Link to taming guide (for taming... not skills)

[Hoots]

Everything i found in the guide section re: taminig was about skill gain... I GM'd my tamer years ago. I dont remember how/where to tame mares/drags/wws/etc.

Anyone know of a good guide discussing where and how to tame the above? I simply forget the ins and outs of the skill!

Thanks!

[Mikel123]

For taming dragons and the dragons-vs-wyrms debate:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=25447&p=224951

White wyrm is only in the ice cave in his nest. They move quickly, so beware. You can tame them across a ledge, which removes their melee from hurting you, but spells still get flung.

Nightmares are tough to find. I know the Oasis in T2A is one of three spots to find them, but not sure of the other two. Oasis, too, has some ledges, to remove their melee from the equation, but again firebreath and spells will work across those ledges too.

[Hoots]

Thanks,

What im looking for is a guide to the technique of taming... not locations or for skill gain,

for example, I cant remember the ins and outs of what you do during the taming process (leading, getting on a ledge, having reflect up/down, etc) how many attempts are average at gm. Once complete, what steps do you take (inviso self, then feed, etc.. etc.)

From what i remember, and that is a struggle, there was a process of succeeding with a tame once you have the skill lvl and find said tame.

Thanks!
-Hoots

[Mikel123]

Hmmm... I think I covered the ledge part in that link. Let me try to address the questions in your post:

As for "leading", it is one way to ensure you don't swing at the dragon. If they get adjacent to you and you auto-defend against them, you'll lose your taming attempt.

You definitely want reflect UP if you're on a ledge and they can't cast against you (for normal PK-defense reasons). But if you're lead-taming, you want it DOWN as reflecting their spell will ruin the taming attempt.

For a dragon, I think it takes about 8-10 attempts at GM to successfully tame a dragon. Somewhere in that neighborhood. Obviously this can vary significantly, but that's the average I've observed.

What to do once complete... it depends on a few factors. You always want to feed them once so they will actually listen to your commands. If you damaged them (by a reflected spell, or an energy vortex used to lower their health so their firebreath and walking speed was less potent), you will be an aggressor to them for 2 minutes after taming. So you want to hide/invis for 2 minutes.

If you did not damage them, then they are probably flagged "criminal" throughout the taming process, and once it's completed. Though I don't think they can be guardwhacked due to this, since that's only for the first few seconds of being a criminal. But, they can be attacked in the dungeon by anyone, even when tamed, until their criminal timer wears off. So beware.

I usually play it safe and feed meat, say "all stay" and cast Invis once taming is complete. Invis has a 2-minute duration, so once it's over your pet will be blue to everyone, will have lost its aggressor flag to you (and vice-versa), and you can do whatever you like. To me it's not worth the risk of popping into town immediately with a gate and ending up guardwhacked due to some annoying complicated flagging issue that I don't understand.

[Pirul]

What I do, and this is purely a personal choice:

DRAGONS:

I tame dragons in Destard. I recall in to the west side ledge in the top most level of the dungeon, and I make sure the ledge is clear of spawn. I then run down towards the center of the "main" room, where I get a Dragon to aggro on me (without aggroing it first, so it doesn't start casting on me) and I lead him towards the ledge. I really don't mind if drakes/giant serps tag along, as the drag will deal with them swiftly. When I'm coming up to the ledge, I'll precast recall and go right up to the wall of the ledge, when the dragon is near I target my ledge rune and end up on the ledge with the dragon below. Here you are safe from the dragon's magic and fire breath while you tame. I then procede to run a simple macro consisting of:

Use skill animal taming
Wait for target (editing the timeout to 1 sec)
Target by type (I change this depending of if it's a red or brown dragon that I'm taming)
Pause 0.1s

Loop, play.

At GM it normally takes me anywhere between 3 and 7 minutes to tame a dragon from all the "anger the beast" and failures. When I succeed in taming it, I take a few steps back towards the wall and hide and tab in and out a couple of times to break aggro and make sure I don't auto-defend when I run up it. Breaking aggro only takes a second, so I immediately run down, feed 1 rib to the dragon, order it to drop it's gold, and gate it out. If it is fighting drakes/giant serps, I wait for it to finish, hide and tab out again (for some reason if it's fighting and not yet blue, it might reaggro on you), and THEN gate it out. If it is another dragon it's fighting, I'll cast a gate right beside it, stand with the gate between me and the drag, and order it to come, or follow me, gating it out. I then recall back on the ledge and tame the other dragon!

If I see a red name, I run my recall macro, which stops my taming macro. I also have a hotkey to stop my macro if spawn creeps up to the ledge or I need to target a spell (if you don't stop it you'll taget the dragon, so you might end up healing/curing it and going grey).

WHITE WYRMS

These bastards are tricky. What I do is recall into the north most hallway leading to the wyrm's nest, about halfway there. I then precast teleport, and run towards it's nest. If the wyrm is on the "floor" of the dungeon I use my precasted teleport to get up on the ledge. If it is already on the ledge, I make sure I stay below it on the southern end so the wyrm stays up there and cancel my teleport target. I try to do this without wrestling or otherwise hitting the WW, as if you do, it will start casting on you, otherwise it won't and taming will be much easier.

Once there, and if it has not been hit, and thus is not casting, I run the same macro I use for dragons, and just wait it out. If it is casting, then I use a simple use skill taming/last target hot key and do it single use, so I don't target it with heals or cures. The tricky part here comes when you succeed in taming it. I do the same thing I do with dragons (hide/tab out) but WW's have a freaky aggro system, and might reaggro on you while they're still grey. Best thing is to have an invis item/tab out macro in case it engages you, because it will mess you up real fast.

