Training necro on pets?

[Riyana]

I have a pet with the necromancy skill (tamed at 18 skill points), but it's not moving. What's the secret here?

 

[Pawain]

Others have said to let it cast on mobs with similar skill level. Let it cast outside graveyards and see if that works. If so, move to higher mobs.

Good Luck

 

[omukai]

My Tsuki Wolf has the same problem. Gonna try the fence trick, but I wonder if that works.

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

Did you give the pet the "Necromancy" or "Necromage" ability? Just because it has the Necro/SS skills, doesn't mean it has the ability. Most pets with Necro skill, can learn the Necro ability without costing Training Points. Some pets though, like the Grizzled Mare, have the Necro/SS skills, but can't be leveled to be given the Necro ability.
Other than that, the Necromancy skill raises pretty slowly. I was able to get a pet up to 70's Necro skill on TC though, but that took awhile.

 

[omukai]

What exactly does Necromage do? Don't they cast Necro with only Necromancy?
Also gave my Tsuki Wolf Bushido and that seems to work just fine.

 

[Sir_Bolo]

What exactly does Necromage do? Don't they cast Necro with only Necromancy?

With the Necromancy ability, a pet will cast Necromancy spells only. It requires only the Necromancy+Spirit speak skills.

With the Necromage ability, the pet will cast both Magery and Necromancy spells. Necromage is too expensive to add in a single round of training, so you need to add it to a pet that already has either Magery+Eval Int or Necromancy+Spirit Speak (or all four).

Also gave my Tsuki Wolf Bushido and that seems to work just fine.

Remember that a pet with Bushido will stop casting Necromancy spells (pets can have only one Magical ability spell school active)

 

[omukai]

I see, makes sense. I don't really want Mage spells, but since I replaced it with Bushido now, it's still okay. Not the AoE DD I had envisioned, but a robust tank with good damage.

 

[GarthGrey]

Hey @Kyronix @Bleak @Mesanna , did you guys intentionally leave the Grizzled mare out of the Training Patch ? It's a 1 slot maximum, untrainable, 30 taming required pet ?

 

[omukai]

Apart from the wolves, which pets can train Necro and get up to 5 slots?

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

With the Necromage ability, the pet will cast both Magery and Necromancy spells. Necromage is too expensive to add in a single round of training, so you need to add it to a pet that already has either Magery+Eval Int or Necromancy+Spirit Speak (or all four).

The only pets that can easily learn "Necromage", are the Dread Spider and Imp. They can learn "Necromage" for 0 Training Points, although they're glass cannons. A Dread Spider with Necromage, AI, Poison Breath and GM Poisoning skill (make sure you GM this before switching to Necromage, they lose their Poison ability after switching to it) can pump out quite a bit of damage.

Apart from the wolves, which pets can train Necro and get up to 5 slots?

Dread Spiders can learn "Necromage" for free (removes their Poison ability) and reach 5 Slots. Nightmares and Dread Warhorses can also learn Necromage, but have to spend Training Points for it.

@Kyronix @Bleak I find it funny how the Vampire Bat is listed under "Necromantic Creatures" on Animal Training – Ultima Online, yet they're not tameable.

 

[omukai]

Can you explain ability?
If a pet loses the ability to execute a skill, why raise that then dormant skill in the first place?
What part of this do I misunderstand?

 

[drcossack]

Can you explain ability?
If a pet loses the ability to execute a skill, why raise that then dormant skill in the first place?
What part of this do I misunderstand?

Because they can still make use of it after the skill is neutered? Don't quote me on that though, because I haven't replaced any special abilities so far. The Rune Beetle, from what others have said, will lose Armor Corruption if you give it the Discord skill. I would guess there are other combinations like that.

 

[GarthGrey]

Hey @Kyronix @Bleak @Mesanna , did you guys intentionally leave the Grizzled mare out of the Training Patch ? It's a 1 slot maximum, untrainable, 30 taming required pet ?

