Taming question

[Phatcat]

Quick question.

I'm currently at around 86 taming and everything I read says to tame Great Hearts and Grizzlies. I spend hours in Ish taming Great Hearts and am getting very very few gains. I spent 3 hours training tonight and in total ended up gaining .3 last night I spent 2 hours and didn't gain at all . Is it normal for it to be this slow or am I doing something wrong?

 

[Nenime]

Hehe, another frustrated tamer

Great Hearts, Grizzlies, and Snakes all matches with your skill height (62% success chance). As far as I remember I went to Malas ice fields and tamed mostly White Wolfes (50 %). But as the spawn isn't thrilling I soon went to Tokuno Homare-Jima and started with Gamans (42.8 %). There are allways several of them and they spawn almost immediately.

And no, you're doing nothing 'wrong'. At the 80's the skill gaining speed lowers noticeably and in the 90's it will lower even more and so on. Don't bother! You're a tamer now Being this means to learn something about patience and endurance. It's almost philosophical ...

No, seriously: It's about numbers, not time you spent. See, when you craft or use a melee skill, the apply rate pro certain time is much higher hence the chance for a skill gain is higher too. Plus, the higher you get, the more often you must use your skill to get a gain. So speeding up taming is the key.
The first thing (you probably did) is to put up a taming makro - best with a single key trigger. Then find a place with plenty of adequate pets. Keep running from pet to pet and spam your makro. More taming attemps = faster skill gain.

Little advice : Don't rush taming or you will miss a lot of fun. Taming is only a pain if you desperately want to gain. Take it easy, try other targets and alternate with taming/hunting periods. It's better for your blood pressure

Good luck

 

[UO Relic]

I used bulls myself, there is a nice little farm on 1 of the Jhelom islands that has 3x bulls that will constantly respawn there. So easy to tame,release,kill and repeat with no searching for animals.

Best bet is if another tamer shows let them do the first tame then u go for 2nd tame on same bull, he gets tougher to tame after another player has tamed him so better chance at a gain at higher levels for you. Used to be that 5 different people could tame a bull with it getting harder to tame after each success great for group training at higher levels.

When you get bored of bulls can also try adding jewlery to boost yur taming to try higher end animals/monster

 

[Nenime]

When you get bored of bulls can also try adding jewlery to boost yur taming to try higher end animals/monster

Ah yes, right! I completly forgot about that. Think about getting a powerscroll. As far as I know you can add up to 35 skill points (2 x 15 jewellery plus 5 with this reward talisman). You're at 120 then and able to tame Ki-rins/Unicorns with 50% success chance and can donate them to the zoo. This way you can add an additional motivation while gaining. By the time you've obtained your full set of Zoo Armor you should be Legendary. *giggles*

 

[The_Ox]

I haven't worked taming for a while now but I found server jumping was the best for me. get a gain then recall to another location, get a gain and recall, it seemed to work well when I was training a few months ago.

 

[Tina Small]

Phatcat, you probably already know this, but I thought I'd mention just in case you didn't: You won't gain from retaming an animal you previously tamed. (You will, however, have a harder time and thus maybe a better chance at getting a gain, from taming an animal someone else tamed and released.)

If you want to continue taming great harts in Ilshenar, you'll have to be sure to release and then kill off the ones you've already tamed. What I've found works well is to bring along a good supply of bandages and then tame two great harts. Release one and then have the other one kill the one you just released. You'll have to vet the one that's still tamed, so you'll get some vet gains too. Then tame another one to replace the dead one, release the other one and kill it. Repeat repeat repeat.

At the level you're at, you could also try polar bears and white wolves.

 

[uoBuoY]

At 86 your best gainers are White Wolves, Deathwatch Beetle, Snake, Great Hart, Grizzly Bear, Giant Spider, Snow Leopard, Panther and lastly Grey Wolf.

Ice Island is great for 86: 100s of White Wolves and Snow Leopards.

Or jewel up and tame Gaman in Kitsuni Woods. It's a very safe area. Try this. Tame a bunch of Gaman and then kill a Tsuki Wolve or a Bake Kitsuni with your pack. Keeping them alive is challenging and good training for you, the tamer. Also puts some gps and hides in your pack. But mostly, it breaks up the boredom!

Try this site:
http://www.tamingarchive.com/main/whattotame.php?skill=98.2

 

[Phatcat]

I have a ring that brings me up to about 96. Been taking it off when I tame hearts. Wasn't gaining when I had it on. Haven't used any Power Scrolls yet. Not sure if its still the cast but I had heard something a long time ago about training becoming harder if you used them before you GMed the skill. Plus everyone wants a ton of gold for them. I'll break down eventually and get them.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll try some of these out. I love being a tamer and I don't mind it taking a long time. I was just a bit worried when I would go a few hours without a single gain. I've been taming and killing the hearts so I know I'm getting fresh ones. Doing a bit of over kill on the spells but I'm getting decent Eval and Mage gains from it. Made the mistake of taking 4 Great Harts and trying to kill a paragon Great Heart. lol Here I thought the Gold Heart coundnt be that bad. Didn't die but in the end it wasn't pretty.

 

[Tina Small]

From what I've been told and from what I've experienced myself, it does seem to help to use a power scroll to raise your skill cap. The gains seem to slow down substantially as your skill level approaches the skill cap. You will want to use at least 110 taming and lore scrolls soon anyway because you'll need over GM taming skill and lore (real or with jewelry or talisman bonuses) to own and keep happy most of the more powerful tameables.

 

[Nenime]

I love being a tamer

 

[Basara]

Power scrolls have the following effect on skills gains.

If you would stop gaining at reaching 100% chance of success of an action (taming a specific creature, making a specific item, etc.), a 105 PS would increase your gain limit to the theoretical 105% level, a 110 PS to 110%, etc.

Most skills have 2/1 or 5/2 skill gain rates. For every 0.1 skill you gain, your chance of success will go up 0.2% or 0.25%, depending on the rate the skill goes by. While these are referred to as IIRC "skill gain windows of 50 or 40 points", this is misleading, as some skills start certain actions at better than 0%, and as a result the gain window is less (tailor, for example, starts non-recipe items at 50%, so one only has a window of 25 Points, not counting PS).

I believe Taming is one of these types - but since Stratics is having SQL issues at the moment on the main boards, and the profession forums aren't back up, I can't check.

 

[Nenime]

Basara, thank you for giving this valuable information. And thank you also for giving me the insight that I am a dumbo because I couldn't comprehend ever after the tenth reading. Don't you have anything with pictures? Leastwise I'm smarter than my pets. Hopefully!

 

[Phatcat]

Probably should post this in a trade section but because you all are such nice tamers I figured I'd ask here as well. Anyone selling or know anyone selling any 120 taming/lore scrolls on LS. Went shoping last night with no luck.

Oh! Just wanted to share. I bought some new jewelery last night. Brought my taming up to 100. Went out and tamed my first mare. Took about an hour of "You seem to anger the beast" but I finally got her!!!

 

[Nenime]

Cool! With a Nighty you can go on a hunt quite well. I think you will have the gold for the Powerscrolls in no time
So sorry that I can't give it to you but I'm a native-born Drachy

 

[Phatcat]

I can probably afford one. My problem at the moment is finding one. I looked at ever vendor I could find yesterday. Tons of Powerscrolls but none of the ones I needed. Last week when I wasn't buying they were everywhere. Even people selling a package deal of Taming, Lore, and Vet. I'm sure I'll find one eventually. Just have to keep looking.