[Pirul]

Oh, and I always gate them to a quiet area out of GZ, so I can gate them out while grey.

[Mikel123]

Once there, and if it has not been hit, and thus is not casting, I run the same macro I use for dragons, and just wait it out. If it is casting, then I use a simple use skill taming/last target hot key and do it single use, so I don't target it with heals or cures.

Hmmm... are you saying it it doesn't cast while you're taming it at all? I think once you get the "you anger the beast" message, that should get it casting against you...

I then procede to run a simple macro consisting of:

Use skill animal taming
Wait for target (editing the timeout to 1 sec)
Target by type (I change this depending of if it's a red or brown dragon that I'm taming)
Pause 0.1s

Loop, play.

I actually use the built-in macro system of UO for this.

Use Skill: Animal Taming
Last Target

...and just hold that down to initiate attempts constantly until it catches. On my machine, razor can be kind of sluggish when switching macros, so this way I feel like I can Recall and use other razor functions faster.

Having a Stop Macro hotkey is probably a good idea in general though. I just noticed last night this function, and I can definitely see it being useful.

[Hoots]

What I do, and this is purely a personal choice:

DRAGONS:

I tame dragons in Destard. I recall in to the west side ledge in the top most level of the dungeon, and I make sure the ledge is clear of spawn. I then run down towards the center of the "main" room, where I get a Dragon to aggro on me (without aggroing it first, so it doesn't start casting on me) and I lead him towards the ledge. I really don't mind if drakes/giant serps tag along, as the drag will deal with them swiftly. When I'm coming up to the ledge, I'll precast recall and go right up to the wall of the ledge, when the dragon is near I target my ledge rune and end up on the ledge with the dragon below. Here you are safe from the dragon's magic and fire breath while you tame. I then procede to run a simple macro consisting of:

Use skill animal taming
Wait for target (editing the timeout to 1 sec)
Target by type (I change this depending of if it's a red or brown dragon that I'm taming)
Pause 0.1s

Loop, play.

At GM it normally takes me anywhere between 3 and 7 minutes to tame a dragon from all the "anger the beast" and failures. When I succeed in taming it, I take a few steps back towards the wall and hide and tab in and out a couple of times to break aggro and make sure I don't auto-defend when I run up it. Breaking aggro only takes a second, so I immediately run down, feed 1 rib to the dragon, order it to drop it's gold, and gate it out. If it is fighting drakes/giant serps, I wait for it to finish, hide and tab out again (for some reason if it's fighting and not yet blue, it might reaggro on you), and THEN gate it out. If it is another dragon it's fighting, I'll cast a gate right beside it, stand with the gate between me and the drag, and order it to come, or follow me, gating it out. I then recall back on the ledge and tame the other dragon!

If I see a red name, I run my recall macro, which stops my taming macro. I also have a hotkey to stop my macro if spawn creeps up to the ledge or I need to target a spell (if you don't stop it you'll taget the dragon, so you might end up healing/curing it and going grey).

WHITE WYRMS

These bastards are tricky. What I do is recall into the north most hallway leading to the wyrm's nest, about halfway there. I then precast teleport, and run towards it's nest. If the wyrm is on the "floor" of the dungeon I use my precasted teleport to get up on the ledge. If it is already on the ledge, I make sure I stay below it on the southern end so the wyrm stays up there and cancel my teleport target. I try to do this without wrestling or otherwise hitting the WW, as if you do, it will start casting on you, otherwise it won't and taming will be much easier.

Once there, and if it has not been hit, and thus is not casting, I run the same macro I use for dragons, and just wait it out. If it is casting, then I use a simple use skill taming/last target hot key and do it single use, so I don't target it with heals or cures. The tricky part here comes when you succeed in taming it. I do the same thing I do with dragons (hide/tab out) but WW's have a freaky aggro system, and might reaggro on you while they're still grey. Best thing is to have an invis item/tab out macro in case it engages you, because it will mess you up real fast.

awesome info! And for mares? I know you can often get on a cliff/ledge. Otherwise?

Thanks for the help!

[Pirul]

Hmmm... are you saying it it doesn't cast while you're taming it at all? I think once you get the "you anger the beast" message, that should get it casting against you...

Yes for Dragons and some other fire breathers, but you don't "anger" wyrms.

As far as mares go, I don't have too much experience, but you can use this guide from the most successful nightmare tamer I have come across. And yeah, there are ledges all over t2a, so you should be safe from melee but you will still get firebreath and those mean flamestrikes mares like to cast, unless you can find one of those rare ledges where the creature under doesn't have LoS but you do.

[Hoots]

Hmmm... are you saying it it doesn't cast while you're taming it at all? I think once you get the "you anger the beast" message, that should get it casting against you...

Yes for Dragons and some other fire breathers, but you don't "anger" wyrms.

As far as mares go, I don't have too much experience, but you can use this guide from the most successful nightmare tamer I have come across. And yeah, there are ledges all over t2a, so you should be safe from melee but you will still get firebreath and those mean flamestrikes mares like to cast, unless you can find one of those rare ledges where the creature under doesn't have LoS but you do.

Thanks again. Why do i remember having to EV dragons down to near death before taming? I think i used to do this in the fire temple.

[Mikel123]

They walk slower and fire breath for less damage if beat down. It's the right way to go, in my opinion, if not using a ledge.