Thinking about stealth/herding/tamer

[DreadLord Lestat]

I am looking to try something different in taming other than mage/tamer bard/tamer t-hunter/tamer archer/tamer

So I have run a lot of different templates and this one seems interesting. What are the pros and cons? What strategies are used for herding things to tame etc? What can I add in place of herding if I opt to stone that on and off? Thinking maybe ninjitsu or something. What advice can you share? Any other template suggestions that you might enjoy that I did not mention above?

 

[Hattori Hanzo]

Herding looks fun, but I think it was nerfed to much. If you run a Stealth Tamer, Ninja is a must. Animal form with a GD. Dog form while vetting your pet against a boss. Shadowjump.

 

[DJAd]

If you run a Stealth Tamer, Ninja is a must. Animal form with a GD. Dog form while vetting your pet against a boss. Shadowjump.

Hmmmm might have to try this. I have hiding and stealth on my tamer along with mage and eval. I tend to get into position, hide up and let all the mobs attack my GD. I then either stand back healing my pet or fire off spells at the enemy. I think I'll stone off the eval and give Ninja a try.

 

[Hattori Hanzo]

I can vet my pet while it kills Milisande and never heal myself while in Dog form.

 

[DJAd]

Would you recommend 120 ninja or is 100 OK?

 

[Gnoopey]

Would you recommend 120 ninja or is 100 OK?

you'd definitely like to have 120 ninjitsu for the most powerful animal forms (dog/cat or whatever) - I'm having a stealth ninja dexxer template that can switch / use (among) various skills with some soulstones. That lassie is a fencer / archer / thief / tamer depending on my mood and is a lot of fun.

Ninja fencer / thief (720 skill cap)
100 ninjitsu (+20 on jewels)
65 stealth (+25 on jewels, +10 with burglars bandana and +20 with rabbit form if needed)
100 hiding
110 resisting spells (+10 from aegis of grace)
120 fencing (can switch to 100 archery +20 on hunter's headdress)
120 tactics (switching with 40 tactics and 80 stealing - +30 stealing on a 2nd set of jewels and +10 stealing from burglars bandana again)
70 chivalry (to travel and support with EoO etc.)
20 meditation
15 focus

For the ninja tamer configuration, I'll switch fencing, tactics and resisting spells with 110 animal lore, 100 animal taming (+15 on a 3rd set of jewels) and 110 veterinary and put the rest into some more meditation and focus. That 'lassie' is an elf with 260 stats total - 115 STR, 125 DEX and 20 INT. Lots of fun!

As a part of my 2nd account, I have a mage 'ninja' which can 'switch' between taming (95 taming +15, 110 lore, 90 veterinary) / GM herding / GM spellweaving, GM lockpicking, GM detect hidden with the basics of 75 magery (+23), 80 stealth, 70 ninjitsu (+24). This stealth herder can herd / lore while stealthing around - very nice for Reptalon's in the labyrinth or for greater dragons anywhere! This character is human and also very versatile as a support character. It's even also scrolled for 120 music / disco / provo and 110 peace. The most recent use she got in the Exodus dungeon to find hidden chests for the Exodus keys!

 

[Wenchkin]

A stealth herder template can be finished with a range of different skills, just depends where you want to use the character and for what purpose. Mine is just a straight mage with stealth and herding. I swapped her eval for hiding and scrimped remaining points into stealth with a few skill items if I need the boost. She isn't the most powerful offensive character, but she was designed for defensive survivability for her and her pets. And to select and tame any pet however hellish the surrounding spawn might be.

120 tame, lore & vet
GM mage, hiding, herding (eval on soulstone)
60-GM stealth depending what she wears

Tactics and options wise, search this forum because I know I've made many posts on the subject and it's quicker than me retyping everything

In honestly, when I started stealthing and herding I made my own tactics up as I went along. Herding lets you move tameable or wild pets (not paragons) so you can move your own pets to follow you without revealing yourself with a command or getting between your pet and a monster. You can use it to move a wild pet to taming spawn or round up unicorns to kill a spawn etc. It is only limited by your creativity really. It's very effective once you think out the box with it. And you can always soulstone it for another skill if you only need it occasionally. Stealthing lets you move unseen so scouting, sneaking through dungeons, loring wild pets.. Hiding is great for breaking target and stealth away to get somewhere safe for healing. Or to stealth up to your pet to vet. You can hide and mount a pet then run out of danger to keep that pet alive. You're a lurer's worst nightmare and you have a really good escape template to get past PvPers. If a pet is walking purposely in one direction, most will presume they are following the owner. If the owner is actually stealthing the opposite way and able to get out and summon their pet then the last laugh is on them. So my view of stealth herding is that it rocks hehe.

Wenchy

 

[Hattori Hanzo]

Would you recommend 120 ninja or is 100 OK?

120 Ninja.

 

[Adeka]

I have a stealth herder that is also a mage. I run: herding/ stealth/ hiding/ magery/ med/ eval and vet.
Of course this is my "for fun" character, so the template is not as maximized as it could be. I use it mostly for herding larger amounts of creatures through town, and for picking out pets my fellow party members specify for easier taming.
I tried out ninjitsu for the animal form, as it was recommended to me by a far wiser player than myself, but found it too confussing and a absolute bear to train up. I dropped it in favor of higher stealth and added eval int to the template.
Not the most informative post. But it was ment to let you all know that there are more of us out there than one might think! Maybe we'll see you (...or not) out there somewhere in Sosaria with a pack of polar bears meandering through the woods south of Skara Brae!