one and without the deaths that come with it.

 

[Rand al'Thor DR]

I had a hard time. I have 120 taming, 120 vet and 120 lore. But I have no other special skills. So I had to bring in a Cu, knock its health down, recall out, and then spend time taming, angering, running and dying. Often times I had to bring the Cu back and start over. It was quite a challenge for me. It took me 1 hour 15 mins, solo, with about 18 deaths.

 

[Guest]

I should also mention I had someone helping me with heals.

 

[Guest]

some have better AI than others, and a lot of it is just luck. there is no skill to a RNG, the only skill is knowing what to do to stay alive:

-use a suit with all 70s in at least physical / fire / and energy
-DCI if possible
-max casting if you use magery
-make sure you use a staff of pyros or have some sort of wrestling or weapon skill to avoid melee hits
-tab out when dragon attacks so you dont hit
-use invisibility spell to break attacks up if possible, or confusion potions (or heal potions and cures, etc, if you have wrestling)
-beat the dragon down (EVs and or Cu Sidhe) to 300 or less hit points if possible and stop taming when it gets to about half life, because by then it is doing 40-50 hp firebreath again. If you're on a mage w/ eval, it is sometimes easier to joust a dragon with spells if you have a slayer book


anyway, on Test, I tamed one that had full health because on Test you can have way better equipment than you'll ever have on production. so if anything, Test was 10 times easier for me than production.

also, the hardest thing to tame in the game is a rune beetle, in my experience. the poison and corruption can be deadly for the solo non-peace tamer doing lead-on

 

[Llewen]

<blockquote><hr>

I should also mention I had someone helping me with heals.

[/ QUOTE ]
Well having someone help you tame anything always makes things much easier.

 

[Guest]

I'd have liked to see a higher taming requirement, if only because I think the fire steed is like a bad joke for tamers and this beastie, to me, is THE pet to have. It's the kind of pet that should be in the fire steed's place, just not that colour lol.

They can be tough to tame, but if you get one isolated it's much easier than I found reptalons for example.

I'm using my bard to disco then her 2 kitsune beat them to a sliver of health, then I switch to Ailsa to tame to save time stabling

Orange petals are so handy

, my armour's not quite all 70s but I take them down to a tiny bit of health. Then eat a petal, stealth to them or run in and hold down tame key. Once I get started taming I invis and sometimes need a second invis during the tame. Had a few teleports, but I'm sure I'll meet the serial teleporter soon enough hehe.

Wenchy

 

[Vincia Eaglehorn]

well you said WE

there is no creature which is really difficult to tame in a group. its easy in a group.

go and tame one alone ...then you see the difference to other creatures.

i tamed my 2 alone, i died a few times, because the firebreath-spell combos are deadly without a mount ... but its possible and it takes a while, so i wouldnt say the difficulty is disappointing and i doubt you are the super tamer who tames them alone easily

i helped a lot to others and only one time i got one at first try (as legendary) ... this is pure luck .... sometimes i needed more than 10 times (worst case).
i can tame cus really quick ...2-5 tries so i think the taming needed to tame one is over 101 .... not sure but i think i tame even firesteeds faster and they need 106 ... maybe its the same

 

[Guest]

Well, I can confirm it requires 104.7 taming. Strange the fire steed still requires more...

I was just curious if it required more than 100 taming. Tried that out on Test Center, and yup, it required more. Bumped taming up to 105 and found that awesome blue sign *You begin taming the creature.* Ran away, bumped taming down to 104.7 (since that one Japanese site reported 104.7 taming requirement). Got the taming message again. Bumped it down to 104.6 taming, and I got the message that I have no chance taming the creature.

The numbers say that this creature should be difficult to tame, and experience tells me too. The lowest amount of deaths I've gone through with lead taming (no honor, no peace, just beat down the fella to half health, which really didn't help anyway) is one, and that's with only 107.5 taming. Plus, I didn't have anyone helping me.

With help though, I'm sure I can tame these fellas easily.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

there is no creature which is really difficult to tame in a group. its easy in a group.

[/ QUOTE ]
We used to have 3-4 people all working together to tame Dragons/White Wyrms and it was a lot more difficult than getting a Super Dragon.

 

[imported_Sarphus]

I've been playing UO since the release and have never thought it was particularly difficult to tame stuff.

I don't abuse creatures before I tame them. I just lead tame them. I've been lead taming these new dragons, but have found them harder to lead tame than lead taming a classic dragon ever was.

I think it's only "too easy" for you because you have lots of help... if you're not happy with the challenge, do it alone and don't beat up the dragon first... It's still doable, but probably more fun.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

I should also mention I had someone helping me with heals.

[/ QUOTE ]

LMAO. Yeah, that MIGHT just have a "little" bit to do with your success. Go solo and tell me how easy they are lol............................

 

[Olahorand]

The only help I got was a mage from my second account on standby on the second PC to ress my tamer.
It was fact for me (even with 70 resist in fire and phys) - angering the beast = dead for my tamer walking around without mount.

So I was happy enough, that after the 4th or 5th dead the beast got not angered and not even attempted to eat my 120 skill tamer while taming him.
And no, I did not beat down the dragon before.
*Salute*
Olahorand

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

When I heard that it took 3 people over an hour to tame one on Test Center I thought how wonderful, a real challenge. Then I go to Destard yesterday and it was a complete lie.

First, Super Dragons are not rare. About half the Dragons spawning in Destard turned out to be one. I thought they were going to be like paragons, 1 out of 20.

Second, the first two I went after were tamed first try. First try! We went on to tame about 2 dozen. It was a bit more work to tame than a normal Dragon, but no where near the difficulty I would expect a Super Dragon to be. I was at least hoping for pre-Publish 16 taming difficulty of normal Dragons.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well then you where extremely lucky and I was extremely unlucky...I tamed two of them today mysefl on europa...the first one alone which was a bi... the second with a help of a peacer..which was easy...him healing and inivising...The hardest part was getting past that "you anger the beast" part...first one I had 64 attempts before the taming message came up...then I failed...well I am "only" at 120 taming and lore (real skill) so naturally I will have a statistical 30% succeed rate...well there I was unlucky to I got the bugger on the 7th "real" attempt...took me 2 hours...alone...well I dont have peace on my tamer...I stoned disco and music for medi and resist (the para hits with teleporting are annoying)

My second draggy I tamed with a help of a peacer...that was fairly easy...if you have the timing right and you get the "you anger the beast" message in and he manages to peace you can do this fairly fast

 

[Llewen]

I've been farming them, killing the ones I didn't want to keep, and using honour to tame the rare one that met my standards. I can tell you that even with level two honour, and 120 taming, there is a good chance you will run out of honour protection time before you get the bugger tamed. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the toughest of all the tameables to tame - as it should be.

I guess hiryus are still slower to farm because only one spawns in a large area, and it isn't always easy to find that one (although something tells me they spawn somewhere else as well, I should check that out...).

 

[Thuba]

I died 20x yesterday.. it was great. My best tame so far is a beetle

. I'm new.
I went in with a real tamer and he was probably super mad by the time i was done killing him over and over.

But i got to use my Rez for the first 90 times.. and learned you need to heal after a rez

and how to peace and that pathing sucks only when your dead near a dragon. Was killed in 1 shot 1 step into the cave.. 1 stinkin step.

IT was by far the most fun..

figured i'd stand in front of the entrance: Rez for donations.. make a fortune

.

Zamphir Panflute:
Peace/Tamer/Mage well actually not yet.....