Since I never get a dev response on anything I post (must be my negativity) could someone else ask this question of one of them ? I don't see why a somewhat rare pet would get the shaft like this, while a store bought unicorn reaps better benefits.

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

Can you explain ability?
If a pet loses the ability to execute a skill, why raise that then dormant skill in the first place?
What part of this do I misunderstand?

The "Ability" shows up in the Animal Lore gump under "Lore and Knowledge". The reason you want to GM a Dread Spider's Poisoning skill before switching it to Necromage (which makes it lose the Poisoning ability), is because the Poison Strike necro spell will have a 9% chance to apply Greater Poison to any targets hit at GM Poisoning. Switching to Necromage, also opens up the the ability to pick "Poison Breath", and Poison Breath inflicts a level of Poison that depends on the pet's Poison skill, which is Lethal (Lvl 5) at GM Poisoning.

 

[omukai]

Now it makes sense, thank you.
The whole system is full of interesting, undocumented synergies.

Now I need to get a Dread Spider

 

[Uvtha]

I don't see why a somewhat rare pet would get the shaft like this, while a store bought unicorn reaps better benefits.

They get more money out of your for store bought vanity pets.

 

[Dark Ritual]

The "Ability" shows up in the Animal Lore gump under "Lore and Knowledge". The reason you want to GM a Dread Spider's Poisoning skill before switching it to Necromage (which makes it lose the Poisoning ability), is because the Poison Strike necro spell will have a 9% chance to apply Greater Poison to any targets hit at GM Poisoning. Switching to Necromage, also opens up the the ability to pick "Poison Breath", and Poison Breath inflicts a level of Poison that depends on the pet's Poison skill, which is Lethal (Lvl 5) at GM Poisoning.

I don't know if that's 100% accurate. I'll describe my short experience training a few dreads in regards to the various poison abilities.

First, it's stock poisoning skill of 72 after tame, seems to be enough for lethal using Poison Breath if you add it. Venomous Bite is another story however. It seems to only inflict greater or so to enemies, and that's my question. Does Venomous Bite actually scale from poison skill, or will it always be a flat greater or so poison even at GM? I'm not going to train poisoning to GM on test... If no one knows I'll just assume that it scales, and be mad if it doesn't when the time comes.

Btw Poison Breath and Venomous Bite still raise the poisoning skill even without the poison ability, for those that didn't know.

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

I don't know if that's 100% accurate. I'll describe my short experience training a few dreads in regards to the various poison abilities.

First, it's stock poisoning skill of 72 after tame, seems to be enough for lethal using Poison Breath if you add it. Venomous Bite is another story however. It seems to only inflict greater or so to enemies, and that's my question. Does Venomous Bite actually scale from poison skill, or will it always be a flat greater or so poison even at GM? I'm not going to train poisoning to GM on test... If no one knows I'll just assume that it scales, and be mad if it doesn't when the time comes.

Btw Poison Breath and Venomous Bite still raise the poisoning skill even without the poison ability, for those that didn't know.

I talked to Bleak on TC about the mechanics of the Poisoning skill and how it relates to Poison Strike, Poison Breath and Venomous Bite abilities for pets.
Bleak stated that the Poison Strike spell interacts the same way with the Poison skill for pets, that it does for players (Poison Strike - UOGuide, the Ultima Online Encyclopedia). Namely the "Necromancers having more than 60.0 skill points in Poisoning skill have a 3% to 9% chance (scales with poison skill) to poison their target" part. I confirmed this through testing my Dread Spider with GM Poisoning and Necromage in Wrong. Had him surrounded by mobs, he'd cast Poison Strike which would chain to multiple opponents, and every now and then one of them would get Greater Poisoned from it.
Bleak stated that Poison Breath does indeed scale with skill, you can see fresh tamed Dimetrosaurs with low Poisoning skill only do normal Lvl 2 Poison with it, while a pet with GM Poisoning will do Lethal (Lvl 5) Poison with it.
Bleak also stated that Venomous Bite does not scale with Poison skill, and that it inflicts up to DP.
I can't remember exactly which ability it was (Poison Breath or Venomous Bite), but Bleak said that one of those abilities' potency also depends on distance from the target. The poison level is reduced the further the target is from the pet.

 

[omukai]

Still leaves open the question on how to make a Tsuki Wolf train Necro.
Graveyards are out, he oneshots everything with melee :/

Edit: Just letting him wail at Eternal Gazers did the trick. Necromancy ability added and now it gains slowly.

 

[railshot]

Is Necro a good idea on a pet with primarily physical damage? I am concerned with it casting corpse skin just because it's there.

 

[drcossack]

Is Necro a good idea on a pet with primarily physical damage? I am concerned with it casting corpse skin just because it's there.

Unless you give them a poison ability or fire breath, no. Although they DO cast Poison Strike with Necro, so that's a positive.

 

[MalagAste]

Trained up my Dread Spider with just adding Explosive Goo... He doesn't do any Necro but Thursday took him to Valor rat spawn and he was insane with damage killing everything on the screen on the first two levels with ease... I was able to advance the spawn just going around the mountain one time he pretty much wiped out everything there on level 1 and level 2 easily... When it got to level 3 I had to heal him some but he was still clearing the screen pretty quickly took him a bit longer on the paragons than the first two levels. Level 4 he started to struggle a little bit with the serpents probably because they are poison resistant but the Goo really was pretty handy for this and helped him quite a bit. As for Baracoon himself that was SLOW going and I was forced to cast on him as well because he did little damage against him... but was able to keep the spawn under control whenever Baracoon would spawn mobs. Again had to heal him a bit but not really that bad.

I had tested him on the demon spawn the day before and the first two levels again before with the imps/mongbats and then Harpies/gargoyles he pretty well cleared in no time... I wasn't able to test higher levels of that as I had to leave but he did pretty amazing.

I now have him trained up almost to max only needing to work up his magery and poisoning right now ...... seems poisoning gains are super slow. Not sure how to train that up faster. Any hints or tips would be welcome.

 

[Violet Jo]

I have a pet with the necromancy skill (tamed at 18 skill points), but it's not moving. What's the secret here?

Thank you for asking this question I have been having the same exact problem. not sure if I like the answers as I also put a 120 scroll on him.. uggh

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

Thank you for asking this question I have been having the same exact problem. not sure if I like the answers as I also put a 120 scroll on him.. uggh

You need to activate the Necromancy ability (listed under the "Magic" category of the Training window when slot leveling the pet) for them to actually cast Necro spells. Putting a 120 Necro/SS PS on a Necro pet isn't worth it, doesn't affect their damage output enough.

 

[Pawain]

You need to activate the Necromancy ability (listed under the "Magic" category of the Training window when slot leveling the pet) for them to actually cast Necro spells. Putting a 120 Necro/SS PS on a Necro pet isn't worth it, doesn't affect their damage output enough.

They put a necro scroll on it. so it should be active.

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

They put a necro scroll on it. so it should be active.

Unless they activated Necro, then swapped to another Magical, not realizing that doing so would de-activate the Necromancy again.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

Thank you for asking this question I have been having the same exact problem. not sure if I like the answers as I also put a 120 scroll on him.. uggh

Pretty sure you got a Necromancy gain from this thread.

... sadly your pet didn't

 

[Dar - Drachenfels]

With the Necromancy ability, a pet will cast Necromancy spells only. It requires only the Necromancy+Spirit speak skills.

With the Necromage ability, the pet will cast both Magery and Necromancy spells. Necromage is too expensive to add in a single round of training, so you need to add it to a pet that already has either Magery+Eval Int or Necromancy+Spirit Speak (or all four).



Remember that a pet with Bushido will stop casting Necromancy spells (pets can have only one Magical ability spell school active)

I believe Skrees are the only exception to that. They have Mysticism and Magery. Only Myst shows in the abilities, but they both get cast and the both increase, and you can scroll both.